Hey y'all! Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet. I'm linking up for Wedding Wednesday , What's Hap-Pinning, and Falling for Fall with some lovely ladies so check out their pages too! If you read my last post you saw that this past weekend was jam packed with wedding prep up in Cleveland. Last night during dinner Brian and I were talking about the wedding and he said, "I bet it's hard for you when people you're working with for the wedding tell you no. You worked at Disney for so long and was trained to say yes as much as possible so I bet you get a lot more mad about things then I see" and just like that today's post was born. I'm going to share how I got over the "no's" I've faced over the past year and do my best to keep it light for you and sprinkle in some more engagement pics by Arastasia Photography.
The Ceremony Crisis
As many of you know from my "Advice for the Catholic Bride" post I'm a new Catholic and didn't realize or understand all the requirements that a Catholic marriage requires. Before we decided to get married in a church we had picked and booked a beautiful location for the ceremony. We planned to get married at Morley Music Hall on the campus of Brian's alma mater, Lake Erie College. When I started to look for an officiant I reached out to a priest I remembered hearing about from Brian's family to see if he could marry us. I was thrilled when he said he could and quickly shocked when he said it had to be in his church. I asked if ANY priest would marry us outside of a Catholic church and he said nope, not really...unless you're on your getting married on your deathbed at the hospital the whole marriage in the church was pretty universal. I was so mad, not at Father Pete, but every stupid movie I had ever seen with a priest marrying people somewhere other than a church! I eventually got past that and we began our search for a church (haha) in Cleveland. Many caught my eye but when Brian proposed the idea of getting married in the church his parents were married in I thought it was so sweet. The church it not the gorgeous cathedral my newly Catholic self pictured but the meaning behind it is more beautiful than any building could be. When we visited it last weekend I had an overwhelming calm come over me and knew it really was the perfect place for us.
The Dress Debacle
I briefly touched on this a few posts ago but here's the long and short of it. Last November I went dress shopping with my mom, aunts, cousins, and bestie, Sarah when I was home for Thanksgiving. It was a fun experience and so special since mine is the first "big" wedding in my immediate family. After trying on a ton of dressesI my friend Sarah found one that everyone, including myself, loved. Everyone cheered, we took pictures, and my mom bought the dress. Flash forward to when we decided to get married in the we're getting married in, I was asked if I had my dress and when I emailed a photo I was told it needed to not be "so revealing" at the top. I worked with a seamstress to see what adding fabric would look like but ultimately the additional made it look terrible...I faced the fact that I had to get a new dress. I remember crying by myself and feeling so embarrassed to have to tell everyone {especially my mom} that took the time to go shopping with me that I wasn't going to be in "our" dress. I was afraid of the not so excited reactions from whatever new dress I picked and when that happened I will admit that my feelings were hurt but I knew being hurt wasn't going to get me anywhere. After looking through some new dresses and getting them approved through the church before trying them on I drove out to Kennesaw, GA to try on a few. The dress I liked most ended up being wonderful. Even though it was just me and the salesgirl I was so overwhelmed with excitement and knew this was the dress I was going to get married in. Obviously I'm not going to tell you what my new one looks like but the great thing is in 24 days you'll get to see it all over instagram! The lesson I learned here was some things are out of your control. You can either sob about it for days or have a quick ugly cry alone in your car and move on! I highly recommend the second option...saves you some major cash on mascara.
This One Takes the Cake...Literally
I'll be blunt, I'm not a fan of the event coordinator at our reception venue however she is the only thing I don't like about it. The rest of the staff (especially my future brother-in-law) is amazing and the chef is out of this world so that keeps me going. Among her frantic demeanor and general attitude the thing that bothers me the most is that she does exactly what you aren't supposed to do in her profession and that's not accommodating simple requests. Long story short we're having different flavors of cupcakes instead of a big cake and when I asked to have PUMPKIN SPICE and was told no I LOST IT! Like "basic white girl in her North Face/Uggs ensemble at Starbuck's when they run out of PSL" lost it! I could've been featured on Bridezillas...then The Soup. I guess the reason I was so upset is the fact that we're getting married in OCTOBER aka prime pumpkin season and considering I've seen pumpkin flavored water I could not handle being told she "couldn't get" pumpkin cupcakes. Once I CTFD I called a local bakery that Brian loves to get a quote on cupcakes and see if they could do pumpkin ones and the woman laughed when I asked and was like, "sweetheart it's October in Ohio...of course I can do pumpkin!" Just like that Gartman's Model Bakery tamed the pumpkin beast inside of me...at a lower price than the venue! I felt like a total boss when I called and cancelled the cupcake order at our reception venue. For y'all reading this that are coming to our wedding savor those damn pumpkin cupcakes and shout from the mountain tops how divine they are (preferably in front of said event lady) and I'll love you forever!
As I wrote these I realize how ridiculous it may sound to you panicking over things like this but I blame Pinterest for making me think the PERFECT wedding is achievable. I know things will go wrong and I know there's a chance someone will comment on how our church isn't pretty or that they don't like my dress. But heaven help the person who bitches about the pumpkin cupcakes because I will walk down to the pro shop, grab a 9 iron, and go Elin Woods on your @$$!
As many of you know from my "Advice for the Catholic Bride" post I'm a new Catholic and didn't realize or understand all the requirements that a Catholic marriage requires. Before we decided to get married in a church we had picked and booked a beautiful location for the ceremony. We planned to get married at Morley Music Hall on the campus of Brian's alma mater, Lake Erie College. When I started to look for an officiant I reached out to a priest I remembered hearing about from Brian's family to see if he could marry us. I was thrilled when he said he could and quickly shocked when he said it had to be in his church. I asked if ANY priest would marry us outside of a Catholic church and he said nope, not really...unless you're on your getting married on your deathbed at the hospital the whole marriage in the church was pretty universal. I was so mad, not at Father Pete, but every stupid movie I had ever seen with a priest marrying people somewhere other than a church! I eventually got past that and we began our search for a church (haha) in Cleveland. Many caught my eye but when Brian proposed the idea of getting married in the church his parents were married in I thought it was so sweet. The church it not the gorgeous cathedral my newly Catholic self pictured but the meaning behind it is more beautiful than any building could be. When we visited it last weekend I had an overwhelming calm come over me and knew it really was the perfect place for us.
I briefly touched on this a few posts ago but here's the long and short of it. Last November I went dress shopping with my mom, aunts, cousins, and bestie, Sarah when I was home for Thanksgiving. It was a fun experience and so special since mine is the first "big" wedding in my immediate family. After trying on a ton of dresses
This One Takes the Cake...Literally
I'll be blunt, I'm not a fan of the event coordinator at our reception venue however she is the only thing I don't like about it. The rest of the staff (especially my future brother-in-law) is amazing and the chef is out of this world so that keeps me going. Among her frantic demeanor and general attitude the thing that bothers me the most is that she does exactly what you aren't supposed to do in her profession and that's not accommodating simple requests. Long story short we're having different flavors of cupcakes instead of a big cake and when I asked to have PUMPKIN SPICE and was told no I LOST IT! Like "basic white girl in her North Face/Uggs ensemble at Starbuck's when they run out of PSL" lost it! I could've been featured on Bridezillas...then The Soup. I guess the reason I was so upset is the fact that we're getting married in OCTOBER aka prime pumpkin season and considering I've seen pumpkin flavored water I could not handle being told she "couldn't get" pumpkin cupcakes. Once I CTFD I called a local bakery that Brian loves to get a quote on cupcakes and see if they could do pumpkin ones and the woman laughed when I asked and was like, "sweetheart it's October in Ohio...of course I can do pumpkin!" Just like that Gartman's Model Bakery tamed the pumpkin beast inside of me...at a lower price than the venue! I felt like a total boss when I called and cancelled the cupcake order at our reception venue. For y'all reading this that are coming to our wedding savor those damn pumpkin cupcakes and shout from the mountain tops how divine they are (preferably in front of said event lady) and I'll love you forever!
As I wrote these I realize how ridiculous it may sound to you panicking over things like this but I blame Pinterest for making me think the PERFECT wedding is achievable. I know things will go wrong and I know there's a chance someone will comment on how our church isn't pretty or that they don't like my dress. But heaven help the person who bitches about the pumpkin cupcakes because I will walk down to the pro shop, grab a 9 iron, and go Elin Woods on your @$$!
***Sorry for the cursing and please realize I'm very sarcastic***
ALSO!!! My childhood bestie, Lauren {Statler} McKillop launched her own event company REN+OTT EVENTS and my blog is featured on her website. Do yourself a huge favor and check her out, she's amazingly creative and David Tutera better watch out!
How did you handle the no's? What changes did you have to make to your wedding because of them? Will you still read my blog after this post? I sure hope so! LOL
How did you handle the no's? What changes did you have to make to your wedding because of them? Will you still read my blog after this post? I sure hope so! LOL
