This was a seriously amazing start to 2015, and if it’s any indication of the weddings to come this year, we’ll be in wedding heaven.

Lisa and Curtis are amazingly cute together, and I think that even if it were 110 degrees instead of 45, they still would’ve been just as cuddly. The story of how they met is pretty stellar, and had a big impact on their wedding reception. Lisa and Curt are swing dancers, and Lisa originally saw him during class one day. Curt is blind so he didn’t see Lisa, but he left quite an impression on her and she remembered him. So when they later showed up on each other’s OkCupid accounts as the top match, they each had encouragement from mutual friends to pursue each other, and they are now living happily ever after. :)

Of course, since swing dancing played a big part in their meeting and in their current lives, they wanted to incorporate it in their wedding. Lisa and Curtis hired Peter Lamb and the Wolves, a popular jazz band in the area whom we absolutely love working with, to play at their reception. But not everyone knows how to dance to live jazz of the upbeat variety and they wanted all their guests to have a great time, so they brought in their swing dance instructor Richard Badu (who was also the instructor for our other swing dancing clients Deb+Carey), and had him teach a mini swing lesson to all of their guests before the reception. Richard is an amazing dancer whom we’ve had the pleasure of watching before, but it was great to see him teach! Then it was even more amazing to see all of their guests not only participate, but have some of the most fun we’ve ever seen at a wedding reception. They rotated partners every minute or so, so almost all 120 guests met all the other 120 guests, danced with them, and had a great time. As a result, they had an amazing reception with some incredible dancing (there was a lot of kicking and spinning and Geoff and I had to dodge quite a few limbs in the process of taking pictures). This was a seriously great way to get all of their guests involved, and we loved every minute of it. There’s something so fun about watching people who can actually dance.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day, and we absolutely love Lisa and Curt who were amazing wedding clients for us, and we know they’ll have a long and happy life together dancing the night away. :)

Date: January 3, 2015

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Haw River Ballroom // Saxapahaw, NC

First Dance Song: “Blue Moon”

Lisa’s Occupation: Program Evaluator and Improvement Advisor

Curt’s Occupation: Economics Professor (Game Theorist)

How You Met: Lisa originally saw Curt swing dancing, but then decided to pursue him when he was her top match on OkCupid.

Interesting Fact: Curt is blind. Lisa loves that this fact provides an excuse to hold hands with him ALL the time. They dislike sitting across a table from each other, because they can’t touch without spilling something nor make googly eyes without touching. With only one breath of helium, Lisa can sing the Lullabye League’s Welcome to Dorothy perfectly. Without helium she still gets a B+.  Curt has come in second place at The Monti Story Slam five times. We think he is the most non-winningist winner. Curt has a much better sense of direction than Lisa. She often relies on him for driving directions.

Honeymoon Destination: Still considering the location of a summer getaway.

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Rev. Robin Renteria | Band – Peter Lamb and the Wolves | Florist – Paper flowers by More Paper Than Shoes | Cakes – Guglehupf | Caterer – Saxapahaw General Store and Catering | Hair/Makeup – Kenny Parrella | Coordinator – Cameron Ratliff and Patricia Gallivan (Saxapahaw General Store) | Paper Moon – Dappsy | Wedding Sash – GlamHouse

Here we go! Let the embarrassment begin. Welcome to our 4th annual Making Fools of Ourselves blog post (also lovingly referred to as “How Many Hairstyles Can Carolyn Have in One Year?”). You’ll find that not much has changed since we first started this. Geoff’s main facial expression is still lovingly annoyed with me and/or chronically surprised, while pictures of me range from tired to excited to panicked to happy to fist-pumping to Journey going on hour 9 of 10 in a totally delirious state. We laid on a lot of floors, wrangled a lot of dogs, recovered from tendonitis only to get it again only to recover again only to get it again, ruined a lot of one another’s pictures, talked to a bunch of guests we don’t know, let our hair grow only to shave one side of it only to cut it completely off only to grow it in again. A lot of people on social media try to present the best versions of themselves, but we’re firm believers in presenting your worst. That way, you know, it can only go up. Here’s to 2014.

CSP Class of 2014.

In 2014 we were on the road. A lot.

We ate a lot of snacks out of a lot of different vending machines. We had to ask guests at a wedding in Georgia to clarify what a “fill-up” station was. I found myself wearing a tank top in Michigan in August, only to find out I was woefully unprepared for it being 49 degrees when we arrived. We snorkeled with sharks, sting rays, and sea turtles at our first destination wedding in St. John, USVI. A woman who owned a diner in Connecticut showed me her teeth she was having worked on that afternoon. A little boy in NC answered the door for us wearing a werewolf mask. We finally got to see the Gaffney Peach in South Carolina. Babies were born, hands were held, and cats were most definitely petted. We were happy to see old friends and meet new ones in comfortable, familiar places like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland.  And we went on a personal trip to Iceland with clients from a few years back who have become dear friends of ours. We went through a lot of different camera bags, cracked the screen on the back of one of our 5DMIIIs, split at least one pair of pants, and racked up hundreds of flight points on the rewards card and thousands of miles on the Mazda.

In 2014 we made a lot of new friends. Here are some of them.