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Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses - The Pros and Cons

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses – The Pros and Cons

Deciding whether or not to have mismatched bridesmaid dresses doesn’t seem like a hard decision until you actually have to make it. I personally love the look! But I’m finding that within mismatched bridesmaid dresses are varying degrees of mismatchy-ness. Below is a helpful guide with some thoughts to consider on, 1) If you should have mismatched dresses, and 2) Different ways to create a…

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May Sixteenth.

Today is our One-Year Anniversary!

To celebrate, we spent our weekend at Cedar Point in Ohio. We’ve both grown up going to this park, absolutely love roller coasters, and since I now work on their advertising I can get us in for free. Seeing as we’re not rolling in the dough, this was PERFECT for us.

And on that note, working for this company is the single greatest job I can imagine. The only other client that would make me this happy to work on is Mountain Dew. I love working for a client I am legitimately and organically excited about. We’re calling this our Summer of Coasters, hinting towards how much we plan to go.

Anyway. We arrived at the park late Friday night and checked into our hotel. We decided to stay at the on-site resort, Hotel Breakers. The hotel and our room were beautiful! We were pleasantly surprised to see we’d been upgraded to a suite for our anniversary. Going back to how frugal we are, we NEVER get to experience a room like this. We took a lot of photos:

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The following morning we woke up bright and early to get to the park. Guests staying at the resort receive early admission (1-hr before park open), and since Cedar Point has a new coaster this year we wanted to make sure we took advantage of the small early crowd to get that in. Unfortunately the morning had horrible weather, so this ended up being our first ride for the day:

The Tiki Twirl. A classic spin-you-around ride. And to be honest, we giggled the entire time. We normally don’t ride these small rides at the park, and I don’t know how long it’s been since I rode something for the pure giggle-factor. It was a fun start to the day! We also rode Iron Dragon, which is a very small coaster that pales in comparison to all others. But as a starter coaster, we really enjoyed it!

Finally, we heard that one of the coasters was open and made a mad dash for the line. Maverick is SUCH a fun coaster that we both really love. We also received Fast Lane passes for the day, so once the ride was open we just kept going straight to the front without waiting. It was AMAZING! I’ve never splurged on Fast Passes in my life, and it might be tough to go back to waiting in line. We rode the Maverick three times in a row before we decided to check out if other coasters had opened up.

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As the wind seemed to ease up, a few coasters could be seen running test cars. We made an immediate trek over to our favorite ride in the entire world – the Millennium Force. I love this ride so so so much, and seeing the test car run made me so happy that we’d be able to ride it today. We were seriously worried for a moment there during the morning that we wasted our Fast Lane passes, since the weather really was just tremendously horrible.

So the Millennium ran test after test, and yet the line never opened up. Nearby we could see the track for the new coaster, Valravn, and others peeking up over the trees. After waiting for around 45 minutes in hopes that Millennium would open up, we saw real people riding Valravn and peaced out.

This was the moment we’d all been waiting for. The new coaster, breaking 10 world records, here in front of our eyes. And as luck would have it, the Fast Lane passes took us straight to the boarding platform. We were shaking from excitement and cold, antsy for the gates to open for us to take our seats. The moment we were strapped in and the car began to move, I squeezed Nick’s leg and started squealing like a little kid.

And then it happened. We reached the top of the first hill. This is the best part of Valravn, because the category of coaster it falls under is a “Dive” coaster. This means that the drop is straight down 90*, and the coaster hangs the car looking down the drop for 4 full seconds before releasing you to the track. IT WAS INSANE! Oh my goodness, I’ve never felt like that before. Staring straight down, 200+ ft. in the air, and then DROP.

We rode Valravn six times that day.

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The rest of the day was a pleasant surprise, as all the coasters we wanted to ride ended up opening despite the wind, cold, and occasional rain. We managed to hit:

Valravn x6 Maverick x3 Millennium Force x2 Gatekeeper x2 Magnum x2 Raptor Wicked Twister Iron Dragon Tiki Twirl (can’t forget Tiki Twirl!)

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During our down-time when rides were shut down, we found fun elsewhere throughout the park. We actually ended up spending a TON of time at the petting zoo! Normally I speed past the petting zoo, because why would I stop there when there are coasters to ride? I don’t think I’ll be skipping it ever again, because having a baby goat climb up on my lap was one of the best moments of the trip. All the babies. All the cute. Want to steal them.

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Aside from our amazing experiences at the park, one of the best benefits we found to having Fast Lane passes was not in the park itself. Rather, it was the time it saved us to do other things, or in our case nothing. We napped for TWO hours in the middle of the day! It was soooo nice, walking just a few short minutes to the hotel and crashing hard for a solid chunk of time. Even looking back at our honeymoon, when people ask us the best part we consistently say that it was napping every day. We love naps <3

Before leaving for home on Sunday, we managed to scratch off a few more things from our list.

First, Nick loves to try new craft beers so we stopped at the ale house in Frontier Town to try some of the Cedar Point brews. It was such a cute place, and Nick LOVED the Rougabrew. It’s the park’s lager. The other two choices were the Valravn and Frontier Trail, but the winner for Nick was Rougabrew all the way.

Next, we found a few Snoopy’s within the park to pose with:

Finally, before calling it quits, we grabbed some Funnel Fries and a Caricature:

This was without a doubt the best experience I’ve ever had at Cedar Point. It was cold, windy, and rainy, and I loved it. Nick and I are the perfect park-going duo. We have patience to wait in lines, love all the same rides, agree on break times, and never lose our excitement as the day goes on. I love this man, and I can’t wait for another year’s worth of adventures.

Happy First Anniversary To Us May Sixteenth. Today is our One-Year Anniversary! To celebrate, we spent our weekend at Cedar Point in Ohio.

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Having a choreographed first dance was something particularly important to me. Even though I’m not a professional dancer, dance is my ultimate passion. I didn’t want to make it anything super cheesy. I wanted something that felt a bit more intimate and understated, while still showing we had some skills as a couple on the dancefloor. Above all, I didn’t want Nick to look goofy like a lot of guys do when they have their dance choreographed.

To get exactly what we wanted, we choreographed it ourselves. We’ve taken many dance classes together and Nick is very good. I taught him some basics about reading music when we first started these classes, and let me tell you, that was the best idea ever. For guys learning who just don’t get 8-counts and downbeats, showing them what music looks like on paper made it more, well, black-and-white. Nick can now hear music and tell me if it’s 4/4 or 6/8, and understands what a measure is. Just thought I’d throw this out there for anyone struggling.

Anyway! We ended up choreographing our dance just the week leading up to the big day. It was definitely stressful, but since we were keeping the moves to a minimum it was completely manageable. We really did procrastinate though, I do NOT recommend that timeline for anyone. We ended up putting the finishing touches on the dance the night before, and we went through it over and over again to get a small amount of muscle memory going. We also made quick single-syllable names for each part so I could just whisper the move under my breath and Nick would know what was coming next.

The song we selected for our first dance was Rooftops, by LostProphets. This is certainly not a traditional wedding song, not even necessarily a love song. It’s about living life. And it was the first song Nick and I ever bonded over back when we were sixteen. I was driving him to his car one night after we’d been hanging out with my friends and when this song came on my mixtape (you read that right, my car was OLD), he was so excited to hear that someone else even knew the song at all. And this was at the peak of my love for the song, so we gushed about it for the entire duration. Ever since then, it has always been our song.

The hardest part about Rooftops as our first dance is that the song is rock/alternative, and its acoustic versions still don’t manage to be romanticized the way you want a first dance to be. Luckily for us, Nick knows an individual who happens to be an excellent guitarist with a voice that could summon animals to do his chores.

This man is Andy, of Andy And The Pandy’s. Check out that ‘stache, and check out their page.

When it was finally time to dance the dance, I first changed into my flat sneakers. Because hitting Nick’s arm with my forehead during our spins was not in my grand plan.

Andy began strumming, and we began swaying. This was our moment to gather our thoughts and get comfortable. We purposely didn’t choreograph any moves for when the song started. Plus, this made our build up to the chorus even better.

Then the chorus began, and Nick picked me up in a twirl. I was a princess in heaven with a unicorn and shooting stars, it was perfect.

Later when our videographer delivered our final reel, I was so impressed to see that he remembered this one thing I mentioned from our very first meeting: I wanted him to walk around us in a circle as we were spinning. I was impressed because he didn’t know what our dance was like, and it was serendipitous that he decided to do this during our first twirl. It’s certainly my favorite moment to watch from our first dance.

For the bridge of the song, we’d “choreographed” some freestyle into it. Nick spun me around, and it had a very Swing feel to it. And it was so much fun!

As we went into the last chorus, we decided to repeat all the lifts we’d done throughout the song. Back-to-back-to-back. Nick is a champ.

When the song finished, we just held each other close and stood there for a moment, kissing and laughing and hugging. I am in love with our first dance almost as much as I am in love with him.

Dancing On The Rooftops Having a choreographed first dance was something particularly important to me. Even though I'm not a professional dancer, dance is my ultimate passion.

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Now we had reached the point in the day where WE didn’t have to do anything! Just sit there and hear the wonderful words our Maid of Honor and Best Man had to say about us. I kicked off my shoes, had a full glass, and was ready to put on my party hat for the rest of the night.

My sister and Maid of Honor went first. We knew that MOH speeches are generally more sentimental, while BM speeches are generally more humorous, and made this decision on purpose to end our speeches with everyone ready to have fun.

Megan was eloquent, didn’t cry, and even quoted one of our childhood heroes: Lorelai Gilmore. It was wonderful. I know she got a little flustered in the middle there when her paper threatened to blow away but she did great, and I loved every second.

Next up was Larry, the Best Man. Larry has always been the funny man no matter what group he is with, so we had high hopes for some great laughs. And he delivered. Tore down the groom, complimented the bride, and some great advise about married life.

Hugs were passed all around!

Once the speeches were finished, Nick and I grabbed the mic for a second to thank everyone for attending, and more importantly, to announce that dinner was ready.

…To be continued…

  Speech! Speech! Now we had reached the point in the day where WE didn't have to do anything! Just sit there and hear the wonderful words our Maid of Honor and Best Man had to say about us.

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After our ceremony was finished, the first order of business was to actually sign our marriage license. We grabbed our Maid of Honor and Best Man and, slowly for photos, signed all three copies.

Before we headed out for some fun photos with our bridal party, we gathered the families for the formal shots:

My mom’s family

My step-dad’s family

Nick’s mom’s family

My dad’s family

Nick’s dad’s family

      Then it was time to hit the town! Our first stop was the park just outside. The open area with the fountain had a great view of our venue in the background, and our guests currently on the rooftop for our reception even had a view of us as well.

Next we headed to the tiger statue in front of Comerica Park (home to the Detroit Tigers). These photos are very “Detroit” and a must-have for any group of fun folks.

For our third stop I’d hoped we’d have time to get on Woodward in front of the Fox Theatre, but we were cutting it close. Instead, we decided to head back to the park for some Nick-and-I-only shots while our bridal party got a head start on lining up for our entrance. They turned out lovely.

For our Grand Entrance to the reception, we lined up in a stairwell that would allow us to walk through the crowd leading to the head table. The layout of our venue was a little difficult because it was highly segmented, and only a handful of tables would be able to see us for the night once we were seated. So we decided on the most complicated route in order to see everyone at the start of the night.

Since the route was a little twisty, our event coordinators worked out a great way for us to know when to start walking. Using headsets, one was standing with our DJ at the head table while the other was with us in the stairwell. This way, even though we couldn’t see when each couple reached their destination, we knew they were done and it was our turn.

We’d chosen the song “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore because, get it, the ceiling can’t hold us. We’re on a rooftop. No ceiling. Ha! I’m pretty sure I was the only one amused by this, but BOY was I amused!

We were excited to see that our friends had created a little tunnel for us to walk under once we reached the front. I scooted through there while all my best friends cheered over my head. It was super fun!

It was official – the party had arrived!

There was just one more thing to do before we sat down to begin speeches.

Eat. Cake.

We had decided on cake balls rather than a traditional cake. So serving them to one another was really simple and not messy! They were arranged in a tiered tower, and we had three flavors: Chocolate, vanilla, and lemon. Lemon was my favorite.

Finally, it was time to sit down, relax, and enjoy the speeches.

…To Be Continued…

Photo-palooza & Grand Entrance After our ceremony was finished, the first order of business was to actually sign our marriage license.

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Our Non-Traditional and Non-Religious Ceremony (with Script)

Our Non-Traditional and Non-Religious Ceremony (with Script)

As we formed a line in that auditorium, I could hear the music begin outside the doors. I was finally a little anxious, but most of all I just wanted to see Nick. I wanted to hear the words of our ceremony, hold Nick’s hands, and see him hold back tears of happiness. And mostly, just be standing in front of him and staring at him. The music filling the room outside the doors was perfect. Nick and…

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Nick’s morning on the day of our wedding, as for most Grooms, was a bit more relaxed than my own.

After he’d gotten dressed, Nick and his boys met up downtown for their photos and a little afternoon pre-gaming. The boys filled up their flasks, and set out for some shenanigans around the city.

They stopped at all the nearby landmarks, pretty much just having an amazing time all around:

And one idea in particular they were REALLY excited about. In a park filled with trees, they thought it would be the most hilarious thing ever for everyone to pretend to be peeing on a different tree at the same time. So they spread out, assumed the position, and giggled their hearts out:

These were the photos they were most excited to see from the day, and they ended up not being very impressed with this super-incredible-fantastic-idea once they were looking at them on a computer monitor. But that’s ok, at least it’s a good story.

After galavanting about the city, the guys wrapped it up with some beers on the main level of our venue. They kicked back and posted to Instagram, while Larry wrote/refined his Best Man speech. They are just the most silly group of guys, and I really am happy to be marrying in to this group of hooligans:

Once it was time to help set up, it was all hands on deck. They took care of our heavy lifting, bringing things up elevators and through crooked passageways. I really appreciate all the help they provided.

Once everything was set up, all they had to do was wait for my girls and I to arrive. They had a room offset from where our ceremony would be which was a glass conference room. From there you could also see the skylight into the rooftop section of our venue.

Finally, my girls and I arrived and it was Nick’s turn with our hired photographer. He took incredible photos of Nick with his family:

And countless silly photos with his guys:

They managed to wind down in time to line up, where they joined my girls and I in our room and Nick stayed behind. Once they stepped in, it all became so real and I couldn’t think about anything besides seeing Nick.

…To be continued…

A Groom’s Morning Nick’s morning on the day of our wedding, as for most Grooms, was a bit more relaxed than my own.

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The night before our wedding, Nick and I were still awake practicing our first dance one last time. We’d agreed that we didn’t want to see each other on our wedding day until the ceremony, so as midnight approached, Nick left to spend the night at his mom’s house. I stayed up far longer than I should have, but if I’d gone to bed I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway.

I woke up feeling completely alert yet completely tired as well. Luckily for me, the “tired” part of that faded away quickly and wouldn’t return until after the night was done. Also lucky for me, since our ceremony wasn’t starting until 5PM, I didn’t have to wake up as crazy-early as many brides do and managed to sleep until 9:00. After a small breakfast, I headed over to the salon at the corner to have my makeup done.

And let me tell you, it was perfect! I was worried because it would be my first time ever wearing fake lashes, and the second time having airbrush after a horrible first-time experience. I’d known from the start that I wanted to have my foundation airbrushed because my face is very splotchy and sweats easily around my hairline, but made sure to tell my makeup artist about this horrible first-time experience so that we could avoid that problem. She was wonderful, and took extra care to make sure I loved the way I looked. It wasn’t until the middle of my appointment that she even found out I was the bride, which was immediately followed by complimenting me for being so calm and collected. She was especially happy she’d nailed the airbrush after that. Having my makeup done at Bellisarios was the perfect start to my day – I left feeling relaxed, ready, and beautiful.

Which was much better than having my nails done a few days prior. Ooooooh boy I was NOT a happy camper during that. My mom, sister, and I went to the place we always go, yet I was sat down with the lady who was having major life issues at that time. Apparently, her and her husband (our favorite nail artist there, but more importantly they work together) were getting a divorce and it was going badly. My sister was sat down with him, and then I was with her. I showed her a picture of what I wanted and it did not turn out anything like the picture (see right). I even asked her to put a few more sparkles on to get the gradient look a little better, and she put, like, 5 more sparkles on. I was tearing up while sitting at the dryers afterward, and my wonderful sis noticed. I didn’t want to be “that” bride, so when she asked me if we should have them fix it I just sat there like a sad puppy and said no. She then made me take her seat and asked our favorite guy, Kevin, if he could please fix this. He took one look at the photo and was like, “Oh yeah! I’ll fix that no problem.” And he did. In like a minute. He was the miracle-worker for my nails, and I’m so happy that my sister did something about it.

Ok, back to the good stuff. I headed back to my parent’s where my bridesmaid Kayla was waiting for me. Kayla is a hair stylist, and she’d brought her friend Marissa to help do mine and other bridesmaid’s hair for the day. Both Kayla and Marissa are perfectionists when it comes to hair, taking their time and working each strand to make sure it’s doing exactly what it should. For me, I’m currently obsessed with the twist-across-the-hairline look, and asked them to make my hair look like Elsa’s (yes, the Frozen one) from her coronation.Kayla and I had already had a practice run during my wedding shower, so we knew she was comfortable with it and it’d look amazing. And of course, it did.

Then I had to make the call. Well actually, then I received the call about making the call. All week, we’d been keeping an obsessive eye on the weather. It hadn’t been looking too good at all. Every report was predicting rain, and as the week went on it grew to thunderstorms all day long. Nick and I discussed it every day. We’d decided that, when the call came, if the percent-chance was 50% or less, we were going to risk it and have everything align with our vision – outdoors. And we are incredibly happy to have made that decision! The only rain we saw that day was for a whole 10 minutes in the morning. You’d never guess from our photos that it was supposed be thunderbolts and lightning (very very frightening).

So now with my nails, makeup, and hair complete, it was photo time. I put on my bridal robe for some cute shots, and then finally my dress:

Followed by the slew of family photos and silliness with my girls:

And then our limo arrived! My mom had arranged a limo to drive us from the house to the venue since all of my bridesmaids had dates that would be driving them home. It was extremely kind of the company to let us rent the limo for such a short period of time, and we really appreciated it.

Between home and the venue, we were making a quick stop at the Illuminated Mural in Detroit for some shots of me and my girls. It was during this drive that the 10 minutes of rain I mentioned earlier happened. I was worrying that we wouldn’t be able to stop at the mural with this weather, and getting worried about my decision earlier to keep our reception outside, but the moment the rain stopped the sun came out shining and all was well.

When we pulled up to the mural, we were surprised to see another bride there. Turns out they were actually getting married in front of the mural in a few minutes! Luckily for us, they were kind enough to let us grab a few photos before leaving. So I didn’t get all the shots I wanted, but at this point I was really just happy to have had any at all.

And then finally, we arrived at the venue. As we pulled up, my Nana and Aunt were just arriving, along with Nick’s mom. We all got to walk in together, exchanging hugs and happiness. It was a nice little welcome. We made our way to the auditorium, which is where we’d be waiting until the ceremony actually started. Our event coordinators were so great – there was water, OJ, and Mt. Dew waiting in the room for us when we’d arrived. And straws! We set our things down and made ourselves comfy. We took this opportunity to get all of my one-on-one photos with each of my girls. Lots of silly faces were had:

Nick and I had agreed that we’d write each other little notes to read before I walked down the aisle. About half an hour beforehand, Nick’s letter showed up in my hands and everyone got quiet while I read it. He is the cutest. His letter was perfect. When I was done, of course all my girls wanted me to read it out loud. Problem was, I knew that if I’d read it out loud, I’d start crying and didn’t want to ruin my makeup. So my mom snatched it up and began. By the time she got to the end, all the criers of the group were identified. Kayla even shouted “Damn it, Nick!” as she worked to keep her makeup in place.

After everyone pulled themselves together, my little cousin (who was our ring bearer) got all shy as he came to sit next to me. Turns out he had a gift for me! He is just so stinking cute. I opened it and there was a peacock necklace he’d picked out. It was definitely me, this kid knows me so well. I squeezed him nice and tight to make sure he knew how much I appreciated it.

And then it was time to line up!

… To Be Continued …

It’s My Wedding Day! The Morning Prep, Pics, and Problems The night before our wedding, Nick and I were still awake practicing our first dance one last time.

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It was a Thursday at 4PM, and luckily for us, all but one of our bridal party managed to leave work or class early to meet up downtown for our rehearsal. While preparing, Nick and I had been very adamant with our bridal party that we’d have to arrive on time as we only had one hour with our venue due to another event later that night. Nick had especially driven this fact home, knowing that some of his buds were notorious for losing track of time. And you know what ended up happening?

WE were the ones who were late! And by 15 minutes too.

Nick, will never ever ever, live that one down.

So after we’d already cut out 15 minutes from our one-hour time frame, we managed to run through everything twice. Our event coordinators with the venue were absolutely wonderful, as our friends were rowdy and constantly needed to be shushed and corralled. My little cousins, who were our ring bearer and usher, were the best behaved of the entire group.

And of course, my girls had made me a beautiful veil and bouquet:

Overall, it was a really great rehearsal. I felt confident that everyone knew where they needed to be, where to stand, and when. I owe it all to our coordinators with The M@dison, Connie and Rachel:

These women are machines. They are organized, high-energy, and have the right amount of aggressiveness to make sure it all happens. You’ll see me singing their praises throughout my upcoming posts.

After our rehearsal was finished, we packed up the cars and headed to dinner. Nick’s mom had planned us a wonderful meal at Juliano’s not far from downtown. Once we arrived, everyone naturally fit into 4 tables: Nick’s friends, my friends, my cousins, and our parents/us. The rehearsal dinner was so much fun, as we hung out with all our best friends surrounded by food and drinks. As an added bonus, my friends from England had flown in the day prior and we dragged them to our dinner too! I met Jess back in 6th grade via… wait for it… Neopets. Seriouesly, Neopets! We’d started out as pen pals and never lost touch, especially as Myspace/Facebook/iMessage came around. So the evening had English accents dashed in to fill my heart with happiness.

And finally, the part we’d all been waiting for. Nick and I had been really excited to give everyone their gifts as thank-yous for being in our bridal party and helping with all things wedding. We’d spent a lot of time to make each item customized for each person and were quite happy with the results.

For my girls, I’d ordered everyone a large tote with gray & white geometric patterns. Their names were embroidered on the front in their favorite color, and if they were already married I’d instead had it monogrammed. They turned out really lovely, I kind of regretted not getting one for myself! They also each received a flask with their name on it and a small image. For my girls who have developed drunk personas over the years, these names were used instead and were the HIT of the gifts. Lauren was Lola, and Kayla was Drayla. We normally wouldn’t have gone the flask route, but our wedding was going to be a beer-and-wine only event so we were subtly encouraging our bridal party to have their own private stash haha.

For the guys, we’d ordered specialized cuff links for each one that best represented their interest/career/hobbies. Overall we had a firefighter crest, mortar and pestle, treble clef, bullet, lion head, motorcycle, golf, and D20 cuff links. They too received customized flasks, and everyone enjoyed passing their gifts around for all to see. For Nick we’d ordered caduceus cuff links (medical symbol), Autobots for our ring bearer, and Batman for our usher. The guys really loved these, and went straight to Instagram to post some fun shots:

Finally, it was time for our parents to open their gifts. My dad and step-dad each received “Father of the Bride” cufflinks, as well as photo frames they’d each later receive a print for after the wedding. The frames were actually a great find, having more of a manly feel. They were black with mirror panels and looked really sharp. Since we didn’t have wedding photos yet, I’d placed a stick-figure drawing in each.

For Nick’s mom, we’d bought a vase from Things Remembered with a customized message engraved down its front. She loved it! Nick’s mom is really great about having her dinner table updated with the season, and we’re hoping she’ll be able to find some use for it during the spring and summer.

And then the gift I’d been most excited for – my mom’s. I’d given her a massage certificate to make sure her gift had the same monetary value as Nick’s mom, but it was the inexpensive gift I wanted her to see. From Etsy, I’d ordered a handkerchief with the lyrics to “You Are My Sunshine” embroidered on it. She got all teary eyed, and my mission was accomplished. My mom is the reason I’ve made it to where I am today, and I wanted to bring it full circle from my childhood with this gift.

It was also part of a bigger plan for a sentimental explosion on the wedding day. I’d laid the groundwork the week prior on Mother’s Day when I’d had the lyrics printed onto a photo of us (using the alternative words she’d always used to make us giggle). What my mom didn’t know was that our mother-daughter dance on my wedding day would be sung acoustically by her friends, and “You Are My Sunshine” would be woven into the chorus. Bring your umbrellas ladies and gentlemen…

After the gifts were finished, everyone mingled for a short while before heading home. Nick and I were driving my English friends back downtown to their hotel first, and I royally embarrassed myself trying to get out of the parking lot. I hadn’t noticed earlier that there was one of those yellow cement parking blocks at the head of the space we’d parked in, and drove right over it thinking I could pull through the space. Luckily we were in an SUV, so I didn’t completely ruin our car. The next day when I was talking to one of my bridesmaids, I’d learned I wasn’t the only one to be fooled by the hidden block. Thank goodness!

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about where we purchased any of our bridal party gifts. I’m happy to send that info, along with any other questions you might have.

Rehearsal & Dinner It was a Thursday at 4PM, and luckily for us, all but one of our bridal party managed to leave work or class early to meet up downtown for our rehearsal.

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I’m so happy to be back! There is a lot to catch up on, but while I’m creating my post drafts and outlines I figured a collection of our wedding photos would be the best starting point. The day was absolutely perfect, with everything turning out as great as we planned or better, all the while being completely surrounded by love. I can’t wait to post all of our stories!

  Our Wedding Photos I'm so happy to be back! There is a lot to catch up on, but while I'm creating my post drafts and outlines I figured a collection of our wedding photos would be the best starting point.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNnMT3nrYfg)

Our wedding trailer! We are so excited to share this with the world, and so happy with how everything turned out.

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Nick and I will be having two separate showers – one with his family, and one with mine. I wrote a while back about our Pi Day Shower, and this is still happening! But first we had our shower with his family, and this one was a Tea Party.

We received the adorable invite to our shower in the mail, and it wasn’t until then that I even knew it was a Tea Party! I was so excited, I had not been to a Tea Party themed event yet.

A few days before the shower I decided that none of the dresses in my closet were right for the occasion, and I of course needed to go shopping. My ecstatic self made my way over to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile with a friend who also lived in the city to try things on. And as luck would have it, the best dress out of all I tried turned out to be only $15! Thank you Forever 21, you are the best

We made the long drive from Chicago to Detroit on Friday night, and Saturday morning we woke up to get ready for our shower! Funny story though – Nick forgot to pack his pants! We ended up being 10 minutes late to our own shower.

When we arrived, I was overcome with how darling everything turned out. Every place setting had its little dish with its little teacup and its cloth napkin and a mimosa. It was perfect! They had a sweetheart table set up for us, and a Bride-To-Be pin waiting for me. A table full of goodie bags was set up, each having a handmade and hand-decorated teacup or tea kettle cookie on the front. I found out then that Nick’s Aunt Janet often goes by Aunt Martha just because she is that good at all things ‘home.’

Nick’s Aunts, the hosts

  As everyone arrived, introductions were made, and we played one game. Although it wasn’t really a game so much as a get-to-know-one-another session. Each table’s centerpiece had two printed questions, and whoever at the table drew them had to ask, answer it themselves, and then Nick & I would answer. And by the powers of serendipity, the perfect questions fell on to the perfect people! Nick’s very animated cousin got to tell her most embarrassing story, my ice-cream fanatic sister got share her favorite flavor, and a travel-savvy cousin got to share her dream vacation.

Afterwards we all had brunch, as cooked fresh by Nick’s Aunts. And it was phenomenal! They had made three different kind of quiches, along with a variety of pastries and yogurt with granola & fruits. It was delicious and fit perfectly with the atmosphere. The quiche variety was certainly the hit at the buffet table, with many craving for the recipe to take home with them. Ah, it was just so good.

After brunch, Nick and I started opening our gifts. Silly me – I had never before mentioned to him the whole broken ribbon = one child tradition. I handed him the first gift with a ribbon and he opened it extremely carefully, and successfully. After a few of these, he got fed up and just tore through those ribbons! Boy broke three of them by the end of it all, and we still have one more shower to go.

We were overwhelmed with the generosity of our family, receiving many gifts that we had been most excited about or in dire need of. When it came time to write our Thank-Yous, I truly enjoyed it. Lucky me, I actually had been itching to do some hand-writing and powered through every word. When each was finished, I still hoped to write some more! Bring on the shopping lists and to-do lists.

Our Tea Party shower was such a great time with Nick’s family. Everything turned out beautifully and we were surrounded by wonderful company. Please enjoy a few more pics!

Our Moms <3

My crazy sisters and our usual pose

My bridesmaids

My family

Mimosas, Mmmmm

Goodie bags

Nick’s Mom

The two of us

Nick’s Sister

Nick with all the ladies

A Tea Party Wedding Shower Nick and I will be having two separate showers – one with his family, and one with mine.

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Nick and I have news. At first it was big, bad news. Now that we have come to terms with it, it is actually wonderful news.

We have a new venue.

Full disclosure, we did not switch venues because the new one is just that amazing. Unfortunately, Music Hall was just that horrendous. The horrendousness ran so deep, that I will have to dedicate a separate post to tell you about it. Be on the lookout! Unless you hate venting posts, in which case please ignore.

Our new venue really is that great! Our wedding will now be hosted at The Madison building, only a few blocks from Music Hall. For anyone who has been to Detroit, this is the rooftop up against the signature whale mural. The interior and rooftop of the building is designed with a modern edge – exposed brick and steel beams with geometric décor and minimalistic furniture. Lucky for us, this is exactly the look our wedding is going for.

I reached out to Connie Seibt, the Event Manager for The Madison, and she has been absolutely wonderful to work with. Connie is attentive and enthusiastic, and above all she really tries to make things work. It has been a breath of fresh air having Connie around.

We set up a site visit in November, only 6 months before our big day, to meet with her in person and see the space. We very much fell in love with it, and have a handful of pics to share:

So we have a new venue contract, were let out of our old one (they were more than happy to oblige), and a huge ball of stress has been lifted off my shoulders. For anyone else considering The Madison, here are a few of my own pros and cons about the venue:

Pros – Space fits perfectly with any modern or industrial themed wedding aesthetic – Rooftop view of the city is beautiful – Indoor plan means no need to arrange a poor-weather alternative yourself – Elevator service is available all the way up to the roof (this is the only rooftop we found with this feature), so family or friends who are limited by stairs can still attend the party – Can utilize outside vendors (except for alcohol and service) – Can arrange guest parking in a nearby garage – Connie is great =)

Cons – Space rental is by the hour, so for a wedding is quite pricey – Rooftop capacity is 150 people, even less inside (which is the poor-weather location) – Unless you want to also book a separate event by-the-hour, you can’t be guaranteed a rehearsal night – The layout of the rooftop is very segmented, so the majority of your guests won’t be able to see your head table – If you want to rent your own tables and chairs (and therefore move their furniture out of the way), you’ll need to pay to remove theirs – All vendors must have their own insurance, so if you’re working with any family or friends it could be harder for them

I know it looks like there are a lot of cons, but the pros are what make up our particular wedding and vision. It is definitely a niche venue, and on May 16th it will be ours. I cannot wait to marry Nick and party with everyone I love here! It’s going to be a spectacular night.

So how about you? Have any of your wedding planning disasters turned out to work for the better?

Our Unexpected Third Venue Meeting: The Madison Nick and I have news. At first it was big, bad news. Now that we have come to terms with it, it is actually wonderful news.