Our Story

Oct 13, 2015
4 min read

On this thirteenth of October I am feeling a little nostalgic, as it is the third anniversary for my husband and I! Being surrounded by the details of other people's weddings it is hard sometimes to not just live in the details of the day. However, a wedding represents more than just a day, it is the beginning of an even more beautiful part of life-an everlasting marriage.

When we got engaged four years ago, I was just getting into planning and had style but I still think if I were to get married today, I am sure it would be different. I still love my wedding and below is a recap of the day and the decisions that went into every little detail. The intricate details are the foundation of my business today and you can see the first wedding they stemmed from!

James (the hubs) and I always say we did a lot of things unintentionally right. One thing I always recommend to couples is to introduce the wedding party prior to the rehearsal. There isnt much more awkward than "hello my name is....., here grab my arm and lets pretend we know each other". For our wedding we hosted a golf themed bar crawl that started with us announcing who each person was walking with and sending them off on to different "Holes" (Bars) with different "Pars" (Fun Challenges such as doing a keg stand). I know this might not be for everyone but I can confidently say our bridal party is all still friends and we have been asked to do a reunion for anniversary 5 ;)

For the rehearsal we handed this over to my father-in-law. Another awesome decision! It allowed

another person to have a role in our wedding and gave him ownership and investment in the weekend. The more people you can include in your wedding planning process, the better. Our only request was somewhere that videos could be shown. The reason for this....we let the party submit videos. We showed the videos at the rehearsal dinner and witnessed anything from "try-outs to be in our wedding" to "lip-dubs" and other creative masterpieces. Needless to say, we had a pretty creative crew. If you ever want to see the videos, let me know, I might be able to make it happen.

On to the big day! The ladies day started bright an early as we had a noon mass scheduled in James' family's home church, Shrine of the Little Flower. To go along with the vintage theme for the wedding, I hand-sewed birdbage veils for all the maids and went with blue tea-length dresses.

My dad unfortunately passed away when I was in college but I found a small way to have him there with my on the big day. I had the honor of having my brother being my bridesman and walking me down the aisle.

If you have family of friends you want to make sure are included in your wedding, the ceremony is the place to do it! Invest time in selecting the right readings or poems and ask those special people in your lives to perform them. We included our godparents in delivering the gifts and asked special people in our lives to do the readings. Our priest went to school with James' Dad and he made the mass so memorable and personal. He even allowed us to give communion!

Overall, the ceremony was perfect and there was nothing I would have changed.

Did I mention it rained all day? And you know what....no one cared! We had four hours to hop on and off the trolley and in most pictures, you can't even tell. Dont let a little rain spoil your day!

On to the best part, the reception! James and I come from four large Catholic families. To invite just family (first cousins only) and friends we ended up with 300 guests at our wedding. This really limited our options but we found a good fit in the Royalty House in Warren. Not my ideal venue but honestly, it met our needs. Any space can be transformed with the right decor! I spent countless hours hunting in resale shops finding milkglass vases, typewriters, spools and other intricate details to make the vintage decor come to life.

The cake was topped by my parents/grandparents cake topper and the cake table showcased all of our grandparents and parents on their wedding days.

My mom helped by cutting and sewing all of the runners on the tables (fabric bought at Joann's 40% off). I was lucky enough to have a family friend do all the floral using Costco and Sam's Club wholesale floral. We made all the chocolate covered popcorn for favors and I designed and printed all the paper goods for the wedding. Talk about the ultimate budget bride, it was me!

Nothing beats live music. Nothing. For our wedding a huge investment area was the band, Trilogy. Honestly, they made the night and the dance floor was packed until the bitter end.

I am sure everyone feels this way but honestly our wedding was the best day of my life. We have built a life in the last three years that is everything I could have hoped for and am lucky in life to be doing the one thing I want to do and the support of a husband to follow my dreams. All I ever want for my couples is to give them the day that they can look back on and it was everything they envisioned. James and I always said we were marrying each other's family and friends and I would say we married a pretty great crew.