Weddingbee bios

A few months ago, we met w/ our photographer, Michael Rastall (rastallphoto.com) and had our engagement photo session. We started at my favorite spot along the lake - at that copse of trees near Fullerton. It's so pretty, I always use the beauty as a reason to stop and walk during my run. So we were definitely awkward at the beginning of the session. You can definitely tell how we became more comfortable as we continued w/ the photos. Michael is great to work with - I definitely recommend him to Chicago brides. Anyway, here are the photos...

See, a tad awkward here.

 

This is probably my favorite - even if it's not too artsy. I just like our smiles and the lighting.

 

 

Fun at a bus stop.

Only 12 days until the wedding now. I should really be doing a project and not uploading to my bio.

I ended up being a two dress bride. I bought a dress from DB 2 weeks after getting engaged - I was just too excited. I was starting to have second thoughts abt it when a friend's wife wore it for their wedding. That made up my mind and I eventually sold it (through oncewed). I didn't want to spend a lot of money on my new dress, but had fallen in love with Jim Hjelm dresses. Then Mrs Lab posted abt her plans to buy from ebay - the vendor bridal_dress_4_u and I jumped on board.

It was a great quality replica. Even though I submitted my measurements, it was too big, so it needed some alterations (I used Ms. Couture on Lincoln in Chi).

I couldn't have been more happy with the dress. I looooved wearing it.

(all images courtesy of Michael Rastall - www.rastallphoto.com)

 

(taken by a friend)

I bought 240 cream roses from Costco. I ordered them about 10 days before the wedding and picked them up on the Thursday. My mom and I trimmed all of the thorns/leaves on Thursday (took abt 1.5 hrs). On Friday, my BMs and I used floral tape to create 6 BM bouquets and my bridal bouquet (1.5 hrs with 4 of us doing it). On Saturday morning, one BM and I wrapped the bouquets with the ribbon that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics/Crafts (took abt 1 hr). We secured with pearl pins.

To make my bouquet different, I added lots of shiny beads and pearl pins. Just at random...I think it turned out ok.

This was really easy b/c we did it in steps. And it saved so much money!!

(above taken by Michael Rastall www.rastallphoto.com and below taken by friend)

So, I completely copied my programs from Mrs. Cloud, Tiramisu, Eggplant and Emerald. They all have nice posts about putting these things together. I simply knew that I wanted our programs look like like mini-books, to play up the library theme. (Our venue was the Newberry Library). I was just about to begin to hunt WB in earnest when Mrs. Cloud posted abt hers. I just decided to make mine vertical rather than horizontal.

The only thing was, I didn't have a Gocco and wasn't intending to buy one. So, I just walked over to my local Paper-Source (looove it) and started talking to a very helpful worker. She got me started w/ all of the necessary supplies including an embosser tool. I'm now obsessed with that thing. (Btw, I did not like the bone-folder, waste of money)After creating the guts of the program and starting to cut and assemble, I realized I wanted more than pretty stamps on the front. We had to have our names - embossed. So, I needed to create a custom stamp. I did a quick google search and found a website (rubberstamps.net). I had one in my hands 5 days later for only $15.

This was my most involved DIY and I loved them. They were pretty and practical.

Here one is with our wedding bands. (Also, I got the idea for my wedding band from Mrs. Sunbeam's post, I wanted diamonds on the side, not the top. Got it custom made - for more money than it would have cost for diamonds on all sides. Silly me, but I love it).

Our names and date were the custom stamp. I just used silver emobossing powder on it.

My cousins were our program attendants. He doesn't seem to be amused here. I bet our photographer said, "hold out the program" and this was the result. Ha.

 

Also, I just want to throw in the escort cards. I don't feel like creating another bio post for them. I also wanted to stick with the library theme, so I created card catalog escort cards. I formatted them on publisher to look just like a card catalog. I had initially wanted to write a customized summary for each person. But that was just too time intensive. Plus I didn't know what to write abt E's parent's friends. So, I just did one per table. For example - my mom's card said:

S*******, N******

 

Seated at Table 2, Nancy is Tanya’s cherished, perfect mother. Table 2 is a table full of family and fond memories of the past. Some of these cherished memories include Sunday dinners, Christmas, 4th of July celebrations, and weekends of babysitting.

 

New.Lib.         09272008         #1800

 

So, I had the same last two sentences for everyone at Table 2. Make sense? I loved these.

 

 

I also hole-punched them to make them look more like card catalog cards.

 

The Newberry had a spare catalog (another bride had done a similar thing and left it for them). I had been looking into buying an old catalog, but they were so expensive, like hundreds of $$s. Thus, I was very pleased to find that the Newberry had one I could use.

 

 

I had intended to half-open some of the drawers and have flowers sticking out. I forgot to bring them along, oh well. That's what happens when I try to DIY everything.

 

*photos by Michael Rastall (rastallphoto.com)

...from the freezer. I hope I can make it to our one year anniversary without giving in to the call of the saved cupcakes.

I was so excited the entire wedding day that I barely ate. One of the few bites that I had was our cupcakes.

(Photo taken by friend -- of my little cousin. He was overwhelmed with the sugar b/w cupcakes and the candy buffet).

 

On to the cupcake-eating (you know, since there wasn't a cake-cutting)

 

-the photos below are by Michael Rastall-

It's funny, I didn't realize it at the time, but I was more feeding myself (with both hands?!) then E was feeding me. He was too concentrated on being messy.

 

 

 

Really? Now, what did you do that for?

 

 

My thought process: let's kiss and make up

His thought process: I didn't lick her during the first kiss, it's totally ok to suck on her nose now!

 

Our wedding was on December 12, during the most wonderful time of the year - the holiday season. (I edited Christmas to holiday, trying to be all PC). It just so happens that my DH is Jewish, as was his entire half of the guests. So I didn't want to go Christmas-theme overboard and seem all shiksa-y. Thus, I made our colors were black and silver (not green -my childhood dream was green velvet bridesmaid dresses - LOL). But, I had to have something that was holiday. As soon as I started playing on WB, I fell in love w/ candy buffets. I knew that is where I would make my little holiday splash. Around the ET household, we do Chrismukkah - a fun super holiday (a la The OC). After I graduated from college and started buying ornaments for my own xmas tree, I went with a silver/blue theme. I knew that E and I were meant to be, so I wanted to do a Jewishy colored tree. (I now have a few Stars of David and Menorrah oranaments).

One day an idea was born - Chrismukkah Candy Buffet!!!! I envisioned a child's dream-land with candy and presents overflowing.

I didn't quite create the buffet of my juvenile self's dreams, but I came close. I thought it was awesome and all of the guests loved it.

The Christmas side

 

The Hanukkah side

 

It was the 2nd night of Hanukkah.

 

And the to-go baggies that I created w/ stickers from Papersource.

 

-all photos by Michael Rastall (rastallphoto.com)