I feel pretty!

I felt oh so pretty on our wedding day. Here is a breakdown of what I wore!

1) Dress by Alita Graham from Kleinfeld:

(Kyle’s suit and tie were from Brooks Brothers)

2) Shoes by Badgley Mischka and 3) Aquamarine engagement ring from Braunschweiger Jewelers:

4) Earrings from Dandelion Jewelry, hairpiece made by Regina B (thanks Mo!!)

{author’s personal collection}

And one last detail…

5) The ring my father gave me on my eighth birthday

The boys looked pretty good too! Kyle told me that as Punam was pulling up to our house, our best man was trimming Kyle’s hair in the front yard. Classy boys, real classy.

The seemingly endless searching for what to wear absolutely paid off and I felt so beautiful our wedding day. While I envy the brides that find their dress right away, it was totally worth the 10 bridal shops I visited in the end! Anyone else in the 10+ club?

*all photos by Punam Bean unless otherwise stated

Speak now, or forever hold your peace

A line that was not uttered at our ceremony, thank goodness. Not like anyone would have spoken up, unless they were trying to be a smarty-pants, but still it was nice that the split second of nervousness that might have caused did not happen. Here's what DID happen though.

We got to the church late because of all the venue coordinator drama that happened in the morning, so things were a bit rushed getting in there. We only had a couple minutes to get in the church, get my veil on (NOTE: Have your hairdresser put your veil in if possible! Mine was totally loose and kept falling out because no one knew how to get it in), and get lined up to go inside. The bridesmaids and flowergirl all looked so pretty lined up! Soon, the doors were open and I walked down the aisle on my uncle's arm.





I'm glad Punam took this shot because I have pretty bad eyesight. I could see Kyle standing at the altar but couldn't see the expression on his face or really anything at all until I got much closer.



Another note to brides-to-be: have your dress steamed BEFORE you get it altered. I was worried about tripping on my dress the entire time down the aisle since when it was steamed, it ended up being longer than it was when it was originally altered. Oops.

It was so great to see everyone in the church! Some of Kyle's students came to the wedding too, it was such a fun surprise to see so many of them there.

The ceremony was lovely although Kyle totally got called out by our pastor. Our first date he was supposed to show me around town since I'd be moving there in a few months. Well, our pastor MapQuested how far away we actually were from the center of town that night: 20.9 miles. So much for showing me around! The date went well enough that I got the tour in the next couple months though :)



I love this photo of my aunt and uncle...









"Don't trip, don't trip, don't trip"...I had to hold Kyle back a bit and tell him to slow down so that I wouldn't trip on the way out. He was too excited to get out of the church though so we could have a moment to take it all in!

We didn't do a grand exit as we left the church or anything, and I'm glad we didn't. Instead of a receiving line though, we came right back into the church after we recessed and dismissed each row, greeting everyone on their way out. This only worked because there weren't more than 100 people at the ceremony though since any more would have taken way too long! All the hugging did have a detrimental effect on my hair though...totally flattened it out! Not cool.

How did you leave the ceremony?

Don't mess with this bride and her cake!

Or specifically for this girl? Her ice cream cake.

It took just one uninspiring cake tasting for us to decide that a regular wedding cake wasn't for us. We knew early on that a traditional "cake-decorator-spends-hours-on-it-making-every-flower-under-the-sun-out-of-gum-paste" cake was not going to be something we'd like to spend a chunk of money on but we realized we needed to have something for our guests as dessert.

So, like I said, I attended only one cake tasting and was totally uninspired. On top of that? I refused to pay more than $4/person on something that we weren't excited about. So, what WAS I excited about? Ice cream cake. I know I already blogged about our Maggie Moo's cake and cupcakes here, so here's the final product!



A smaller wedding cake for just the two of us...red velvet ice cream with a yellow cake base. Decorations were simple, just our monogram and vines from our invitations.

PS - I played keep-away with our wedding cake after we fed each other. Not the piece, the entire cake. Did that send a bad signal about how I don't like to share? Will I be labeled as "does not play well with others?" It's just with ice cream cake, I promise!!

For our guests? 5 flavors of ice cream cupcakes!







{ photos by Punam Bean }

Sidenote: A fun fact about Maggie Moo's? The company was co-founded by Juel Tillery and his wife! He is probably totally my cousin or something.

My friends have commented how amazed they are that Punam actually got photos of the cupcakes before they were devoured. They obviously didn't sit out all night so as soon as they were brought out, the DJ made an announcement that there were ice cream cupcakes. First, a nice, organized line formed to get some, but VERY shortly after, it was absolute MAYHEM. Ice cream cupcakes=success.

One of the best ideas ever!

Our Vintage Cars

I am so SO happy we got the transportation that we did. Wasn't easy to track these cars down, but with the help of a friend of the family we were majorly hooked up! A friend of Kyle's great-grandfather mentioned he had them and said he would love for us to use them on our wedding day. Not only was it awesome to be taken around in these (although it would have been more awesome with some air conditioning, not gonna lie...), the photos we got from them are better than I ever imagined they would be! The fact that in a way we were able to incorporate his great-grandfather in the day is just beyond amazing.

Punam spotted this cornfield en route from the church to the venue so we pulled over to take some shots.















{ all photos by Punam Bean }

Dreamy.

These are some of my favorite photos from the day. It was one of Kyle's only responsibilities in the planning process and he more than exceeded what I had envisioned! Anyone else's Mr. blow them away with one of their wedding responsibilities?

Reception Details

Sarah at Allium Designs was the only florist I met with who not only understood our "vision" for the wedding, but she encouraged our ideas. Other florists? "You want to use succulets? Like, cactuses??...::disgusted face::" "Hmm, I'm not sure I understand...your bridesmaids are wearing a different color than you want the flowers to be? Won't that not match?" "What do you mean 'tablescape'? You don't want just one big centerpiece in the middle of the table? We don't really do that..." etc, etc, etc...I was so relieved to meet her and am thrilled we left the florals in her hands!

The flowers were in a peach-pink-yellow palate and consisted mostly of peonies (!!she got them in July!!), garden roses, dahlias, ranunculus, and hydrangea. When I asked her if we could incorporate olive branches to make it feel more Spanish? Who cares that there are no olive trees even remotely close to Easton, she managed to get them for us! And, she kept me in check the entire time, working with me to stay within our budget.





The second photo shows our cookie favors from SomethingSweetsShoppe on Etsy. She put our monogram on different colored cookies.



We mixed lanterns, potted succulents, vintage bud vases, and smaller arrangements along rectangular tables to create a whole tablescape rather than one big centerpiece.





I created those 86 escort cards and I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of them. I love how they turned out and loved being able to use my own calligraphy for them! Trying to find excuses to do more things in calligraphy now. The escort cards and table numbers both had our Spanish tile pattern from our invitations on them.



{ all photos by Punam Bean }

Our guest book was made by my bridesmaid, Julie, and although it doesn't look like it in the photo above, we actually managed to get photos of all our guests at the wedding and had each person sign by their photo, just like a yearbook! It was a challenge to get all the photos, but it is one of my favorite mementos from the day!



{ this photo by the author }

Overall, I'm so happy with how the venue looked for our reception, although I can barely remember seeing any of it from that night! I'm glad that we have photos to show us what I missed while on cloud 9.

Did you really get to see what your venue looked like? Or were you in a total fog like I was?

Getting Ready

I woke up the morning of our wedding day at 6:30 to sunny skies and my mother playing "I'm Gettin' Married in the Mornin'" from My Fair Lady. It was a a beautiful day! After a shower and some juice the girls started showing up. Before I knew it, our hairdresser and makeup artist were already there and the preparations had begun! Our incredible florist, Sarah of Allium Design, dropped off the bouquets (3 bridesmaid, 1 flowergirl, and me!) at 8:30 before heading to setup the venue. I was floored at how beautiful they were! I think this was crying session #1 for my mom and step-mom?

{ all photos by Punam Bean }

I followed Sarah to our venue to drop some last minute things off (I had hoped to drop them off the day prior but our contact there never returned my phone call...?!?!?! What vendor doesn't call a bride back the day before her wedding?). The tables, place settings, linens, etc were to be set up the night before so that Sarah could just set up as soon as she got there at 9AM. Well...after waiting for the doors to finally be unlocked for us, this is what we walked in to:

After numerous phone calls to the girl we had been talking to and planning with for 14 months prior to our wedding in order to ask what the heck was going on, what do we learn? We learn that SHE IS ON VACATION AND DIDN'T TELL US.

Um, what? Even after she said the week before that she would be with us the entire time for our reception. I did my best though and restrained the bridezilla that had hatched inside of me. Besides, the people who I was with were not responsible for her actions, they were there to just figure out how to make it work. Sarah and her husband did an amazing job of figuring out how to keep me calm but work quickly as well. Anyway, I think you feel my frustration...let's just fast forward back to the fun stuff.

One of my bridesmaids was on tour with a drum & bugle corps all summer and flew from Denver to Philadelphia on a red eye the morning of the wedding. It was a little bit stressful for both of us (what if something happened with the flight??), but when I got back from the venue she had finally made it! Angel and Nicole (our hair and makeup artists) got to work with their magic and back at home things were running along quite smoothly. We finished up some last minute details, Julie and Caroline on the guest book and guest book sign (and Julie self-tannering her sock tan), while I finished an extra couple place cards. It was actually the first time we had all ever been together (not even for the shower, bachelorette party, or rehearsal) since everyone lives so far apart and I really enjoyed spending the morning with my favorite ladies.

Soon, Punam arrived and it was time for the finishing touches before getting dressed!

After makeup and hair were finished, I happened to look outside and see our transportation...a surprise from Kyle!

Not just one amazing car, but THREE vintage cars! A gift from a friend of Kyle's great-grandfather...even cooler.

The drama at the venue had pushed us all back a bit so the finishing touches were all kinda rushed and hectic...but totally fun and hilarious. Before I knew it, my bridesmaids were floating around in a flurry of blue getting me buttoned, zipped, primped, and ready to go!

Next up...I'll be a Mrs.!!

Welcome & Rehearsal Party

Most people thought I was crazy. Actually, I thought I was crazy at times too… but having a welcome party at our house instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner was one of the best ideas about the whole wedding weekend.

Before I get into the party itself, I want to quickly tell you about the week leading up to it. I’ve already blogged about the crafts and wedding-related tasks that filled our house the week of the wedding and how much a blessing it was having my sister and step-mom staying with us for a week before the big day. What I have not mentioned is the other visitors we had coming in and out of our house that week. Not family members, not friends, but instead? Contractors and workmen. Let me just put it this way:

Do NOT do major construction the week of the wedding unless you want to spend 50% of your time running back and forth between various home improvement stores, staying up until 7am painting, and installing toilet paper holders instead of being able to truly enjoy your manis and pedis rehearsal day.

The point of my story? It was absolute chaos leading up to our welcome party, making the fact that the party was a total success even more incredible! So, even though we had a lot of stress leading up to the day, here is what made our welcome party a success:

1. We hired help: I was hesitant at first since it would mean an extra expense, but I was *out of my mind* thinking I could play hostess to 80 people in our home and still be able to enjoy myself. My mom had suggested that we hire someone to be in charge of all the small stuff: setting up, clearing empty plates, refilling the food, taking out the trash, making sure fresh bottles of wine and beer were chilling, and all the things that I would have spent the entire evening doing if we hadn’t had our angel, Elvira. It made it possible for me to still enjoy getting a manicure with my step-mom and sister even though it made us about 15 minutes late to the party…I knew everything would be taken care of! I was actually a guest at our own party :)

2. Amazing but low-maintenance food: A friend of ours just graduated from the CIA. As our wedding present he did the food for the party. We wanted fancy barbecue food but it was important to us that most of it was grab-and-go: you could either eat with your hands or just a fork. The resulting menu? 4 different types of sliders (pineapple-mango, caramelized onion-blue cheese, plain, and barbecue I think?), lots of grilled veggies, bratwurst, a salad with a wonderful light vinaigrette, and other easy-to-devour goodies.

I hate to say it, but the food at our party was way better than the food at the reception.

3. Inviting everyone: Being able to spend time with everyone before the reception made the whole weekend so much more relaxed and enjoyable and gave us another opportunity to see our out of town friends and family.

Reunion with out of town friends!!

4. Inviting the neighbors: If you invite the neighbors who usually call the cops about EVERYTHING, they’ll be too busy downing sliders to notice that your great uncle is double parked in the street :)

5. Enough seating: Seems like a small and obvious detail, but since we had the party at our house, we had to make sure we had room enough to seat lots of people. We were lucky enough to have a family member who had access to a bunch of folding chairs and tables (Thanks Uncle Billy!)…can you imaging grandpa and grandma sitting on the ground? Yeah.

6. Help from family members and friends: buying food, drinks, setting up, cleaning up…it was all about delegating! The party would definitely not have been a success if everyone hadn’t pitched in to help!

{all photos by the author}

My mom and Me!

Did anyone else choose to do something aside from a traditional rehearsal dinner? How did it go? Would you do it the same way again?