Friday 24 January 2014

The Collins-Kirby wedding

Round 35: February 2041 (Summer)

Rebecca Kirby is 32 and Nathan Collins is 31. 


I really thought Mum would protest a little bit more when I told her Nathan and I weren’t going to have a bridal party.


I could tell she wasn't thrilled with the idea, because Mum is transparent that way, but she didn't push.

I think she was just so happy I’d compromised on the venue that she didn’t much care what else went on.

Nathan convinced me to have at least the ceremony at the farm. It meant a lot to Mum and to Dad as well, so I agreed.

It wasn't really how I pictured my wedding but to be honest, I've never had a clear picture of my dream wedding anyway. 

It was simple but pretty. It would have been nice if the apple trees were ready for harvest but you can’t have everything!

The ceremony was basically perfect otherwise. 

The end result - Nathan and I finally being married - would be the same no matter what and I wasn’t too concerned about anything else. 

It’s been almost three years since we got engaged, so it was about time!


I would say all our guests agreed too. 

We held the reception at Starry Nights, which was the plan since before we decided on a farm ceremony. 

It’s a very elegant place and big enough to fit my enormous family, so we were sold.

Nathan was very invested in making sure everything went smoothly. 

He was constantly checking in with the staff, asking about this detail or that detail. He must have been driving them insane but they were very good about it.

If I didn't force him to take it easy, he probably would have been wandering around all afternoon.

He’s just a worrier and a perfectionist, which can be a trying combination at times.

I can’t complain though. We did get some time together as well.

But I feel like we didn't get as much time together as we did time spent mingling with guests.

I didn't get too long to chat with Susannah but I don’t see her nearly as often since we stopped living together, so I had to make a bit of time.

Things are going really well for her with Daniel. Her son Zac loves him and Daniel really likes Zac too.

It’s going so well that they’re thinking of moving in together at some point. 

Susannah is pretty timid about these sorts of things after Sam, so she and Daniel must be really happy together. I hope it works out for her this time. 

I think mingling was more of a challenge for Nathan than for me. He’s so shy and he often doesn’t really know what to say to people.

His family is quite small, so more than half the guests were from my side, so there were quite a few people he didn't know all that well.

He probably would have felt more comfortable talking to the kids. Despite his shyness, Nathan is great with kids.

My nieces were perfectly occupied though and weren't very interested in anything the grown-ups were doing.

Nathan will have his own niece or nephew soon enough. His sister Hope is due in just a few months.

I think Nathan is almost as excited as she and Malcolm are. 

She’s feeling good in general, though she was feeling quite tired and sore at the wedding.

I don’t know if that was the pregnancy or the 4-inch heels she was wearing! Regardless, it doesn't seem to be slowing her down at all.

I was hoping to ditch a couple traditional wedding elements, like cake cutting, which I've always found a bit cheesy.

Nathan really wanted to do that one though, so I relented. And I have to admit, it was kind of fun.

I also really didn’t want speeches. I don’t go in for sentimental things but Dad is all about that and he insisted. 

I’m the youngest and the last one to get married, so he might not get another chance for a sappy speech, unless he’s still around when one of the grandkids gets married.

He was loving it and I was trying not be too embarrassed by all the mush!

I was a little relieved when it was over and we could move to the dance floor. 

It was an opportunity for some quiet time with Nathan as well. Obviously, we weren’t alone but we were close enough that no one could hear what we were saying and we might as well have been alone.

It was probably one of my favourite parts of the day.

Though having a go on the decks when the DJ took his break was pretty great as well.

I had no idea what I was doing but I pretended I did!

I didn't last too long, as the DJ probably wouldn't have appreciated someone else using all of his equipment.

My moment in the spotlight was about 10 minutes in total and then I made a hasty exit!

I'm glad Nathan would never have let us elope, like I fantasised about a few times.


Having our friends and family there really made the day and I would have regretted it had they not been there.

Posed pictures:

I always feel so accomplished once I'm ready to do these. I always do them after the wedding, when I've deleted all the unnecessaries off the lot, so it's quite relaxing for me too!




With the brides' parents.

And the groom's parents. I think Anna makes a really pretty elder, by the way. 


Still didn't really need her attempt at a photobomb though!


The bride with her sisters, Claudia and Victoria


And the groom with his sister, Hope. I love capturing pregnant bellies in posed shots. It makes the hood feel very alive to me, like they're all real families. 

Notes:
  • So they're married! Rebecca is Rebecca Collins now, because I do want to carry on that name and Nathan is my last chance to do so. 
  • The bartender was the crappiest bartender ever. She wandered away from her post to talk to people, to play football outside, to bitch out Declan...hate her. Even the game could tell she was rubbish, as a new bartender arrived halfway through the reception. I may have accidentally made her selectable at some point, which made her forget she had a job to do!
  • Nathan following the staff around, as well as Rebecca in the DJ booth was all game play. I don't think they can use the DJ booth autonomously on community lots but Rebecca rolled the want and I had to let her. It definitely was not just because I was hoping she'd roll away one of her little wants and roll one for a baby. Not at all.
  • As you may have guessed, Rebecca doesn't have a baby want. And neither does Nathan, which surprises me! I'm playing them very soon (like this sim month!) so we'll see what happens then. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind them waiting a bit. I have three babies due already!

17 comments:

  1. Your weddings are always so wonderful. I love Rebecca's gown! Everyone and everything is perfect.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoy the weddings - they're very satisfying for me to put together. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. This was such a beautiful wedding! I really like the tradition of the family getting married at the farm, and Rebecca giving in and having her wedding there for her parents. I can't stop chuckling at the picture of her wedding guests at the ceremony, because it's almost the size of my entire hood. Both her and Nathan's families are big.

    I love, love Rebecca's wedding dress and Hope is wearing that navy blue dress.She looks really nice pregnant. Is this her first child?

    Is Nathan's mom pushy? If I recall did Hope elope because she couldn't agree with her parents on her wedding? I know Rebecca's mom can be a handful, but I thought Anna is too or I may be mistaken.

    Overall, this was a really nice wedding and I absolutely love seeing the different generations all in one place.

    And I downloaded your reception venue - thanks for sharing. I can't wait to add to my hood.

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    1. Thanks for the compliments on the wedding! I have only a couple of wedding traditions with my families in Sullivan, so I was keen to keep this one going. :) If you include Nathan's uncle, aunts and cousins, his family is the biggest in the hood. Comparing immediate families though - parents, siblings, siblings' kids and siblings' partners - then Nathan's family is probably one of the smallest in the hood and definitely smaller than Rebecca's!

      Yep, this is Malcolm and Hope's first baby. She's due in May, I think. She's actually not int he third trimester yet but because I had her on a community lot, she looks like she is!

      Oh, yes, Nathan's mother is very pushy and she was the reason Hope and Malcolm eloped. So Rebecca and Nathan both have rather difficult mother-in-laws now. I'd probably take Megan over Anna. She's a lot nicer, at least!

      I would love to see pictures of your sims at Starry Nights if you end up using the venue! I follow your simblr, so I should see them if you post them there. :D

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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    2. LOL, do you even have a Tumblr? I thought you did but now I'm thinking I have you mixed up with someone else! Oh, well. I'd like to see pics is my point!

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  3. A lovely event, starting off as a country wedding and then moving to an elegant full-blown affair with DJ and all! It's always nice to see the dresses and hairdos of the guests.
    At the ceremony, I noticed you have spaced the chairs for the guests quite far apart. I always put the rows of chairs immediately behind one another, which is no problem for the Sims to sit on them.

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    1. Ceremony and reception were a bit of a contrast but I quite liked that about it, so I'm glad you did too.

      Yes, the chairs are spread far apart intentionally. There's two tiles of space. I'm not sure if you've ever had a wedding as large as this but having them right in front of each other simply does not work with 22 sims (or more) on the lot! Even with the chairs this far apart, four sims will head for one chair (really wish routing was programmed better in this game!) and with only one tile of space between the chairs, you also get the issue of them not being able to get past each other once they've given up on the seat they wanted. I've had sims miss the entire ceremony because they're stuck somewhere. I generally seat them manually now anyway but I like the look of two tiles and I'm in the habit of doing it anyway.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. You were the one to inspire me to do these kind of weddings, and I still love every wedding you do!
    Rebecca looks great, as does her new husband!
    And I know she wasn't too thrilled to have the ceremony at her paren'ts home, but I like the little familyhistory that is in it, and the garden and apple orchard looks great!
    Starry nights again looks great, I can't wait to use it in my game again!

    I was wonder if you remembered where you got the chairs you used in the ceremony? I really like them. I went through your Pinterest, but I couldn't find them, I could have been blind though :/

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    1. Thanks, Tanja - you do quite a lovely job at weddings yourself!

      I think Rebecca was fine with having the ceremony at the farm, as unthrilled about it as she was in the beginning. She's never been the type of girl to imagine her dream wedding, so in the end, the location wasn't really going to bother her too much.

      I think this was actually my first wedding at Starry Nights! I've seen other simmers do more weddings with this venue than I have, lol. It's not strictly set up for weddings but I'm willing to do a lot of fiddling around for things to go my way, so they got married at the farm, I exited to the hood without saving and then took them to Starry Nights for another quickie wedding!

      Heh, the chairs are on my Pinterest but I have so many boards there that I'm not surprised if you missed them. They are from the Beach House outdoor set at Around the Sims 2. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. I don't know how I've missed those, they are even the board's front! Thank you for telling me!

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    1. Well, like I said, I have a lot of boards!

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  6. Gorgeous wedding! I'm glad she continued tradition and had it in the orchard. And there may not have been apples in the trees, but they were blooming flowers, and that was pretty too. I agree with capturing the pregnant sims, it really does make the hood feel alive. I love young children in photos too, like toddlers and infants for the same reason. It shows such a passage of time when you look back on them.

    I agree that Anna is a really pretty elder. And it was nice to see everyone having a good time, the venue is gorgeous! I can totally see them waiting to start a family, and I'm super geeked to see what Hope has and what it looks like! Love that this family is all growing up, marrying off, and having babies!

    Any chance you recall where you got Hope's dress? I love the neck on that, and the fact that pregnant sims can wear it!

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    1. True! I guess the flowers don't register for me most of the time, seeing I only just realised that they're not there all the time!

      I think you might have been the one who first said something about pregnant sims in photos that got me thinking about it, so I'm not surprised you agree! ;) I really do love capturing those kinds of things though.

      This is one of those times when I'm a bit annoyed I had to rebuild. Nathan had a baby want probably since he graduated uni and in the new hood - nada. Given how common baby wants seem in this new hood though, I'm not expecting to have to wait too long!

      Hope's dress is by Skell. Cara Moretti is currently wearing the red version. :) I wish all meshes had preg morphs - it was so hard for me to find something for Hope to wear!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. What a lovely wedding and I love that they got married in such a nice spot with lots of meaning for the family.

    Hope's dress is amazing, I always grumble about the lack of nice formal wear for pregnant sims.

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    1. I think the wedding venue, even if it wasn't Rebecca's first choice, went a long, long way towards appeasing her mother. Which can't really be a bad thing, with Megan as a mother! And I really like continuing family traditions like this in game. :)

      There's not much out there for pregnant sims, is there? I love having pregnant sims at weddings but I don't love finding something for them to wear quite as much! If you're interested, I linked to Hope's dress in my reply to Maisie. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. Awww, such wonderful wedding pictures! Now they just need to get cracking on the babies. Haha, I used to get so mad when people would ask us that after marriage, now I immediately expect it of sims. Hypocrite! ;)

    Loved the reception. I miss the ability for drama at TS2 parties! All of mine always ended hilariously, though your sims seem to be a bit more classy. Loved the venues!

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    1. LOL, babies is actually something that I never, ever ask married couples about, because I can only imagine how annoying it is. But I totally expect it of newly married sims, so I'm with you there!

      I probably control my sims a bit too much for there to be a ton of drama. I also tend to ignore drama that doesn't fit into my "vision" but there really wasn't much drama at all at this wedding, apart from Bitchy Bartender. Kendal and Lake's Christmas party last round was rather hilarious that way. Josie was there so of course she was going to start trouble!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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