Burning River Wedding: Sunshine and Surprises

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always, pics are by Linczak Photography!

I buy too much stuff

But I need options!! That is what I keep telling myself, at least. Now that I know not to make the same mistake twice in regards to return policies, I feel like being able to see lots of options will help me make the best decisions. So without further ado...more wedding crap I bought!

The Tie Bar is a great website for finding fun and colorful ties. We're doing green ties for the GMs and finding the perfect tie proved to be a bit difficult. The Tie Bar lets you search by color and luckily they had a number of ties we were interested in. Another cool thing about the site is you can see what the tie looks like with different color suits/shirts. The men will wear black suits with white shirts, so that is what I used against the various ties. I purchased the following ties for $15 each.

(Polo Stripes - Greens)

(Herringbone - Clover Green)

(Spring Stripe - Apple)

(Herringbone - Apple)

I also ordered the following pocket squares, also from The Tie Bar, for $5 each.

(Pocket Square - Clover)

(Pocket Square - Apple)

Whew! Still with me? Good. The ties arrived and surprisingly the colors are pretty true to what you see in the pictures. After much consideration we decided to go with...drumroll please...

And...

Yay! If the green/white/black striped tie didn't have all that gray in it, we might have picked that one. I love our choices and I hope the GMs love them, too!

Did you go on a spending spree at any time during your planning?

Oh mah gaw

Girls, I've been busy. This whole work+wedding planning+relationship+social life+me time is, uh, sorta hard. I give so much credit to people who do this with kids thrown in the mix. Shoot me now, seriously. But I have soo many fun things to show you!! So let's get started, shall we?

First, I bought a few things from Etsy. Mmmm I love her (yes, I just gave a website a gender.) From TessaKim I bought a 14' tulle birdcage veil.

The veil arrived kinda wrinkled but that's nothing a little steam from a hot shower can't fix. I've played around with it a bit, but I really have no idea what I'm doing. Hopefully Bridesmaid Breezy and I can have a round of hair trials soon (she's doing my hair, have I mentioned that?)

I ordered this beautiful hair flower (minus the feathers) from Brenda's Bridal Veils.

It came yesterday and I loooove it. I cannot wait to wear it for the wedding. Again, I have no idea where on my head to place it, but with a little fussing I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Oh! Did I mention the bracelet I bought? No? Well, here it is, from Bel Canto.

To quote the always eloquent Rachel Zoe, "I. Die. It's bananas." I freaking love this bracelet so FREAKING much. I think I've mentioned before about my small wrists and narrow hands. Well, I bought this bracelet and prayed that it wouldn't be too big. At one point I was even resolved to the idea that it would probably be too big for me. But when I slipped it on and the clasp clicked close, I realized that it actually fit. It felt like it was made just for me, to my exact measurements. I don't know how I lucked out, but somehow the stars aligned and I found the perfect bracelet for my wedding day.

Next up...more stuff I bought!

This could be dangerous

Yesterday marked a beautiful day in this bride's life. Yesterday I made my first Etsy purchase. EEEEE!!!!!*

I've been on the hunt for a bracelet for a while now. My wrists are very small and my hands are long and narrow. Needless to say, bracelets are NOT my friend. It's definitely not the worst problem to have, but it's discouraging nonetheless. So without further ado I present to you, my dear readers, my beautiful, blindingly-blingy, bangin' bracelet.

It's from Bel Canto Designs. They are one of the first Etsy sellers I discovered. *Love* Well clearly I didn't discover them, but you know what I mean. Hopefully it fits, and if it doesn't hopefully I can find some one who could take a few links out. But damn it, if I have to keep it on with double stick tape all day then that's just what I'll have to do. Because I am WEARING it.

So now that I have my earrings and bracelet I'm on to veils and hair flowers. And where else to look for those two items than ETSY!! Here is the veil I'm thisclose to buying.

(From Here)

It's not the typical birdcage veil. It's tulle instead of the popular Russian netting (at least I think it's called Russian netting.) BRG is skeptical of anything covering my face, but I just absolutely LOVE this. I think it's shown here in ivory, but I would order it in white. I'm thinking of pairing it with this hair flower.

(From Here)

Minus those stringy feathers. Really not feeling those. Would those silvery leaves be too much? I worry about them competing with my earrings (which can be seen here.) I think the leaves are gorgeous and they make this different from the normal hair flower. I might search a bit more today, but if I can't find anything I'm going to really consider getting it.

Have you made any wedding purchases from Etsy?

*Bridal Squeal