Wedding Wednesday: Our Ceremony

Hi and welcome to Wedding Wednesday! If you followed our wedding planning process you know that we had a traditional Catholic wedding mass. If you haven't read my post Advice for the Catholic Bride you should really check it out even if you aren't Catholic because I had so many people reach out and say how much they learned about Catholic weddings from the post. To be honest it's one of my favorites because I interviewed three of my lovely sorority sisters for it. We also made the decision to have an unplugged ceremony (you can read why HERE) which I know our photographer Arastasia loved, enjoy the photos she captured so wonderfully. 

The back of our wedding programs that let our guests know it was a device free service

Now on to our wedding mass. It was held at Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Maple Heights, Ohio and is the same church that Brian's parents were married. Our processional music started with "The Ash Grove" which was the school hymn of Brian's alma mater, Lake Erie College. One of the cutest moments was when our flower girls got to the end of the aisle they took their remaining petals and threw them in the air in true Lebron Cleveland fashion. I walked in with my mom to "The Shaker Hymn" or as us Mountaineers better know it as "Simple Gifts." I have adored this song since my childhood because my grandma used to play it for me and then when I got to college WVU's marching band plays it in early pregame performance. It usually strikes a chord with WVU alumni when we hear it so when it started to play I saw a couple people's faces light up and it was such a special memory. 

I will never forget this walk as long as I live. It is the most incredible feeling seeing everyone you love most all in one place celebrating love. The looks and moments shared with our guests (especially my friends and family) were nothing short of magic. 

Father Lou was so wonderful

Our first reading was by my friend, Erin and the second reading was by my friend, Stacy. Stacy got married six months before we did and I read the same reading at her wedding mass, it's a passage near and dear to our hearts from our sorority days. 

Look at the beautiful wedding party!

Praying to Saint Mary for children...she answers quickly lol

And you have it folks! Thank you to all of our guests for unplugging for our long wedding mass and for giving us some of the most amazing memories. Until next time!

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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: 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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