At least I'm not in your living room with a slide projector. Yet.

Oh hi, Internet. I'm back from Albuquerque, where I learned the reason for Raj's daily full-body lotion habit. He's picky about his lotion brand (Lubriderm) and can tell you how many minutes you have post-shower for maximum lotion absorbtion. I was in New Mexico for less than two days before all of the moisture had been sucked out of my body. We had a nice time though otherwise, visiting with people and watching big fat snowflakes fall.

Now I'm back in Florida for a few days before heading to Texas, trying to get stuff put aside for our trips before the movers come and pack up the rest. The wedding is feeling like it was long, long ago and maybe you're all well and truly over it. But I promised you a gratuitous photo post and so you'll get one. Whether you want it or not!

This one, as the watermark indicates, comes from our photographer, Amanda Summerlin. She has a blog post up with a preview of our photos and, you guys. I can't even. I love them so much.

After the above photo, one of my favorites comes from our first look. I'm glad we did a first look for a number of reasons, not least of which is that when there's stuff to be done, it's a real pain in the butt to be stuck in a bedroom because youre hiding. But I was surprised by how anxious I was to get out there and see him. I wanted to see his reaction, sure, but we also just hadn't spent more than a few seconds at a time together in the days before and I missed him. If you clicked through to the picures, you've already seen that I had henna done on my hands that morning. I planned it as a surprise for Raj (it's traditional for Indian brides to have it done, though it's typically much more intricate) and the photo of him seeing it for the first time makes every minute I put into it worthwhile. Which was a lot of minutes. Like, more than I put into finding and purchasing my dress. It's not easy to find someone to do bridal mehndi in Penscaola, especially when it has to be done on Saturday morning at 8am. Paul Hernandez of Hennawi House came through for me and then Amanda got a great photo of the payoff.

I arrived at the salon with surgical tape over the henna, making me look like a burn victim. I got my make up done first, then Arizona Holly brought me a mimosa with a straw when I got to my hair stylist's chair. Have I mentioned that I had the best bridesmaids ever?

Also the world's most adorable flower girls, Allie, Shelby, and Lilah. They were MUCH more interested in my sparkle shoes than my dress, which makes sense. Sparkle, after all, is Lilah's third favorite color (after pink and purple). While Shelby is growing up far too quickly for my taste, I love that she's striking the little girl belly-out stance here and rocking the tiny tigtails. My sister-in-law Dawn made the hair bows and while I thanked her for that, it only now occurred to me that it's only because she asked whether there were any and then distributed them herself that the programs I made ever left a box in the kitchen. Thanks, Dawn!

When we started looking at cake toppers on Etsy, Raj was shocked and appalled at how much they cost. So he thought he'd take a whack at making some. Clearly if one of us is going to craft, it should be Raj. (Our caterer, concerned that they might tip over in the wind, put straws around them, which she removed before the reception. They never did tip over though.)

During the group portraits, Owen took off running as five year-old boys are wont to do. On his return, he kicked cold sand into his brother's shoes, which Braden found deeply upsetting. I'm told that the highlight of the processional was how, on their way up the aisle, Dawn kept trying to put Braden down and he would just curl his feet further up. I hope this is on the video because I was on the other side of the dunes and missed it.

That's a good looking group of people, no? I let the girls pick out their own short navy dresses in hopes they'd end up with something they'd want to wear again and I bought the pashminas at a market in Charleston on our way down here. Raj gave the guys some options of what to wear and they went with khakis and white shirts because how easy is that? Also super-beachy.

Raj decided on a suit, which he purchased three weeks before the wedding, unlike Yulee who'd started shopping as soon as we asked him to be our officiant. The Facebook comment on this photo of the two of them up front waiting on the processional, was that it looks like a page out of a menswear catalog. (That white puffball on Raj's lapel is to keep the wind off the microphone for the videographer. It immediately blew away when he went to return the microphone to the guy after the ceremony.)

And here's me (with San Antonio Holly over my right shoulder) waiting on the processional to start. Which seems as good a place as any to stop for today. I'd intended this to be just one photo post with minimal words (because apparently I don't know my wordy self at all) but it's clearly gotten away from me. Ceremony and reception photos to come.