Weddingbee bios

 

Marrying Ryan is something I always knew that I wanted to do since I was a little girl. We met when we were only 13 years old and the first time I saw him I immediately felt the butterflies around him and was head over heels in a crush. We are 22 years old and have been crazy about each other for the last 8 years. We attended every dance possible together in school, spent hours talking on the phone throughout high school, then went to Michigan State University together. We're now in our senior year, just purchased our first home, and will be marrying a week after our graduation :) I feel so blessed to be marrying my childhood sweetheart, my first and only love (besides Jonathon Taylor Thomas of course hahah).

It was our sophomore year of college and we had decided to get away from the stress of school and go on a nice romantic Chicago getaway for New Years. We took the train there and were both so excited to be able to go on a real vacation together. We stayed at the beautiful Palmer House Hilton. Once we got to Chicago our plan was to relax for a little while then go out and celebrate the new year together. I wasn't sure where we were going to go - Ryan had planned the whole night and told me it was going to be a surprise. Since Ryan is usually not the best at surprising me with things (I usually convince him to tell me what is going on) I was so excited and a little nervous.

We got ready went downstairs to catch a cab. However, to my surprise waiting in front of the hotel for us was a white horse and carriage. At this point I was already tearing up just because I have always wanted to go on one of these things so I was so glad that he even remembered something like that. We got in the carriage and I was immediately taking pictures so that we could always remember being in the carriage (the picture above is one of those).

As we were riding down the busy Chicago streets it was so beautiful. It was snowing that night and was extremely cold, but luckily the carriage service had a cozy blanket that Ryan had purchased waiting for us inside. Along the way he was just talking about how happy he was to be there with me and I told him what a good job he had done surprising me thinking that that was my big surprise for the night. BUT... he said that he still had one more surprise left for me. Before I really had a chance to say anything he had pulled the box from his pocket, opened it up, told me that he loved me more than anything in the world and asked me if I would spend the rest of my life with him as his wife.

It is now kind of a blur because I was crying and so excited, but at some point he said that I said "YES!!" The ring was beautiful, it was a ring that I had seen before when I was with him and had commented on how gorgeous it was. When we stepped out of the carriage I realized that we were at the Navy Pier. Our driver took some pictures for us and then we headed off to dinner at Riva (so good!). The surprises didn't end there though! When we walked out of the restaurant and down the stairs in the pier my two best friends were waiting for us. They of course knew what was going to be happening and were there to celebrate. We all stayed at the pier to watch the fireworks and celebrate together.

And now... 2 years later I am about to become Mrs. Ryan Halas! :)

Me, Natalee, Emma & Cayla

Me & Emily

Me & Sis at my high school graduation

 

Everyone seemed to advise me against having a large wedding party, but when it came down to it we loved each one of the people we ended up asking too much to leave them out. So I say... who cares! It is your wedding and the worst that will happen is that it is slightly more tight up at the altar or that the reception site will need a bigger table lol

I ended up having my three best friends from high school, Emma, Natalee and Cayla. We were inseperable in school and have remained very close even though we are all in our separate places post-graduation. I also have three family members, my sister Aarika and my two cousins Jess and Melissa. Jess is actually standing as my maid of honor :) My college roommate, Emily, who has also come to be one of my best friends will also be standing up (you know you're best friends if you can stand to live in a single room dorm together for two years and not kill each other lol). Last but not least is my fiance's little cousin Kailyn who I absolutely LOVE, she is the sweetest little girl in the world. She will be a junior bridesmaid.

As for what they are wearing that was more challenging than I had imagined. At first I went the route of taking everyone out to dress shop and hopefully they could all find one they liked. Buuuuut that definitely didn't happen. There were way too many conflicting opinions, so I decided to just pick three dresses and let the girls choose from them. They are all Jim Hjelm, black, tea-length and chiffon fabric.

 

 

In the end it all worked out. Everyone liked the dress selection and I wanted the girls to be able to wear the dress after the wedding too, so I think the style and color was a good pick. The chiffon was also very figure flattering for everyone :)

I absolutely love my wedding dress! I don't have any pictures of myself in it yet (I was too scared that I would forget about it and Ryan would somehow come across them lol). I actually ended up finding this dress out of nowhere. I went to Demetrios Brides in Troy, MI (love that place!). I was trying on a bunch of different dresses but they just didn't have that vintagey look that I was going for, but the saleslady said she had the perfect dress for me to try. I loved it immediately! It is a mermaid which I had been afraid of before because people always say that it is hard to move in a mermaid dress, but I didn't find it challenging at all. It has the beautiful lace overlay that gives it a real antique quality that I love. I ended up getting the dress in ivory - I figured out that I didn't like the way stark white looked against my skin since it is darker toned. I start my fittings in a couple of weeks and can't wait to put this dress on again! Ryan is going to flip - I think he will love that it is form fitting with a flare at the bottom instead of it being a big princess dress.

Years ago when I started fantasizing about my wedding I always loved Jim Hjelm dresses. I have a 7 person bridal party so I should have known that dress shopping for seven girls wouldn't be as easy as I thought it would be lol. At first I was taking everyone out shopping to get a feel for what everyone liked, but a couple would end up liking a specific dress then I would bring a couple of the other girls to look at it and they would hate it. So after months of bridesmaid dress shopping that was going absolutely nowhere I decided to just take some advice that I had found on theknot.com. I picked three dresses that were all Jim Hjelm, black, chiffon, and tea-length. Then I just let the girls choose from these three. They were as close as I could really come to satisfying everyone and in the end they ended up being excellent picks because everyone loved the one they bought. The other priority was that I wanted the girls to be able to wear these dresses after the wedding since they were dishing out the cash for them - I think these definitely allow them to do that :)

I love, love these shoes! I love that it has that little something blue touch to it. They are 3 1/2 inch heeled ivory Grazia shoes. I think they have a very simple elegance to them... so excited! :)

Ooooooh I don't even know if it is possible to explain my love for peonies. They are so beautiful in every way. My favorite is when they are very open and large - although I do like when people have them more cupped as well. I am going with an all peony bouquet in a very soft pink color. I'm a pretty petite person though, so the florist recommended that since the flower is so large that I use only around 6 or 7 total. This is the photo I brought to my florist as the inspiration of color and fullness of the flower.

So I saw an episode of Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? years ago and have always been in love with a centerpiece that I saw. The couple even had the same colors that we do (tiffany blue & black), so I know from their pictures how nice the centerpiece will look with the color scheme.

I am so excited about these centerpieces. They are dark branches with crystal garland wrapped throughout. We are going to have the flower balls be of pale pink and white roses. I also absolutely love that there will be votives hanging from the branches as well. We will have about 17 tables in the room, so 7 of the centerpieces will be these tall ones scattered throughout the room.

The complimentary, smaller centerpiece that will be on the other 10 scattered tables will be like the next picture. We are using white hydrangea and roses. We aren't doing those small little ones that are surrounding though. It will just be the hydrangea and rose centerpiece in a cylinder rather than a square vase with swirled bear grass.

 

Of course there will be plenty of votives surrounding them all as well :)

 

I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am for my bridal shower! I don't know much of what is going on, but I do know that the colors are aqua and red. My wonderful maid of honor had someone design the invitations off of etsy.com and they turned out absolutely darling.

I just ordered a dress from Victoria's Secret for the shower that I'm really excited about:

I'm going to get some red high heels to go along with the color scheme of the party too. The only other thing I know is that my adorable bridesmaids are going to be dressed in vintage dresses from the 50s era and that I am going to be having a vintage hair style lol It will be fun, all of the girls have a love for vintage style so I know they'll pull it off very well. I love them for going the extra length to make the bridal shower fun and different from the norm.