The Details, Part 3

When I think of the details at our wedding, I always hear someone telling me how much they loved all the little touches of us that we had.  Honestly, that was one of my favorite things too.  I loved making this wedding ours. 

(we still have a stack of these from paper stories.)

we made sure our guests got both Chicago Cubs & Detroit Tigers cookies.

Just a note here...see those menus tucked in between the napkin?  Yeah, we totally didn't know that we were going to have those through the hotel until we saw them ourselves at our sweetheart table.  Good things I decided to not order some myself!

 and the Hard Rock provided us with some pretty cool decor too!

we'll discuss the floral centerpieces some other time. I'm proud of the HP book though!

I feel lucky that we were able to find such amazing people to help us pull all of this off.  It really was just a dream come true kind of day.  Including the music & dancing, which we'll talk about next time! :)

xoxo 

Cake for one YEAR!

Since our one YEAR anniversary is coming up in just a matter of DAYS, I thought that deserved some cake.  

How awesome is that cake topper that my husband designed & built?  It's made after the gazebo he built for his Eagle Scout project back in his hometown.  We visit it every chance we get.

Also, that is totally an owl on top.  A nod to Hedwig, of course.

We didn't get a bite of our cake beyond just cutting it but we will get our fill on our anniversary, I'm sure.  We didn't save the top but our baker is going to make us a new one.  He even offered to put words on it again if we wanted.  Lucky kids, don't you think?  In more ways than one.


Happy one year, maz!  It's been a fun, trying, memorable, stressful, wonderful, full of love year and I can't wait to see what lies ahead for us. <3

xoxo

Dinner & mingling

I was so ready for dinner, I'm not going to lie.  I really only had a couple bites of some corner bakery that Nicole picked up for me while I was getting ready and by that time, I was kind of starving.  Good thing there was some yummy steak coming my way. :)  

So while everyone was enjoying their dinner, we rushed through to take a few bites.  Since we didn't have a receiving line, we wanted to go to every table and say hey and that we hoped everyone was having fun.  Yeah...that took a lot longer than I had expected.  (And don't worry, our food didn't go to waste!  Our wonderful & nice personal waiter made sure our leftovers were wrapped up and sent to our room.)



We had the best intentions of heading around to everyone's table, greeting them all and then leaving in a timely fashion to the next table.  I should have known though...people just want to talk to you on your wedding day.  I wasn't ready for that, that's for sure.  I still saw myself as just me and everyone else saw me as a bride...go figure!  I'm definitely not the best conversationalist, nor am I good at getting out of conversations because I just don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.  Even though things were slow moving, we made it through absolutely everyone.  We got to see everyone, hug practically everyone, talk to everyone and I wouldn't trade that for anything.  Don't underestimate greeting everyone.  After all, they came there to support you and your groom!

I love that last picture.  My new husband is talking with his pals since childhood and I'm talking to one of his friends with my knee up on the chair as if I'm not wearing a wedding gown.

And while we were visiting with our guests, plates of cake and dessert trays went out to every table.  I'm glad my mom had the idea of dessert trays.  It added just a little something. 

I'm glad that we got some candid pictures as well.  It's like our photographer was in two places at once!

my cousin looks so cute!!

I'll leave you with one last one.  Just because I think it's kind of romantic.  :)

Until next time! 

xoxo

 

Speech!

Once we sat at our sweetheart table that was on a riser and spotlights on it (neither of those things were chosen by me, by the way), it was time for speeches to begin.  I'll be honest.  I was a little bit nervous.  There were only boys speaking!  How could they possibly get away with not saying anything completely embarrassing?  

First up, was the best man...

It was very sweet and I know that George knows how to make the people laugh.  I do remember him talking about how Richard took him in after he moved to America from India in the third grade.  Isn't it amazing to have friends that you've been friends with forever, literally?  I don't remember most of it, sadly but I do believe my groom has the paper that he is reading off of so we have that at least.  Someone's speech that we don't have is this guy's:

Yeah, that would be my brother.  His speech was also very nice but he opened with something I'll never forget.  It was one of my favorite parts of our entire wedding day.  "Now I know what they mean when they say, always a bridesmaid, never a bride."

That's my brother.  Pulling the best things out of nowhere.  He went on to say that I've always been more introverted, having him make phone calls to radio stations to hear my favorite songs but that once I let someone in, they're with me forever.  Now my brother and I don't usually get mushy about the brother and sister stuff but he did wear that pink tie for me, got his pants hemmed the day of the wedding because he thought they were too long, froze outside, stepped into this role when things got messy with the person who originated the maid of honor roll and always smiled about it.  I may have told my parents to take him back to the hospital because I wanted a sister but knowing what I know now, I'm glad they didn't.  (Don't tell him that though, he'll never let me live it down.)

After the bro of honor speech, the groomsgirl read a prayer of grace before we ate.  

Wait...did someone say something about food?  I get to eat?!  Bring it out, I'm starving!


Next time, I promise.


xoxo

Let's get this party started!

As everyone cleared out to make their way to the reception, we just couldn't believe how quickly time was moving.  How in the world was it time for the reception to start already?

So after everyone admired our cake and lovely set up (no, I'm not gonna be modest at all!) it was time for everyone to make their entrance!

It's time to cut the cake!  I was so excited!  What were we going to cut into??

I so don't remember what we cut into.  I know it was chocolate!

Wanna know something funny?  The piece of cake that was on my fork that I gave to my husband didn't go in his mouth.  It went on my dress.  I didn't know that until after I was sitting at our table.  I remember saying to him "oh, there's cake on my dress."  To which he responded that the piece of cake I fed him didn't make it to his mouth.  Oops...  I suppose if I had a stronger emotional attachment to my dress, I might have cared but I'm not certain I would have either way.  I just got married, there were tons of people surrounding us who loved us, I just ate cake...what more could you ask for?

Coming up, how my bro of honor pulled his speech out of the sky...

xoxo

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

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