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

 

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