The Details, Part 2

I know it's easy to get way too swept up in the details, especially ones that are "in" for the moment.  I think the trick is to find ones that work for your wedding and not go overboard.  People will tell you that no one notices everything, and that's so true.  Not everyone sees every single detail.  I don't know if most of our guests noticed much other than the books and signs at each of the tables.  That's just my little piece of advice...on with the prettiness! 

Just a few things to tie it together, you know?  We had pictures of us growing up scattered throughout the 2 rooms.  That amazing drink sign was made by the amazing baumbirdy.  We saw them at Indie Wed literally a few weeks before our wedding and they made these up for us.  As for those totally hip napkins, those were found in Walt Disney World in December 2010.  My friend Laura got us a package when she went in April 2011 so they might still be available!  I just thought it was an adorable tie to our love of Disney without being overboard.  After all, you did invite your friends & family to be your guests! :)

And as this is the last post before Christmas...  I hope your holiday is wonderful and full of happy memories, no matter what you celebrate! 

xoxo

Time for cocktails!

Cocktail hour was a weird experience for me.  I don't know why, I still can't explain it but we ended up hanging out by the elevators for at least the first 20 minutes (or maybe a little more).  Maybe I wasn't ready to admit this was all going by so quickly or maybe I felt bad for not having a receiving line, I don't know.  I do know though that there were a lot of pictures taken of us in front of a Steven Tyler outfit. 

We greeted a number of people as they came into cocktail hour.  One of my favorites was seeing my friend since the fourth grade get off the elevator and scream something that no one does anymore: "JENNY!"  After people were making their way to where we were standing from the party, I figured it was high time that we joined the party.   

As we made our way in, I saw my co-workers gathered together and they insisted we get in one photo all together.  That took a while but it was hilarious. 

While we began to make our way through both rooms, Nicole came up to us, asking us if we needed something.  Would you believe the only thing we drank at cocktail hour was water?  And I finally took off my 4 and a half inch heels, not knowing how much pain I was in until they came off.  Thank you Nicole for knowing those had to come off!!

I'll be the first to admit that because we didn't come in right when we got there, we didn't make it through the entire two rooms.  In fact, we were very lucky that we made it to the second room at all.  Then we got stopped to take a whole slew of pictures with different people in my family.  At this point, I was beginning to feel like a Disney character.  And I said so repeatedly.  Luckily, I think our photographer sensed that so after a few pictures were taken, he made himself disappear into the crowd so a line wouldn't develop.  I'm used to being the one behind the camera, not in front of it.  It was strange to me that just because I was wearing a white dress all of these people wanted pictures of me or with me.  I don't think I was having a 'zilla moment, I think I was just unprepared for how much attention we would be getting that day.  (I know, how is that possible?) 

all the way from Colorado!

Cocktail hour was quickly coming to a close.  I couldn't believe how fast time was moving.  Who hit the fast forward button that day?  You need a talking to!

Next time, we'll talk details.  I'll leave you with this:

Yummy!!! 

xoxo

The newlyweds take Chicago

After we dropped the freezing bridal party off at the Hard Rock, we headed over to the spot on the river where we spent some time the first time we met.  I'm sure you're thinking "what?! isn't it colder by the water you crazy person?"  The answer is yes, it is but it's also very worth it. 

 don't be afraid to be silly. and ask your new husband to fix your dress.

we didn't put this in our album because it's on everyone's walls. :)

silly kids.

We headed back to the hotel afterwards because we were getting close to cocktail hour.  Time flies when you're having your picture taken! :)  When we got to the hotel, I thrust my purse at someone and didn't see any lip gloss for the rest of the night.  It was kinda sad...I live for my lip gloss.  Before we went up stairs, we went back outside for a few shots in front of the hotel.  (When I say a few, I mean a lot.)

 romantical :)

So there we were, standing on Michigan Avenue with a few people walking past us.  Would it surprise you to hear that not one of them said "congratulations" to us?  Yep.  Most of them just gave us weird looks.  I guess we may have looked a little crazy posing for pictures outside in the cold. :)  It was so fun though.  I'm so grateful that we had this time together, just us.  It really was kind of relaxing.  It was also worth my hair looking like a mess afterwards. 

Oh, and this post's advice is don't be afraid to be silly.  There will come a point where you will think (or if you're me, say audibly) "people are still taking pictures of me?"  It was weird to have a camera in my face all day, but we'll get to that later...  Be silly.  Pictures of you and your new husband being yourselves will be some of your favorites, I promise. 

Next time, cocktail hour where we only drank water! :) 

xoxo

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Our first place to take pictures was Olive Park.  We got out of the limo to be met by some fierce lake effect winds.  If you're from Chicago, you're probably thinking I'm crazy.  (Kinda...it's a great spot! But it definitely messed my hair up for the rest of the evening.)

Before I share those with you though, I'd like to show you one amazing photo:

 yeah, if that is not the shot that wedding dreams are made of, I don't know what is.

Needless to say, we had to turn around because there was no way that we could get anything good at that location.  Had we tried to make it to the gate, everyone would have been soaked by gigantic waves. :(  

So we moved onto our next location, Cancer Survivor's Park.  While everyone froze along with us in the wind, we still got some great shots.  

Behold some of our parents favorite photos. 

After that, we figured that we made our bridal party freeze enough so we dropped them off at the hotel.  Really brides, if you can drop your party off along the way, you definitely should.  There's no reason to make them freeze (or sweat) for hours for some pictures.  There are only so many pictures that can fit on your wall and in your wedding album, I promise.

Next up, wedding photos where we spent some time the day we met. :)

xoxo

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

It's been awhile, I know.  I got sick for a couple of weeks and it's also National Novel Writing Month...I plan on being a winner again this year.  Alright, enough with the excuses.  On to the snow-I mean wedding-recap!

Since it was lightly snowing when we made our way to the church, I knew there was a good chance of it still snowing when we got out.  This is Chicago, after all.  I'm pretty stoked that it was, personally.  Don't get me wrong, it was cold but the pictures look great!  (And you'll notice that the junior bridesmaid is missing from these photos.  The cold was a bit of a shock for her so she sat in the limo for these.)

That's me holding up my dress.  While the following pictures were taken, Nicole was on the sidelines helping me bustle it up again.  (What would I have done without her?!)

love this one, don't you?

I think I jumped for joy when I saw this image.

So following pictures of the boys, Jake took a few of me.  I kinda love them.  Ok, I do love them.  I'm not ashamed to say it. 

snow in my hair :) 

cute with just a bit of a goofy air...yeah, that's me.

And with that, we made our way to the limo with the wedding party.  Tune in next time for the last batch of wedding party photos! :)

xoxo 

Breaking tradition

Immediately after we walked down the aisle, we were in a little corner of the church where people couldn't stop and see us.  Nope, we didn't get a send off.  Our church didn't allow that.  I was going to do ribbon wands just to break the rules but when it came down to it, I just didn't do it.  I'm ok that we didn't have it.  I knew people were happy for us.

And so the madness of pictures began.  We did the traditional portraits in the church.  While they weren't something that I needed personally, they turned out pretty well.  Don't get me wrong, I wanted pictures with my family but I don't like the traditional kind of thing.  I'm much more of a candid shot picture kind of girl.

While Richard was taking pictures either with his family or by himself, my mom said we should bustle my dress.  Good idea.  We tried to do so but my mom couldn't find the loop.  Nicole took a look and we discovered that the loop had mysteriously disappeared.  Thankfully, Nicole had a sewing kit on her so we were able to fix it!

After a few traditional pictures, we decided to get a little goofy & call out boy band poses...these are some of my favorites of the entire day.

punch! 

point!

dance break.

things get serious...or confusing.

Good thing we did all that warming up because this is what we were going out into immediately afterward...

xoxo