19 replies to this topic

[dee342]

Hi Everyone,

We've finally set a wedding date for the 14th May 2011 and we are both very excited. John is T5 complete and is the most excited I've seen him for absolutely ages which is so great.

Unfortunately he is not on this forum (i'm still trying to get him to join as it is so good) so he gets me to post questions on here that he/we need help with.

Right here goes;

1. Can anybody tell me what they did for their first dance?
2. Wedding photos - John is conscious that his chair is not the main focus of the photos (HELLO I'm going to be in them lol!!!) Is it a case of speaking to the photograher and see what they suggest. Can anyone recommend and photoegraphers in the BedfordShire/Cambridgeshire area?
3. John wants to get some pictures of him stading up, can anyone recommend any good electric standing frames/chairs?

Also if anyone has any pics they have from their special day that would be great!

Thanks

Dee x

[kdenon01]

Here is our wedding video:



And I have some of our pics here:

http://kdenon01.googlepages.com/home

Good luck and congrats!!!

[Hapahowlee]

Congratulations Dee!

My hubby and I will be married 11 years on June 1st. His second and my first. Even though this was my first (and only), I really was never the type of gal who dreamed about big weddings. So we eloped to Hawaii. I still bought a dress and Mr. Hapa wore his double breasted suit and we had the kids with us as maid of honor and best man, so they took pics of us with the ocean in the background.

We decided to have a reception a couple of months later. We had about 125 people show up. I wanted pictures so I wore my dress again (I'm a very frugal person), which still had red mud stains on it from Kauai even after being dry cleaned and Mr. Hapa rented a tux with a short jacket. His chair was dark green and I think it blended in nicely. I'm so glad we remembered to zip up his urinal bag!!

Since I switched computers, I don't have the pics on hand, but will post a couple later of Hawaii and the Reception. We had a non traditional reception, except for our attire and the photographer. Instead of us having a first dance, I led the "Conga Line" and later I sat on hubby's lap to slow dance and he would stay on the dance floor during the fast dances at times too. We cleaned his wheelchair really well right before we left for the reception. I didn't care that my dress got dirty, but dust makes the chair stand out. If you hire a professional photographer they can airbrush the flaws for you.

We were really surprised at how many gifts we received considering we specifically stated on the invitation "The Newlyweds respectfully request, your prescence be your only gift to them" We had already been living together for 7 years and I was 34 when we married, hubby was 39 getting ready to turn 40. I'd been out of my parents' home since I was 19 and I really didn't need or want for anything except to celebrate with family and friends and that's what we did!!!

Kdenon's pics are beautiful and may give you an idea of what you want to do. You may want to do a search on here b/c I believe this topic has been covered before.

[CollegeGirl]

We must share the same brain. I JUST talked to family about how we would take family pics and have our first dance about 3 days ago! I'm so glad you posted this...oh and congrats on the wedding!

1.) I'm kind of stumped about the first dance, unless you sit in his lap and just do a sort of leaning dance! haha
2.) We decided that most photographers are creative and use to working around certain obstacles, so they will have some ideas
3.) Standing...hmmm...didn't even think about that one. I thought about taking pictures with him out of his chair and him raising his chair up during the ceremony, but standing never really occured to me.

Kdenon, your pictures are so beautiful! I haven't looked at the video yet because I'm suppose to be working, but I will do that later for sure. I LOVE the picture of you in his lap with the veil over yalls head and close together (the one up close). That is just TOO cute. I will definately have to remember this on my big day.

[luckygirl78]

congrats on ur upcoming wedding.
i married the love of my life in dec 2009 that happens to b in a wheelchair.
our wedding was beautiful!! had everything a typical weding would have...
for our 1st dance i actually sat side saddle on his lap and he manovered around in circle while our bridal party surrounded us and danced with their partner. it was awesome. we kinda tripped people out how comfortable we were with everything. we are a young couple. 31 and 33.
for the pics i dont suggest anything awkward. he's in a chair! it's part of him! embrace it!! as we walkd down the aisle after saying our vows i rode on his lap! we r a fun n outgoing couple and him being in a wheelchair wasnt going to spoil our day. take pics however u r comfortable.
whn we exchanged vows i stood next to him(closely infront) of him.
we made sure to keep our wedding party very involvd. we r still waitng 4 our wedding pics or else i would post some for sure!! whn i get them i will for sure.
just ejnoy ur day!! idk how ur fiances nerve pain is or if he has any but my husbands is realy bad.sumtimes intolerable...so we only stayd@our reception for a couple hours. he tried to hang as long as he could.hes a trooper tho!! im sure your is too!! god bless! keep us posted!

[ADP-10-08-63]

bride comming into classical version:- here come's bride
exit of bride and groom to:marty pellow track "love is all around"
first dance was to :- meat-loaf "i would do anything for love,but i won't do that"
good luck

[jdwebman1]

hi guys,

i'm a c4 quad and dont have a huge amount of movement. i can get from a to b slowly.
for my wedding in 2005 we got the band to call everyone up to the dance floor and had the darkness
"I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE" as our first song. rocked it out. everyone joined in straight away

no 1 noticed me shuffling to much, they just joined in.

fast song is the way to go

[misstd]

Hey guys, I have just got engaged and im so excited about my wedding! Love this site there is always a post about my worries, I also wondered about the first dance, i love the idea of conga line, and fast songs, and the personal pictures on projecter is an amazing idea!

[lovinglife909]

You may want to decide if the dancing is the way to go. I'll PM you my photo link and give you ideas on that. We had an issue there as well

Hi Everyone,

We've finally set a wedding date for the 14th May 2011 and we are both very excited. John is T5 complete and is the most excited I've seen him for absolutely ages which is so great.

Unfortunately he is not on this forum (i'm still trying to get him to join as it is so good) so he gets me to post questions on here that he/we need help with.

Right here goes;

1. Can anybody tell me what they did for their first dance?
2. Wedding photos - John is conscious that his chair is not the main focus of the photos (HELLO I'm going to be in them lol!!!) Is it a case of speaking to the photograher and see what they suggest. Can anyone recommend and photoegraphers in the BedfordShire/Cambridgeshire area?
3. John wants to get some pictures of him stading up, can anyone recommend any good electric standing frames/chairs?

Also if anyone has any pics they have from their special day that would be great!

Thanks

Dee x

Edited by lovinglife909, 06 April 2010 - 04:03 PM.

[dee342]

Thanks everyone! We are now on the year countdown!! Very excited!

Love the Darkness and that is definitely on our list.

x

[TextualFury]

When I was married I asked my niece to dance on my behalf. My entire ceremony was very nontraditional as well. We got married in the bookstore where we had our first date near Christmas so we had some decorations already up as well. My main goal was keeping the space clear enough that I could run around and laugh and love with my family and friends. He also danced with a friend of mine who has Fibromyalgia and I had fun showing my nephew books and getting my younger brother to dance with a few friends. More or less I convinced pretty much everyone to dance for me and I did wiggle a little in my seat. It was fulfilling.

Another suggestion I might add is work on dancing with your arms more than feet. I should say his but this would require coordination for both of you. As I used to be a professional dancer I can tell you even for the able bodied a lot of dancing is in the grace of moment not what you move.

For accessibility reasons I would also suggest a nontrad location, it's just easier to find open space when you are doing something totally new. I got frustrated with trying to navigate poorly planned wedding halls and churches. I also ran into ministers that wouldn't marry the disabled. (Very annoying that.)

If you are both set on dancing yourselves you could look into a dance class, see if an instructor is willing to work with you both so that he can do more than sit and spin in circles (though I find that a horribly lot of fun as well).

Congradulations on setting a date! I certainly hope your marriage is happy and lasts a life time.

[Athena]

That's wonderful. Congratulations!!!

[hisamsmith]

Congrats! My husband and I both have c-5 s.c.I.s. Our wedding was 2 years ago. My husband refused to dance during our reception as did his brothers so our first dance I asked all the married couples to dance to bring us luck to stay married as long as they have. Our song was Adam Sandler's "grow old with you". Our pictures are beautiful. If I knew how to post them I would. Maybe i'll ask my husband to help me post them tomorrow.

Oh one more thing be prepared for something to go wrong. If you handle it with a sense of humor your wedding will be a wonderful event. For example my petticoat got wrapped around my front tire during the reception. I have pictures of my cousin's finance and a family friend under my dress cutting my petticoats out of the wheel. Then I had to be carried to a seat while my bridesmaids held me up the guys turned my chair on it's side to take the petticoat out of the wheel. I still laugh my bum off every time I tell the story.

Edited by hisamsmith, 22 May 2010 - 06:16 AM.

[Channy]

Congrats! My fiancee and are in getting married June 2011. We originally were supposed to get married this fall but we weren't sure how long he was going to be in rehab for (he just acquired his SCI this past October) so we postponed it. I'm just now starting to think about how we're going to do things! Happy planning!

[Toro]

Hey congratulations. Wonderful news! My fiance and I are tying the knot on 15th Aug 2010. Can't wait. Having been professional Latin American dance partners before his accident the first dance thing is a sensitive issue but my fears were erased the other night when meeting with our photographer, he mentioned he had just done a wedding where the groom was wheelchair bound and they had a truly novel idea. Instead of trying to go around in circles and feel like dancing, he auctioned off his bride to the highest bidder for the first dance! Coincidentally, her Dad paid R 500 for the honor...what fun...njoy your special day

[snodrog742]

Here is our wedding video:



And I have some of our pics here:

http://kdenon01.googlepages.com/home

Good luck and congrats!!!

Video and pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Long way from ever getting married but those gave me more hope and inspiration.

[tyvin]

Absolutely beautiful wedding video kdenon01.

[kdenon01]

Thank you guys very much! And good luck to all of you soon-to-be newlyweds!!

[skinnylatte]

We got married at the end of last Summer, on the beach. We didn't bother with the sand, though... we found a hotel that had a gazeebo out back right on the Ocean. My husband's groomsmen helped him hop one step up, and we were married under the gazeebo, and our guests filed in all around us. It was pretty cool to be surrounded by our friends and family! We had the reception inside the hotel, overlooking the Ocean.

For our first dance, we coreographed it ourselves. We danced to "You and Me" by Lifehouse. We did a series of twirls, I walked behind him with my hand on his shoulder for part of it, a couple of times we both turned all the way around, then at the end, I rode around on his lap. My dress did get caught up in the front wheels, but it wasn't a big deal.

We also did a congo line, with my husband leading the way. We did lots of dancing with the two of us just having fun together, along with our guests. I sat on his lap for our last song. It was truly a special time together. I sit on his lap a lot, it's a familiar, natural thing for us.

For our pictures, we just went natural. We didn't make a big deal of hiding the chair, or or letting it stick out. Everything turned out beautifully!

We didn't really have to make a lot of accomodations. We were just ready for anything like we try to be every day. We made sure he had an extra chair battery charged (he uses a manual-assist chair), made sure we had the strap he uses to eat with, made sure our waiter brought us a straw, you know - the everyday stuff you do without even thinking about it! He didn't have any problems getting onto the dance floor from the carpet in the ballroom.

For our send-off, I rode off on his lap - that was our version of him carrying me into our hotel room for the night

I think I may have posted it in another thread, I honestly can't remember, but if you want to take a look at our wedding video, here you go - it does have a couple of shots of the dance:
http://lovelikethisl...ding-video.html

Congratulations and best wishes to you!!! Don't let any of the wheelchair stuff get in the way, or get you down. It's just life. Together. You're a team.

[rmorgan]

Congrats!

My fiance is t-5 complete as well, and we've set our date for April 16th 2011!

Wishing you both the best!