Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Burning River Wedding: Sunshine and Surprises

We arrived at Windows on the River a little before 3pm, our scheduled time for family pictures. Our fabulous DOC, Brenda, greeted us with a huge smile. I immediately knew she had something exciting to tell us. The conversation went a bit like this:

Me: HIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!! I'm so happy to SEEEE YOUUUUU!!!
Brenda: Hey! Good news! Since it's no longer raining we can do cocktail hour outside!

I was really confused because I knew the schedule of events and I knew the DJ would have already set up his equipment inside due to the rain earlier and the florist probably had the cocktail tables set up inside, too.

Me: Wait...isn't everything already all set up inside?
Brenda: Yep! But I'm making them take it down and bring everything outside. It's not a problem. They're doing it because I told them that's what we're doing.

LOVE. HER. To me, she has the most important quality a wedding coordinator can possess: think on your feet and make decisions in the best interest of the bride without having to ask.

Because I told myself repeatedly that it was going to rain on our wedding day (which it did) I also told myself that cocktail hour would be inside (which would have been FINE) so I wouldn't get disappointed. Well wouldn't ya know, I got to have a beautiful outdoor cocktail hour due to a change in weather and a fast-thinking DOC. Needless to say, I was a happy bride.

We had a bit of time to kill, so while the wedding party took a much needed (and well deserved) break, Josh and I headed to the waterfront for a few pictures.  I really wanted some pictures with my fabulous green clutch.

 I look like I'm in a purse ad or something.

The water behind me is the inspiration for the name of this here blog! It's the Cuyahoga River (I'd love to hear some of you non-Ohio folk pronounce Cuyahoga) and has caught on fire twice, hence burning river. It's a bit more clean these days.

Josh and I used the boardwalk thing as our own personal catwalk. Work it!


Sigh...I want to be America's next top model. I really love to pretend I'm working the runway. 

Burning River Bride Tip: Today's is simple: hire a day-of coordinator. Find room in your budget. Look online for some one just starting out. As Tim Gunn would say, make it work! It was so nice to have Brenda there for those important game-time decisions. Had she not been there things would have been "okay" but "okay" is not really what I wanted for my wedding day.

In my last post I said family formals and stress were up next, but this was a bit longer than I thought it would be. NEXT up (for real this time) will be the stress of family pics.

As always, pics are by Linczak Photography!

13 comments:

  1. 1. Love those pictures. They keep getting better and better!
    2. I write a real estate show for Cleveland, so this is prob cheating...Kie-yuh-hoge-uh?

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  2. We had three of my mom's friends work as our DOC's and help setup and I seriously don't know what we would have done without them especially when it started raining right before the ceremony and everything had to be moved inside. They saved my sanity.

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  3. I grew up in Avon, a suburb of Cleveland. For four years, at least. So I also say Ki-ya-hoge-uh. Try having a mix of a Chicago accent and a Cleveland one. It makes things interesting for sure.

    PS, the back of your dress is to die for. I have a broad back. I'm super self conscious of it and TERRIFIED for those wedding pics.

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  4. Dude, your pictures are AMAZING!! Can't wait to see more. :)

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  5. Your tip is the best yet -- my two biggest tips from my wedding were do a first look and have a coordinator. I was so lucky to find mine on Weddingbee. She is a huge LA coordinator but wanted to add a yacht event to her resume so I got her services for free and she KILLED it. She saved my day from what could have been hell without her.

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  6. Your tip: SO TRUE! Our DOC was worth every single penny. We didn't have to lift a single finger on our wedding day and it was fabulous.

    You should be America's Next Top Model cus girl, you hot.

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  7. Our DOC did the same! As soon as she found out it wasn't going to rain for 30 minutes (it had been all day) she forced our caterers to move the wedding outside. IT WAS AWESOME. Totally hire a DOC

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  8. I wish we would've had a DOC! We had a 'coordinator' for our ceremony, but I would've loved to have someone to fight with the STUPID lady at our venue. UGHHHH.

    ANYWAY - You're beautiful. Love the pictures!

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  9. Wow, sounds like your coordinator really came though for you guys, yay! And again, you're just gorgeous in this set of photos too! Loving the green clutch.

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  10. Yeah, I definitely think you could be America's Next Top Model! You know how to work it, obvi!

    I somehow know how to pronounce Cuyahoga... only because K went to Cleveland on a business trip many years ago, and I joined him :)

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  11. Oh yay - I'm glad that the sun was able to come out so you could have an outdoor cocktail hour!!!!!

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  12. Your DOC sounds like she made your day! And I love your clutch, obv. And your ANTM poses!

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