Weddingbee bios

I should preface this story by saying that my fiance hates the winter. Which is quite ironic, because we live in Wisconsin – also known as the land of snow from November to March (if we’re lucky). I guess I can’t blame him, though, because he works outside – so he has to experience that harsh weather even more than most of us. His solution to this problem was to plan a vacation for us during my winter break. His destination of choice? Cancun.

Once we landed and took our bags to our room, we headed straight to the beach for some sun and some surf. (We don’t actually surf. We just played in the waves.) After a few hours the sun was starting to set and we started to get hungry, so we headed up to our room to change for dinner. We still had a little time before dinner officially began, so we headed back down to the beach for a little walk and some fruity drinks. Have I mentioned how much Ilove Mexico?

We found a little table on the beach and proceeded to drink our fruity drinks. I must have been uncharacteristically quiet, trying to take in all of the surroundings and just how lucky I was to be here with such an awesome guy as Shaun. I say “must have,” because right then, Shaun said something that I will never forget. Word for word?

"Don’t be sad. I’m going to give you a ring!"

Seriously. And the next thing I knew he was kneeling on the ground next to the chair that I was sitting in, asking me if I would be his wife. I don’t know exactly how I answered, but it was definitely in the affirmative.  And then we took some pictures.

That all went down on January 6, 2011...almost a year ago now! The ring itself is white gold with 16 diamonds in total. I believe the center stone is 1/3 karat and the TKW is just under 3/4 karat. My finger is a size 8-ish. It's technically a wedding set, but my fiance didn't like the look of it without the band (which adds the 6 stones right around the center stone), so he got them soldered together right away. I won't wear a wedding band. I got one ring at the time of engagement, and he'll get one ring on the day of the wedding...so we're even. :)

I love my ring almost as much as I love my fiance, and I still catch myself looking at it all the time! 

By a stroke of extreme luck, we got our engagement pictures taken a little over a month after my fiance proposed. We hadn't planned on getting them taken so soon, but I guess it was in the cards. See, I'm kind of a social media junkie and a Chicago photographer publicized on Twitter that she was giving away a snow day engagement session...for free! We entered the contest and, with the help (and votes) of our family and friends, we ended up winning! All of this happened over the course of 24 hours when the city I live in was literally shut down because of the snow, so it was a pretty exciting time.

That weekend, when it was finally safe to travel again, we made the 2 hour trek to Chicago and met with Cristina G at Lincoln Park for our photos. I could not be more happy with them, and Cristina was amazing! I would have booked her right then and there for our wedding, if we could have afforded her. But now we have these amazing photos and I love the contrast between our winter engagement photos and our upcoming summer wedding. Midwestern seasons at their finest. :)

Here are a few of my favorite pics!

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To anyone in the Chicago area, I would highly recommend Cristina G Photography! My fiance isn't super comfortable in front of the camera, but I think these all turned out great! 

After waiting for many months, my dress is finally in and I got to see it/try it on for the first time! I'm so in love with the silhouette and all of the details, I could not be happier with the dress we finally chose. 

The details: the dress is Davinci #8307 in ivory. I believe it's a size 18, and I usually wear a street size 16. My dress costed $700 brand new, including alterations. It may not be a name brand or top-quality, but I love it and it was a great deal! 

Sorry the lighting isn't great. It's a local boutique and I'm from a pretty small town, but the service is great and I love the owner. I'm so happy with my dress!

My "side" of the bridal party consists of my MOH, 3 bridesmaids and 2 personal attendants who won't be wearing the BM dress but still will play an integral role on our wedding day. I wanted to get each of these people gifts that reflected their roles in the wedding, so here's what I came up with: 

1. For the personal attendants:

These cute personalized coin-pearl charm necklaces came from Etsy seller JCGemsJewelry. Although they're a bit small in real life, I've grown to like how dainty they look and I think the girls will like them - plus the neutral colors score points for re-wearability! The other down side is that I'm going to have to get longer chains for a lot of the girls, because the 17" they came with are just going to be too short. 

2. For the Bridesmaids: 

In addition to getting the same necklaces as the personal attendants, each bridesmaid is also going to get her own custom "name" hanger. Early in the planning process I could not resist the "mrs." wire wrapped hangers, so I got one for myself. I figured that this is a practical, but pretty gift that my 4 girls would enjoy...so I got them each one too! I can't wait for a shot of all of our dresses hanging together on the big day. :)

3. For the Maid-of-honor: 

Finally, I wanted to get my sister something special for being my maid-of-honor, in addition to the 2 gifts above. I haven't purchased it yet, but I'm thinking something like a pretty rhinestone clip to wear in her hair on the big day. Something sort of like this:

(From Etsy seller portobello)

But I'm not sure if that's exactly what I'm looking for. I was hoping for something more like a flower, but everything I've found is either too expensive or too plain looking. Any ideas?