A Star-Studded Paper Anniversary

Folks, can you believe it? It's time to open the freezer door, grab the biggest tiny-new-york-freezer-space-sucking-box out of there, and start thawing this puppy out:

You know what that means! Yep, today is our first anniversary. Time sure does fly, doesn't it?

One year ago today, we were partying it up New York Style to celebrate our love.

...with our nearest and dearest friends and family, all goofballs, of course...

...and with all of the Hive cheering us on, as well.

We spent the beginning of our anniversary weekend reliving our Greek honeymoon at the Greek Festival in Queens:

And are headed out to spend the night at the shore in this gorgeous bed 'n breakfast:

Where they have promised to give us a private showing of our wedding video in their little movie theater!

And we will be exchanging our paper-themed anniversary gifts (we've decided to try to stick to the traditional themes each year!). It sounds incredibly peaceful and romantic, and just the way I'd like to end a blissful first year of marriage.

When I first applied to write for Weddingbee, I thought I was just going to be blogging about cake and DIY boutonnieres. And actually, I didn't even think I could write for beans. I had no idea that, not only would I discover a whole new love of blogging, but more importantly, I was really becoming a part of such an incredible community where I would find emotional support during the rollercoaster ride of engagement and beyond, incredible resourcefulness when my best-laid plans went awry, and a whole slew of new friends to be made, both online and in person.

So to you, Hive, I want to say thank you. Thank you for supporting us and "beeing" our friends.

I would never say goodbye because, a whole year later, I still read Weddingbee every day, and I'm sure I'll want to pop in every now and then to share something with you all. But my time writing exhaustively about our wedding is done, and I hope you'll come visit me over at my personal blog, Diary of a Manhattan Actress, in my Etsy shop, and on Twitter, where I continue to love crafting, am still a pretty "young-ish" (haha) wife, and I write about what it's like to be a newlywed working actress living in the city that never sleeps.

To my unbelieveably wonderful husband:

May every year be as beautiful as this one has been. May we never stop wanting to hold hands. And may we never forget the overpowering love and joy we felt on our wedding day. Our lives are truly one adventure after the next, and there's no one I'd want by my side for all of it besides you.

Adieu for now, mes amis,

Mrs. O'Star.

*Photo credit for wedding pictures goes to John Martin Photography, Bed 'n Breakfast pictures are via Cashelmara Inn, and the final picture is credited to Lauren Brimhall Photography*

A Not So Trashed Dress Trashing

Hey, Hive! Remember me, Mrs. Star? I've shared every little detail of our wedding with you, but I've held back a few secrets still...like this gorgeous little photo shoot we did! I'm still unsure of what to call it. A "day-after shoot"? Wellll, we did it three months after our wedding. A "trash the dress"? You all know I love my dress wayyy too much to trash it ;)

So anyways, we found an amazing budding photographer who was looking to expand her portfolio and I squeezed back into my dress with the help of Mr. Star to capture some more couple portraits that we hadn't had time to get in the hustle and bustle of our wedding day (remember how I wanted pictures on the steps of the Public Library?). Take a look at what we got!

All photographs are the work of the awesome Lauren Brimhall Photography.

We started off taking a few solo portraits (not of me, of my dress, haha...).

Then we got all snuggly up on our rooftop, partly because we love to snuggle and partly because it was a below freezing day in January!

Mr. Star lifted me and my very heavy dress up to nab that shot.

And Starbucks graciously allowed us to do some snuggling up with our lattes. Like I said, there was a lot of snuggling going on that day!

Yeah, we love each other :)

We grabbed a drink for two in our local pub...

...And I adore this shot of us because Lauren made us look so hot! Who knew we could look so hot?

Then we made it over to the steps of the library for some truly epic shots.

My dress was so happy to finally be getting its time to shine on the steps of the library! But I saved my very favorite photo for last. I just adore how urban "Gone With the Wind" it is and how much we clearly adore each other:

We were so happy to get some great shots thanks to Lauren's talent, and to be able to get some more couple portraits in the spots that we didn't have time to hit on our busy wedding day!

Are you planning on doing a "day-after"/"trash the dress" shoot? What different looks or locations would you incorporate if you did?

Miss Star = A Rock 'n Roll Bride?

Some of you might remember that way back when I was a fresh, new Bee, I entered us into a contest over on Rock 'n Roll Bride to win a free "Love Story Video." Although I never mentioned it here on the blog, I know many of you noticed it was us and were a big support during the contest voting -- we really appreciated it!

For those of you who didn't see the contest, it was about a "New York Love Story." So here's our entry:

(Photo by John Martin Photography)

"Our first date was a unique combination of a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dinner at the crowded Hard Rock Café in Times Square – you have to excuse our touristy bent back then, we were NYC newbies! At that point, moving to the city from Long Island was a dream on the imminent horizon of college graduation. A dream that terrified and thrilled us both, much like our own relationship at first.  We moved in shortly thereafter and began to make a grown-up life together working in showbiz and becoming New Yorkers.

You see, our relationship with each other has always echoed our feelings for New York herself. New York demands that you earn the right to stay here, but in return offers a relationship that matures and deepens from those first star-struck days. You grow with New York. And there are always new things to explore.

Our absolute favorite thing to do together is to sneak in under the ropes closing off Bryant Park after-hours and just lay together in the middle of that big, open lawn and feel the awesomeness of being one with each other and one with such a great city. We love the park so much that we had our engagement tea party catered there beneath the trees.

We were adamant that we had to be married in New York, even though our families are both from opposite ends of the country. New York is home to us, and we want the official and legal start of the rest of our lives together to be right here on this teeming and vibrant island, within the city that both tests and buoys our love each and every day."

Thanks to our awesome family and friends (both real-life, and internet!), we won the contest! So just before we got married, we spent a day filming a video about our love story and how it relates to New York City. Wanna see? Don't judge us too harshly, being interviewed is harder than it looks! :)

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us (and especially those of you who defended us against some snarky remarks in the comments section!).

How would you tell your love story in a video? What would be in it?

A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: Shake Your Booty

So I know I've kind've left you hanging on the Reception pictures. My bad. Please forgive me?

I've already written before about how one of our incredibly generous friends gifted us his professional DJ services (thank you, thank you, thank you, Rob!). He pretty much saved our butts on that front, because I didn't think I could deal with much more planning by the time choosing what to do about music came around.

He did a great job of mixing in his DJ expertise with our carefully crafted "please play!" list. I mean, who wouldn't want to dance along to stuff like this:

Play it! You know you want to. 

Now it sounds like a party up in here.

We're not usually huge party people or huge dancing people or anything like that, but let me tell you, the Stars know how to throw a party when the occasion calls for it:

Even my little sister and parents got in on the party action:

I took a moment out to dance with my new Dad, too:

(Personal Photo)

And Mr. Star took more than a few moments out to goof around with his high school buddies, whom he rarely gets to see anymore. You can see that the purple rock candy on a stick that I had places on the tables was a big hit:

And so were the masquerade masks. One of my favorite things that came about that night was how many brand new friends and connections were made:

(Personal Photo)

Not to mention, my husband had a dance-off with his father and brothers...

...that ended in more than one backflip and handstand...

...and yes, that is my brand new husband doing the worm at our wedding:

Old pals shared laughter:

And our beautiful friends were the most lively and fun guests to be had:

There's nothing like a good girl dance to have a great time:

And we think the fact that a great percentage of our guest list was on the younger side made for the awesomely silly moments like this:

But it wasn't just the younger folk having a blast, my wonderfully un-Mother-of-the-Bride-like Mom was partying it up, too.

(Personal Photo)

And many of our guests grabbed us to get a pose in with their masks:

Little Sister Star adored hers, too:

(Personal Photo)

And we danced until the night was over and I quite literally couldn't stand up anymore...

Many of our guests commented that we had the liveliest dance floor they'd ever seen at a wedding. I think it was the combination of our "younger" guest list, how fun our theatre kid friends are, the coolness factor of both of our families, the relatively small (80+) guest list, and the celebratory atmosphere we strove so hard to create that did it.

Are you planning on dancing it up at your wedding? What do you think will add to your party atmosphere?

*All photos by John Martin Photography, except where noted*

The Star Wedding Recaps:

One Last Not-So Debaucherous Night

We're Pros at Rehearsing, But I'm No Director

Dinner in Havana

The Girls Get Their Hair Done and The Boys Wash The Dog

Getting Accessorized

We Tackle the Beast

I May Be Biased, But...I Have the Prettiest Ladies Ever

Takin' It to the Streets!

The Boys Goof Off (and Set Up, Too!)

Taxi Time

It's Almost Time For Our Lives To Change Forever

My Big Break

Gathered in a Place of Magic -- Ceremony Part I

The Circle of Love -- Ceremony Part II

Oh, The Places You'll Go! -- Ceremony Part III

The Promises and The Bling -- Ceremony Part IV

Our Peeps

You Can't Rain On My Parade!

Subway Saga

Next Stop -- Grand Central Station!

We Had The Time of Our Lives

We're Movie "Stars"!

Gratuitous Detail Shots

Friends, Family, and Fun

A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: Friends, Family, and Fun

So...yeah...recaps...umm, where were we? Oh yeah, that's right. I last left you with some detail shots, our movie trailer, and our awesome first dance!

After we came off the incredible high of our first dance, we sat down to grab a quick bite and toast to a fabulous evening. My incredibly awesome Maid of Honor gave the first toast and warmed all of our hearts.

I love how luxe our chair bows look. And I try not to look at those damn red cups.

My Mom gave a very sweet and funny toast, as well, where she mentioned how we when got engaged she had asked us to wait a couple of years to get married and, as it turns out, we were getting married nearly two years to the day that Mr. Star asked her for her blessing to propose. Haha.

We opened up the floor to any of our friends and family who wanted to speak for a minute, and some of our people gave lovely and heartfelt toasts.

And Mr. Star's wonderful Dad closed out the toasts by saying how proud he was of us and how moving our ceremony was to him.

We were so happy to be married (and happy to be sitting down for a brief moment):

But we quickly scarfed down a few bites and then made the rounds to squeeze all of our loved ones and show off our rings, of course.

Even in the spotlight, we found an intimate moment or two...

And our families took the time to create new family bonds together. My little sister fell in love with Mr. Star's youngest brother after what a chivalrous gentleman he was to her all night, even going so far as to dance on his knees to be at her level:

And we each spent a few moments with our own families, as well. Baby Sister Star was on her best and cutest behavior.

And you would never know from this picture how much Mr. Star's Momma loves him, right?

We got to cut into our (delicious!) cake and got one of those classic we're-cutting-the-cake-together-as-a-symbol-of-our-new-lifetime-partnership shots:

But this picture is really more "us," complete with me making a goofy face and my little sister standing just out of arm's reach, waiting for the very first slice of cake to come off of that table. In all fairness, we'd been bribing her through non-kid-friendly tasks like getting her hair curled all day with the promise of cake.

My brand-new husband gave me a dollop of frosting on my nose as a wedding gift. I was amused that he had the guts to do it (knowing how particular I am about my makeup!), and I love how proud of himself he looks in this picture:

That bite of cake was the only wedding cake I got that night, although I hear it was mighty tasty. Our frozen top tier had better be good or I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Only five months and thirteen days to go...not that I'm counting or anything.

We even stole away from the party for a few minutes to grab some gorgeous shots up on the terrace. What a killer view, no?

We could've gotten more shots, but I was anxious to get back to the party because everyone was having so much fun. Just wait until you see the dancing shots and you'll understand why. We have my husband doing the worm captured on camera. Not to mention, my new Father-in-Law doing a backflip. No joke.

*All photos by John Martin Photography*

The Star Wedding Recaps:

One Last Not-So Debaucherous Night

We're Pros at Rehearsing, But I'm No Director

Dinner in Havana

The Girls Get Their Hair Done and The Boys Wash The Dog

Getting Accessorized

We Tackle the Beast

I May Be Biased, But...I Have the Prettiest Ladies Ever

Takin' It to the Streets!

The Boys Goof Off (and Set Up, Too!)

Taxi Time

It's Almost Time For Our Lives To Change Forever

My Big Break

Gathered in a Place of Magic -- Ceremony Part I

The Circle of Love -- Ceremony Part II

Oh, The Places You'll Go! -- Ceremony Part III

The Promises and The Bling -- Ceremony Part IV

Our Peeps

You Can't Rain On My Parade!

Subway Saga

Next Stop -- Grand Central Station!

We Had The Time of Our Lives

We're Movie "Stars"!

Gratuitous Detail Shots