Here’s how the weekend went down from what I can remember…
Friday was super rainy and we spent most of it running last-minute errands. We still hadn’t finished our guest book box so we ran to Target hoping to find something that would do the trick. I ended up buying thank you cards and a one inch hole puncher for like $4 and cut the decorative fronts off the cards to act as dividers and used the blank white portions of the cards as material for my hole puncher. I found clearance scrap booking letters to put on the paper circles and ta-da!
Perfect guest book box (I just wish more people had actually signed it, not sure where the confusion or miscommnication happened).
We then got ready for the rehearsal and dinner. The forecast didn’t look good for our wedding day but at this point, we were still planning on having the ceremony in the courtyard. Once we arrived at the museum, it became clear that having an outside ceremony wasn’t going to be in the best interest of our guests or my dress so we decided to have the ceremony on the dance floor (I’m SO glad we decided to have it inside, everyone was nice and dry and warm and it looked gorgeous).
Me…temporarily losing my mind.
So we have a quick run-through (****This is one of THE MOST important times to delegate tasks to other people, you will have a million things going through your head, use your friends and family to help move things along at this point), got the ceremony schedule situated and headed back to our loft…except me because I got a call that morning that a trial pair of contacts had come in for me at my eye clinic (my eyes are the perfect storm of crappy vision and the doctor didn’t think any contacts would work for me so I had been quietly mourning the idea of wearing them in the wedding that entire week) so I ran over there in my leopard print heels to get them.
After that minor detour, we all met back up at the community room in our loft building. We tossed around ideas of how we wanted to do our rehearsal dinner for months, but with the size of our entourage and the budget we wanted to stay within, it only made sense to rent our free community room and have an intimate night of baseball on the big screen, loved ones and food. Our family had gone all out for us by creating a beautiful feast of cupcakes, Pizza Luce pizza (our favorite), veggies, beer, wine etc.
It was so relaxing to just chill out with the people we love most, I really can’t say enough good things about taking this approach to your rehearsal dinner. We then handed out some thank you gifts (whiskey stones for the groomsmen, minus darren who we gave some sweet vintage ice cream bowls…he’s serious about his ice cream…, black french veils for the girls and skinny ties for the ushers) and watched the Twins. The rest of that evening was spent packing up items in our loft for the next day and making a list of what we needed to have done for us the next day (again, delegate!).
I know it’s tradition to not see each other the night before/day of the wedding but it just didn’t make sense to have one of us leave behind the comforts of home just because someone once said it was good luck. We even let puppy sleep in bed with us that night. The next morning we got up nice and early to have a private yoga session with our dear friend Alicia (we take her yoga class once a week in our loft’s yoga studio and she agreed to give us a private session the morning of our wedding!). This was one of the best decisions of our wedding, it was great to zen out with my husband to be for an hour before all the chaos started. It left us both feeling relaxed and centered for our long day.
After that I, along with my mom, headed to Uptown to get my hair and makeup done with my maid of honor. 
For my hair, my stylist loosely curled my entire head and pulled most of it to the side to create a low side bun. I wanted something classic and romatic and as I put it “will look better the messier it gets”. For my eyes, she used three shades of MAC eye shadow, a light gold color, dark chocolate brown and a more neutral brown. She used liquid liner for my lids (I opted for a thicker lining of my top lid to create a more dramatic look for the evening ceremony). I got my eyes done at 10am and they lasted until 2am! I waited until it was time to take pictures to put on any other makeup, I don’t like the way makeup feels on my face, even if it was bare minerals.
One of the biggest/ridiculous/normal concerns I had for my wedding was my skin acting up. I didn’t want to worry about my face rebelling on me so I went to my dermatologist in August and asked for her advice. I mean I probably deal with mild acne from time to time but I didn’t even want to bother with one pimple showing up uninvited. She put me on some low dose antibiotics and prescribed some topical cream and holy crap, my skin was flawless and clear the moment I started the antibiotics (I’m terrified to go off them, hahaha). Another decision I’m so glad I made. I used a little bare minerals makeup right before pictures to make my skin look airbrushed and decrease any oil that may creep up during the evening.
After the hair salon, Cristina, my mom and I headed over to the hotel where family was staying to do flowers. Ladies, listen up, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT!!! spend money on a florist. Farmer’s markets are your best friend and my best friend happen to be stationed at the place where I was getting married! Mill City has a farmer’s market every saturday and the saturday before the wedding, Will and I scoped it out with puppy digital and found the most gorgeous, full bouquets of flowers for $5 a pop. I sent my aunt and sister-in-law on a mission while I was getting my hair done to get a few of the bouquets so we could make them ourselves. Some places will seriously charge you upwards of $150 dollars for a single bunch of flowers…don’t let your crazy wedding planning mind trick you into thinking this is a good thing!!
Now granted I didn’t have any preferences on colors/types of flowers but still, come on now, don’t blow your budget on your flowers. I spent about $30 for eight gorgeous bouquets.
We formed an assembly line and in no time at all, finished all the bouquets. It was a bonding moment <3
At this point, it was almost 2pm so we left the flowers with the girls and headed back to the loft where my dear husband was alone, frantically packing all the center pieces and random items we needed for the museum. We loaded up what seemed to be six cars and headed to the venue. The caterer had started to set up and we headed to the basement to get ready. The boys and girls were separated by two rooms right next to one another, it was really fun running around getting dressed with everyone together; people were helping each other tuck in bras, tie ties, put on makeup, hair spray, deodorant, it was one of my favorite moments.
I threw on my fancy blue bathrobe that my mom had given me at a bridal shower and headed upstairs to check out the set-up. As the ceremony got closer, I went back downstairs to get on that beast of a dress.
I’m so grateful for my girls, they tended to my every need, laced up my ridiculous dress, fed me shots of jameson when I needed them (hey, I’m going to be lugging around this dress all night, I need my irish courage!) and helped me walk in my 5.5 inch heels.
After I got dressed, I had Will stand outside the door with his back turned so he could see me for the first time in my dress.
Then my dad got to see me 
Water-proof mascera is your friend, ladies.
After those few tender moments, we went off to shoot some amazing photos. I could go on and on about our photographer and friend Andrew but I’ll let you just soak in his work with your eyes, they are simply breathtaking.
Of course, after we make our decision to have the ceremony inside, it clears up! I had diva moment that day and it was when I refused to go outside before the ceremony because it was windy and I spent a reasonable price on my hair so I didn’t want to muss it up too much yet, haha.
One of my favorite ‘Will’ faces.
After these pictures, it was game time. We all went back downstairs, Will and I gave a little pep talk which was really us just gushing about how much we loved and appreciated everyone’s help in making this happen. Just as we were about to get the party started, my brother tells me that one of the shuttle buses from the hotel has not shown up yet, I was..just a little panicked at the prospect of half our seats being empty but before I even had time to actually panic, the bus arrived and I was off to marry my high school sweetheart.
I don’t remember much about actually walking down the aisle or the actual ceremony. It wasn’t nerves really, I think it was that my brain couldn’t process that this was actually happening, after months of planning and years of talking about it. I had both my parents walk me down the aisle to the middle of the room as Will and his parents walked him to us, from there, we exchanged hugs and walked down the aisle together to get married. This symbolism, regardless of other people’s opinions, was very important and special for us. Don’t let anyone tell you that you should do things differently. When it comes to YOUR wedding day, you need to do what’s best for you and your spouse. We had some backlash for some of the decisions we made during the planning process including having an all vegetarian menu, an atheist ceremony and having both parents walk down the aisle. At first I was really hurt by these comments because I felt the people making them were being selfish and not respecting Will and I enough to understand that this is what we wanted. I admit, looking back now, it’s hard to completely forgive and forget some of the instances when outside individuals made our planning difficult but I chose not to focus on them because after it’s all said and done, everything that we put our foot down on were things that our guests positively commented on the most. Everyone raved about our menu and thought our ceremony was beautiful (one of my aunts told me she almost stood up and clapped after our Vonnegut reading). You have to remember that everyone’s emotions are running high during this process, make sure you take other’s opinions in stride and try not to isolate people for any inappropriate actions or behaviors they may be oblivious to.
The ceremony was written by our friend Seth, and it couldn’t have suited us better..I mean it referenced the Wu-tang clan! A few weeks before the wedding, I was searching for something to be read during the ceremony just to add another element and had difficulty finding quotes that wouldn’t outright offend anyone who believed in supernatural entities. I ended up just writing something myself that expressed the views that Will and I share on death and life, I included a super nerdy science quote about how lucky we are to be alive and added Vonnegut at the end for good measure. It’s included in the ceremony post I made earlier in the month. I think the ceremony ended up being perfect, it wasn’t shamelessly shouting “HEY WE’RE ATHEISTS!!!!” but I think it made it very clear to anyone who wasn’t sure that we aren’t down with any deity. Our friend Darren played us in to The Decemberists’ Red Right Ankle and played us out to Neutral Milk Hotel. Our vows were pretty unique I suppose, we both started out by saying “I promise” and went back and forth making promises to one another. We finished by promising each other that if one of us slips up or does not follow through on one of these promises, we’re simply going to move forward together and forgive.
After the ceremony, Will and I went off to take some private pictures together as a freshly wedded couple.
Now that the important stuff was out of the way, it was time to party!! We headed upstairs to meet everyone else who had been enjoying a cocktail hour. I finally got to see my hard work come to life. The dining area looked incredible!
I don’t know if word got passed around or what but no one clicked their glasses for us to kiss all night (THANK YOU!!) and let us eat in peace, haha. I don’t remember the entire menu but I believe there were griddled polenta cakes, wild roasted veggie lasagna, some sort of pastry rolade dish, roasted potatoes, fire roasted veggies with parm, bread, caramel apple cheese cake and chocolate raspberry torte. YUM! By this point, I was still in this weird state of “I can’t believe this is really happening, how am I supposed to feel about this!?!” (you will feel this way most of your day, it’s hard to avoid and is hard to explain. That is the main reason for pictures, it will help you remember that you did, in fact, look fabulous and have a fabulous time) and my dress was a little hard to sit down in so I didn’t get to eat very much but damn it was good food!
Next came the toasts. Will and I didn’t expect the amount of toasts we received and were SO touched by everyone who gave one. Seriously, they were beautiful, funny, nerdy, sweet, teary eyed and sincere. Thank you to Cristina, Ashley, Maggie and Rich, Kelsey, Ian and both sets of parents.
After the toasts we cut the cake.
Check out my over the top, nerdy bird cake-topper. The girl that designed and made them for us created my bird’s dress to match mine all the way down to the asymmetrical lace! Both birds had glasses, Will’s had a red beard, mine had a monroe piercing and a french veil. Best geeky purchase for the wedding ever!
You see, the problem with a night wedding is that the night goes REALLY fast, so we felt a little rushed because 9pm crept up quickly. As soon as we got done cutting the cake, we went to have our first dance to keep the vibe up. We accepted that a considerable amount of people would leave right after dinner, some people left without even saying anything to us! It’s hard to balance yourself on a wedding night, you will feel guilty because you can’t greet and thank everyone in person, hopefully other people understand that.
Our first dance was to “You are the best thing” by Ray LaMontagne and it was wonderful.
My dad and I danced to “My girl” by the Temptations. He used to always sing it to me when I was little
Will and his mom danced to “What a Wonderful World” by Louie Armstrong. It’s hard to find good, unsappy Mother/Son dances for weddings!
At some point in the evening, I threw my bouquet to Beyonce’s “All my single ladies”, hahaha.
My cute little cousin caught it!
The rest of the night was great, lots of dancing and visiting, Will and the boys went off to smoke some cigars and Cristina and I got to get down to our fav. The Cupid Shuffle…twice. Our DJ was amazing, he spun vinyl all night and kept the crowd engaged, which is super important, make sure you get a good DJ! I even serenaded my bridesmaids with Salt ‘N Peppa’s classic “Shoop” in it’s entirety.
At the end of the night, after almost everyone had left, Will and I snuck off to get more pictures taken in a really cool, industrial part of the museum.
Afterwards, we had another small dance party with those who were still there and packed up the basement. Will and I had a car waiting for us outside to take us to our hotel (many, many thanks to our groomsman Brett for setting all of it up, so amazing). Our hotel room was on the executive floor that required a key to access and there was a plate of chocolates and fruit waiting for us with a bottle of champagne and rose petals on the bed. The perfect end to a perfect day.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone involved in our wedding, to our friends and family, to those of you who were interested enough in our journey to create 6000 views on our blog and most importantly, those who unconditionally encouraged and supported our sometimes crazy, definitely unorthodox vision for a wedding.
