Remember These Faces?

{ all images, moving forward, courtesy of the amazing Cindy Patrick, unless otherwise noted}

What do you do when your videographer holds your wedding video hostage? Unfortunately, Mr. Bruschetta and I had the distinct displeasure of learning firsthand how to manage this frustrating, emotional situation.

The initial delay, I'll admit, was completely our fault. After our wedding, the mister and I immersed ourselves in all things house-hunting: HGTV and Zillow, learning the ins and outs of mortgages, inspections and appraisals (before closing on our "First and Forever" home in July 2010). We dragged our feet a bit getting our honeymoon pictures to our videographer (to be included in a slide-show featuring Andrea Bocelli's rendition of "O Sole Mio"), but assumed the video could easily be finalized after passing these photos along to him.

We communicated with him every two or three weeks, and each time, the promise was the same: The video's nearly complete, I'll have it for you very soon. In the end, it took the wedding equivalent of the jaws of life -- threatening litigation, and paying a surprise visit to our videographer's home, which was his office when we contracted with him back in 2008 (so, really, it wasn't too stalker-ish or creepy) -- to liberate our video from his clutches. The final product isn't free of flaws -- in his haste, I'm sure, our wedding date flip-flops between the correct year (2009) and 2011, and it ends proudly proclaiming us Mr. and Mrs. [insert Mr. Bru's last name here], despite the fact that I kept my maiden name -- but after one year of waiting, stressing and feeling sick to my stomach at the thought of losing precious day-of footage, I'll take it.

Hive, I'm so sorry for my prolonged absence. You've totally been on my mind, and I was never able to shake the guilty feeling I was letting down everyone eager to read about our special day. However, while our video was MIA, I just couldn't face the task of sifting through the 3,000+ images our fantastic photographer captured on our wedding day -- and, unfortunately, without knowing if I would ever hear our vows, relive my dad's insanely sweet toast or see our first dance (after two months' worth of dance lessons to prepare!) the thought of blogging sent me into a complete and utter panic.

I really can't wait to share our extraordinarily memorable day for you. I'm just going to ask for a smidgen more patience, while the husband and I sort through our pro pics, and I'll be back in about a month to kick off the official Bruschetta recaps -- if you'll have me, of course!