Burning River Bride

Burning River Wedding: Stressful Family Fomals

2010-10-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Family portraits made me really anxious. Having everyone together, posing for pictures, on time, dressed...all of it just seemed like a recipe for disaster. I timed things very specifically and gave every player instructions for when they were to arrive. The pessimist in me knew something would go awry.

We arrived at the site where we were to take family formals and immediately my MIL told me Josh's grandma would not be joining us for photos. To be honest, this didn't really surprise me, but it didn't help with my nerves. I quickly moved on and took pictures with Josh's wonderful family.

And Josh got some really cute pictures with his sister.

Next we moved on to pictures with my dad and brother/sisters. I struggled with whether to put these pictures up and ultimately decided against it. This particular part of the day was difficult. Here is one really cute picture that I can show.

My adorable little brother/ring bearer. He is, in a word, delightful.

Just the most pleasant little boy in the world.

My dad, probably trying to be funny, made the whole thing uncomfortable for me. At one point (in the MIDDLE of taking pictures) he said in reference to the photographers, "Where is their tripod?" Trying to be as patient as possible, I calmly said, "They don't work with one, Dad. They don't need it." Could he leave it alone? No. "Wow. Well, they must have really steady hands. Hope they're good."

I'm sure you can imagine my, um, displeasure with this comment. I could go into a really long tirade, but out of respect for my family, I'll refrain. By the end of pictures with my dad, brothers, and sisters, I was SO done. But we still had to take pictures with my mom and grandma.

The look on my face says it all. "I'm f*cking OVER this."

Check out my mom's bling!

It's a mega-pricey cuff that she borrowed on the cheap from the website Rent the Runway.

Oh, Grandma. Why are you holding my stomach as if I'm with child?

These are, unfortunately, my least favorite pictures of the day. I felt incredibly rushed, irritated, and generally unhappy during the 45 minutes we took these (and I know it shows on my face.) Also, I made a very specific list of photos that we needed to take and I don't feel like we followed it at all. I honestly blame myself for this. My emotions got the best of me and as soon as I felt like we needed to be done, I ended things.

Ted and Rachel asked Josh and I to post for one final picture, and I reluctantly obliged.

I can literally hear myself saying, "Are we done now?"

Also, wtf is going on with my hunchback?

And with that, we headed inside to prepare for the ceremony.

Burning River Bride Tip: People are probably going to disappoint you on your wedding day. Handle it with as much grace as possible. No one likes a bratty bride. I tried my hardest to put on a damn happy face and soldier through everything that was happening. Although my discomfort was probably sensed by some people, I hope I succeeded in handling it to the best of my ability.

How did your family formals go? If you're still planning, what is your strategy for making them go as smooth as possible?

As always, all photos by the saints of Linczak Photography.

Burning River Wedding: Sunshine and Surprises

2010-10-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

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!

Burning River Wedding: Big Balls and East 4th

2010-10-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hope you guys are ready for a few more bridal party pics. I swear these are the final ones!

After the theater district, we headed to Quicken Loans Arena, or The Q as the cool kids call it. Actually, I'd like to go old school and call it The Gund, (it was Gund Arena before they SOLD OUT to a corporation). There are these big ball things surrounding the perimeter, and apparently Ted and Rachel thought they'd make for some cool pictures. Seriously, how they see these things is beyond me. That's why they're the pros, I guess :)

Oh and check out a fabulous pic of my hair:

We rallied the troops for a few more group shots...

and then took off for our final location!

Ps, we were still on time. I was elated and silently patting myself on the back. Go me!

The one place I *really* wanted to visit for pictures was the East 4th St. neighborhood. It's probably the cutest area of downtown Cleveland. In fact, we ate dinner there for my bachelorette party! In a really fun coincidence, Josh and I took a few pictures at that same restaurant.

So cute, right? Ted and Rachel wanted us to pose with champagne, but the restaurant only had wine and this was the closest thing they had to champagne flutes. But really, if I hadn't told you would you have known the difference?

I tried to down that glass of wine, but ended up leaving most of it. Very uncharacteristic of me, but we had a timeline to stick to! And of course, more pictures to take. Josh and his boys were up first.

So handsome :) Now the girls and me.

I was trying to do that hunched-over editorial pose...not really pulling it off.

My friends are SO PRETTY!

See that "Lola" sign above us? Ever heard of Iron Chef Michael Symon?

Yeah, that's his restaurant. One of the few awesome things to come out of Cleveland.

And of course, we had to get a shoe shot.

Those Green Devils may look fab, but just wait til you see what they did to my feet. You'll have to wait a few more posts for that story.

As we finished up at East 4th St., it began to hit me that we were under 2 hours from our ceremony start time and, you know, the whole getting married part of this thing. With amped up nerves and aching feet (on both my part and some of the girls', as well), we loaded into the limo and made the short drive to Windows on the River.

Next Up: Stress during family formals.

Burning River Bride Tip: What I really loved about our photographers is that they were never intrusive. Even though they were with us all day, I never felt like I had a camera shoved in my face. When choosing a photographer, be sure to discuss their approach to photography. Will they be all up in your grill or will they shoot from a distance? I really appreciated the breathing room Ted and Rachel gave us.

All photos by Linczak Photography

Burning River Wedding: More Bridal Party Hottness

2010-10-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

When we left off it was raining so we sought refuge in the limo. I was determined to do the rest of our bridal party pictures outside, though, and a little rain was NOT about to ruin my parade.

Ted instructed the driver to take us to Playhouse Square, Cleveland's theater district. I used to intern right down the street from where we took the pictures, which was kind of cute and nostalgic....or something.

All fourteen of us managed to squeeze under this doorway/overhang thing at the B.F. Keith building. It was cozy.

Come to think of it, I think those are the doors I walked through every day to get to my job from the parking garage. Ah, memories. Anyway.

The marquee at Playhouse Square is somewhat iconic so I was excited to take a few pictures under it.

Ha you totally can't tell we're under the marquee in this one. Sorry about that!

Putting on our best "fierce" faces. Except BM Bree...she's all smiles :)

Also, notice how it says "Diva" above us. Love it.

I LOVE THIS!

My girls picked their own dresses/shoes/jewelry and look how truly stunning it turned out.

After these shots, I took individual pictures with every BM and Josh took individual pictures with every GM. Those are boring so I won't show them. But then the boys took some suave looking group shots that I just love.

Our friends were getting a bit...antsy at this point. I'm not sure they were aware of how many pictures we would be taking and the amount of locations. While Ted and Rachel did a FABULOUS job of giving everyone direction, some of them were confused by the whole "act natural" aspect of everything. Well, these are not your mama's wedding photos, kids!

To give everyone a bit of a break, we decided to take a few more bride and groom shots. Again, it was raining so I grabbed Linczak's reflector cover, hiked up my dress, and walked to our next location.

They wanted to hold it over me, but I insisted this would be easier.

Plus it made for a great shot!

Because doorways are apparently *the* place to take pictures in the rain, we found another and started posing!

One of my absolute faves from the day.

Rachel is behind us w/ a spotlight and you can actually see her arm to the very left of my back.

Next up, we head to our final 2 picture spots! (Yes, we went to 4 locations for our bridal party pictures.)

Burning River Bride Tip: Communicate to your bridal party how the day will go down. Handing them a timeline isn't enough. Get your groom to explain to the boys they might have to suck it up for a few hours and pose for more pictures than they may be used to. The girls will appreciate knowing how much standing is involved when they pick out their footwear. Most importantly, keep and upbeat attitude. If the bride and groom are having fun, everyone else will (hopefully) follow suit, if for nothing else than to keep the bride from having a b-zilla moment.

How did your bridal party handle formal pictures?

All photos courtesy of Linczak Photography.

Grrr

2010-10-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's me growling. Why, you ask? (At least I assume you're asking. I would.) Well, Blogger and I are in a bit of a tiff.

I'm trying to finish these gosh darn recaps, but apparently I've run out of space for photos. The problem is the size of my pro-pics are HUGE. Like, really REALLY huge. Even scaling them down doesn't work (I've tried.) I can upload pictures that I took from my rinky-dink point-and-shoot, but nothing from Linczak. Google told me I could buy more space, but that hasn't seemed to work either (I bought the extra space for $5 but it's still not enough apparently.) A friend of mine suggested hosting them on Flickr, but that just seems like way to much work and I don't really want to do it that way.

So. Where does that leave me? I have a few options:

1. You lovely people give me ideas on how to solve this issue.
2. I pick up recaps over on my new newlywed/lifestyle blog, A Leap Begins. You didn't know I had a new blog? Well get on over there and catch up!

What do you think? Have any of you Blogger users encountered this problem? Do you think recapping over there would muddle things too much? Uuuggghhh HALP MEEE! This is frustrating :(

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who offered advice! Laura helped me figure out how to use the pictures I uploaded to Facebook on here, so recaps will remain on Burning River Bride :)

Guest Post!

2010-10-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

My dear friend Amy got married over the weekend and now she's on her honeymoon. Guess what that means...I'm guest-posting for her! So please head on over to her blog and read about what I think brides *really* want to hear on their wedding day. Oh, and wish her a big congratulations, too :)

Burning River Wedding: Pics at the Big Red Thing

2010-10-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

As I said in the last post, the bridal party was all set to go in the limo, awaiting our arrival.

The boys :)

*Photo by BM Claire

The gals! And Tyrone minus his head.

*Photo by BM Claire

My dress was extremely tight, so getting into the limo was definitely a challenge. I basically had to hike up my dress above my hips and sort of dive headfirst through the door. Graceful, I am not.

Hi, there!

*Photo by BM Claire

Truthfully, I'm just thankful I didn't have a bigger dress. How to brides with big ass dresses fit in their limo?? Don't get me wrong, I love me a big ass dress just as much as the next gal, but man, that's gotta be a rough wedding day.

After putting on some lip gloss,

*Photo by BM Claire

and posing for a quick pic,

*Photo by BM Nikki

we were off to the first location!

The only instructions I gave Ted and Rachel as to where I wanted to take formal pictures was "downtown Cleveland, city, urban." I knew they would pick fantastic locations and they certainly did not disappoint. Our first stop was this big, red sculpture thing somewhere downtown. I'm only going to show the best of each set because there are SO many and let's face it, that's kinda boring.

We took a few pictures of us as a couple to start.

Then some of me because I'm so hot.

Then FINALLY our awesome bridal party got in on the action.

Whoops, BM Despina is blocking GM Chris (or maybe GM Mike. They're twins.) w/ her massive hair!

See the sky in the background of those photos. Those, my friends, are rainclouds. And they were beginning to open. So back to the limo we went, hoping the rain would end by the time we arrived at our next location.

Burning River Bride Tip: Rain will not ruin your wedding day. It rained on and off until about 3pm on our wedding day. From the day I got engaged I said to people "I know it will rain on my wedding day and I'm ok with that. If I prepare myself for it now, I won't be upset when it happens. And if it doesn't rain, well that will just be a happy surprise." Everyone said "Oh Emily, stop that. The weather will be beautiful on your wedding day." WHO WAS RIGHT?! Me. And yes, I was totally fine all day. I was just happy to be marrying my man.

Unless otherwise noted, all pictures by Linczak Photography.

Burning River Wedding: First Look

2010-09-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hi. If you look out your window I do believe you will see pigs flying. Also, I'm hearing Hell is in the middle of a serious ice storm.

Yes friends, I'm writing a wedding recap. I have no excuse for my unplanned hiatus, only that my last recap bored me to tears and I think I needed a break from my wedding. BUT! I'm back. And I promise not to leave again. So...onward with the Burning River Recaps!

The emotions I felt in the minutes leading up to our first look were...intense. Rachel and I left the hotel room a few minutes before noon (again, totally on schedule. You have no idea how happy I am to gloat about that.) She gave me a quick overview of how the first look would go down, and of course, all I heard was "laksjdfiaw ejriwjfasjdflks jdfsj dfm." I was SO nervous that she had to explain it to me about 3 times.

Ted was already in place with Josh (benefit of 2 shooters) outside of the hotel. Luckily the rain had ended (for NOW) so we were set for some beautiful natural light pictures. Rachel and I walked outside and there he stood, about 50 yards away.

Cue ridiculous nerves. I kept asking Rachel, "So I just...start walking? Like, without you? But, where are you going to be? You mean I have to go alone?" I may have thrown up. I can't really remember. But off I went!

At this point I had a brilliant idea. First, play to the camera. I'm a ham in every sense of the word so I figured might as well play this one up. Next, GRAB HIS BUTT! I am *always* grabbing Josh's ass. I figured this would be a really cute and very "me" way of doing things.

I can't remember what was said, but I'm pretty sure I asked him if he liked my dress about 50 times. It KILLED me not to show it to him for 15 damn months, so I really hoped he would like it. I think he approved.

Surprisingly, there weren't many tears during the first look. I think I teared up a bit, but for me, the ceremony was 1000% more emotional. Mostly I just wanted to tell Josh about my hellacious night/morning and catch up with what he'd been doing since I left him at Howl at the Moon. It was nice to chat just the two of us before the insanity continued.

We met back up with Ted and Rachel to take a few bride and groom portraits outside. I could probably show you about 15 photos, but I'll refrain and only show you the best of the best.

And my literal absolute fave (probably top 10 of the day):

Thank you, Ted and Rachel, for making me so hot. We then headed inside for a few more quick shots. I'll try to limit these, too. Sorry it's just so hard!

We refer to these as the Green Devils. I'll explain later.

I mean, do we love the back of my dress, or do we LOVE the back of my dress?

What I love so much about Ted and Rachel is that they really know how to pose couples (and bridal parties, which you'll see in a bit.) I don't feel like any of our pictures are cheesy or forced (except some of the family formals which I'll explain when the time comes.)

With the bridal party already in the limo and these photos out of the way, we were off to our first location with everyone in tow!

Burning River Bride Tip: Do a damn first look. Trust me, just do it. We mostly did it for logistical reasons, but I swear to you it did not take away one BIT of emotion from the ceremony. If anything, it added emotion. I can't explain it, but I think others who've done a first look probably understand what I'm trying to convey.

Are you doing a first look? If you're already married, did you do one? Why/why not?

All photos by Linczak Photography.

Burning River Wedding: Manly Things

2010-09-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

Word on the street was Josh had a long night and a bit of a rough morning. We're so compatible. Luckily it wasn't anything a good breakfast couldn't fix.

I have no idea what shenanigans the boys got themselves into that morning, if any, but I guess I don't really want to know. Unfortunately, we have zero photos of all the boys getting ready or hanging out in the room. This makes Josh and I a bit sad as that is part of the reason we loved the idea of a husband and wife photography team. Oh well, they can't capture everything I guess. Ted did get some artsy shots of Josh getting ready, though!

Apparently he also took some shots of Josh in a closet?

And of course, a few traditional portraits.

In the card I wrote him to go along with his wedding present I specifically asked him to open the gift in private with Ted. I really didn't want the rest of the boys knowing what I did for him. What did I get him? Well, I never talked about it on here, but it rhymes with shmudoir shmotos. Sorry folks, but you don't get to see them. If you're really interested give me your email and I'll send you a link to the blog post ;)

Anyway, it was great to see how he reacted upon seeing the album of risque photos.

I think he approves!

Ted did snag a few pics of Josh and his boys chillin' before heading out to do our first look.

Good times had by all :)

One more artsy pic. This one goes out to my friend, Laura. She has an obsession.

We have a crap-ton of these shots but none of the boys getting ready.

Kinda sad about it.

Burning River Bride Tip: Boys are boring...don't blog about what they did the morning of your wedding because they probably just sat around.

This was the most boring post of my recaps...I promise to be back next time with something MUCH more exciting...our First Look!

All photos courtesy of Linczak Photography

An Announcement

2010-09-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm NOT pregnant, so just get that thought out of your silly little heads.

A few of you know this already, but I think it's time to finally spill the beans on here.

I started a new blog! It's called A Leap Begins and while still in infancy, but I'm very excited about what's to come.

But fear not, loyal Burning River Bride readers! I'm still doing recaps on here and promise not to neglect this blog. However, once I finish recaps here I'll begin posting exclusively on the new blog.

I hope you'll join me over at A Leap Begins (be sure become a follower and add me to your reader!) and follow along with my post-wedding life. And to all my still-engaged girls, yes, there IS life after the wedding! It's actually pretty great :)

Burning River Wedding: Hodge-Podge of Events

2010-09-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

I could tell Rachel was chomping at the bit to take pictures of me all dressed up. Right after I had everything on we got to work. Since you guys are going to get REAL sick of seeing my silly mug, I'll try to limit these to my absolute faves.

We started out against the wall,

then moved our way to the couch,

The only thing I see when I look at this picture are my pointy shoulders.

and finally to the window where we took some of my favorite shots of the day.

At some point one of the groomsmen (Tyrone, maybe?) brought me a gift from Josh. All together now: aaawwww :)

So of course I got all weepy reading his card (in which he finally revealed our honeymoon destination!)

but then got all giddy when I saw a little blue box!

Ok now, full disclosure, I basically picked out this gift. I told him I'd *really* like a gold necklace from Tiffany's and gave him about 5 to choose from (making a note next to my favorite.) This may not be the most conventional way of doing things, but I know Josh wanted to get me something I really loved and well, he can sometimes be a bit clueless when it comes to things like that.

You can't really see it, but you get the idea.

Sometime while we were getting ready our flowers came. Let's just say I was less than enthused with how our bouquets turned out. They're pretty, don't get me wrong. But not quite what I pictured in my mind. Here are a few non-pro pics that capture them nicely.

Photo courtesy of BM Nikki

Perfectly nice (and damn expensive) bouquet, I guess. What threw me off were the size of the hosta leaves. I knew they would be there, I guess I just had no idea how overwhelming they would look (to me, at least.)

Photo courtesy of BM Nikki

Ok, these? Were not at ALL what I expected them to be. Again, they're perfectly fine, but not what was described to me and not what I envisioned. I thought I was getting a big mound of green hydrangea with a few small orchids thrown in. What I received were a bouquet of orchids with a few stalks of hydrangea. I also didn't really like those leaves, but whatever.

Basically the bouquets were fine, beautiful even, just were not what I expected. Maybe there was a miscommunication along the way or I misunderstood our florists vision. I should have asked for a bouquet mock-up or a more thorough description. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, right? Luckily, the rest of our flowers were RIDICULOUS in the best way possible.

Burning River Bride Tip: Even if you don't think you care about certain things, make sure you at least double check to make sure you know what you're getting. I was perfectly happy to give creative license to our florist, but I did give him ideas of what I wanted. It was my fault that I didn't ask him more specific questions relating to the design of our bouquets.

Next Up: What have those boys been up to?

All photos, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of Linczak Photography.

Help Me Choose!

2010-08-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm interrupting the recaps for a sec so you lovely readers can do something I know all blog readers LOVE to do: give an opinion!

A family friend wants to buy us a large print of one of our wedding photos and I'm having a hard time choosing which one to get. I'm not sure where we'll put it...I guess it depends on the one we chose. What I'm saying is we don't have a specific spot on our wall set aside for this photo, so don't factor that into your decision.

Oh, and consider this a sneak peek of things to come, too :)

1.

Or maybe you hate all of them and think I should go back to the drawing board. That's ok, too :) Also, I really don't have a favorite, so you'll really be helping me out. Thanks!

Burning River Wedding: All Dressed Up In Love

2010-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

One of my wedding day requests was to have all of my bridesmaids dressed before me. I really don't like seeing getting ready shots where the BMs are in their "street clothes" or pajamas helping the bride get ready. Personal preference, I guess.

Once my girls were dressed it was time for me to get in my gown! Eeeeeeee!!!!!

There was a bit of a...problem, though. I'd forgotten my Spanx at home. While I didn't need them to smooth out anything under my dress (my dress was very structured and could practically stand up on it's own), I knew I needed something to prevent friction on my inner thighs because my dress was so tight. I should have (and could have) asked some one to drive back to my house to get them, but I didn't want to mess up the schedule so I figured I would be fine. HA. Ha ha ha ha. Again, I'm an idiot. I'll talk about that in a future post.

Anyway, I ended up wearing a black thong under my dress. It really was all I had but it honestly worked out fine. I guess.

No one was really offering to help me in my dress, just standing around awkwardly, so I asked my mom to help. I knew she wouldn't speak up on her own, but I knew it was something she really wanted to do.

That other blond woman is our DOC, Brenda. I LOVE HER.

Ps, sweet bra cups, right?

Since I know not everyone wanted to see my goodies, I manged to stay fairly covered up while putting on my dress. Here was my approach:

-Wear undies, tank top, no bra, and robe.
-Step into dress.
-Remove robe.
-Hold up dress to chest and carefully remove tank top while trying not to eff up hair and/or make up.
-Zip that baby up!

I spy a tramp stamp! Ooooh scandalous!

This is my "Please dear GOD let it fit" face.

Can you see my MIL in the background sitting on the couch? She's so cute.

As my beautiful friends looked on adoringly,

I put the finishing touches on my look

and became a bride.

Burning River Bride Tip: have a game plan for getting dressed. Ask yourself some questions: who do you want present? Are you OK undressing in front of a ton of people or would you rather do it more privately? Is your getting ready outfit easy to get out of? These are things you may not consider until you're faced with them, so if you're still engaged definitely take a few minutes to develop your game plan.

Next up: We take a few in-room portraits and a little blue box arrives!

Burning River Wedding: Gettin' Prettified

2010-08-25T04:55:00.000-07:00

Despite only a few hours of sleep and feeling like complete crap, I pulled myself together and started getting ready. I inhaled the granola bar and the ginger ale was really helping my stomach. Once all of the girls arrived I ordered breakfast for everyone...you have no idea how much I was looking forward to eggs and ham.

While we waited, the stylists got started on the girls. I also pretended the outside world didn't exist so I didn't have to witness rain on my wedding day, hence the closed curtains.

BM Helen and BM Ena. Sorry Helen, I had to do it :)

We all looked a bit rough that morning

*Photo courtesy of BM Nikki*

I got a head start on my make up before BM Bree tackled my hair. I'm glad I left plenty of buffer time in the schedule because doing my own make up definitely took longer than normal.

Right before we started my hair, our photographers arrived! I was SO happy to see them. I hired them over a year before the wedding and stalked them for nearly a year before I booked, so this was a long time in the making. Rachel is a beautiful person with amazing talent and I was so thankful to have her with me the morning of my wedding. I really should have insisted we take a picture with our photographers. They truly are special people.

Bree requested we start with freshly washed hair because her philosophy is you can always make it "dirtier" but you can't ever make it "cleaner." Makes sense to me! She started by blowing out my hair the way only she knows how. Sigh...I'm a lucky girl. Then she curled it and began pinning.

There's a smile from Mama P! One of the few caught on camera that day.

Laughs all around...I was feeling much better by now.

I also worked on my face a bit while Bree pinned. This was harder than it looks.

Some of my favorite pictures of the day are the ones Rachel captured of everyone laughing and having a good time. My goal was to create a relaxed and happy environment, free from stress and drama. I think the pictures showcase this.

I spy with my little eye....a mother-in-law-to-be!

The suite was definitely buzzing with activity. We put the finishing touches on my hair and make up:

The moms got their hairs did:

And the ladies prettied themselves up:

*Photo courtesy of BM Nikki*

Next thing I knew...it was time to put on The Dress! And guess what: we were totally on schedule!! I couldn't believe it. We actually had time to spare.

Burning River Bride Tip (I've lost track of the numbers...whoops): Create a TON of buffer time in your wedding morning schedule. If you think something is going to take 30 minutes, give yourself 45. We managed to stay on time all day which I hear never happens. We started really early (8am), but we were relaxed and not rushed.

Next Up: I become a Bride

Was your wedding morning crazy and rushed or pure serenity?

**All photos by Linczak Photography unless otherwise noted. Do not take without permission.

Burning River Wedding: The Ugly

2010-08-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

When I returned to my room at the Marriott I was starving and exhausted. I scarfed down some mixed nuts provided by the hotel and kicked myself for not giving myself an OOT bag. I probably could have hunted down some food, but I was drunk and knew I had to get some sleep. Also, my cable wasn't working so I drunkenly called the front desk (trying to sound as sober as possible) to find out the problem. Apparently all of Northeast Ohio was experiencing a cable outage. Fantastic. Luckily it started working soon after that phone call.

Because of said drunkenness, I knew falling asleep wouldn't be a problem at all. "Man, I'm gonna sleep goooood toNIGHT," I thought to myself. HA! Ha ha ha ha ha WRONG. SO WRONG. Sure I FELL asleep with no problem, but staying asleep? Yeah, that was a different story.

How about I just let my tweets tell the tale (with a bit of commentary from me thrown in). Please take note of the timestamps:

Again...HA. Ha ha ha ha ha Emily you are so STUPID.

I ended up falling asleep right around midnight. I was so excited at the prospect of getting over 6 hours of sleep the night before my wedding! But then...

I knew I was tweeting to dead air, but I had to get it out.

I tried EVERYTHING I could to fall asleep. I turned on the TV. I read from a book (My Fair Lazy, Jen Lancaster. Buy it!) I played Bejewled on my phone. I went pee (sorry, TMI). Nothing worked and as the hours passed, I knew this was bad.

Sometime around 5:30-6:00 I fell asleep. My alarm was set for 6:45. When it went off I hit snooze a few times and ultimately woke up around 7. I got up, showered and nearly passed out/threw up while doing so. I was shaking and I was a mess.

After I got out of the shower I called BM Bree to see if she had any food left over from her OOT bag and if she would bring that and a pop to me when she got to my room. I'm sure I sounded pathetic as I was on the verge of tears. Not long after, I tweeted this:

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Bree arrived with a granola bar and a pop a little before 8am. As the girls filtered into my room one by one, I sat in bed crying, thinking this is NOT how my wedding day was supposed to start. Oh, and it was raining.

Burning River Bride Tip #5: Wherever you stay the night before your wedding (hotel, parent's house, etc), make sure you have some food for a midnight snack. I know if I'd had a bit more food at my disposal (even a damn candy bar) I would have fared a bit better in the sleep department.

Brides: how much sleep did you get the night before your wedding? Brides-to-be: promise me you'll learn from my mistakes!!

Next Up: I suck it up and get ready.

Burning River Wedding: We Eat (Well, Some of Us)...and Drink...

2010-08-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

In my "stuff that went wrong" post, I alluded to the fact that I had a wee bit too much to drink and not enough to eat at my rehearsal dinner. I can laugh at it now, but seriously gals (and guys) don't let this happen to you. Today's tip is going to come at the beginning of this post (and in bold) because it's just that important:

Burning River Bride Tip #4: EAT at your rehearsal dinner!!!

I got so caught up in talking and entertaining (I kind of love being the center of attention) that I kept refilling my wine glass and hardly sat down to eat a damn thing. I insisted that I wasn't hungry (probably nerves) but luckily my MIL forced a few bites of chicken parmesan, potatoes and green beans on me.

Due to my drunkenness, I decided to grab Tyrone for one of our typical bathroom photoshoots. On a similar note, we use the same bathroom...got a problem with that?

There are more...but I'll spare you.

While we were busy vamping it up in the bathroom, the rest of our group was busy mingling and getting to know one another:

I told all of our rehearsal dinner guests that we would leave some time for anyone interested to take the floor and give a speech/toast. I limited the wedding day toasts to Josh's Best Man, and 2 of my BMs (Claire and my SIL Bree), but I wanted to give anyone else an opportunity to talk as well. This worked out so well!!

Josh's parents kicked things off with an incredibly emotional and heartfelt (with a few good-natured jabs thrown in) toast. I don't remember what was said probably because I was crying pretty hard. This is a great picture of the toast:

Love all of our expressions: Brian is saying something smart-ass-y, Nancy is loving it, my mom is shocked, I'm giving Brian my "I'm warning you" look, and Josh is tickled to death. Such a good representation of the family.

*Photo courtesy of BM Claire*

BM Nikki and GM Mike also said a few words that made all of us laugh and of course, cry. I was so happy that our family and friends spoke. It was probably the highlight of our rehearsal for me.

Since my the tip at the beginning of this post was fairly doom and gloom, here is another one: Try to carve out some time during your rehearsal for speeches/toasts. People might feel more comfortable speaking in front of a smaller, more intimate crowd.

Not only are our ceremony space and rehearsal dinner restaurant housed in the same building, but there is also super-fun piano bar in it! Have you ever heard of Howl at the Moon? It's a dueling piano/sing-a-long bar with locations throughout the country. After dinner, we headed here for some more drinks and a bunch of singing. Some family that didn't attend the RD came and it was a blast! I'll let the photos do the talking:

L-R: Josh's Florida cousins Sarah and Steph, me, SIL Bree

Josh got on stage and sang "Ice, Ice Baby." He knows every.single.word.

The performers learned that I was a bride-to-be and serenaded me with some raunchy song.

Also, why the EFF am I drinking a Corona?!?! Some one should have cut me off by then!

*Picture courtesy of BM Nikki*

By 11ish it was time to go...for me and my mom, at least. The rest of the party stayed out til lord only knows when. Josh met some famous baseball team manager (Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds...anyone know who that is?) I heard that SIL Bree gave her brother a stern talking to around 1am. Thanks for having my back, gal!

So clearly our rehearsal dinner wasn't a low-key affair. That's just not how we roll. Tell me about yours or your plans for it!

Next up: wake up in the mornin' feelin' like...Ke$ha.

Burning River Wedding: Let's Rehearse!

2010-08-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

We were miraculously still on time after our nail appointment. My mom and I arrived at the Marriott a bit after 3pm, checked in, and got ready for the rehearsal. My bridal suite (which I took zero pictures of) was awesome and huge and totally perfect...but of course I didn't have time to enjoy it because we had a rehearsal to get to!

A couple weeks before the wedding I called Windows to see if it might be possible to have the chairs and stage set up for the rehearsal. Because our ceremony space was a bit nontraditional I felt it was really important for it to be set up for the rehearsal. Well, the venue coordinator told me that unfortunately the space couldn't be set up because a prom was being held in our room that night.

SCREEEEEEEEECH.

Say what? A prom? Well that's just fantastic. That meant there would be a bunch of tables and chairs set up where my ceremony (and subsequent rehearsal) was to take place. The venue coordinator was less than accommodating in helping me find a solution for this little conundrum but luckily I had Brenda, my amazing DOC, to save the day.

When we arrived at Windows the tables were moved out of the way and Brenda had taped off where the aisle and stage would be. It wasn't perfect, but it would do.

Once everyone arrived it was time to get started. I told myself that I had to give up control of the rehearsal to Brenda and our officiant Peter or else it wouldn't be pretty. I'm so proud of myself that I was able to stick to this! I let Brenda and Peter run the show and it went *so* well.

Ok I know all anyone really cares about are pictures so here are a few from the rehearsal. I'm better at writing captions, anyway.

Peter had us stand in the order we would be in the next day.

You can see the tables and chairs on either side of the picture, as well as the tape marking where the stage would be.

Wheeee! Look who figured out how to make collages!

After lining up, we recessed and made our way up the stairs.

Then we practiced the processional and realized that the song I'd chosen for the Bridal Party to walk to was the PERFECT length. Hell yes, Emily :)

Dad and Mom, so uncomfortable. In that 2nd pic I'm smiling up at my savior, Brenda.
Also, I apparently don't know how to link arms correctly.

All in all we had a super-smooth rehearsal with zero tears, stress, or yelling! Ok, maybe a few tears of "Omg this is it!!" but no drama :)

Burning River Bride Tip #3: If you can, give up control at your rehearsal. Hand over those reins and sit back. I'm a total control freak in most instances, but this time I knew I had to let it go so I didn't have a bunch of people hating me.

**My fabulous mother-in-law took all of these photos and I'm so incredibly thankful to her for doing that. I basically handed my camera over to her and told her to take pictures of everything. That's Tip #3.5, I guess: Give some one a camera and tell them to shoot!

How was your rehearsal? If you have a doozey of a tale to share, please do!

Next up: We eat! And drink...

Burning River Wedding: Not All Rainbows and Butterflies

2010-08-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

We've been married for almost 3 months and I'm desperately trying to hold on to every memory of our wedding weekend. But as each day passes, little details escape me. I almost wish I had "taken notes" during our honeymoon whenever we talked about the day. Yes, we have the photographs to tell a story, but our photographers are human and couldn't capture every little thing.

Was the day "perfect"? On the surface, yes, it actually was. I know how incredibly lucky I am to be able to say that. However, looking back there are definitely disappointments, some bigger than others, that are not necessarily surface-level.

Don't get me wrong, I *loved* our wedding. I'm incredibly grateful for everyone who made the day possible. We were surrounded by love, happiness, laughter, family, friends, music, booze and food and at the end of the day I married the love of my life. Really, that's what matters most. If you told me I could go back and relive my wedding day all over again but couldn't change anything, I still absolutely would.

But...there's always a but.

I know I usually keep things fairly "light" around here, however in the interest of full-disclosure I feel that honesty and openness are important in this circumstance.

Because I don't want this to turn into a novel, I'm going to list the "disappointments" but save the full stories for the recaps. Gotta keep a bit of suspense, right? So here we go:

1. I drank way too much and ate way too little at the rehearsal dinner, resulting in zero sleep and feeling like shit the morning of my wedding.

2. I think some of my BMs were unhappy w/ their hair :(

3. My flowers (my bouquet and BM bouquets) were...not exactly what I expected.

4. Some members of the wedding party (read: the boys) didn't really "get it" when it came to taking pictures.

5. We didn't follow the list I put together for family formals. Please note: I do not blame our photographers for this, I blame myself.

6. My dad...for so many reasons.

7. Most of the wedding party didn't smile while walking down the aisle and this is reflected in the pictures.

8. My mom also did not smile while walking down the aisle and again, you see this in pictures. (Was no one happy?)

9. Guests weren't asked to rise before I walked down the aisle. I know that sounds so ridiculous, but it's something you always see and I was just confused as to why it didn't happen.

10. I forgot my Spanx. Worst. Mistake. Ever.

11. Our cake was wrong.

12. Our shuttle majorly effed up at the end of the night.

13. A very important family member left in the middle of dinner because his significant other (note: not wife or fiance...not even sure if girlfriend is the correct term) felt uncomfortable due to her religious beliefs.

14. I wish there were a bit more "behind the scenes" pictures from throughout the day. Pictures of us in the limo or our interactions between "posed" shots. A few more photojournalistic pictures would have been nice (please note: I LOVE our photographers and this is not a strike against them at all.)

I write this post not to be a Debbie Downer about my wedding, but to be completely honest with my readers, brides who are planning their wedding, and brides who may have the same feelings and want to know they're not alone. Things happen, people disappoint...that's life, welcome. And it's OK to be disappointed, it means you're human and imperfect, just like the rest of us.

Next up: I get back on the recap train and we rehearse!

Burning River Wedding: The Gals (and A Guy) Get Pampered

2010-08-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks before the wedding BM Nikki and I decided to plan a Rehearsal Day papering session for the bridesmaids, moms and Tyrone. I knew I would have all wedding tasks/errands done by then and I really wanted to spend some time with my girls before things got nuts.

The morning of the rehearsal I was a *bit* sluggish because of the night before, but nothing a nice cup of coffee couldn't cure. Earlier in the week I tried to pack as much as possible (for the honeymoon, wedding, wedding night, etc), but of course there were some things that had to be left out until that day. I ran around like a mad-woman stuffing things in random bags and boxes. I think I kept my cool for the most part, but I can't promise I didn't snap at Josh and/or my mom. Sorry, guys!

Once everything was packed and ready to go, we set out for lunch at First Watch (ugh the site has auto-play music. Click with sound off.) All of the girls except BM Helen were able to attend and we had a LARGE party.

From L-R: BM Bree, BM Ena, BM Claire, BM Despina, *me*, Mama P, BM Nikki, Tyrone, MIL Nancy

I gave the girls their gifts, which I never actually talked about on here. I gave them silver frames with an IOU for a wedding picture, a pretty hanger for their dresses (which I'm not sure anyone used), an a gift card for the mani/pedi's we were about to get. I also paid for their wedding day hair, but I couldn't exactly "give" them that.

After many laughs, hugs, tears, and kind words, we took our full bellies over to Venetian Nail Spa. The place is huge and was able to easily accommodate all 9 of us. Believe it or not, this was my first time EVER getting a pedicure! I'm not a foot person and my feet are extremely ticklish. I was so nervous!

My bff Claire sat next to me as this was her first pedi, as well! We were in this together and there was NO turning back. I think she was actually more nervous than I was!

Turns out, I love getting pedicures! I picked OPI Miami Beet for both my toes and fingers. I always knew I wouldn't wear a typical "bridal" color on my wedding day. I enjoy soft pinks and French tips, but they're just not *me* and it was so important to show off my true self on one of the biggest days of my life.

I didn't take a pic of my fingers or toes (bad blogger) but here is a close up of the color:

(Source)

Yay! I love it and I've received a lot of great feedback from people who've seen pics. I also encouraged my girls to get whatever nail color they wanted. A few went with purple, some went with red, and others kept it classic in pale pink. Everyone looked gorgeous.

Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with the salon and the quality of the mani/pedi. It was great because they were able to accommodate many people, but I probably wouldn't go back.

Things were going well and we were on time. I couldn't believe it! My mom and I were the first to finish and we left immediately. We still had to pack up our stuff, get to the hotel, check in, change for the rehearsal, and get TO the rehearsal. I think it was at this point that I realized "oh my effing God, this is totally happening."

Burning River Bride Tip #2: This is going to sound a lot like yesterday's tip, but spend some time pampering yourself and your girls before the wedding. It was great to have some ladies-only time (Tyrone counts as a lady in this sense) especially because not all the girls knew each other that well. Pedicures are great, too, because your feetsies are about to be under A LOT of pressure over the next few days.

Burning River Wedding: Pre-Wedding Fun!

2010-08-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

We have our pro pics from Ted and Rachel so I can *finally* start recaps. Actually wedding day recaps will have a wait a bit because I want to talk about the days leading up to the wedding first.

Josh and I wanted to spend as much time with our friends from out of town (and in town, of course) as possible before the wedding. We had people traveling from Ft. Lauderdale, NYC, San Antonio, Phoenix (that is nowhere near an exhaustive list) - literally all across the country.

The Thursday before the wedding I invited some friends to come over to my house for some pre-gaming and then we hit the town. And by "hit the town" I mean we went to the bar we ALWAYS go to when we're in Lakewood (my hometown.) Fun times and more than a few drinks were had by all.

Ready to wed!

Josh and BM Ena.

They love each other and secretly I think they *want* each other!

BM Ena, me and Tyrone. We used to call each other the Three Musketeers.

Summer 2005 with them was the best summer of my life

Added in BM Helen :)

Mary, BM Helen and me. Mary flew in from Texas for the occasion!

Dancing on Tyrone.

This is very normal and despite his face, he loves it.

It felt a-mazing to get out with my best friends for a few hours. I was able to forget my stresses and the details and just *enjoy* myself. The beers didn't hurt, either :)

Burning River Bride Tip #1: If you're not too busy, and hell, even if you ARE too busy, take some time to spend with your friends and family before the craziness of the wedding begins. Whether at your favorite watering hole or your house, your friends will be so happy to spend time with the COH (Couple of Honor. Just made that up!)

*All photos by me. Please don't take them and pretend to be me and or my friends.

Gettin' Buzzed

2010-07-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

Buzzz buzzzzz!!!!

What's that sound, you ask? It's the sound of 20+ Bees and Weddingbee readers descending upon Ping Pong Dim Sum in DC's Chinatown.

Last weekend the fabulous Mrs. Pencils posted about plans for a DC WB meet-up and you KNOW I was all about that. I convinced my WB-novice bff Claire (of A Realistic Wedding) to accompany me. Weddingbee is a fantastic community and I knew once she met some of the girls she'd get into it.

We had such a fun time and definitely ran the joint.

Can you spot the Bees?

The Ping Pong site calls these "little steamed parcels of deliciousness." I'd have to agree.

Me and Claire! Excuse the shininess, it was hot.

Ps, is that how shininess is spelled? It looks weird.

This is Megan. She is adorable. Read her blog.

Everyone was incredibly nice and I hope we can keep in touch. Since I'm new to the DC area I need some girls to hang out with! Let's do it again soon, ladies!

Antiguan Antics: Our "WTF?" Massage

2010-07-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

My good friend Kelly has a whole blog dedicated to the awkward situations she gets in. I only hope the story I'm about to tell meets her standards.

Josh and I knew we wanted some kind of massage or other spa treatment on our honeymoon. Our package came with a $250 credit and I'm aaallll about "free" stuff (I'm sure that $250 was hidden somewhere in the cost of our honeymoon.) Early in the week we headed to Red Lane Spa to check out what it had to offer.

A lovely (and tiny!) woman told us all about their spa and recommended a few services we might enjoy. We decided on something called Champagne Romance Couple's Massage or something close to that. She even threw in a complimentary body scrub. We were given a day/time (Thursday afternoon) to come in and instructed to remember our camera. This should have been my first indication that this may be rather strange.

Thursday rolled around and after lounging on the beach for a few hours (and getting *really* red) we headed to the spa. After being welcomed by the staff we were lead to private changing rooms and given bathrobes and slippers. Josh was nervous about the "fully naked" part, but I assured him it was normal and no one would see his peeps.

Everything looked perfectly normal at first glance. There was a nice soaking tub:

And a shower:

And towels with flowers:

Nice and spa-like. Our scrub was first and unfortunately for me it hurt like hell. Remember how I said I got *really* red earlier in the day? Right. Really red plus salt scrub equals ouchies. After the scrub we were told to get up and go shower. Together. Naked.

But first! We had to get off the massage table. Naked. In front of the massage ladies. We did a little turn over, wrap the towel song and dance and I'm pretty sure they didn't see anything. Not that I would have really cared necessarily, it was just kinda weird.

Ok, so we shower (together, naked) and the ladies return about 10 minutes later. It was weird but we got through it.

Next up, the massage! This was heavenly, no complaints.

But then...then they tell us to get in the tub. Together. Naked. Again, we did the towel song and dance to get off the table, but then we still needed to get in the tub. So the massage ladies helped us with that and it was SO WEIRD.

Josh went first. His masseuse held up a towel to shield him from her while he awkwardly stepped into the tub. Then it was my turn and I did the same with my masseuse. Like before I'm pretty sure they didn't see anything (when did I all of a sudden become so modest?).

Now we're in the tub. The ladies bring out a plate of fruit and 2 glasses of champagne. We start awkwardly sipping and eating while one of the girls gets our camera. The following pictures document our "tub time."

Oh, hi! Just sittin' here in a bubble bath with our champagne.

Mmm this champagne sure is tasty!

Fruit? Don't mind if I do!

Lady and the Tramp we are not.

Ok let's just kiss and get this over with.

Then they left us alone. "We'll be back in 20 minutes!" they said. This was probably the most awkward part of the whole thing. Were we supposed to...do it? Because that was NOT going to happen. Hell no. Plus I had to pee really bad. I couldn't relax and honestly just wanted the whole thing to be over at this point. But no, we chilled there for 20 minutes and I thought to myself "When I do honeymoon recaps this is going to be the BEST story to tell."

After all was said and done Josh took a few pics of me being, you guessed it, awkward in my robe.

Needless to say, it was a fairly enjoyable but incredibly uncomfortable experience. I knew I should have just got a damn manicure.

Have any of you experienced anything like this? Please tell me I'm not alone. And since we're all friends here, would you have "done it" in the tub??

Antiguan Antics: Hot Nights, Cool Drinks, & Sweet Peeps

2010-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Josh and I are really social people. We love to go out, meet people, and generally have a good time with friends, both new and old. Frankly, we're not all that interested in hanging out with *only* each other because eventually we run out of things to say. So, we make friends! Our honeymoon was no exception.

We met some of the nicest people on the planet in Antigua. The vast majority of the couples vacationing were on their honeymoon and many shared our wedding date. It was a great ice breaker!

On our first night we met a lovely British couples, Mick and Serena. We went to a beach party and asked to sit with them since all of the tables were taken. Best decision ever! We spent the next few days hanging out with them during the day and at night. They also introduced us to a Scottish couple, Claire and Darren.

L-R: Me, Josh, Mick, Serena, Claire, Darren

Also noteworthy: people from across the pond know how to drink. Do not think you can out-drink them because I assure you, you cannot.

We also met a really nice couple from Philly, Raye and Matt. The night we met Raye and Matt was the same night I drank about a bottle and a half of wine. Therefore, they got to experience "wine-drunk Emily." (Something everyone should experience at least once in their life.) I knew Raye and I would get along amazingly well when she suggested we go dancing at the pub with the DJ. Oh yes, this girl and I will do just fine.

Needless to say, Raye and I were the only ones dancing at the pub. And here are a few pics from that night:

Sweat about sums it up.

Oh, Emily...

The next day Raye told us that when she got back to the room that night she apparently wrote herself a message for the following morning: "Emily. Green dress. So much fun!" When she woke up the next morning she didn't even remember writing it!

Here are the four of us on Raye and Matt's last night in Antigua:

L-R: Matt, Raye, me, Josh. Terrible lighting but you get the idea

Josh even saw someone he knew from college! Very small world. We spent a good deal of time with them and a few other couples as well.

I highly recommend making friends with other couples while honeymooning. We have awesome memories of not only spending time with each other, but with our new friends as well.

Are you part of a social butterfly couple? Is one of you more outgoing than the other?

Up next, the awkward massage story.

Real Wedding? Us? Really?

2010-07-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I got an email from Ted Linczak, one half of our fabulous photographers, Linczak Photography (ps, expect massive pimping of them on here. Sorry in advance.) telling me that wedding photography blog Cake and Pictures was interested in using our wedding on their blog. Um HELL YES.

Today I got word that our Cleveland wedding was featured as a Daily Destination! They used words like "fresh" and "modern." Oh, and they called me a "knockout." Who, me? Yes, me :)

So please head on over to Cake and Pictures and show them some loooove. They feature some FAB weddings from all over the country. Maybe you could rep your city!

Antiguan Antics: Sandals Overview

2010-07-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

Josh booked us a fabulous room at Sandals Grande Antigua. We really wanted something all-inclusive and in the Caribbean. We're beach vacation people and after the wedding I didn't want to think. About anything. For a week. So I didn't and it was pure bliss. We slept (a lot), we ate (even more), and we drank (oh man, did we drink).

The grounds at Sandals Antigua are beautiful. Here is a little tour of the grounds of our home away from home. (Very picture heavy!)

View from our balcony.

Through the trees you can see the pool and past that, the ocean.

Another pool that is actually not for swimming.

I think they held wedding-related events here.

Private villas with plunge pools. Sadly these were out of our price range.

The building where we stayed. The other side of the resort is all villas.

Beach!

Cool fountain.

Entry of the resort. I tried to get this guy out of the pic, but I don't think he got it.

Life size chess board. We never played. I'm a checkers kind of gal, anyway.

And here are a few photos of our beautiful room:

Oh hell yes.

Bragging rights if you can tell me what movie is playing in the background.

Our awesome balcony

The huge tub that we never used. Sad face :(

The shower head was one of those "rain" type things. I didn't like it, not enough pressure. Also didn't like how exposed I felt. There was no door separating the bathroom from the hallway of the suite and the door was right there. I'm a VERY private bathroom person so this was uncomfortable even though it was only Josh.

At least there was a door to the toilet.

Double sinks!! Thank ya, Jesus!

If you want to see some nicer pics please check out the Sandals Grande Antigua website.

What kind of honeymoon are you planning? Are you the maxin' and relaxin' type or the go-go-go type?

Up next, what we did for 6 days.

Antiguan Antics: Flyin' first class...

2010-07-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

...up in the sky. Hopefully you have the classic Fergie Ferg song "Glamorous" in your head now. You're welcome :)

Back when Josh booked our honeymoon my mom offered to upgrade us to first class on our "long leg" (about 5 hours). Thanks, Mom!! Let me say, we were spoiled. First class is really nice and if you can swing it I *totally* recommend it for your honeymoon, especially if you have a ridiculous flight schedule.

I didn't want to look like a total nerd-o and take pics of everything, but here are a few.

Satellite TV! And what did I watch? Basketball Wives, of course! The only thing that sucked is TV shows didn't work when we flew over the ocean so we were stuck with some pretty crappy movies. When in Rome, anyone?

But the food more than made up for it (and hello, we were in first class, why am I complaining?). We were given a menu (a MENU!) with some super yummy choices. Josh and I both got a duet of veal and beef with rice and veggies. Delish!

On our return flight we were served shrimp cocktail (um, what??), yummy salad, and stuffed shells (which I didn't take a picture of.) Sorry it's kinda blurry. Damn cell phone.

Oh and you totally get warm, moist towels, too. I have no idea why (and honestly I think it's kind of silly), but still sort of cool. I guess? You also get a blanket that I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to take, but I totally did.

This next pic has nothing to do with flying first class, but it has everything to do with poor hygiene and airport etiquette.

Need a better look?

Dude is freakin' barefoot! In an AIRPORT. Come on, guy. This was in the San Juan airport where they have the hands-down nastiest bathrooms I've ever had the "pleasure" of visiting.

Am I totally nerdy for thinking first class is a bit deal? Have you ever flown in first?

Up next, a tour of our resort!

Antiguan Antics: The Honeymoon Begins!

2010-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Ok friends, it's time for some recaps. I don't have pro pics back, but I *do* have a ton of pics from our honeymoon in....

Antigua!!

If you'll remember way back in January I told you Josh planned our whole honeymoon and planned to keep it a secret from me until the day of the wedding. He ended up spilling the beans in the card he wrote me that I opened the morning of the wedding. Very sweet :)

Very early on the morning of May 23 (as in the ungodly hour known as 4:30am) we headed to the airport and began our journey! Exhausted but super excited, we recounted stories of the night before and updated our respective Facebook statuses (gotta love this technological age we live in). I also spotted a famous person waiting at our gate! I knew right away who he was.

The one on the left!

Darryl "DMC" McDaniels from the famous hip-hop group Run DMC!! No entourage, just chillin' by himself. I didn't go up to him because let's face it, it was 6am and no one wants to be talked to at that hour. Josh was like, "How the heck did you know that was him?" Duh, babe, I'm a hip-hop aficionado!

This was our crazy flight schedule:

Cleveland to Newark, NJ

Newark, NJ to San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan to Antigua.

We left Cleveland around 6:30am and arrived in Antigua 8:30pm. You guys...that's a long ass day. But we didn't kill each other! We even managed to snag a fairly cute pic during our 4 hour layover in Newark.

We don't look THAT bad, right?

My curls were still intact from my wedding hair and it actually looked decent once I put on a headband. Score 1 point for vanity! But I have to be honest, my vanity was about to take a beating. Let me explain.

I did my own make up for my wedding. I brought my make up bag in the limo with me and to the venue so I could touch it up whenever I needed. I kept said make up and make up bag locked in our venue coordinator's office along with some other personal items (ie, my big dress that I changed out of after cocktail hour). Some one was to retrieve all items from the office and take them to their respective places (home, my hotel room, etc). Guess what one item was left in that office after the wedding was over and the venue closed for the night. If you guessed make up bag DING DING DING you're right.

Long story short, I was without my make up for my honeymoon. This may not seem like a big deal to some girls, but to me this was, to be blunt, a tragedy of epic proportions. I loooove make up. Wearing it, applying it, buying it...loooove.

I ended up buying some crappy, overpriced make up at the airport and made do for the rest of the trip. And by "made do" I mean complained and probably made my husband hate me just a little. Let's just say I'll be buying some reserve, travel-only make up REAL soon.

Have you ever forgotten anything critical on vacation?

Up next...our First Class experience!

A link you'll love

2010-07-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

By now you've all heard me gush over our photographers, Ted and Rachel Linczak of Linczak Photography. I seriously LOVE them (in a very stalker-ish kind of way). Well, they've given me yet another reason to fawn all over them.

We've been blogged!!

And they didn't just post 4 or 5 pics. Oh no, they posted over 40 (FORTY). WHAT? That's unheard of. Not only that, but they wrote some of the kindest words about us and our wedding day. It made me cry because I'm a big baby and I love them so much.

So please, head on over to their blog and take a peek at the photos. You won't be disappointed. And then comment because I know they love comments. Then "Like" them on Facebook because they update with teasers all the time and we all love wedding pictures.

Ted and Rachel, if you're reading this, I know I've told you a million times already, but THANK YOU so much for everything. You're the best photographers a bride could ever ask for. I almost want to get pregnant now so you can do a maternity shoot and then a newborn shoot for me. Notice how I said *almost* :)

Oh and stay tuned because this week I'm going to start honeymoon recaps!! Trust me, you'll want to keep checking for the awkward massage story...oh yes, it's really is as awkward as that sounds.

Chop me up!

2010-07-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone's doing it. It's the "cool" thing to do, post-wedding. And I'm the latest bride to hop on the PWC bandwagon.

PWC?

Post-Wedding Chop, of course! My long hair was getting out of control and it was definitely time to chop it off. Since I moved to the DC area I had to find a new person to do my hair. Luckily I had no problem choosing one because my SIL is an extremely talented stylist who works at a salon only 30 minutes away! I knew she would do a great job and wasn't nervous at all.

Here is a reminder of my crazy, curly hair. This was taken 2 days before the wedding so by the time I cut my hair it was even a bit longer.

And here I am with my beautiful and talented SIL right after the cut!

And a close up (sorry for the not-so-great cell quality):

And curly (this is at a pool party so it's not really "done" to my liking, but you get the idea):

She chopped off a LOT of hair. Probably a good 3-4 inches, I'd say. I'm super happy with it, although I do think I'm going to start growing it out so it's about an inch longer. Then it'll be just about perfect!!

Did you do a PWC? Did you go super short or just a trim?

Ps, narcissistic much, Em? 4 pics of my silly mug in one post...lordy.

An update

2010-07-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

June 11 was the last time I posted. Life since then has been crazy. Let's take a look, shall we?

June 11-13: Spend the weekend with my bff (and BM) Claire doing things for her upcoming wedding.
June 13: Fly out to Mountain View, CA for Google training.
June 14-18: Google training; did the best out of our 17 person training group (pretty proud of myself for that one); thought I would have a ton of time to catch up on blogging but met awesome people and hung out with them every night after training.
June 19: Fly back to DC
June 20: Catch up on sleep
June 21: Begin first week out in the field; photograph businesses; pitch other businesses this awesome service; deal with some of the rudest individuals I've ever encountered; sweat my mother-effing balls off in the DC heat; hardly have any time to spend with my husband let alone live a normal life.
June 24: Have a mild job-induced meltdown; unsure if I can keep this up for 6 months; have Josh take a pic of me all dressed up in my Google polo and gear:

Laugh it up

June 25: Survived my first week! (barely)
Weekend: Amazing and intoxicating! (literally)
June 28: Week two! I can do this!
June 30: Have a major job-induced meltdown; can't stop crying; work for 2 hours then take the rest of the day off; decide I definitely cannot do this for 6 months; send in my "I quit" email (resignation sounds too formal); feel immediate sense of relief coupled with intense sense of failure.
4 day holiday weekend: Much needed, much enjoyed.

So, I quit the job with Google. Believe me when I say I did NOT want to do that. I'm not a quitter. But at the same time, I was incredibly unhappy and it was starting to affect my marriage and my sanity. Every night I would come home exhausted, cranky, and a gross sweaty mess. Then I'd have to do more work to prepare for the next day. It would be one thing if I was making a ton of money or enjoyed what I did...but neither of those things were the case.

After this week (I agreed to work 3 days this week) I'll be back on the job hunt. I need a real job. I need a real job doing what I really want to do.

In between job hunting I'm hoping to catch up on blogging, start those damn recaps, figure out what direction to take this blog, enjoy my new city, enjoy my husband, put my apartment together (I've been here for over a month and it's still a mess), and basically start my life as a married woman in a new city.

Thanks for sticking around. I definitely miss my readers, writing, comments (they're like crack, ya know), reading other blogs, etc. I promise not to be so MIA from now on. And I promise my next post will channel Kelly Killoren Bensimon and be full of rainbows and unicorns :)

I'm not dead

2010-06-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

And I haven't forgotten about all of you beautiful people out there :)

Things have been pretty crazy since the honeymoon. As most of you probably know, I moved to the DC area (Bethesda, MD to be exact) the Wednesday after the honeymoon. My mom stayed with us until Friday, then we finally had some time to experience our new city together. We had a fun weekend of exploring the city, enjoying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends, both new and old. Of course, I didn't take any pictures. Bad blogger (I promise to get better at that).

On Tuesday of this week I called the local office of the temp agency I've been working with for the past year. I figured I'd try to get a short-term temp assignment while I search for a permanent position. Well, I found a temp assignment! It's a bit longer than I originally wanted (6 months) but it's a pretty amazing opportunity. So who will I be working for?

Google. As in, THE Google.

Normally for the sake of privacy I wouldn't reveal this info, but it's just too good to keep to myself. I don't want to go into detail about my assignment, but it's very exciting and will allow me to flex my communication muscles while learning a new skill (photography) at the same time.

This Sunday (as in 2 days from now) I'll be on a plane to Mountain View, CA where I'll train at Google headquarters for the next week.

This has all happened incredibly fast, and while I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, I am very excited.

I promise to start honeymoon recaps soon, plus we're set to receive our pro pics in the next few weeks and you all know what that means...wedding recaps!! Just bear with me while I try to juggle all of this few stuff going on. And please, follow me on Twitter @Em219 if you want to read my random musings throughout the day.

Reception video goodness

2010-06-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

The other night while ~~stalking~~ perusing Facebook my good friend and fiance of BM Claire posted a YouTube video on my wall. "Hmm, what's this?" I thought to myself.

So I clicked the link. And this is what showed up.

EEEEEE!!! That's my reception! And that's Tyrone and I doing our dance! And Josh and I singing GLEE! And I just died...again. Elliot, you are amazing.

Honestly, my friends are the best. So many have posted hundreds of pictures on Facebook. It's incredible to see the day from their eyes. I honestly appreciate it more than they'll ever know. Some brides (for whatever reason) don't like people posting pictures of their wedding for the Facebook world to see. I, clearly, am not one of those brides. Please feed my narcissism!

Anyway, enjoy the small glimpse into our dance-filled reception!

We're back!

2010-06-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Oh hey there! What's up? Nothing really happening over on this little corner of the internet. Nope, nothin' to see here, move along.

Wait...

Ok my short term memory isn't the best, but I think something pretty epic happened a little over a week ago. Hmm....oh riiiiiiight.

WE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!

Yes, it happened. Yes, it was awesome. Yes, there were a few hiccups. But all in all it was a truly spectacular day and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Because I love my readers so much I'm going to give you an *exclusive* sneak peek into our wedding day. Our photographers, Linczak Photography, are effing ridiculously amazing and put up a few teasers on Facebook while we were honeymooning (in Antigua!!). Enjoy :)

Are you dying? Because I'm pretty sure I DIED when I saw these. The last one? I have no idea how those creative genius freaks made that happen, but I'm sure as hell glad they did.

Things are going to be a little haphazard around these parts for a few days (weeks?) I'm moving to DC on Wednesday and we all know how crazy moving can be. If you're so inclined, be sure to follow me on Twitter @Em219 for all of my post-wedding shenanigans!

*All photos courtesy of Linczak Photography. Oh, and be sure to "Like" them on Facebook if you enjoy their work and want to see more. Or you could just hire them and have pics like these for yourself!

Guest Post: Tips for Getting (and Staying!) Organized

2010-05-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hi, Burning River Bride readers! My name is Amy and I blog over at Little Miss Wedding Planner. I am so honored to be guest blogging for Em during her Honeymoon Week! We have been Internet-friends for quite some time now, and I am so happy for her and Josh.

So why did I call my blog Little Miss Wedding Planner? Because Planner should definitely be my middle name! I am Type A to the extreme, and as Emily put it in an email to me, “super ahead of schedule” when it comes to our wedding. I have set one goal for myself during wedding planning, and that is to have nothing to do during the wedding week. Honestly, keeping that mantra in mind—and knowing how awesome it will be to have a few days off of work to just relax and welcome family and friends to town—has helped me to have a relatively stress-free experience because I am constantly reminding myself to stay ahead of the game.

I’ve always been really organized—ever since I was a little girl. My closet is color-coordinated, my DVDs are alphabetized, and my work life? Looks like this:

So you see, wedding planning is cause for me to be equally organized. It appeals to my Type A freakishness—to the extreme. Case in point: I have not one, but TWO wedding binders: one for general wedding planning and one solely for the guest list.

I thought it might be helpful to give you guys a few tips and tricks for staying organized both during wedding planning AND in real life…so with that, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Lists, baby. I am constantly keeping to-do lists. I just love the feeling of checking stuff off. [Wow, Nerd Alert!] Whether it’s wedding planning or grocery shopping, find a list format that works for you and stick with it. I love the wedding templates on the Russell and Hazel website, and even though I am not a mom yet, I am pretty much obsessed with the Mom Planners by MomAgenda.

2. The key to organization is to make it your own. As soon as we got engaged, I ran right out to the bookstore and bought the biggest, baddest wedding planning binder I could find. Guess what? I hated it and never used it. It was big and bulky and out-of-date. If I had done a little research, I would have saved that money and gone ahead and made my own…which I did eventually. Lesson learned—and now I LOVE using my binder because it’s exactly what I need.

3. Get ahead, and stay ahead. I may be organized, but I can sometimes fall prey to that nasty habit of procrastination. Shocking, I know…but I have to say, wedding planning has helped me with that bad habit sooo much! We are in the midst of a super-long engagement (23 months total, when all is said and done), and I have knocked out so many projects that a lot of people would wait until two or three months before the wedding to do. (See also: bathroom baskets, all aspects of the rehearsal dinner, and day-of survival kits.) Get stuff done early and you’ll be thanking yourself later.

4. Give yourself a break. I’ll go on benders where I am working on projects multiple days in a row and into the wee hours of the night. This inevitably leads to a crying jag when I get tired. The key to avoiding this—and not having a lot of stress when it comes to this stuff—has been having self-imposed moratoriums on wedding stuff. If I feel like I am getting too bogged down, I take a break—even for a couple of days or a week, if necessary. Just stop thinking about it for awhile, and then you can come back to it feeling really refreshed. Same goes for other areas of your life. Spring cleaning got you overwhelmed? Work on one closet or room at a time before moving to the next. And if one closet takes all day? That’s fine! But after that, give yourself a break! Have a glass of wine and watch some crappy reality tv. You can get back to cleaning—and wedding planning—tomorrow. Trust me, it will definitely save your sanity!

5. Similarly, while it’s a great idea to make a plan, it’s also important to allow yourself to be flexible. Easier said than done, right? Especially if you are a perfectionist (ahem, like me). Just be realistic when you’re taking on new tasks. Example: I designed and put together our Save-The-Dates and envelopes (with liners!), and while it was a fun project and I love how they turned out, I learned a valuable lesson in doing so: DIY invitations are not for me. So the new plan is to order our invitations, but make all of our other paper products—menus, place cards, favor tags, etc. Originally, did I want all of our paper products to match? Yes. Am I ok with the fact that because of the new plan, the invitations will look similar to the menus but not exactly match? Yes. Why? Because I’m the only one who will notice, and honestly? I don’t care. Your reception paper products will still look cohesive, and I promise no one is going to notice that they don’t match the invitations.

So, that about wraps it up for my quick tips on how you too can be a freakishly organized bride (or wife!). Give them a try! Now you tell me: what are your best tips for staying ahead of the game?

Guest Post: Blog, baby, blog!

2010-05-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! I was so excited when Em asked me if I’d be interested in writing a guest post for her while she was on her honeymoon. It’s hard to believe she’s seriously married! We’ve been ‘blog friends’ for several months now and our weddings used to seem SO far away. Now she’s a married woman and I’m less than 3 weeks away from my wedding!

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to blog about, but I decided what better topic than blogging itself? When I started my blog last July, I had NO idea what a great experience it would be. Now I encourage all brides to blog about their planning process!

First, I have met some of the BEST women and fellow brides in the world, hands down. I’ve gotten feedback on ideas, assurance for my silly worries, and most of all friendship from these ladies. While I’ve only met two of my blog friends in person, I seriously hope I’ll have the pleasure of meeting more of them in the future. I talk to several of them almost every day, and I honestly count them as some of my favorite friends.

There are also SO many resources available to brides through wedding blogs. If you’re a DIY bride, there are tons of free tutorials and templates that are incredibly helpful. And if you’re not, there is so much inspiration and so many gorgeous weddings that can help you find the feel you’re going for.

Lastly, I’m a huge sentimentalist and I want to remember how much I loved (most of the time) planning my wedding. There are a couple different sites out there that allow you to turn your blog into a book, which would be such a fun keepsake! Blurb offers a product called Blurb Books and Blog2Print offers books as well. All you have to do is put in your blog hyperlink!

(Source)

I can’t emphasize enough what a great experience blogging has been and how much I’ve gotten out of it. If you’re already reading this you’ve obviously discovered blogs, but if you haven’t started one of your own, DO IT! You definitely won’t regret it.

Em, I’m sure you were an absolutely gorgeous bride and I seriously cannot wait to see your pictures! I’m so thankful for your friendship and that our blogs provided us with an opportunity to get to know each other! Enjoy every single second of your honeymoon, girl!

For the rest of ya’ll, feel free to come visit me at my blog: Lucky in Love

Guest Post: She's Soo La La

2010-05-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hey-o Burning River Readers! “Happy Hour with a Housewife” blogger, Laura here (some others may know me as Miss Mojito from “With this ring, I thee blog”) and I was delighted when Em asked me to be a guest blogger while she was on her fabulous honeymoon with her new hubby! When Em asked me to write a post for her blog I started stressin’ yo! I didn’t have any clue what to write to impress ya’ll... and let’s be frank, I’m using this opportunity as a shameless plug for my own blog aren’t I?!

So you can put a face with the name

So Em is awesome... I could go on about so many things! We live across the country from each other but we couldn’t be more similar and meant to be bloggity buds. We share a love for RENT (the musical, not paying for it monthly), bitching about idiots involved in our weddings, and talking about the differences between a Brazilian Blowout & Wax. (Editor's note: I secretly believe that there is actually *no* difference between the two and Laura is pulling a fast one on me.)

So now that I’ve blabbed on a little bit, mostly because I still don’t know what I’m going to write about, I guess I should get to some type of point. I guess what I want to share with some of you today is what I feel are the top things you need to discuss with your significant other before tying the knot. Agree or don’t, this is just the Top Ten things I feel are important to have a clear understanding about with each other before jumping in...

1.   KIDDOS – This always seems like an obvious one but make it clear. Because I’ve personally known girls to act completely blindsided when they find out their husband doesn’t want any kids. Discuss how many children you want to have and more importantly when. Most girls want to be young moms and finishing up by the time their thirty... while your hubby might be more interested in having fun for a while and possibly waiting until he feels his career is more established. Okay now you’ve had kids... who’s going to stay home with them? Or will you put your child in day care. And will you be putting them in public or private school, maybe even homeschool? This is one we haven’t decided on yet. I went to private school my whole life and the hubs went until 8th grade. I think it might depend on our location once we have children.

2.   RELIGION – Do you both share the same views? Is it alright if you don’t? If you don’t share the same religion do they at least “mesh”? Is one of you willing to convert to the other’s religion? Will your religious value affect your sexual values? For example, some religions don’t believe in ANY form of birth control. This is definitely something to spend some time discussing if you don’t share the same views. My hubs and I had all of the same religious views when we met so this was thankfully an easy one for us.

3.   DAY TO DAY LIVING – How do you live day to day and what do you expect your living situation to be like? What are your eating habits that you grew up accustomed to... eating out every day or just on special occasions? Where will you be eating the dinner... in front of the tv or at a table as a family? What is one persons extra expenses that maybe the other thinks is a waste? The hubs and I decided we would have a specific dollar amount a month that we can spend on WHATEVER and anything over that we should talk to each other first. My whatever money goes to things like nail appointments and Brazilian blowouts while his might go to a round of golf with a buddy.

4.   FINANCES – Who is primarily in charge of the money? Who will be paying all of the bills? Will you both work full time? Will you have separate checking accounts or will it be joint checking? We decided to do joint checking which we actually did about four months before we were married. Best decision we personally ever made. It was never a discussion (read: argument) on who was paying for what... it was paid and that was it. Next, how are you going to save and what are you going to save for?

5.   DEBT LEVELS / CREDIT – This I think is really important. Before the hubs met me he NEVER had a credit card... that was until he wanted to buy me an engagement ring, buy couches we wanted, etc. I on the other hand had a lot of credit cards in my time. About the same time we got engaged I paid off a good chunk that I had built up when I first moved out when I was younger and was spending it all on food, gas, and booze. It’s not fun paying for that Long Island Iced Tea from four years ago let me tell you. Sometimes debt is really important to one person... I have a friend who didn’t tell her future husband about $6k in credit card debt she had... but you have to remember, your debt is now going to be his debt as his will be yours. EVERYTHING needs to be put out on the table. If possible, I think it’s a great idea to try and find a financial advisor to help you find the best way to get out of debt in your situation (school loans, credit cards, etc.) and how you can start saving money for emergencies and retirement.

6.   “ME” TIME – How will you both be spending your free time after work and on weekends? Will there be a specific day of the week that will be YOUR date night and nobody will consider planning anything that night? Are you used to a girl or guys night out that is a tradition that you expect to keep? I had to make it clear when I first met my husband that I love my friends and I don’t plan on giving up regular time spent with them. Luckily he loves them so has never had an issue with me spending time with them whenever I want.

7.   CHORES – This one’s simple. Who’s going to do what? Cooking? Cleaning? Shopping? Trash? Etc? This is what the hubs and I did and it worked out fantastic. Both of you separately write out a list of what you think the “husband duties” are and what you think the “wife duties” are. Come back together and compare lists. The ones that match, perfect. The ones that don’t discuss and come to a logical decision.

8.   CAREER – Will you both be working full time? Maybe you will work part-time and then do the stay-at-home wifely duties? What about once you retire... are you seeing yourself on a cabin in the woods, the balmy beaches in Florida, or the dessert resorts of Palm Springs or Scottsdale?

9.   LOCATION – This has been a biggie for me and the husband although I think just within the past week we know where we see ourselves... and that’s pretty much right where we are. We have both grown up in Southern California and have wanted to be anywhere from Oregon to Arizona to the beach. Make sure you both see the same vision on where you want to have your family’s home be. The more you cannot have to move around the better and you both want to be happy... not all of us can be a little bit country and a little bit city.

10. PERSONAL GOALS – Discuss your personal goals that you’ve had set for yourself since before you even met your significant other. Make sure you both are fully aware of what you want to accomplish in life and support each other in the most realistic ways as possible.

Duuuuuude, am I boring or what? I think I tried to hard to want to be the funny blogger on Em’s blog... instead I felt compelled to share something my husband and I did before getting married and it was a great experience. We made it a big date night and discussed all of these things... most we already knew but it was nice to reiterate some things as well as learn more about each other we didn’t really know.

I swear I’m not always so preachy and I actually do have some fun on my blog... so if you’d love to follow my journey as a newlywed please visit me at my blog, www.happyhourwithahousewife.com & if you’d like to see the journey before my big day you can always check out my old blog, http://withthisringitheeblog.blogspot.com!

Thanks for having me Em and I hope your wedding was nothing short of fabulous! And Burning River Readers... well, if you’re still reading... thanks for listening to me blabbb.

XO,
Laura

P.S. You can also follow my daily antics on Twitter... www.twitter.com/mesoolala

The Mojitos!

Guest Post: Keep It FUN

2010-05-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

*Today we have Stacey aka Born to be Mrs. Beever from Thoughts of the All Consumed Bride. She is, in a word, awesome. Please check out her blog (she's recently married and in the process of recapping her gorgeous wedding!)

I am thrilled to be able to write a guest post for Em over here this week while she is basking in the glory of her new love and marriage! What a joy I know it will be for her and I am so excited to see the amazing photos and beauty that will exude from her on her wedding day!

Today, I'd love to share with you a little quote I found from Katherine Hepburn:

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

In life, as in love, you need to always have a little fun. After all, what is the point of being in a relationship if there is not a good deal of laughter and enjoyment from the day to day routine activities? Especially once you're married. I have found that in the 2 1/2 weeks that Mr Fix It and I have been settling in to married life in the same home as husband and wife, it is difficult to not fall into a boring, mundane routine with little or no excitement. And that's where Mr Fix It's personality comes in to the rescue!

Mr Fix It was definitely a little rambunxious as a child, but today, he's a big kid almost every day. Don't get me wrong, he works...and hard. His job is physically and mentally demanding. And he's pretty tired after a long day at work. So when it's time to run errands, he has to find ways to interject some fun.

For example, when we went shopping for my nephew, PJ's 1st b-day gift at Toys R Us, he found a big bin of bouncing balls in the middle of an aisle. He grabbed one and said "I'll give you a 3 second hard start for dodge ball!" When I looked at him and told him to knock it off and be an adult and put the ball down, he just reiterated that I was only being given 3 seconds. When another customer came around the corner, I assumed he would put the ball down and act his age, but when I turned over my shoulder to look at him, I knew I better run! And there we were, causing havoc in Toys R Us.

And that is one of the reasons I married him just last month...because no man has ever been able to do silly things like that and learn to just have fun in the silliest of ways. It's really there within all of us, that element of fun. We just need to learn not to stifle it and to let it come out and play once in a while. I'll admit, that I don't typically lean that way in my day to day activities, but being around Mr Fix It, I've learned to play some jokes, make funny faces or even pull off some fun wrestling matches sometimes at unexpected times.

I believe laughter and fun are an essential part of any relationship...not just with children, but with spouses as well. And today, as I congratulate Em and her new hubby on their recent marriage, I also wish them a lifetime of fun filled days and lots of laughter. I am sure we will see those beautiful smiles full of joy and fun in the photos and recaps that I for one am so excited to follow very soon!

Guest Post: 10 things I learned from my wedding

2010-05-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here to kick off Guest Post Week is Kelly and all you need to know is that she's hilarious. And awkward. And she loves pugs. And her husband. But I think she may love pugs more.

So. I'm married. For about two months now! My wedding was awesome, but not without drama. If you've ever read my blogs, you know that drama and awkwardness tend to follow me. I stressed out before the wedding about small details and things that could go wrong. Few of those things went wrong - but plenty of others did. Here are the ten things I learned from my wedding planning, in some cases things I wish I knew before, others, things I'm glad I did. I hope they can help you guys who are engaged... but also, I want to hear what the marrieds think! Anything you disagree with or could add would be welcome!

1. If you dislike someone before your wedding, you're not going to like them at the wedding. Just ignore them. My hubby's aunt wore a full on white dress to our wedding. I cringed during my MIL's impromptu speech at our reception.

The uninvited uncle who brought a date didn't bring anything else by way of a card, gift, or even a kind word. These people, who make your lives miserable on a daily basis, they aren't going to kiss your feet cause it's your wedding. They're there for free food. Ignore them, limit the time your photographer spends photographing them, and move on. No use being shocked. Prepare yourself now.

2. You are going to have no time before your wedding. Get things done early. When I tried to make plans, I pretty much procrastinated, thinking it was "too early." Prime example- the music and readings for our ceremony. I felt like making those assignments early was silly and would be laughed at. Who was laughing when I was cutting our program sheets the week of our wedding? The Kinko's man, that's who. I should have just sucked it up and figured that out months before - then I could have made the programs early instead of finishing them while my hair was being done.

3. Don't take shit from vendors. If you want something, yes, listen to their suggestions. But then decide on your own. No one should push you around. Do your research, ask around, and absolutely do not hire anyone who gives you crap. If a vendor ignores you (like my cake-topper maker did) or gives you crap, then just tell them they can give you a rim job for all you can. Then blog about them. It's fun and vengeful. Luckily I figured these things out pre-wedding and at the end of the day - my vendors were amazing. If you cannot hug a vendor, IMHO, either you need to loosen up, or you need to fire them. But then again I'm awkward and hug-friendly. Use your own discretion.

4. Tell your groom what to do. I tried to be hands-off and we were three weeks out with no tuxes and no groomsman gifts. Make your fiance a list early, and tell him to do it all. Check in monthly. I wish I had. Luckily we busted it out and got stuff done, but it could've been a disaster. And it wasn't fun showing up at Men's Wearhouse month of.

5. Eat. Ugh, nuff said. I didn't at our appetizer hour and ended up stuffing my face at the reception. Luckily I had a reception dress, but if I hadn't, my poor corset might've burst. Bring yourself snackies.

6. Give yourself at least a day between the wedding and honeymoon. I know, I know, not typical. But if you are a last minute idiot like me, you won't have time before the wedding to shop for bikinis and flip flops. We frantically shopped and packed the day after our wedding. Then we had a good night's sleep and an easy trip to the airport the next day. It's not required, but it definitely improved our situation.

7. Take pictures of EVERYTHING. Assign your camera to a family member without shaky hands who doesn't have their own camera. Make a list before the wedding of all the cute tiny elements of your wedding that you want pictures of. You don't want to go to blog about a detail, only to realize that it never got it's 15 minutes of photographic fame!

8. First looks- do them. Your flowers will only wilt more, you will only get more tired. I worried endlessly about taking pictures before taking away from our time at the ceremony. And yet, walking down the aisle was one of the most emotional moments of my life. I'm sure for some people, it's not the right choice. However, if it seems like it would work for you, but you're nervous about the ceremony being less important, don't. (Worry, that is. Don't worry.) Geez, let me just sum up my rambling with first look = convenient and special.

9. If someone/something is important to you.... have them be in your pictures. For me it was Pugs and my mom. They were in our pre-ceremony pictures. If you have a pet snail that means the world to you and you can't imagine your day without your precious snaily, then include snailypoo by all means. If it's not possible to have your loved one there for some reason, include a picture, or do something meaningful. Don't give a shit about anyone saying anything about "weird snail weddings" or "pug hair on black tuxes." That's what lint rollers are for.

10. Always wear sunscreen on your honeymoon. Seriously.

I'm still finishing my wedding recaps on my wedding blog, http://misspug.blogspot.com. You can find my regular blog at http://kjpugs.wordpress.com as well. Don't forget to check out Blog Buddy Appreciation Day this Tuesday!

Guest Posting

2010-05-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! If you're reading this that means I'm MAAAARRRRIIIIEEEEDDDD! And on my honeymoon. Bow chicka wah wooooowwwww! Or something like that.

But in reality I'm writing this on Monday May 17. Thank God Blogger offers post scheduling.

I just wanted to let you know that all this week I'm going to feature some of my favorite bridal blogging buddies. Kristin from Happily After All actually gave me the idea when she asked ME to guest post on HER blog this week (we're date twins, if ya didn't already know). My post will go up on her blog sometime this week. So please give these ladies a warm welcome, lots of love, and lots of comments. I'll be back soon to regale you with tall tales from the wedding, the honeymoon, and my big move to DC!

It's here!

2010-05-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

So.

Today, May 22, 2010, is my wedding day.

Um, WHERE did the time go?? In some ways it feels like we've been engaged forever, yet in other ways it feels like just yesterday Josh was proposing. This shit is CUH-RAZY, ya'll!!

To Josh, you are the most amazing man I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Today we will laugh, cry, dance, and celebrate. All of these people are here for *us*. Can you believe it? Today is the day we've worked so hard for and planned for so many months. Let's enjoy the hell outta it.

To my family/friends (those who read this), thank you for your undying love and support. This day would not be as special without you as a part of it.

And finally, to my beautiful, intelligent, hilarious, sassy, sexy readers and followers...thank you. Every comment, every conversation, every tweet, every friendship....all of it means so incredibly much to me. Please know that you are all with me today. Without all of you I would have lost my shit even more than I did throughout planning this wedding. Mere words are not enough to describe how important you all are and again, I thank you for following along with my journey. I hope I made you laugh a little and maybe even cry a little :)

I can't wait to come back with lots of pictures and recaps. I'm really going to try to be present all day so I can absorb it all and report back.

See ya on the other side!

In-law Jackpot

2010-05-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

On this day, the day before my wedding, I want to take a few minutes and talk about the amazing family I'm becoming a part of. Ugh, I'm crying already...

You see, somehow I got ridiculously lucky in the in-law department. Josh's parents have accepted me from pretty much Day 1. I *LOVE* them. Like big, pink puffy heart with rainbows and kittens *LOVE* them.

My future mother-in-law Nancy is incredibly kind and loving with a little bit of sass thrown in. She raised her boy RIGHT and should be incredibly proud of the job she did. Plus, this woman knows how to PAR-TAY. She even came to my bachelorette party!

This is one of the tame pictures. I don't want to embarrass her.

My future father-in-law Brian is basically Josh only 20-some years older. They are so much alike, it's scary. He is a notorious jokester with a heart of gold. He taught Josh not only how to be a man, but also how to be a gentleman. Brian has become an amazing father-figure to me and for that I will forever be thankful.

Rockin' out at a wedding last summer.

Not only did Nancy and Brian raise two fantastic children, but they are the epitome of a fantastic marriage. Over the past few years they've exposed me to something I've never seen my entire life: a married couple who, after almost 30 years, still loves each other. They are the perfect model for "making it work." Has it always been easy? Hell no. But have they always made it work? Hell. Yes. Maybe one day they'll reveal their secret.

Finally Josh's sister, Brianna, Bree, Breeze, Breezy (she has many names). I immediately loved her and while it took a bit longer for her to accept me, I know she loves me, too. Once everything was put out in the open, we became extremely close. She is everything I look for in a friend. Kind, hilarious, smart, sassy, loyal...the list could go on. She is beautiful inside and out and I'm *so* looking forward to calling her my sister (ooh and hair stylist, too!).

Classic Em and Bree.

Oh, and not only do I love Josh's family and they love me, but my mom loves Josh's family and they love her, too! Winner, winner chicken dinner! We're so incredibly blessed and I don't know how it happened, but I must have done something right in my life to be awarded with such an amazing family.

Our rehearsal dinner is tonight and Josh's parents are graciously hosting. So here's to them!

What is your in-law dynamic like? Familial bliss or Monsters-in-Law?

Please find your seat

2010-05-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

One of the first "I am doing this and no one will convince me otherwise" wedding decisions I made was that I was going to have a seating chart instead of place cards/escort cards. I'm not sure where I first saw the idea, but it's been in my plans for a long time. Did I have any idea how I was going to accomplish this? Nah, of course not. But then, fate intervened.

I came across the blog Happily After All written by the beautiful and talented Kristin. We're basically wedding twins. Same colors, same wedding day, and our fiances have the same name. Freaky, right? Well, I came to find that Kristin is super crafty and has an Etsy shop! And what is one of the products in her Etsy shop? Seating charts!! I made note of this and told her that when the time came SHE would be doing my chart.

Fast forward a few months: it's a little over a month before the wedding, we're getting more and more RSVPs with each passing day, and are able to start doing table assignments. I check out Kristin's Etsy shop and it's CLOSED! Nooooooooooooo!!!! She needed to close it due to her OWN wedding coming up. THE NERVE. (Lol, totally joking, Kristin.)

After a bit of a panic attack I sent Kristin an email basically begging her to accept one more project. Well, she took pity on me and told me she could do it! YAY! She set up a Google Doc so I (ok, actually Josh did all of this) could put in the names and table numbers of people as they replied. Um, fantastic idea. She was also able to include our invitation graphic!

Wanna see the result?

My mom had this iron easel thing so we're using that to display it.

I love it!!! I'm so so so pleased! Kristin sent me the file as a jpeg, I put it on a USB thing, took it to my local Staples to have it printed up. It was done in no time (they even custom cut it and framed it for me). I think our guests will really like it. And if they don't, screw 'em, I like it.

Definitely check out Kristin's blog as well as her Etsy shop. She has tonnnssss of awesome stuff, is super fast, super nice, and super talented. But she's also super busy right now, so maybe wait til the beginning of June to place your order :)

What's your method of showing people to their seats? Place cards, escort cards, chart, or maybe something way cooler?

*I am not getting paid or compensated in any way for writing this post. I just love her and love her work!

Gifting the Groomsmen

2010-05-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

Since I'm fairly certain none of Josh's Groomsmen read this blog I'm not going to worry about the customary warning sign for them to GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE. But, you know, just in case

Please Leave Now.

Right.

So Josh was totally on top of things when it came to gifts for his boys. And I'm not being sarcastic at all! All of the boys are really fun, like to party, and are big movie buffs. Knowing this, Josh got them a really great gift.

Ok, now pretend this is rotated properly. Something funky is going on with this stupid computer, Blogger, and iPhoto. So, just kinda turn your head. Thanks.

We got the boys personalized beer mugs from Things Remembered (they're on sale right now, by the way!) and a t-shirt with a line from one of their favorite movies. Not surprisingly most of the t-shirts are fairly inappropriate (this one, for instance, says "Eat A Dick" on it) so I'm not going to show those. We're also giving the boys ties and pocket squares, although that is mostly for our benefit :)

Did your guy take care of the gifts for his Groomsmen or were you left with yet another thing to do?

Welcome!

2010-05-18T03:49:00.000-07:00

We have a LOT of people staying at the Marriott the weekend of our wedding. This thrills me to no end and I wanted to express my gratitude by providing those guests with a few treats. Thus, our out-of-town/hotel bags were created!

So many brides have put together simply amazing OOT bags complete with monogrammed canvas totes and specialty...stuff. Well, folks, if you're looking for those skip this post and do a quick search on Weddingbee. Ours are relatively simple, no muss, no fuss. Truth be told, this just wasn't something I wanted to agonize over. They're nice and they get the job done and that's all that really mattered to me.

These bags are something that my FMIL and I worked on together so I want to quickly say thanks to her for funding most of this project.

We decided on simple black bags found at a craft store. I think they were less than $1 each. I found green tissue paper at Target which served as the perfect pop of color.

The tissue paper looks yellow, but I assure you it is green.
I know, you were worried.

Let's take a look inside:
I feel like Jack and Locke peering down into the Hatch for the first time on Lost.

(I'm gonna miss this show SO MUCH)

I'm a nerd.

Let's see what we put in these babies!

Two bottles of water (with cute little labels that Josh's mom printed)
Mixed nuts from Heggy's in Josh's hometown
Buckeyes (representing The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the state tree for the great state of Ohio) from my hometown fave Malley's Chocolates
Assorted granola bars

and

a welcome letter!

The cute paper is from Office Max (or maybe Staples). I had the damnedest time trying to find the right wording for our welcome letter. If I'm being 100% honest, I grabbed wording from all over the place. Since I know how effing hard it was to find wording, here is the full text in case you need some inspiration (or in case you just want to copy the whole darn thing. I don't really care):

Welcome!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so happy that you are able to join us here in Cleveland for our very special day! We are certainly blessed to be surrounded by so many close friends and family. Regardless of whether you came from near or far, we are elated that you were able to make the journey here. In this bag are a few treats to make your stay more comfortable. In addition, if you are driving to Windows on the River, please remember your parking pass to ensure free parking at the venue.
We hope that our wedding celebration will hold great memories for you as it will for us.

May we offer you a ride?

Shuttle service between the Marriott and Windows on the River will be provided approximately every 20 minutes, starting at 3:00 p.m. The last trip to Windows will be at 4:00 p.m. sharp (we wouldn't want you to miss it!) Return service back to the Marriott will begin at 9:00pm, and continuing every 20 minutes thereafter until midnight.

Love, Emily and Josh

Yay all done! I hope our guests enjoy the sweets and treats!

If you're doing OOT bags, what did you put in them?

Keep 'em fresh

2010-05-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

Oooooook so it's definitely Wedding Week! Yeah...just putting that out there.

Anyway, like so many who have come before me (and many who will come after) I put together bathroom baskets for our guests. While they're certainly popular in wedding blog world, I've never been to a wedding that had them so I'm assuming that many of our guests have never seen them either. Hopefully they are enjoyed by everyone!

Here they are in all of their glory.

Please ignore me in the mirror. It's for your own good, I promise.

Wanna see what's inside? Let's start with the ladies:

In the basket for the women-folk we have the following:

Kleenex

Lint roller

Mini pads

Tampons

Tide To Go pen

Face wipes

Hand sanitizer

Aleve

Tic-Tacs

First Aid kit

Q-Tips

Tums

Lotion

Deodorant

Bobby pins

Hair ponies

Nail file

Body spray

Hair spray

And for the gentlemen:

Lint roller

Kleenex

Lotion

Hand sanitizer

First Aid kit

Q-tips

Deodorant

Tide To Go pen

Aleve

Axe body spray

Tic Tacs

Tums

To go along with the baskets I printed up some signs.

I found the wording for this...somewhere. I know, I'm so bad. If you recognize it and can I.D. the source I'll be happy to add that in. Here is the wording:

Whether your skin feels dry

or your hair our of place.

You're not feeling so fresh,

or whatever the case.

We've put together a basket

to help you along.

Now hurry back out

before you miss the next song!

I added part of our invitation graphic, printed these babies up on some 5x7 cardstock, stuck them in a frame and VOILA!

As for the baskets themselves, I found them at Michaels around Christmastime. They originally had cloth inserts but I decided I hated them so I took them out. I put shredded paper (found at the Dollar Store) in the bottom so the contents would have something to rest on. My mom added some fake hydrangeas to the front to spruce it up a bit. I think they turned out really nice! Here's hoping people actually *use* the stuff!

Anyone else doing bathroom basketr? If you had them at your wedding, were they a success?

Dance, Dance

2010-05-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

My love of dance is well-documented on this lil blog o' mine. I bought a 2nd dress specifically so I could dance at my reception. My bachelorette party was centered around dancing at a club. I try to dance on a daily basis, if only in front of my bathroom mirror for a few blissful minutes. And honestly, for a white girl, I'm not half bad.

I wish I could say the dance I'm most looking forward to at my wedding is my first dance with Josh or even my dance with my dad (but we all know how I feel about that). But no, the dance I'm most looking forward to is the one I'll do with one of my best friends (and a Groomsman), Tyrone.

Fierce

Ladies and ladies, may I present to you, Get Me Bodied:

(Source)

Yes, that is Queen B, Miss Beyonce. I love her, Tyrone thinks he *is* her on occasion, and at my wedding we will pay tribute to her fabulosity. The song came out a few years ago and has stayed in my "Dance Mix" rotation ever since. If I need a pick me up? I play that song. Getting ready? I play that song. Itchin' to dance? Well, you get the picture.

I've had most of the moves down for awhile now, but I've been brushing up on it the past few days and will continue this week. To get an idea of how serious this is, let me show you the text I sent to Tyrone last night:

"I'm watching "Get Me Bodied" from The Beyonce Experience on YouTube right now. Better practice that, bitch. We got a performance a week from tonight."

And then another this afternoon:

"Just practiced our dance in my pumps. We got this. So fucking excited!!"

I'm not messing around. Tyrone get into town on Thursday afternoon and TRUST, we will be doing a run-through. Now, I'm not planning on really announcing this "performance" of sorts. Tyrone and I will probably just start dancing and if people notice, great. If not, their loss!

What dance, if any, are you most looking forward to at your reception?

And I just can't hide it!

2010-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Is it normal to be *THIS EFFING EXCITED* a week before your wedding?

Because you guys....I'M REALLY REALLY EXCITED!!!!

Ok, I just had to get that out.

I think I'm supposed to be stressed and worried and anxious, and people are supposed to ask in hushed tones "Emily, honey, how are you doing? Are you ok?" But I'm honestly really good! Maybe under a bit of pressure to make sure I've crossed all of my Ts and dotted all of my Is, but for the most part I'm a happy bride.

Mind you, this could all change at the drop of a hat (or the drop of my wedding dress or something really breakable and expensive). Let's just hope that doesn't happen.

I have lots of things to show you so hopefully I'll get a bunch of posts written and scheduled this weekend so I don't go completely MIA next week.

One more thing: I love you guys SO MUCH! All of my blog friends and my Twitter friends and my real life friends who read this....I just love you all so very very much and I'm so thankful to have this outlet. Oh, and that's just a taste of the wedding day post I have brewing. I plan on making each and every one of you cry (tears of joy, course).

Do you guys think this is just the calm before the storm and next week I'll be all "WAAAAAHHHHH CRAZY BRIDE"?

MOMMY!

2010-05-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

(Source)

Ha! Perfect, right?

I just wanted to take a minute to wish my mom, my future-almost-in-two-weeks-Mother-in-Law, and all of the mommies and mommies-to-be out there a *very* happy Mother's Day.

My mom, me, BM Claire Bear, and FMIL at my bachelorette party.

So blessed to have 2 of the coolest moms on the planet!

"Make" me up before you go go!

2010-05-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

I knew from pretty much day 1 that I would do my own make up for the wedding. In the past when I've had my make up professionally applied the results ranged from "meh" to disastrous. For some reason make up artists tend to make me really pale even when it's the middle of summer at the peak of my tan-ness. Ugh. One guy, who supposedly worked with "celebrities" out in LA, did such a half-ass job that I had to literally FINISH applying it myself. Believe me, I could go on. Ok, rant over :)

So for such an important day, I knew I couldn't chance it. I love doing my own make up and I know what colors and applications look best on me. Plus, I have experience applying make up for professional pictures. I did my own for our engagement pics and our recent bridal session.

So I figured I should probably practice before the big day and last weekend I did just that. Needless to say, I'm super happy with the results!

Because I LOVE all of you little lambs SO much, I'm going to put up a picture of me with no make up. Please, do not be afraid. I rarely go out of the house looking like this (and trust me, I'm not fishing for compliments, I know I look like shit without make up).

I must really effing love you guys. So not cute.

And here is the end result! ::drum roll please::

I'm a new woman!

I took this one on my computer after I added a bit more eyeshadow.

Not the best quality picture, but this was easier to do than use my point and shoot.

Close up. I'll do it a touch darker on W day.

Again, from the computer, but the colors showed up nicely.

I'll probably add a bit more blush, but other than that I'm totally happy with how it turned out. I'll also have one of my bridesmaids carry my make up bag with me in case I need to touch up (which I'm sure I will).

Do you guys want me to do a post about the products I used an a little tutorial? If you're interested let me know, I'm happy to write one up.

Are you doing any beauty DIY for your wedding day or are you leaving it to the professionals?

Making it Official

2010-05-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

(Source)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Josh and I are not particularly religious. I was raised Catholic but have completely cut ties with the Church for multiple reasons (reasons that I'd be happy to get into if you're really interested and contact me privately). Josh wasn't really raised with any religion. It's just not something that's important to us.*

When it came to finding an officiant, we had a few choices. My dad is a lawyer so we could have found a judge to marry us. A close family friend is licensed to marry couples in the state of Ohio, so we could have asked her. Or we could find some one the "new age" way: on the Internet. Guess which one we chose.

Internet, baby!

We've received more than a few raised eyebrows from people upon hearing this decision, but hear me out. I don't like asking my dad for favors and having a judge marry us just wasn't how I pictured my wedding. While we would have loved for our family friend to marry us, I wanted her to be a guest first and foremost. So we were left with looking online. Luckily, it worked out really well for us.

Our officiant is Peter Boruchowitz, a licensed minister from Our Wedding Officiant. We met him last summer and instantly knew he would be a great fit. His background is incredibly interesting. He was a theater major and a professional extra in New York City for many years. He also performed in many off-Broadway productions and a number of movies. Score! He's comfortable in front of large groups AND kinda famous! (Anyone who knows me knows how much I love celebrities. One day I'll be famous. One day.)

Together we've worked to create a personal and emotional ceremony that fits us incredibly well. I sent it to Josh for final review a few days ago and he told me he cried. All together now "Aaaawwwww." I know we're both going to be serious messes come vow time.

Doing something like this is not meant for everyone, but it's perfect for us. As I alluded to before, we've had quite a few raised eyebrows regarding our decision. Here's the thing: you don't have to like it, I just ask that you respect it. And trust me, we've had some seriously DISrespectful reactions. Twice I've been asked (by acquaintances, not people who know me well) if I believe in God. Um, in what circumstance is that an appropriate question, especially in mixed company? The answer is never.

Fortunately, I haven't let comments like that get me down and I'm fully confident in our decision. Our wedding ceremony is going to be meaningful and something I know I'll cherish for the rest of my life.

Who is officiating your wedding ceremony? Anyone else find a guy (or gal) online? (Please tell me I'm not alone here.)

*That is not to say religion isn't important. I fully support your right to freedom of religion as long as you support my right to freedom of no religion :)

If after the party is the after-party...

2010-05-03T04:52:00.000-07:00

Then is before the party the...pre-party party? Just sayin'.

(Source)

We've had our rehearsal dinner venue booked forEVER but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Whoopsie!

We really lucked out when it came to the RD venue because the building that houses our wedding venue also houses a restaurant (along with a dueling piano bar and a comedy club). Our rehearsal guests will literally have to walk only a few hundred feet from the place where we're rehearsing to get to the restaurant. We didn't even bother looking anywhere else because of the incredible convenience (and reasonable price) this restaurant provided.

So without further ado, our rehearsal dinner spot:

(Source)

Rock Bottom Brewery! Yummy food and beer brewed on-site...doesn't get much better than that! Of course, for those who aren't the beer type, we'll be offering an open bar as well. I just hope no one wakes up hungover the next morning.

The food is super simple: buffet-style chicken parmesan, Italian sausage w/ onions and peppers, potatoes, green beans, and salad. And to top it all off...chocolate fondue!! Mmmm that's what I'm looking forward to the most.

Although the restaurant is fairly casual, I asked everyone to dress up a bit. Girls in dressy-casual dresses, boys in nice pants and a button down shirt. I've had my dress for quite some time (it's not even available online anymore) but lucky for all of you I grabbed a pic of it back when I bought it:

(The dress is from Nordstrom)

I think this is a weird pic of it, but it looks SUPER cute on (if I do say so myself). Because I'm totally psycho (hey, at least I can admit it) I asked Josh to buy a green shirt so we match our wedding colors. Again, I know how ridiculous that makes me sound, but oh well.

After dinner I think we'll head down to the dueling piano bar Howl At The Moon to let loose a bit. But I've instructed numerous people not to let me stay out past 11. This bride needs her SLEEP, yo!

What are you doing for your rehearsal?

Flower Bling

2010-04-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

Yep, another post about flowers. Are you sick of them yet? Well, bear with me, this will hopefully be the last one until recap time.

I'm not sure where I first saw the idea of blinging out your bouquet, but I immediately knew I had to steal the idea. Just look at these beauties (all found from Project Wedding):

Looooove. And since I'm wearing some may-jah bling on my wrist and ears (and not to mention my left ring finger), I figure adding a bit to my bouquet and the bridesmaid bouquets would be a nice little tie-in.

Momma P and I hit the antique stores and found some FABulous vintage rhinestone brooches. Here they are in all of their shiny glory!

Now, I will tell you that the one on the far right is not vintage, it's from Ann Taylor and my mom had it in her jewelry collection already. But the rest are beautiful vintage pieces and I luuurrrrve them.

I'm putting this one on my bouquet because it's a little bit different than the rest:

After the wedding the girls can either keep them or return them to me if they don't. Hopefully they remember to take them off either way! The brooches were dropped off at our florist meeting last week and I can't WAIT to see how they turn out. Bling-tastic!

Are you adorning your and/or your bridesmaid bouquets in any way?

Reading Rainbow

2010-04-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

Much like my epic search for our invitation wording (y'all remember that, right?) my search for the perfect ceremony reading was a wild ride. Obviously "wild" is a relative term in this case.

After searching Weddingbee threads and posts, Googling "wedding ceremony readings" and yep, you guessed it, the Kvetch section of indiebride, I found something that I absolutely adore. Wanna read it?

Love, by Roy Croft

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out.

I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.*

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.*

I can't even describe why I'm drawn to it, I just *am*. I like that it has a sense of "realism" so to speak. It's not overly sappy, but it's still romantic. I like that it's simple and straightforward. Basically, I like it because it has all of the elements that our relationship has: romance, simplicity, honesty, realism, etc. It's uncomplicated, kind of like us.

My beautiful friend and bridesmaid Despina is reading it during the ceremony and I know she is going to do a fantastic job.

Ain't she purty?

Are you having any readings during your ceremony? What are they and what drew you to them?

*The italicized parts we will not be using, but I wanted to include them here in case anyone is interested in the full poem.

Momma P to the rescue!

2010-04-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

*Note, in high school my friends started calling my mom Momma P. It stuck. She now refers to herself (in the 3rd person) as Momma P. Love her.

One thing I did not want to worry about for this wedding was flower girl baskets and the ring bearer pillow. But lo and behold, I did worry. Most of what I saw was just straight up ugly and generic and not my style at all.

But then, fate intervened. (Ok, it probably wasn't exactly fate.) The beautiful Miss Jellyfish over at Weddingbee wrote a post that inspired me to finally figure out what the flower girls and ring bearer would carry.

I grabbed inspiration from Etsy shop Creations of Love 4 Brides, specifically these photos:

(Found here)

Not bad, right? Unfortunately, I lack a sewing/DIY gene. It's not fair (although I'm told life isn't fair either, and I just can't seem to accept that). Well, my awesome mom came to the rescue and created something even BETTER! She's got mad DIY skills. Lucky for me, she loves me and offered to make 2 flower girl baskets and a ring bearer pillow!

For the flower girl baskets my mom thought that instead of reinventing the wheel, we should just start with a store-bought generic basket. So, we began with this:

Not my style...at all.

And ended up with this:

So much better.

I love it! My mom removed the side bows as well as the little pearls that were just sewn onto the basket. Some black ribbon, a green flower, and a rhinestone button later and voila! Super cute flower girl basket.

As for the ring bearer pillow, Mom's rock star DIY skills came through again:

The ring bearer pillow with the 2 flower girl baskets.
Did I really need to explain that in a caption?
Probably not.

Yay! She still has to attach some ribbon around the rhinestone button so we can put the rings on it. Actually, that reminds me. Should I attach the real rings or fake ones? Our ring bearer (my little brother) is 4. What did/would you do?

So basically, my mom is amazing. Oh, and that's not all she did, oh no. Juuuust you wait, my pretty lil blog friends.

But for real, what should I do about the ring conundrum?

Today is April 22

2010-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know what that means? Well, that means that one month from today is May 22. And that means that in ONE MONTH I'm getting MARRIED!!

CRAZY. TOWN. USA.

It's surreal. We've been (officially) planning this wedding since July 2008. For the past however-many months we've said "Oh, the wedding is still so far away." Well, folks, this wedding is decidedly NOT far away anymore. It's very very close. It almost doesn't seem real and I'm sure it hasn't even hit me yet.

Well, maybe it hit me a bit yesterday when I wrote a ginormous check to our DJ.

I'm not super-stressed at the moment. There is a lot to do, but luckily I have a lot of free time (unemployment will do that to ya). Let's see if I can stay fairly sane for the next month.

So my question for you today is, what are the most important things not to forget this last month? Logistic-wise, sanity-wise, etc.

Flower Power: The Mock-Ups

2010-04-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

My wedding flowers are going to be SO EFFING AMAZING!

Whew, felt good to get that out.

If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about the flowers for this wedding. Yesterday I had the final meeting with our florist, Blooms by Plantscaping, and ladies they are some damn miracle workers.

Granted, I gave them a lot of direction when it came to the flowers. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted. If you need a refresher, please review these three posts. But even so, I had no IDEA the creations would look this awesome.

Behold...

Our three centerpiece options.

The tall centerpieces. They will have floating candles which are not pictured.

The first low centerpiece option.

The 2nd low centerpiece option.

For the low centerpieces we decided to go with the first option. The second one is equally beautiful, but we felt the first was the better choice for us. Also, please note we will have black linens, not ivory as pictured here.

While they didn't provide mock-ups, we made final decisions for my bouquet, the BM bouquets and the rest of the flowers. I may be a bit biased, but I think we scored the best florist in the greater Cleveland area. Our guests are in for such a treat!

It feels so good to actually be making final decisions. With just about a month to go it's getting more and more real!

A PSA

2010-04-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

Because I love you all SO MUCH and want each and every one of you to look supa-fine on your wedding day, I'm sending out a PSA.

Mind your face.

Don't be like me and think "Oh, I know! I'll entertain my guests with reenactments of funny stories accompanied by "funny" faces! Yes, that will certainly make for a great day."

Because when you do that, you end up with photos like this:

Why?

Also this:

Really, Emily?

And finally:

Not. Cute.

So please, learn from my mistakes. Don't look like an asshole on your wedding day. Thank god this was just my shower.

Are you known to take extremely unflattering photos? Care to share in my misery?

Showered with Luuurrrve

2010-04-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Let's just get it out of the way: I've been a terrible blogger. Again. I sound like a damn broken record. But moving is tough, ya'll! But this time I'm really going to try hard to get back on the blogging bandwagon, and I figure what better way to do that than to write about my shower...that took place almost a MONTH ago.

Four fabulous women offered to host the shower and they did such an amazing job!

From L-R: Avis (BM Claire's mom), Jenna (our flower girls' grandma),

Phyllis, Denise (they're sisters), and my mom.

These women are my mom's best friends in the world and MAN do they know how to throw a party! Arrabiata's Italian Restaurant hosted us and let us have the place all to ourselves for a few hours. Plus, OPEN BAR! Trust I enjoyed a few adult beverages (my nerves were crazy).

Denise made these adorable cookie favors:

Black icing represented the BMs

And white icing for the bride (that would be ME!)

The cake was made by the same baker who is making our wedding cake, Wild Flour Bakery. It was SO YUMMY and was honestly big enough to feed a small African village (no hate mail, please. It's a JOKE.)

A word to the wise: black icing WILL STAIN your mouth. Please trust me.

If you're thinking of getting black butter cream icing on your wedding cake...DON'T.

It looks pretty, but your mouth will be a hot ass mess.

The table arrangements were also just lovely and matched our wedding colors so well!

You can't really see it, but the basket is black and white. Adorable.

The BEST part of the day (yes, even better than presents) was that one of my BMs surprised me! I was *shocked* to see Nikki walk through the door and I immediately started bawling. Like, ugly cry for REAL. Of course, my camera died before I could get a pic with her. I'm sure some one else took one, but I'm not sure.

So we ate a ridiculously delicious meal (dare I say, it may have been better than the food we tasted for our actual wedding?) and went right into gifts. No silly games for this bride-to-be.

I won't show you the 230493 pics I have of me opening presents because um, that's kinda boring. But I will show you this one with the cutest wrapping ever!

It's kind of hard to see, but Josh's aunt got so creative and matched the wrapping to our wedding colors.

Loved it. I'm a sucker for nice wrapping.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful day. Very emotionally overwhelming and filled with love, exactly how I imagined.

I gots mah hurr did: part deux!

2010-04-05T05:39:00.000-07:00

BM Breeze was in town for my shower last weekend (more on that soon!) and agreed to do another hair trial. Ah, the perks of having your FSIL do your hair.

You may remember these posts about my hair inspiration and first hair trial. While I loved what Breeze did the first time, it still didn't feel completely "me." This time I asked her to make it bigger and the results were amazing!

My camera was completely dead after taking those two pics so we weren't able to get a great shot of the front. Oh and of course I forgot my hair flower. But I assure you, it's fabulous and I'm extremely happy.

There are absolutely no products in my hair (we also started with clean hair rather than starting with day-old dirty hair; this is Breeze's preference) and the bobby pins were kind of crappy (my fault, whoopsie!) so this is a bit messier than how it will look on the wedding day. Breeze assured me that her up-do's have massive staying power, and of course I trust her.

I wish I had taken a pic of my hair when I took it down. Oh my gosh, SO glamorous! And then even after I slept on it, it still looked fabulous! I wish Bree could do my hair like that every single day of my life.

Did your hair go through numerous revisions or did you have a concrete idea of what you wanted?

Licensed To Wed

2010-04-02T05:44:00.000-07:00

What a boring title, right?

Josh and I took a little trip to the courthouse a few days ago. No, we didn't have a quickie wedding. We DID, however, get our marriage license.

We tried to take a self portrait with the license. After a few (5 or so) failed attempts, a very nice woman took pity on us and said "Oh give it to me. I was that happy once, let me take your picture." Um, not sure what that means, but thanks!

I know it seems super early to do this, but with the move and everything it was literally the only day we were able to do it before the wedding. Luckily the license is good for 60 days!

It gets more and more real with each passing day!

Sashay! Shante!

2010-04-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

Many times on this blog I've gone on and on about our amazing photographers, Ted and Rachel Linczak of Linczak Photography. You've seen our e-pics and examples of their "First Look" work. I've sang their praises loud and proud.

Well, ladies and gents, it's time to do that once more. Because our photographers? Are the bomb dot com.

A few weeks ago Rachel emailed me to see if Josh and I would be interested in a "bridal shoot" of sorts. She wanted a sexy dress, big hair, and my hottie groom. Check, check and CHECK!

On Monday we braved the frigid (and I do mean FRIGID) Cleveland temperatures all in the name of kick-ass photography. Here are a few teasers from the day!

The first few pictures highlight the gross parts of downtown Cleveland. Luckily, gross landscapes are often some of the best backdrops. The final picture was taken in the back seat of a car with Rachel sitting behind me with a spotlight. The end result is amazing, right??

I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!

**All images are property of Linczak Photography.

Obligatory alterations post

2010-03-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

**JOSH: I'm pretty sure you don't read this, but if you've somehow stumbled across this post DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. It's dress-related. 'Nuff said.**

My first alteration appointment was last week and it was just fabulous. It was my first time trying on my dress since September and I really hoped it still fit. Well, it "fit" in the sense that I could zip it up. It did not, however, "fit" in the sense that I could sit down. Yeah um, I'm a few pounds heavier now than when I ordered it.

Anyway, let's not dwell on that.

The seamstress is taking it out in the hips (yay I can sit!), taking it in in the back/bust (yay no more gaping!), and didn't have to do a THING to the hem. My height (5'5") coupled with my heels (about 3 inches) made me the perfect height for the dress. So excited about that.

I know you're all "Blah blah don't care show me pictures," so here are a few from the appointment.

Mmm pretty....

As the always eloquent Shakira once proclaimed: my hips don't lie.

Although sometimes I wish they did.

All up in my biz perfecting the bustle.

Seriously, this woman is a magician.

It sort of looks weird here, but my bustle is AMAZING.

I almost want to wear it bustled all day.

My mom ordered a bridesmaids dress for her wedding day attire so she had her alterations appointment that day, too.

She's adorable.

Again, this seamstress is a magician and said both dresses would be ready in 2 weeks. Uh...that's freaking fast. Hopefully next time I try on my dress I'll actually be able to sit.

How much alteration did your dress require? Was it a painless process or a never-ending saga?

Really, USPS?

2010-03-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

In my last post about our invitations I touched on my frustration with the wrap-around address labels.

Hand-writing addresses was really never an option for me. I have terrible handwriting and didn't want to pay a calligrapher. Plus, wrap-around labels just look so fun!

After finding labels (thanks Stacey! She did a tutorial at my request!), working on them for a good 6 hours, getting them *just* right, painstakingly printing them, and finally affixing them to our beautiful envelopes, I was over-the-moon excited to mail them. People would see them and love them and tell me what a fanTAStic job I did (I like praise).

Then...I went to the post office and proceeded to have a meltdown. I think a review of my tweets from that day best tell the story. (Warning: If offensive language offends you...um skip this part.) Observe:

This was not what I wanted to hear. The not-so-nice post office lady told me, and I quote "Well, we'll mail them but you're GOING to get 50% of them sent back to you." Oh REALLY? She also basically suggested I redo them. Hahaha good one, post office ~~lady~~ bitch, I'll get RIGHT on that.

Apparently because the recipient's address and the return address were at the same level the machine would get confused and might read the return address as the recipient address. Really. Because I always thought that the envelope gets delivered to the address on the side of the STAMP. Ok...I can't even talk about this anymore because it makes me so mad.

So I walked out of there with my invitations and proceeded to hyperventilate and tweet at the same time. It's as skill I've honed over the past year or so. A few of my Twitter friends, namely these three girls, help talk me off the ledge. Seriously, thank god for Twitter.

When I got home, I did what any internet-savvy bride would do: I Googled the crap out of wrap-around labels. My goal was to prove the post office wrong. Everything I read from brides said that they had no problems. HA! Victory was mine. (I love being right.)

All that was left to do was stamp and send! I'm happy to report that ZERO invitations have been sent to the incorrect address. So SUCK IT, United States Postal Service. Maybe you should train your employees to give correct information and not make brides CRY. (Yep...pulling the "bride card.")

Have you had any wedding-related meltdowns? Please say yes so I know I'm not completely crazy.

Invitations: Revealed!

2010-03-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

Our invitations are in the hot little hands of our guests so I can finally reveal them!

Since I know all you're really interested in are pictures, I'll get to those right away. Please excuse the terrible erasing job on some of these.

I *LOVE* our envelopes. They're the perfect shade of green and metallic and so freaking amazing. I never thought I would, you know, care about envelopes. But I do. I do so much.

I would do dirty things to these envelopes if they weren't going out to 200 people. Jk...maybe.

The back. Those wrap-around labels...man oh man. I'll explain the saga in another post.

This is the digital file of the invitation because I was tired of editing the pics I took.

Our ridiculously full RSVP card. I'm positive 98% of our guests will fill these out wrong.

The whole suite. I didn't block out our info on this one. I'm lazy and mad at my computer.
Please don't steal my identity.
Also, you'll see the accommodations card on here. I figured you probably don't care about that one, hence the lack of a close-up.
Oh, and say hi to Tyler :)

My friend Sophie did an amazing job interpreting my vision. I honestly would not change one single thing about these invitations. Please check out her website, SophieNemethy.com. Her paintings are absolutely stunning and she has become an equally amazing graphic designer.

Honestly, I don't think doing my own invitations saved me any money. I bought all the materials but paid some one else (quite a bit more than I wanted) to print them. However, I never set out to necessarily "save" money. I wanted my invitations to turn out exactly how *I* wanted and I just didn't see that happening by picking something from the internet. Plus, I was able to work with my good friend which meant unlimited meetings/revisions!

Did you work with a "friendor" on your invitations or any other part of your wedding? How was your experience?

For the crybabies

2010-03-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

I like my DIY projects the same way I like my women: easy. Did that make any sense? No, but it made me giggle.

"Tears of Joy" tissue packets are not the most original DIY project, but definitely one of the easiest. Like, stupid easy. I first saw this project on Miss Mojito's (aka Laura) blog. Her inspiration was from this post over on Bee's blog. After reading both posts I thought, "Pshh even I can do that." So I did!

I followed Bee's directions exactly, but made my own labels on Vistaprint.

(Source)

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, go check out Bee's post or Miss Mojito's post for full directions. Here is how mine turned out!

Photo by moi!

Cute, right? Nothing revolutionary, but that's not really my style. I still have to find something to hold them, but I'm sure I can scrounge something up.

Were any (or all) of your DIY projects stupid easy or do you like more of a challenge?

The uncomfortable side of wedding planning

2010-03-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

When I go to weddings I usually bawl at the Father/Daughter dance. Not just shed a tear, oh no, I SOB. The ugly cry face comes out in full force and I usually down whatever alcoholic beverage I have near me. So let's just say the one part of my wedding that I'm decidedly NOT looking forward to is the Father/Daughter dance.

My lukewarm relationship with my dad is well-documented on this blog, but in case you're new let me give you the low down. My dad is present in my life but I don't see him very much. I have some deep-seeded issues with him that someday I'll hopefully work out, but right now our relationship is not the "typical" father/daughter relationship. I actually really like my dad and enjoy his company, but I just can't get past a lot of feelings I have toward him. Anyway, I'm anxious about dancing with him at my wedding.

In order to cut out some of the awkwardness we've decided to combine the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. I just cannot be out there with him by myself. Luckily Josh's mom is completely understanding, something I will forever be grateful for (she's a saint, that woman).

Due to the somewhat unusual nature of our relationship, the "typical" F/D dance songs just are not going to cut it. No "Butterfly Kisses" or "I Loved Her First" or anything like that. Puke.

Honestly, there needs to be a handbook about the uncomfortable side of weddings. Anyway, there's really only one song I don't hate that would work for this dance. Luckily, it's by one of my favorite groups, Rascal Flatts (yep, I'm a country music lovin' city girl. Don't judge.)

The only thing is it's kind of long. Four minutes is a long damn time and I *know* I will be a hot mother effing MESS. But right now it's sort of my only option. However...this is where you fabulous ladies come in!

What song are you and your dad dancing to? I'd love any recommendations for songs that might fit my situation. I'll love you forever?

Also, is there any part of the wedding day you're not looking forward to? Or am I on an island here?

Bachelorette Birthday Blowout: You Don't Have To Go Home

2010-03-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

But you gotta get the hell up outta here!

As late night turned into early morning, one by one we started fading. I can really only speak for myself, but my feet were in PAIN. It was the perfect time to take a little break on one of our couches.

Sleepy girls.

Let's recap this pic: MJ is reviewing pics, BM Despina is dancing with her hands, BM Nikki is...fist pumping (?) and BM Claire is sulking (haha jk Claire).

It might be time to go home.

So we said some goodbyes and thank-yous, rallied the troops, and made our way back to the hotel.

Remember when I said I have some "drifter" friends? Well, this came into play when we tried to exit the bar and get a cab. Somehow we lost half the group. I have no idea how this happened, but it was a bit chaotic. Let me set the scene:

Location: W. 6th St. outside of the Velvet Dog.

Time: 2am-ish?

BM: We have a cab! Everyone in!

Me: Um...where are the rest of the girls?

BM: We can't wait for them, we gotta go!

Me: Um...I'm going to go find them.

Random Limo Company Guy: Hey! You're a beautiful bride to be. Do you have a limo company for your wedding yet?

Me: Yes. I need to go find my friends.

Random Limo Company Guy: I'd love to drive you around on your wedding day. When is the wedding? Where are you having it?

Me: Thanks. May. It's at Windows. We already have some one. I need to go FIND MY FRIENDS.

RLCG: Blah blah blah hire me instead blah blah blah.

Me: Ok, I have to go now.

BM: EM! We gotta go NOW.

Me: Jesus god where are they? (Runs up and down the street yelling for Tyrone.)

BM: Emily, get in the cab!

(I get in the cab...they can figure out how to get back to the hotel themselves.)

Me: I SEE THEM! STOP THE CAB!

(I get out and run to my asshole friends who are leisurely walking down the street smoking cigs.)

Me: GET IN THE CAB

Asshole Friends: Hahaha we're so silly, just strolling down the street, holding everyone else up. La la dee daa!!

One piece of advice if you're going to have a bachelorette party like this: it's not enough to just figure out how to get *to* your party, you really need to figure out how to get back *from* your party.

Here are a few pics from the very end of the night (just so you can see how ridiculous we all were at that point):

Since I was the last person in the cab I had to sit on the FLOOR.

This made me really happy, as you can tell.

Incredibly unflattering, but we were having a grand time waiting for the hotel elevator.

We were a bit, um, hungry when we got back.

BM Ena ordered a pizza (not pictured).

All in all, it was an extremely fun party and exactly what I wanted. My girls certainly went above and beyond and for that I will be forever thankful.

Miss something?

The weekend begins

Hotel and restaurant shenanigans

We get our dance on

They dared me

And away we go!!

2010-03-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen some recent tweets about "big news" or "big changes" going on in my life. Well, I'm excited to FINALLY announce that...
*
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We're moving!!

(Source)

Ha, you thought I was gonna say "pregnant," huh? Def not.

Josh and I have been discussing leaving Ohio for quite awhile now and that dream is finally being realized. The job market in Northeast Ohio is abysmal and it's just time for a change. At first we thought about North or South Carolina, but after a few serious discussions we settled on the DC area. We know a good number of people out there and Josh's sister moved to Maryland a year ago, so it really was a no-brainer.

Recently Josh has been a bit unhappy with his current job and decided to start applying for jobs in the DC area. I told him if he got a job before the wedding that I would stay back and he could move out there without me. Well, he applied, interviewed, and got a job! So that means I'm moving back in with my mom for a few months and we'll be apart for the last 2 months before the wedding. No worries, though. We've done long distance before, I'm not worried about doing it again.

It will definitely be a bit of a struggle, but I know it's temporary and it's the best decision for us. I just can't wait to get out there and get a J-O-B!

Have any of you gone through major life changes immediately before or after your wedding? Any advice?

Bachelorette Birthday Blowout: I Dare Ya

2010-03-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

One thing you should know about me is I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself in front of an audience. I LOVE karaoke even though I really can't sing. I'll volunteer to go up on stage and do something silly. I just generally do not care. Before college I was pretty shy, but once I met BM Despina she brought out the "fun" Emily. You could also call this "attention whore" Emily. I'll take either.

The part of the night I was really looking forward to was doing "bachelorette dares." The girls gave me a coupon book with 10 dares. I looked through all of them and announced that I would do anything in the book. The girls only took me up on that offer twice! Seriously, I was prepared (and excited for) some seriously embarrassing moments, but alas, the girls were having too much fun dancing and (let's get serious) drinking.

The first dare instructed me to "straddle a chair, wave your hands around, and yell 'YEE HAW'." Alrighty then!

My biggest concern was people seeing my hoo-ha/Spanx.

Probably should have thought this one through a bit more.

Clearly I've done this once or twice before.

Because I'm a cowgirl, ya know.

"Oh boy...what have I done?"

Good times. The next dare was only witnessed by one BM (jokester Helen. Remember her?) The dare read, "Sit next to a random guy, take your bra off, wave it around, then put it back on and walk away." Of course I was wearing the most plain and un-sexy bra that night. But I'm a good bride and I do as I'm told. Only one picture exists of this and it doesn't fully show you the act, but I'll post it anyway. (Truth be told I think Helen may have been a wee bit intoxicated. I know she reads this so...Hi, Helen!)

See the un-sexiness of my bra?

Also note that the guy has no interest in what I'm doing.

I couldn't figure out a way to put my bra back on without flashing the entire bar, so I opted to complete the dare in the bathroom.

Now, in case you're wondering, yes Josh has seen every single one of these pictures and no, he doesn't care what I do. I really am lucky to have a guy who is completely understanding of my outgoing personality. I certainly don't plan on changing anytime soon.

Up next, the chaos of calling it a night.

Bachelorette Birthday Blowout: The Dance Party Begins

2010-03-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

One thing I *really* wanted for my bachelorette party was a reserved area in whichever club we decided to go to. We had a pretty big group (I think there were 16 of us) and I felt we needed a central meeting place. Some of my friends are what I like to call drifters. This is not a bad thing, and I'm often in this category too, but I didn't want to "lose" anyone. I knew if we didn't have a place to meet, we'd be all over the damn place. Well, my girls came through and we had a HUGE area all to ourselves. The best picture I have of it unfortunately includes two girls who had a little too much fun:

Hahahaha ohhh yes. The girl on the right is actually a BM.

Hope she can hang at the wedding.

The other side (behind me) was the same. We had bottle service, too. Felt real classy n' shit.

Right next to our "VIP" area (haha...calling us VIPs sounds so ridiculous) was...wait for it...a dancing platform! I was in heaven. If you know anything about me, you know that I love to dance and that I love being the center of attention. You better believe I hustled my ass up there as soon as we walked in.

My mom actually told me that I could have a career as a stripper.

I took it as a compliment.

I think everyone enjoyed the show.

I want to leave you with a few more pics of us generally having a damn good time.

Former roomie and current BM Despina.

I wish I wasn't cut out of this pic.

All of the BMs and myself (although some of them aren't looking).

I love my face.

Why I haven't been discovered as an American Idol yet is just beyond me.

I have stage presence, god damn it!

Tyrone and BM Ena.

She's famous (or maybe infamous) for her hair flip.

BM Breezy (FSIL) giving me a lap dance of sorts. Obviously I loved it.

Josh's mom and her new bff Tyrone.

Seriously, this picture makes me the happiest woman in the world and makes my eyes well up with the happiest tears.

Up next, the stupid shit I did at my bachelorette party that will probably come back to haunt me.