Tuesday 30 April 2013

The Benton-Lachance wedding


Round 34: April 2040 (Autumn)


When we first got engaged, Jack and I were hoping to hold the wedding at home but we didn’t get very far into planning before we realised it was going to be much more work than we’d counted on!



So we started to look elsewhere. We settled on the Chapel of the Lone Daisy, an old church not far from our house.

The church didn’t provide extra decorations but Rebecca and Susannah offered to set the flowers up for us on the morning of the wedding, so we didn’t have to worry about that. It was very low stress.

It wasn’t until we had everyone inside that we realised just how tiny the church was though!

I think it was worth it to have such a lovely venue.

I was just glad to have all the most important people there to watch us tie the knot.

I could hardly believe Jack and I were finally up there exchanging our vows.

It felt like it was a really long time coming but we are both 100% sure that it’s what we want.

No one was looking forward to the reception more than the kids. We didn’t have any activities set up for them specifically but we were outside, so they could run around freely.

Susannah had offered to leave Zac with his dad but seeing all of Jack’s nieces and nephews were going to be there anyway, I didn’t think one more would be a bother!

We had some big kids at the wedding too, namely Jack’s groomsmen, Charlie and Malcolm!

Zac had a wonderful time. He’s older than Andrew and Jude, Grace and Everett are all ahead of him at school but they all played very nicely together.

I think Grace and Everett are used to being the eldest anyway and they kind of relish it. They love showing off!

The old well on the church ground was a hit with Grace too.

She was thrilled that it was actually still functional; I think everyone else was just thrilled she didn’t fall in!

I became an aunt for the first time a couple of months ago but Dominic and Leslie left Oscar and Stella at home with the babysitter for the day.

There’s no way they would have been able to enjoy the wedding while tending to 8-week-old twins! They’d never left the babies with a sitter before, even a family member, so they were a little distracted.

Mum and Dad have been waiting to be grandparents for a long time, so Oscar and Stella have definitely been a popular topic of conversation with them lately.

Lucky I don’t mind. I may be biased but they’re the most adorable babies I’ve ever seen. I’m sure I’ll change my mind when Jack and I have our own but we’re not there yet. We’re going to wait at least a year.

Two new babies in the family has really taken the pressure off me and Jack. I was sure Dad would mention future grandchildren in his toast but he was very restrained!

Everyone is just happy to see us married, I think.

Jack’s dad Tate did our cake for us. If I remember correctly, he did the same for Josie and then Charlie at their weddings.

He did an amazing job of it too. It was beautiful and delicious.

We offered to pay him for it but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Jack told me he wouldn’t but I didn’t feel right not even offering.

I was relieved though, I have to admit. Jack’s parents made sure he had a very generous trust fund made available to him when he turned 25 but we spent the vast majority of that on our house!

We definitely don’t have as much money to burn these days, especially after the wedding!





We were happy to spend the money in order for everyone to enjoy themselves though and it seems like they did.

Jack and I were even able to sneak away together for a few moments.

There is a pretty little courtyard at the side of the church, which somehow stayed quiet and empty for the whole time.

It was nice for us to get away for a little bit, especially for Jack. I don’t think Jack would have had a big wedding had it not been important to me.

He did say he was glad we did it in the end and that he enjoyed the day. We’re planning on a short honeymoon at some point, for a quieter and more private celebration.

Posed shots:

You'll have to excuse me if these shots are not quite as varied as usual. I'm still adding my CC in very slowly, so I only added two extra pose boxes for this session. 



This shot was accidental but it's probably my favourite of the lot. 


The whole bridal party.

Audrey with her bridesmaids, Rebecca and Susannah.

Jack with his groomsmen, Charlie and Malcolm.

The newlyweds with Jack's parents, Tate and Zelda.

Jack with his brother Charlie and sister Josie. 

The happy couple with the bride's parents, Tatiana and Jonas. 

Audrey with her three brothers, Brendan, Dominic and Edward (who also has the wrong hair, because I can't decide on a new one for him yet). 


Extras:

I love that my sims talk about gossip/memories in Sullivan 2.0! It was very rare in the old hood. And how sweet is this? This was right before the wedding, when I sat Jack and Audrey down in the church while I sorted out everyone else's formalwear. 

Sims are so silly.




Extra ceremony shots, of which I took about 30!


 A pretty candid one of Audrey.

Brendan being a weird creeper. Also, I don't know why he has that hair. Normally, he uses the same hair mesh as Dominic and despite the fact I added Brendan after Dominic, it still didn't occur to me to use the right hair. So he has the wrong hair in the family photos but let's just pretend he got a haircut, didn't like it, so he grew it out again. ;)

Oh Lord, playing catch! Did my sims play catch this much in Sullivan 1.0? There are like 5 games going on here. 

My sims wouldn't stay out of the church and I couldn't lock them out (being that Audrey and Jack don't own the lot), so I resorted to rather drastic measures. There are external doors leading into the toilets, so no worries there!

Notes:
  • So they're married! No baby wants from Jack or Audrey yet but give them time. They both have secondary Family aspiration and they both want a lot of kids. They're on BC currently though, so unless they have an oopsie, no kids for now.
  • The lot I did this wedding in was the Chapel of the Lone Daisy, from the Sims Community Project, on Tumblr, with some changes made by me. Quite honestly though, it's not ideal for a reception. I'll use the lot again but probably only for ceremonies. I don't have a ton of community lots right now and I didn't want to put off the wedding even more while I decorated Jack and Audrey's house for the occasion, so I worked with what I had. :)
  • This is not Audrey's permanent hairstyle, even though she's wearing it with her casual clothes too. I just know I want a different style for her from what I was using before and I haven't decided on one yet, so this will be a placeholder until then. 
  • Hope you enjoyed the wedding! I feel a bit out of practice with big events after such a long hiatus!

24 comments:

  1. Awww! These two are probably my favorite Sullivan couple ever! I'm so happy to see them finally get hitched, and with such a beautiful wedding! <3 So many gorgeous dresses too!

    It looks like you had a ton of Sims on that lot! How many were invited total?

    I've never seen that functional well before! Is that CC, or from some SP I never got?

    Well done on yet another gorgeous wedding! :)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the wedding! Jack and Audrey are definitely a favourite couple of mine too. I was so set on getting together one day, since they were, like, 8! I'm terrible, lol!

      I think there were 23 or 24 in total on the lot. I had them ALL selected too, so my side bar looked a little crazy. If you don't have them selected though, they wander off whether you've thrown an actual party or not (this was not, for the record).

      The well was already there on the lot when I placed it, so I just went with it. It seemed like something an old church might have on the grounds. It's actually an item from Seasons. It's not a catalog item though, which is why you might not remember seeing it. You get it if your sim gets a high enough score from the Garden Club. Sims can also make wishes with it, though Grace couldn't because she's too young.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. Aww, loved the wedding, I adored the shot of her waving at Jack at the alter, it seemed like she was nervous. Also, I hate Leslie, she looks amazing to have had twins 8 weeks ago, lol. I wish my body snapped back like that, lol. Jk, she is adorable, I can't hate her too much :)

    Also, there are mods that allow the well to be buy able and you can cheat it in :) I've done that a few times since its so pretty and apparently I have a black thumb in real life and in the sims, lol.

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    1. LOL, the waving shot happened while they were waiting for the ceremony to start, so Audrey probably was a little bit nervous!

      I thought the same thing about Leslie when I was dressing her! If you'll notice though, she has the most modest dress of all the women there, because I thought she might still be a little self-conscious post-partum. Even though she literally looks exactly the same as she did before she fell pregnant, lol!

      Yep, I'm assuming that's what the creator of this lot did to get the well there. I don't have much use for them on residential lots (except maybe the farms - there's an idea!) but I might see if the well fits into any of my future community lots.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. Yay! I have been looking forward to Jack and Audrey's wedding. They are one of my favorite couples, and their wedding did not disappoint. Can't wait to see how their life unfolds. I hope ROS is kind to them.

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    1. I've been looking forward to it myself! It took me a while to get it happening, what with rebuilding the hood and tracking down CC. I still don't have much CC (about 550MB at the moment), so I'm glad that didn't affect the wedding too much. I was happy with the way it turned out. :)

      I'm giving myself a break from ROS next round, just because I'll still be rebuilding and everything. So Audrey and Jack should be fine for at least a couple more years, lol!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. Great pictures, great setting, even though you say it is not ideal for receptions. Love the pretty dresses on the bridesmaids. No wedding in sight to be played in my 'hood at the moment, but I love playing weddings and parties and am really looking forward to my next one :-)

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    1. I don't think I enjoy the actual weddings as much as I enjoy the planning and the resulting pictures! The actual wedding involves a lot of "you, get out of the way! Why are YOU on the lot again? No, no more kicky bag!" Very chaotic but I think it's worth it! I was happy with how well this turned out.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. Oh my what a beautiful wedding! But your weddings are always gorgeous. I really need to stop being so lazy with mine :). I thought it was just my sims that were obsessed with playing catch, like really what is their deal? Lol. I think it's great that they are going to wait to have kids, they need time to enjoy each other.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I started doing big weddings after being inspired by yours, I think they were for the Taylor Legacy?

      The catch was ridiculous at this wedding but my sims love it in general. That pic doesn't include all the games I cancelled out.

      I'm dying to pass Jack's genes on, so they'll wait but not too long. I'm impatient. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. Ah, what a lovely wedding and I'm so happy they've finally tied the knot now. :) Yeah, playing catch happens all the time in River's Bend, too, not to mention the - sometimes wildly inappropriate - discussions of various memories. (Parents telling the story of their first woohoo at dinner with the kids has got to be my personal favourite. So glad I wasn't raised by sims.)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it and that I am not along with the rampant catch games! I often have sims asking each other to go play catch on home lots and I'm sure it's happened at weddings before too, but I don't think I've ever had so many games going on simultaneously!

      I am loving that my sims discuss memories now! They never did in Sullivan 1.0, which was boring. I caught my sim Lia discussing woohoo. She is so prudish and the last one I would expect to see that from, especially not with her daughters! I can barely imagine her talking about it with her husband. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. Audrey makes such a pretty bride! But I didn't expect anything else from her :) but every one looks great! So many great outfits there!

    I love the venue, and it came out really great! Even though you say it wasn't too easy to play the wedding there, I really like the shots!

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    1. Audrey's such a pretty sim, so I was very keen to dress her up for her wedding. :) I allowed myself a little extra downloading for the wedding, because I didn't want all the women in the same dresses. Most of the guys are wearing EA stuff. They didn't do as badly with the men's formal wear as with the women's. ;)

      It wasn't so much that the wedding was hard to play; it was more hard to photograph. I would have liked to have had a view of something behind them other than the road. A fence might have helped but a different layout all together probably would have helped more! Regardless, I still liked how everything turned out and I'm glad you did too.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. So glad to finally see these two married, it feels like they've been waiting forever! The wedding was gorgeous, I loved the venue and the posed shots (always my favourite part) look just as good as usual! Can't wait to see some babies, even if they are waiting a year or so.

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    1. Jack and Audrey had been waiting a while! I'm too lazy to check but they've been together 7 or 8 years, so that's a long time on its own but I like to think they've been in love since they were about 8 (I have the cutest pic of them from then and I pretty much decided they would be together based on it!), so it's more like 20 years in my mind!

      Posed shots are my favourites too. That's when I get to kick all the unnecessaries off the lot, lol! It's very peaceful and calm doing those, compared to the wedding. And they're fun to frame later on too.

      We'll hope Jack and Audrey pop out a baby in the next round or so. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  9. OMG, yes, yes, YES!!! A Sullivan wedding!!!!!!!!!! The Best weddings of the whole Sims Universe. *nod*
    It was soooo beautiful!!! These pictures with the fountain in the background are SOOO gorgeous (all your pictures are, but I'm such a fountain freak....) I love how kiddies are playing around. Awww, your weddings are always so filled with life and love!!!!! SQUEEEEE, absolute SQUEEEEEEE!!!
    Happy life to Jack and Audrey!!!! *swoon, swoon, swoon*

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    1. I don't normally have many kids at weddings, because I keep it to close friends and relations only. Close relations are anything the game considers family. But Jack already has so many nieces and nephews, so I had to invite them. It was fun to have a bunch of kids running around playing together, rather than one or two bored kids trying to amuse themselves! This one was more likely the family weddings I went to as a kid.

      I'm glad you liked everything! I think everything turned out really beautifully. This was my first wedding post-rebuild, so I was a bit limited but I wanted to make it nice for one of my favourite couples. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  10. Your weddings are always so lavish, I love them! I can live vicariously through you, because there's no way I'm going to set up anything even remotely as detailed. ;)

    Audrey looked GORGEOUS! I think you missed your calling in fitting brides-to-be with their looks and dresses. ;)

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    1. Heh, I actually enjoy the setting up part of it! It's really only the playing that can approach a chore-like feeling. It's always kind of chaotic having so many sims on the lot! Worth it though, at least for me!

      Oh, but real brides have budgets and their own wants and desires! Who needs that, lol? ;) Audrey just shuts up and lets me do what I like to her! Same reason I prefer sim decorating over real life decorating!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  11. Beautiful wedding! So happy to see these two married, and looking forward to seeing their house when it's all decorated, they have one of my favorite houses. Audrey looked great, as did Jack, and lol on all that ball tossing. Mine are constantly hopping in the tub, I forgot I had a hack to stop that tom foolery! The gardens on this lot are really pretty, it all came together very nicely!

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    1. So glad you enjoyed it!I was happy to finally get Jack and Audrey hitched as well. :) Until this second, I actually forgot I hadn't decorated their house yet. Oops! I was so glad to find a lot I didn't have to do much to. I'm going to redownload my Benton Park as well as Laura's First Grace Church, to give myself some more options. :)

      Ha, the tub playing! Mine do that a lot too, though that doesn't annoy me as much as the ball tossing. They don't get so tired with that!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  12. I always feel so inadequate after seeing your weddings. I just did one and I'm embarrassed to have it go up next week after seeing this. I can take some more pics sometime this week, but Marie and Dean were being so difficult the day of. How do you do it?
    Anyway, beautiful wedding, and it's about time those two got married! For the longest time they were like star-crossed lovers.

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    1. Oh, don't! I love seeing sim weddings in general and I don't know that I do anything that special to make mine nice. Really, all it is is this:
      1) Gadwin for pics.
      2) The right CC and pose boxes.
      3) A lot of patience!

      I think the last one is more key than anything else. Posing and huge events like weddings are not things the game was really designed for (the game allows a maximum of 8 guests, without a hack), so sims do make it difficult for you sometimes. So patience!

      I was so excited to get Audrey and Jack married - probably more than any other couple in my game ever! I'm glad everyone enjoyed the wedding as much as I did. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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