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!

Read More

Weekend Update: Charleston...made in Carolina.

This weekend I spent in the beyond beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina with my amazing childhood friends Meg and Ross. The last time I was there I was about 8 years old so it was nice to experience it as an adult this time around. Here are a few highlights from my trip! After dropping our dogs off at The Wag Factory we went downtown to a little Greek place called Saffron where we had wine, hummus, and the most amazing Greek dessert torte that wasn't photographed because we devoured it in about 45 seconds. The next morning my fiance Brian and I decided to walk to through through the city to a little breakfast place we saw had great reviews on Yelp called Sunrise Bistro Xpress, it did not disappoint! Here is my breakfast burrito that was cut to look like sushi and Brian's breakfast pizza that had sausage gravy and an omelette on top, delicious!

I'll be honest a morning stroll seemed like a lovely idea at 9AM when we left the house but the walk back was rough because it was already around 97 degrees by 10AM! However in between my whining that it was too hot I was able to get some lovely pictures... This is Cannon Park. I was told that there used to be a museum here but a fire destroyed most of the museum and instead of rebuilding it they salvaged the front entrance and turned the property into a park, this has Leslie Knope written all over it to me lol!

To my wonderful Bravo obsessed surprise my friends live on the same street, and only about 4 houses down, as Patricia Altschul, the scene stealer of one of my favorite shows Southern Charm. I tried my best to play paparazzi and get some shots of her beautiful home.

Once we got back we quickly changed into our swimsuits and hopped in the car to head to Isle of Palms for a birthday party for my friends' friend and a day at the beach. The beach house we were at was incredible! It had the perfect size pool and even had a full size sand volleyball court. I left my phone in the car so I didn't have to worry about it getting wet at the pool or beach so here's a picture of us crossing the Ravenel Bridge :)

That night we ate dinner at The Tattooed Moose and I had the Thanksgiving Sammy, if you're in Charleston go there and thank me later. Sunday before heading back to Atlanta we went to my friend Meg's salon so that she could do a quick wedding makeup trial for me. It was my first time with airbrush makeup and wowza! It's the only way to go girls! I'll spare you the "before" shot and just let you see the finished product, that stayed perfectly placed for over 10 hours when I washed it off. It made me want to test the 16 hour guarantee airbrush makeup advertises.

So there it is, my quick trip to Charleston. We loved it and can't wait to make another trip up...when it cools down a little!

Read More