Burning River Wedding: Pics at the Big Red Thing

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

2.

3.

4.

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!