Weddingbee bios

Mr. S planned the sweetest proposal for me, and I will never forget it!  We had been talking about getting engaged for a while, but we lived 2 hours apart as we had been for most of our relationship.  We were waiting to find a comfortable time when one of us could quit our job to move where the other was living.  We weren't going to get engaged until that happened.  Well, one day Mr. S decided he wanted to take me ring shopping.  We were still living apart and as much as I wanted to have a say in the ring I wasn't sure if going shopping would spoil the surprise.  It turned out to be such a lovely experience!  I could see the emotion on his face when we knew we had found the ring for me.  He didn't buy it right there of course, I wasn't expecting to get engaged for quite some time.  but the very next weekend (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend 2009) we had been doing pretty much nothing until Sunday morning, he said "Pack your bag, we're going somewhere tonight!"  I was suspicious but seeing as we still lived apart and didn't have any plans to live in the same city just yet, I thought this can't be it, can it?  He wouldn't tell me where we were going, but 3 hours later we arrived at a lovely little vineyard!  He had rented a room for us at their B&B, but no one else was staying there so we had the house to ourselves!  There was wine in the fridge and the chef was on his way over to cook us a steak dinner.  He must have been nervous lol, because within 30 minutes of getting there he took me over to a little garden that overlooked the vineyard fields and got down on one knee and proposed!  It was so sweet and so exciting!  We proceeded to immediately call everyone and of course update our Facebook status from our phones haha!  We spent the rest of the evening enjoying our dinner, sitting on the porch and sipping wine, had some champagne, and just enjoying each other's happiness and company :)  

Where he proposed:

Yay!  We're engaged!!

Dinner:

Taking a stroll around the vineyard:

Mr. S and I scheduled a (thankfully) beautiful fall day for our engagement session!  We started in the park by the river to take some casual shots with our beloved dog, and then we headed to the old airport for photos with Mr. S's plane!  He doesn't actually own it, but shares it with 5 other people.  He is a pilot hobbyist and it is one of the unique things about our life and relationship, so we had to feature it in the photos.  One of these pics ended up being the choice for our STD post cards!  More on that to come...

The dress I ended up choosing turned out to be very different from what I thought I would choose!  Well, in silhouette it was spot on but the fabric and detailing?  Not what i thought I'd go for.  My inspiration for my dress was something like this:

Airy, drapey, with lots of tulle or chiffon and pretty 3-D floral appliques or ruffles or something.  In fact, the dress on the right was my favorite of them all when I was researching.  An airy point d'esprit number from Ramona Keveza.  I tried it on at the same boutique where I ended up getting my dress but it was just out of budget :(  I was ok with that tho because once I had it on, it didn't feel like I expected it to.  And it's funny but the dress I got has the same silhouette, but in a silk taffeta!  I didn't think I'd go for a fabric like that but I loved how it had more body and offered a little bit of poof whereas the Ramona dress just hung straight down.  And there was no way I was wearing a crinoline, not on a hot mid-June day!  So what did a choose?  Meet Chenoa, by Augusta Jones:

For my bridesmaids I decided to choose a style from J.Crew.  Their wedding line is so freaking pretty with fantastic colors and styles that can truly be worn again and again.  I chose a coral pink strapless chiffon number that has cropped up in many weddings around the blog-o-sphere.  They looked so pretty!  Pink was never a color I ever thought I'd choose, I always loved cool soft blues and pretty turquoise.  But once I started wedding planning I found myself really drawn towards warmer, girlier palettes and loved the coral pink offered at J.Crew.  So here are my pretty ladies lined up in a row :)

Being a designer myself, and with a love for all things pretty and paper, I knew I'd be designing our Invitations myself.  I spent months on them, gathering inspiration from all my favorite blogs and changing the whole concept about 3 or 4 times lol.  In the end, I came up with something that was fun and pretty, a bit quirky, with a touch of classic too.  Here's the gorgeous finished product:

I always knew how I wanted to get ready on my wedding day: surrounded by my best friends and family, all hanging out having mimosas and breakfast in a hotel suite getting our hair and makeup done.  And that is exactly how it happened!  We had to start early in order to meet the boys at 1:00 to go take photos (and do our first look) before the ceremony.  It was such a fun morning full of gossip, laughter, and girl talk :)

 

Our ceremony was so lovely, personal, and filled with love and emotion.  I can't tell you how nervous I was before walking down that isle, I thought I'd freak out when I saw everyone looking at me!  But as soon as I walked through the door and saw all of our family and friends there, that feeling melted away.  My groom was waiting for me at the end of the isle and we had all of these people here to support us.  It was truly an amazing feeling :)  

Song Selections: (performed by our friends Heather and Katie)

Mother's Entrance: Forever, by Turin Brakes

Processional: Across the Universe by The Beatles

Bridal Processional: Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin

Recessional: Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

 

Now for the fun part: our reception!  MAN, what a party!  The ceremony was immediately followed by a cocktail hour in the Aaquarium exhibits, and then everyone headed back upstairs to the ballroom for dinner and dancing.  The ballroom looked gorgeous with the gold chiavari chairs, TONS of flowers and candles, and the view overlooking the river and downtown Cincinnati.  Our friend's band, Phiasco, played our reception and they had the dancefloor packed ALL. NIGHT. LONG.  They played another friend's wedding a year or two beforehand, and that was the other most-fun reception we had ever been to, so it was a no brainer to choose them.

 

 

Both my dances with my father and my husand were so special.  We chose songs that had a ton of meaning.  For our Father/Daughter dance, my dad and I chose to use the beatiful song Dream Operator by the Talking Heads.  My dad introduced me to this most awesome band when I was growing up, and this song is from one of our favorite albums, True Stories.  It's so gorgeous and while it doesn't have a specific father/daugter theme it still holds lots of meaning for us.  

For our First Dance, my husband suggested we dance to Something by The Beatles which I found to be very sweet.  It's all about a man's perspective towards the woman that he loves, how could I NOT love that??  It was really funny how everyone would cheer for us every time we hugged and kissed while dancing lol!

 

Our cake was so pretty and delicious!  We placed our order through Bonbonerie in Cincinnati, OH, who are known for their delicious cake and gorgeous decorating skills.  The toppers were the same personalized bird cake toppers seen around the web from Red Light Studio on Etsy.  We even had them make a little dog to represent our fur-baby, Little Jerry.  Our wedding favors were an equally sweet treat: a wide selection of sweets from our candy buffet!  This was a trend I could not pass up!  The candy buffet was a hit, with a line longer than the line for the bar!

 

Having our wedding captured on video is one of the best decisions we made throughout the entire planning process!  It was a last minute decision too.  I saw my friend's wedding video about 4 months before our wedding took place and immediately I KNEW I had to have one too lol!  Luckily we found the fabulous team at red Bicycle Media, a cinematography company out of Cleveland, who were free on our wedding date.  The highlights video can be seen on their blog, Click Here.

I love my girls so so much and the AMAZING bachelorette party they threw for me only gives me one more reason to love them even more.  They are all fun, beautiful, amazing ladies who I am SO lucky to have in my life.  We chose to have the party in Louisville KY for a few reasons:

1. All of my bridesmaids live spread out around the country, but a lot of my other friends live in KY.

2. My bridesmaids had never partied with me in KY which, if you haven't yet, is a great place to party!

3. The bars are open til 4am.  'nuff said.

They planned the most amazing weekend for me!  Some of us came down Friday night to start the weekend early but we kept it low-key with our traditional "Wine Night In", which my best friends and I always have whenever we take a girls trip.  

The main party started with a 1920's themed shower on Saturday afternoon, inspired by the hotel we stayed in which was built in the 20's.  We all got dressed up in flapper-esque dresses, they provided boas and pearls for everyone, and they turned the hotel suite into our very own Speakeasy lol!  There was a sign on the door stating that we were having a "church meeting" hahaha!  We played all sorts of fun games and my friends gifted me some gorgeous lingerie for the honeymoon, oo-la-la :)  There was a 2 hour break between the shower and dinner so people could run home and change into more casual bar clothes.  

We had the BEST time out at dinner and the bars that evening!  The girls had me wear a pink tank they made that said "Dirty Girl" in honor of the ridiculous top Mr. S's friends made him wear at his Bachelor party with the same message on it.  Dinner took place at the Bluegrass Brewing Co. across the street where our waiter was quite the good spirit dealing with 20 or so crazy girls.  He was a riot, and my cousin (who is one of the wildest chicks I know) got him to sing to me lol!  She wanted him to sing a song from the Little Mermaid (my fave movie growing up).  He sang "Part of Your World" and we all about died!  How did he know the words??  It was awesome.  Here I am with him and my special prop for the night, which I will explain in a minute lol...

We then went back to the hotel room to pre-game... or so I thought.  The girls surprised me with a stripper!!! AHHH!  Johnny Angel, what a name.  He came in dressed as, what else, a cop.  And at first I thought Why is that cop here?... hold on, why does he have a boom box?... NO!  it can't be!!  But it was!  He was so funny and my girls had WAY too much fun at my expense lol!  I set him on them too tho, so I got them back a little haha.  Look at the evil enjoyment on my 2 MOH's faces as they see my realization!!:

The girls also gave me the most essential prop of the night: a 3 ft blow up penis they named after Mr. S LOL!!!!!  I carried that thing around with me (it was actually a ring toss game HA) and it seriously made the night that much better.  I can't tell you how many people, guys and girls alike, loved that thing and had so much fun with it.  There were 2 types of guys we met: one who wouldn't touch it and one who would dance with it or try to put it in his mouth hahahahaha wow.  We got every guy we could to sign it, including a priest!  He would only sign it if we bought one of his roses for charity, which we gladly did.  We bar hopped til 4 am and could have gone til 6!  It was one of the most fun weekends of my life!  We danced on the bar and entered a beer chugging contest, danced on stage at the dueling piano's bar, and just wrecked havoc wherever we went!  I wish I could go back and re-live it :)