Burning River Wedding: Big Balls and East 4th

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

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.

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: Gettin' Prettified

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

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.