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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My Little {solo} Weekend

It's Monday already?! The only silver lining I have for the weekend coming to a close is Brian getting back from the golf tournament he was coaching all weekend. Today I'm linking up with Biana to share my weekend happenings with you.

Since Brian was going to be away for the weekend working we had decided to have a date night on Friday but to my surprise on Thursday afternoon at work I was given free tickets, parking, and meal credit to go to a Braves game so poof! Easy and cheapest date night ever!

I couldn't believe how good our seats were. We were right beside the Nationals dugout and a few feet from home plate. I kept telling Brian I could go all Fever Pitch and run right on to the field. If you follow baseball at all you know that the Braves have had a terrible season but they actually won this game...now that I think about it every game I've been to since we moved here last year they have won. I should probably get some free season tickets.

Friday I went and got my hair colored back to my natural color...black. I've had highlights for the past year but decided to go back to black *cue one of my fav Amy Winehouse jams* for the wedding. When I got home from the salon I got the sweetest wedding gift in the mail from my "Disney family", The Brankamps. You can read a little more about them HERE but long story short they are a family I met while I was working as an intern at Disney's Contemporary Resort five years ago and we've stayed in touch. They know my favorite color is Lilly Pulitzer so they treated me to a new dress for our honeymoon!

Saturday was spent in bed with the pups watching endless episodes of Law&Order: SVU. Sunday I went to the grocery store so that I could have something other than cereal for dinner and ended up getting some flowers fillers to play around with for rehearsal dinner arrangements.

 Here's what I decided to go with for the rehearsal dinner. Clean and simple with a touch of wheat barley (thanks for the suggestion Lauren at ren + ott events) since our rehearsal dinner is at a brewery. 

Here's what I did with the leftovers. A little arrangement for the breakfast nook :)

I hope you all have a great week and make sure to come back for Wedding Wednesday in a few days! Thanks for stopping by!

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Weekending in the CLE

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Mine was spent in Cleveland, Ohio jam packed with wedding tasks and visiting with friends. I'm linking up with Biana, here's my recap in photos...

If you read my post on Friday you saw that we got our marriage license! We also had our last meeting at the church with the priest who is marrying us. His name is Father Lou and he's just the best! Brian's parents met us at Saint Martin's and it was so special to have them there.

Only a few more weeks until we're standing here again!

On our way home we stopped by Gartman's Bakery to place our cupcake order. It was such a darling little shop and everything looked amazing, they even had pepperoni rolls! I loved these Ohio cookies, aren't they adorable?!

Later that night we visited with one of Brian's best friends growing up, Juliann. This was the first time I got to meet her in person but because of us texting all the time it felt like I was reuniting with an old friend. We got our baby fix with her beautiful son, Gage. Normally babies don't like me, I blame it on my strong dark features. Luckily her husband and his family have dark hair and eyes so baby Gage loved me. 

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Brian's alma mater, Lake Erie College, to scope out some picture spots. The campus is so beautiful so it was quite a task narrowing down my favorite spots but here they are...

 Our "first look" location, weather permitting of course.

 Love this covered porch and the fact that it has rocking chairs.

I put Brian in charge of finding "rain day" picture locations and he did not disappoint! This social parlor was to die for, I loved it so much I decided to make this a location no matter what!

The music hall we originally wanted to get married before we decided to have a Catholic wedding. 

This is the building that Brian worked at as a GA. How cute?!

After our stroll around campus we went to the Amish shop that's doing our woodwork decor. They were so excited to do this and want photos so they can advertise that they make wedding decor. On our way home we stopped by the market where I needed to place my remaining flower order. I was completely wowed by the manager! She was beyond helpful and the flowers were gorgeous. I wish I would've been able to visit earlier because I would have order everything from her. 

Yes, that is Kale in the bottom right corner. Being a flower enthusiast I loved this palette. 

That afternoon my our bestie, Erika, drove up from West Virginia to spend the day with us. We introduced her to some wonderful local spots and then we ventured out downtown where I learned that I am no spring chicken anymore lol. 

Dining at Brian's former workplace, The Winking Lizard.

My brother-in-law in 26 days. 

At the grand opening of Punch Bowl Social. 

I had a blast this weekend and got so much accomplished. The next time we’re in Cleveland I’ll be running around getting everything prepared for the big day! As always, thanks for reading and don’t forget to stop by for Wedding Wednesday! What did y’all do this weekend? Comment below and tell me all about it J

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Oh Hey Friday {9-11-15}

Hello everyone and Happy Friday! As each year passes this particular day always has a hold on me. When I wake up each September 11th I think about where I was on that day in 2001. I remember by 8th grade English teacher [the class I was in when the news broke] telling us that we would remember so many details of this day...what we wore, who we were with when we found out, how our parents would explain this to us and wow was she right!

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I remember when I got home from school that everyone was at my house, which was very unusual. After the exchange of "what did they tell you at school" and what not I was told that this was probably the start of a war and that my cousin Jeremy was more than likely going to be headed overseas to "there." To this day it was such a difficult concept to grasp and like many I wondered why this happened. It was so unreal, I had only ever seen this kind of stuff in movies.

Now as I reflect on that terrible day I realize how close our communities became, how families stopped bickering over stupid things and began to appreciate each other, and how proud everyone was to be an American. I miss those feelings. I feel like I can't turn on the news or go online without seeing something hateful and proof of how divided our country is. I'm not starting an argument and I don't want a debate. I just wish everyone would stop for five seconds and remember how they felt at this time fourteen years ago. A time before you could express yourself and your opinions on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. A time when you realized what was truly important and stopped being so selfish and ungrateful.

Today I will be a little nice, ignore hateful posts, tell those people I love them a few more times, and hug the ones I can a little tighter. Come on America...remember how strong and loyal we can be to each other. We're so much better than how we're acting now. GBA.

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Wedding Wednesday: What's Hap-Pinning?!

Happy Wednesday everyone! And to answer your question, yes, I'm wearing pink! Today I decided to combine two of my favorite linkups. I'm linking up with Macy and Nikki for Wedding Wednesday and Jenn and Jessi for What's Hap-Pinning?!

To be completely honest starting last Thursday things have been a little disappointing in WeddingLand. A couple things happened that put a damper on my week including but not limited to: finding out an important family member isn't going to come and the bustle on my dress being messed up big time. Luckily I had some amazing people to help me through it. Brian was amazing per usual with helping me through the family situation, one of the perks of marrying a coach is they give you the absolute best pep talks when you need it. My wonderful friend, Erin, drove up from Auburn to go to my dress fitting with me and I honestly don't know what I would've done if she wasn't there. When I got overwhelmed and had to walk out she handled everything and I'm so thankful for that. Well I've had enough of the boring, sad stuff so let's move on to the fun part...some of my favorite Pinterest wedding inspiration that I'm incorporating on our big day!

During the prayer of the faithful in our wedding mass we're able to honor loved ones that have passed but, we loved the idea of having something at the reception too. We're going to have a similar set up when you walk into our reception venue. 

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 We were some pretty cute kids so why not feature all that adorable somewhere?! I've made up something like this and I think it will be a hit!

We knew from the get go that we wanted a “cutting cake” and cupcakes instead of a big cake. I searched pins on pins on pins to find our dream desserts and we both loved this two tiered cake and pearl topped cupcakes. We’re currently trying to decide if we want our cake iced like this or a more smooth design to compliment the cupcakes.  

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Now that I've been blogging for a little while I've found some blogs that I read weekly. Obviously a lot of them have a large amount of wedding posts and I've noticed something that I think is really cool. The week of the wedding these ladies don't neglect their blogs and leave their readers hanging. Instead they have guest posts. So I've decided to get the ball rolling on this one. I have a friend, and bridesmaid, that introduced me to the blogging world and her name is Kathleen. So Kac...will you write a guest post for me on Friday, October 16th? When you think about it I'm really helping you kill some time on your flight so your welcome. I'm still so new at everything I don't really know how it works with asking for guest bloggers but if any other fellow bloggers would be willing to write a little post for I'd really appreciate it. 

Please comment and share ideas for guest blog posts the week of my wedding and if you would be willing to write a post for me...it's really the most economical wedding gift of all!

                                                                                     XOXO, 

                                                                                                           Jordan

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Weekending: Welcome August!

Can you believe it's already August?! This year is absolutely flying by! I'm linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston to tell you about my fun and relaxing weekend. 

I didn't have to work Friday (WOOHOO) but I didn't get to sleep in because I had to drive to the airport at 5:30AM to get Brian there in time for his flight to Cleveland. Once I got home I took a little nap and lounged around the house until my wine and painting class with some of the ladies of my alumni group. I’m the VP of Programming for my alumni chapter here in Atlanta and I get to plan fun events like this every month.

I love crafting especially when champagne is involved!

We painted the Atlanta skyline.

Everyone with their masterpieces

My little Tori now lives in Atlanta and I couldn't be more excited. 

 Tori, Kate, and I are all from the same chapter and went to WVU together. It’s so nice to have some chapter sisters in Atlanta!

Saturday morning was filled with binge watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix, cuddling with my puppies, and celebrating the fact that Patricia from Bravo’s Southern Charm retweeted and favorited my tweet of her house as well as the Real Housewife OG Vicki liking two of my instagram pictures. This girl is in Bravo fan bliss!

Mulligan is the puppy on the top left. We adopted him when we moved to GA last year. We have been fostering the little girl puppy on the bottom right a few weeks for my cousin and on Thursday we officially adopted her!

Sunday I cleaned the house and picked up Brian from the airport. We went to IKEA to get some final wedding reception items we needed so that we can take them to WV this weekend for my mom to take to Cleveland in October and then had dinner at The Varsity. 

I hope you all had a great weekend too and make sure to stop by here on in a couple days for this week’s Wedding Wednesday post featuring my bridal and bachelorette events recaps!

                                                                                                                 XOXO,

                                                                                Jordan 

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