O'Brien, Obama, Oh Baby

And that's written in legitimate pen, friends; you can see where the signatures bled through a little on the back of the cardstock.

It's a great month for mail for the Grover clan! Despite the guffaws and eye-rollings of my family as David and I addressed our extra wedding announcements to our favorite celebrities and personal heroes, our postage stamps and extra envelopes licked have finally borne fruit, and I declare the fruit to be good. The two weeks before our wedding day, Dave and I sent announcements to Bill Murray, Will Smith, President Obama, and Conan O'Brien. We might have sent one to Justin Timberlake; I can't remember. If we did, it wasn't my idea.

I'm happy to be able to show these off to you, my friends, and to personally declare my devotion and renewed respect to both President Obama and the First Lady as well as to Conan O'Brien (who would be my next best pick for future presidential campaigns--whatever happened Obama/Walken '08?). Unfortunately, Conan misread our announcement and addressed the very awesome and very large signed portrait of himself to my mom and dad, but we are all impressed that he at least spelled my mom's name right.

And here's a note just to you, Mr. O'Brien: I sure love you and am pleased about your response, but this isn't over. My mom refuses to let me have this autographed picture, and has replaced a framed wedding picture of David and me with it. I would kiss a goat to have a personalized, autographed picture from you, and I don't even care if you have a toadie to do the actual signing for you. I want one. And the fact that you signed this to my MOTHER and not to ME is making my blood boil! O'Brien, if you're out there, you owe me sir! I will not stop until I have your John Hancock framed and hanging on my wall!
And to Mr. Bill Murray: you're breaking my heart, kind sir. Of all the celebs I'd thought we would have heard from by now, you were my number one expectation.

P.S. Speaking of Bill Murray, all of you MUST see The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I give it my highest recommendation; there wasn't a moment I wasn't in complete delight. Roald Dahl would approve. Murray makes a real rascal of a badger, too. (Hey David, why didn't we send an invite to Wes Anderson?)

For Tim Curry Lovers Only

I realize I haven't said two cents since getting married, but David and I have been swamped with grading compositions; we have 220 students between the two of us and every spare second we have we've spent eating pumpkin cookies and birdwatching at Rexburg's Nature Park.

In fact, I'm trying to plan a lesson about the Gothic revival for my Romantic literature class this afternoon, but while I was trying to find a church-school-appropriate clip from The Rocky Horror Picture Show on YouTube (it's a companion piece to William Beckford's Vathek), I tripped over this gem of a historic pearl and couldn't help but post it here, where hopefully three or four of you will mutually appreciate the Curry's tambourine. God bless the person who uploaded it for all of us to enjoy. I know Halloween was last weekend, but the song does mention Christmas, too.

Scotland

Bride and Groomals

*click on the pictures to get them super-sized*

Last Saturday, David and I picked up our wedding dress and tux in Provo, then went immediately to Saltair with my mom and Stephen Phung, an amazing photographer friend of Greg Fox, and sandied up our new dandies taking bridal/groomal pictures. Here's some of our favorites. Tell us which are your favorites because we can only pick five for Stephen to ultra-super-detail-touch-up. Also, if you're interested (I'm speaking to you, my lovely sister-in-laws-to-be), all of the photos can be found here here here. David and I certainly can't decide the top five on our own.

I like this Heathcliff of the Moors shot. Very rugged/surly/handsome.


Here's that accordion I got David for his birthday this year.



David thinks I'm pulling a weird face in this one, but I like it.

These next ones are ridiculous.....David should have been the one to hold the guitar. I know all of four chords, but I still look like a dummy for those in the know.





These are our post-apocalyptic wedding photos.

A HUGE thanks to my Auntie Paula for making a veil for me, especially on such short notice.

There's a whole slew of these umbrella pictures...we have no idea which one to pick.



I can't lie--I'm a huge fan of the Tiger Lily kiss pictures, even though David insists that any and all kissy pictures must remain strictly in our own private collection (and this blog, because I can do whatever I want).






And these are our Indie band CD cover pictures.








Stephen Phung was incredible to work with--David and I aren't always the most photogenic people and it only took him two hours to come up with almost two hundred pretty decent photos of us. I highly recommend his work, and he was surprisingly affordable. Many, many thanks go to him and also my friend Stephie for doing my hair and makeup during her lunch break. Also, a huge thanks to my mom for her help, and for holding her breath (and her tongue) as she watched me run all over sand and rusted metal in the most expensive dress I'll ever wear (collecting gnats in my lace as I went).

If you want to see more Stephen Phung work and check out his pricing (he does family, kid, personal, and engagement photos, too), his website is www.phungphotography.com.

P.S. Sorry that this posting was ridiculously long and self-advertising, but we need help picking our Top Five!! Please leave your input!