Wedding Wednesday: Pre-Ceremony Portraits

Happy Wedding Wednesday y'all! If you stopped by last week you saw some of our first look photos and if you didn't go check them out! Anyway, one of the main reasons we decided to do a first look was so that we could also get some pre-ceremony photos with our entire wedding party at the beautiful Lake Erie College spots I feel in love with a month before. Boy am I glad we did! I can't remember if I've mentioned it but on our October 17th wedding day in Cleveland, Ohio the morning started off sunny and bright like summertime (as you'll see in these first photos), then shifted to a breezy autumn day, when we were arriving at the church it began to rain like the springtime, and on the way to our reception it began to SNOW!!! No joke you guys...we experienced all four seasons on our wedding day and it was kind of magical. Now onto our pre-ceremony portraits all courtesy of  Arastasia Photography...

The entire wedding party!

...another one for good measure

this is one of my very favorites

All the guys, my friend Justin's face in this kills me lol

The 5 of us have a tradition taking this picture, I'll share the others another day

The next photos were taken inside the social parlor that served as our "rain location" but I loved it so much we did pictures in there anyway. I felt it was southern charm in a northern place. Looking back I wish we would taken a few more here because they turned out so wonderful. I have some bridal shots of just me that I will share in another post. 

My full bridal party with house party and bridesmaids

My house party

My bridesmaids

Brian and his groomsmen

I loved how these photos turned out and they eased my mind so much knowing that even if the weather took a turn for the worse (and it did) that we got some great shots before everyone's hair started to fall and look a hot mess. Well I'm signing off today so make sure to stop by the Wedding Wednesday and What's HaPinning for more great blog posts. Thanks for reading.

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Wedding Wednesday: First Looks

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by for Wedding Wednesday. To quote one of my new favorites {Erika Girardi}on Real Housewives..."I'm a riddle wrapped in an enigma." While that does describe "Erika Jayne" pretty well it also reflects my personal wedding style. I wanted to be traditional for the most part but in all reality I'm not traditional at all so I decided to embrace some new wedding trends such as a "first look."

In the months leading up to the wedding I had searched Pinterest a lot for photo ideas and after seeing a "first look" shot with the bridal party I knew I had to do that. Once my sister, Larissa and my friend, Erin helped me into my dress they joined the others outside for my first look with my bridal party, my mom, my mother-in-law, and our ring bearer, my little cousin William. It was such a fun moment to see the looks on everyone's faces. Smiles, applause, and tears were abundant. I think all brides should do a bridal party first look even if you aren't doing one with your groom, it's a great way to officially start your day.

Had to have a Heavyweights "Mr. Simms" moment.

All the boys arrived first and Brian was hidden from my sight so I got to have an informal "first look" with all my ushers {and the groomsmen} and it was so sweet. Our ushers were some of my closest guy friends and their reactions were amazing. They teared up and then quickly commented on how flawless my skin and hair look along with a few "YEW BETTA WORKKKK" shouts and snaps. After a wonderful confidence boost I made my way to see my groom.

I was very lucky that Brian was on board with a "first look" from the moment I mentioned it. He knows I tend to get anxious in elevated emotional situations so being able to see him before our wedding ceremony was the best way for me to CTFD. A month before our wedding we were in Cleveland getting our marriage license so one morning we decided to scope out photo spots for our wedding. Brian's alma mater, Lake Erie College, is such a beautiful campus so our search ended there because they had wonderful outdoor and indoor options for us to take pictures. We originally planned to have our "first look" in front of the school's fountain but when we got there the fountain was turned off. Our photographer quickly found a new spot for us to have it instead and I have to say I liked how things turned out.

I wondered if I'd regret having a "first look" and worried it would take away the magic of seeing Brian at the end of the aisle but after I have only good feelings about doing things this way. I was able to get all my pre-wedding nerves out and while I was walking down the aisle I could focus on looking at our guests instead of panicking. I remember seeing the looks on my family and friends' faces when they first saw me and I was completely overwhelmed with love.

The moment our friends blew up snapchat lol

Did you do a first look? Are you a bride who is planning too? Share away and also make sure to check out this Pinterest Linkup too. As always thanks for reading and I hope to see you back next week!

All photos courtesy of Arastasia Photography

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Wedding Wednesday: Getting Ready for Our Big Day!

I'm back! Hello and welcome to a long overdue Wedding Wednesday link up. First and foremost thank you to everyone for supporting me through the entire wedding planning and post wedding process. It's safe to say that I dropped off the blogging face of the planet for nearly three months but taking time away made me realize how much I love sharing my life with all of you. If you read my last post you know that I had some serious post wedding blues but I've worked through them with help of some amazing people and I ready to relive our wedding day with y'all.

If you haven't been following along with my wedding planning I encourage you to check out my other wedding posts on the wedding tab at the top of the page. I'll give everyone a quick refresher in the details of our day. We were married on October, 17th 2015...on "Sweetest Day" a holiday originating in Cleveland, Ohio where our nuptials took place. Our ceremony took place at Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Church where Brian's parents were married and our reception was held at the Legend Lake Golf Club.

All of our beautiful wedding photos have trickled in and now it's time for me to share a few of our favorites with you. If you didn't take a look at our sneak peek  from our photographer's blog you can see it HERE. Almost all the ones she posted were high on our favorites list so I'll do my best not to share those again since everyone has already seen them. We'll start off with our favorite "getting ready" pictures. All the photos you see are courtesy of the amazing Arastasia Photography based in Beaufort, South Carolina. I wrote a post about her that you can read HERE.   

It's so unfair how quickly guys can get ready and look so handsome. Brian, his dad, the groomsmen, and the ushers got ready at one of the groomsmen's, Jesse, parents' house. It probably took them all of ten minutes to get dressed and ready before cracking open the first breakfast beers but that's fine by me. We were lucky enough to have a second photographer come and help out Stasia so that she could focus on being with us girls. Our second photographer's name is Amber Patrick and she is the definition of a rockstar...literally she photographs rockstars and is way too cool for her own good. She took the guy's getting ready photos and some candid shots throughout the morning and at our ceremony. She's based in Cleveland, Ohio and you can check her out at her page. 

No wedding ring...yet

This shot made it onto Amber's business cards 

 The best of friends and brothers

The Schiffbauer men all together

While the guys got to sleep in us girls begin our morning bright and early. Myself and my four bridesmaids and our ring bearer, William, arrived at Brian's Aunt Sandy's house to start getting ready at 7:30AM. Two stylists worked on the bridesmaids' hair and makeup while my best bud, Meg Workman, worked on my mom and I. My house party girls arrived to start getting ready at 8:30AM and helped each other get ready as well as got some makeup help from my cousin Bronwyn who was getting our flowergirls, Kate and Kiersten, ready. Champagne {and Iron City Light Mango} was flowing and breakfast was being eaten. I think everyone can agree that the cherry on top of the morning was when the Chick-fil-a nugget tray was brought by the lovely Debo and Juliann. It was so much fun to have all the girls together getting ready, I wish I could do it every weekend. 

Meg and I have been preparing for this "dress up" for 24 years

This is my MIL, Laura's favorite picture of me ever...pin curls and all

Bronwyn working her magic on Kacie

Had to get a picture of us all in our tops

Erin straightening out layers of tulle

I forgot the pillowcase I bought to put over my head while putting my dress on so I had to improvise with a David's Bridal bag lol.

It's on!

Love my beautiful dress hanger from Stacy and Erika

Walking downstairs to get ready for mt first look with all the ladies and William

Thank you for stopping by Former Kennedy and I hope you come back next Wednesday to see our "first look" photos. In the coming weeks I'll be sharing more photos of our wedding day as well as featuring some of my favorite vendors, my "how-to's", and my top Etsy shops who have so graciously given products for a giveaway for my readers! As always thanks for reading!

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Wedding Wednesday: Something Blue

Hello and thanks for stopping by for Wedding Wednesday. I can't believe two weeks have passed since our wedding! It was such a fun day and even though we were thrown some insane weather curve balls it was still so wonderful. I debated on writing about this but I've always been honest on here throughout my wedding planning process so why not be honest about post-wedding happenings...to be completely real with you all, I'm having a case of the blues.

Our rental car pack to the brim after checking out of the hotel

Let me start of by saying this has NOTHING to do with marriage, it's about the wedding itself being over. Brian has been his usual supportive self with me and I LOVE being married to him. He makes me so incredibly happy. I, like many brides, spent practically all my free time on wedding planning and now that it's over I don't know what to do with myself. I've been lucky that the past two weeks have been incredibly busy at my full-time job as well as my part-time coaching job but I'm having the hardest time trying to figure out my "new normal."

I've never had more fun in a piece of clothing

The three days following our wedding were filled with so many tears. I can't count how many times I said "I want to get married everyday!" Maybe it's the fact that I loved putting together all the little details, maybe it was seeing all my hard work coming to life, or maybe it't the fact that having everyone I love most in the world all in one place celebrating love and knowing that it's probably the only time in my life that will happen. On October 17th there were no family feuds, friendship riffs, or hometown gossip...there was only love. I knew I would be sad when the wedding was over but I never expected to grieve an event, one solitary day so much. No one told me it would be this rough and it left me wondering am I the only person who ugly cried when she packed up her wedding dress and threw out flowers. Am I being selfish when the next day important people had already moved on to "the next best thing" going on? Sunday people were already messaging and asking if they could buy my decor, I was incredibly flattered, but for heaven's sake my fake eyelashes hadn't come off and people were chomping at the bit to try to get my stuff. Would you message someone right after their child was born and ask to buy the dress they wore to come home in? I know my wedding wasn't the center of everyone's lives but it was the center of mine for a while and it's hard to get over. I don't have hard feelings towards anyone, I'm just trying to figure out how to deal with these loco feelings. 

Am I pouting about throwing away my gorgeous flowers or that the weather on Sunday was completely clear?! LOL

I know I should be happy, and trust me I am, about what amazing of a wedding day we had and how special it was. Each day when I have a moment of time where I'm not working or actively doing something I get so anxious about seeing the rest of our photos and how our wedding video will turn out. What I hate to admit is how nervous I am to see them both because I don't how I'll respond. Will it be tears of joy or a Forgetting Sarah Marshall "if I put my clothes on it's over" situation where I'm in a funk for months about it. I guess at this point, in time, the only way to know is to wait and see.

Until then you can find me channeling all my energy into coaching my dance team and trying to be the best wife I can be to Brian. For my fellow past brides...did y'all feel this way to? How did you work through it? What advice do you have for me? Any suggestions are welcome and I truly appreciate them. I can't wait to share the details of our wedding, but only feel it's right to do so when I've worked through this and I hope everyone can understand that. So this is me being real with y'all and truly hoping that I'm not alone in this. As always thanks for reading and I promise to keep things more upbeat next time around.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday and What's Hap-Pinning?! so check them out :)

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