The Life and Times of JoRaye K.

One, thank you to everyone that came out to either my birthday dinner or to my birthday party. You guys make these events so fun for me, and that can’t really be expressed in words, so once again, thank you for letting me have an amazing birthday.

I am uploading pictures. I can say, if you have a VALID request for me to remove a picture, I will (there were almost 400.) I do remove most pictures where girls look blatantly horrible (blinking, stupid faces, etc.) I don’t remove pictures that have a group in them, and you might have a silly grin that doesn’t suit you. Deal with it, we all aren’t supermodels, and can’t be on point whilst drinking and acting goofy. A bad picture is just capturing a moment in time you might not of remembered otherwise.

What I do have to harp on, is that I have been asked to remove pictures that include one certain person. I did it because the person who asked is my friend, but I had to do this for my birthday last year as well, and had to exercise caution with other events, because of someone who was doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing……

Going thru 400 pictures to ensure this person isn’t visible in them is kind of a task, but I did it. I did it last year, and sadly, I will probably do it in the future.

What I can say is, you all know me pretty well, I take ALOT of pictures, and I usually post them on myspace, facebook, or joraye.com. If you don’t want certain pictures to seen, DON’T POSE FOR THEM. I can be pretty pushy when I’m on the spot, but you can carefully ask me in private to not take pictures of you and your guest. I will oblige. It makes the “post-editing” process alot easier on me.

I don’t give a crap who your f***ing, sleeping around with, hiding a fugitive, in the witness protection program, etc. That’s your life. I’ve had to do this numerous times with friends and I think it’s petty. If you’ve got a secret to hide, DON’T jump in front of a camera! Especially one that is owned by someone who updates and posts EVERYTHING on the internet.

What I can say for the future is, that I have a wedding coming up. I will more than likely, have a photographer, OTHER THAN ME. Wedding photos can sometimes number in the 1000s. I WILL NOT be editing my wedding photos other than to suit my own personal opinion. So if you decide to show up to my wedding with someone other than your publicly-known husband, baby’s daddy, boyfriend, lover, etc, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY PHOTOGRAPHER. Point blank, photos are evidence, so why incriminate yourself if you KNOW what you’re doing is wrong, or going to cause issues.

Other than that, the pictures are quite fun, I love my new camera (Thanks Todd and Mom!), and I plan to take quite a few more pictures. Happy Birthday to me!

After quite an eventful weekend and week in Vegas last week (house risked by a grass fire hours before I leave, delayed flights, cancelled flights back from the ice storm, driving back, cramped back seat, etc.) we had to discuss the Vegas wedding scenario.

In short, we’ve decided to nix the Vegas idea and keep the wedding and reception in Oklahoma City. The date should still be the same, August 8th 2009, and a reception to follow. I don’t have a location yet, but I am hoping to book somewhere that we can have the ceremony and reception in the same place.

I know a lot of you were looking forward to Vegas, as many of you had never been, and were looking forward to a vacation type get-away as well. I know we can change our minds and we are allowed to, but I felt as if we should at least explain our reasoning.

Vegas was meant to be low-key, fun, and cheap. As it stands, with separating the at-home reception, having a small reception in Vegas, travel costs, venue costs, and the like, for what we wanted out of Vegas, it was going to cost just as much or more than a wedding at home. I just wasn’t comfortable with having my first wedding at the $99 chapel. J

All of the elements that could be avoided by doing a package in Vegas weren’t that important, but seemed a bit overpriced for what you were getting. Also, we met with the wedding coordinator last weekend, she was an amazingly sweet girl, we loved the place, but for what we wanted, and how we wanted to handle things, there were going to be numerous “$150 vendor fees” that were adding up quickly and didn’t sit too well with me. The idea of, if I were to buy silk flowers, and have my mom help me make bouquets, bouts, pomanders, etc. (she’s quite crafty with a glue gun!) would be considered an “outside vendor fee” and therefore charged $150? I understand you could say we made them, and have a florist make them, but still, it was nickel and diming me to death, $150 at a time.

The vast majority of our friends and family are in the Oklahoma/Oklahoma City area, and this will avoid the issue of air travel for 100% of our guests who wanted to see the ceremony.

Vegas was also going to nix our ability to have a real honeymoon, and since this is a first marriage for both of us, we really wanted a honeymoon, and Vegas was not the spot for it.

Vegas was going to be a casual wedding, and I plan on the OKC event being just as you would expect a Todd and JoRaye event, casual, relaxed, tons of fun. Neither one of us wanted a formal wedding, or a Catholic wedding, so no worries in the type of event we’re hosting here.

In the end, there’s quite a bit more planning to do, but it’s easier to be able to drive down the road and check out a place or service, rather than blindly book off the internet. I’ve told a few people in person, and the emotions have been mixed. People who didn’t have the money, are glad to not have to save or use credit cards, and people who wanted to come, are upset, but understand, and among the group, there’s a mix of those feelings.

All in all, we want this to be fun for all involved, and we hope to see you in August.

JoRaye & Todd