our wedding video trailer preview!!

i don't have much time to write about this...and i think it speaks for itself. here is our wedding video preview trailer from the amazing captured productions. sit back, enjoy, and crank the volume!!

xo

vendor reviews!

I have to preface this by saying that honestly, we did not have anything go wrong on the wedding day and I was more than thrilled with every single one of my vendors. I am not kidding! I was prepared for the worst, but nothing went awry. Really, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter either! :) My vendors were awesome. I would recommend all of them! So...I am not grading them. I’m just writing about how fabulous they really were :)

Email me if you have any further questions or need contact info - moe3302@yahoo.com

Church: St. Paul on the Lake

I think it’s difficult to “review” a church, but our location and views were phenomenal. It was my hubby’s childhood church, so this choice was a no-brainer.

Reception: GPYC

Joyce, the coordinator, was fabulous! Everything worked out perfectly. She did exactly what I wanted and I had to send my hubby to the “final meeting” with her before the wedding - I am now in full-time grad school - and everything was just perfect. The service there was, and always has been, awesome. Our guests that hadn’t been there before were very impressed! It is a private club, so you either have to be a member or sponsored by a member to have an event there.

Flowers: Deborah Wilson of Clinton Township

Deborah was by far one of my favorite vendors. I found out about her from one of my BMs that had seen her work at 2 of her friends’ weddings. We immediately clicked on the phone, and I knew I was going to love her - her idea of having mint in my BMs’ bouquets was what sold me! I loved all of our flowers and our guests even took some of the CPs home - they were in faux silver revere bowls. She also did all the candles for the reception, and went above and BEYOND what I had imagined or what we talked about. There were flowers everywhere. I HIGHLY recommend Deborah. Email me if you want her info; she works out of her home and only does a few weddings.

My dress: I do, too! of Plymouth

The girls there were awesome - so patient and really helpful.

My flower for my dress: handle&spout of NY

Blake and Corinne were awesome. I sent them the non-used strap from my dress for them to color-match, told them via email what I wanted, sent an “inspirational” picture, and I was very pleased with the final product. It came in a very cute box with a cute note too. Loved their final touch!

My shoes: Kate Spade from bluefly.com

Easy, simple transaction. They definitely showed their wear by the end of the night from walking in grass, etc., but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Super comfy, never even thought about changing my shoes all day or night!

My veil: My mom’s...with a little help of some scissors!

My jewelry: whiteaisle.com

I was in love with Erica’s (fellow knottie and blogger) earrings and had to have them. I had previously bought another earring/bracelet set, but I just wasn’t happy with them after awhile (I think I bought them too early - and was able to see them too much and got sick of them!)...I purchased my earrings and bracelet from the website. They arrived packaged well and super sparkly! Very happy with the quality (and price!).

Bridesmaid dresses: J.Crew (national chain)

No one had trouble ordering dresses. They also received them quickly! The color was exactly the same as the swatch I was sent before they ordered.

Groom & Groomsmen suits: Brooks Brothers (national chain)

Dale, manager at Brooks Brothers in GP, was fabulous to work with. We opened up a BB charge to order all of our GMs’ suits at a discounted rate (they later paid us back - we didn’t buy them for them!) and Dale had them sent where we wanted and ordered from stores together so we didn’t have to pay for shipping. We loved how they looked! So, they were able to buy the suits and have them instead of paying more for rented tuxes. My hubby also got his tie from BB.

Groomsmen ties: paulfredrick.com

When we saw the inspiration board that we actually used for our big day, the tie was on it. I linked it back and we decided that we had to have that tie! We got lucky when we logged on and found a great deal on the ties - they were on sale. Then I googled for coupon codes (duh!) and found an additional coupon that was applicable. We basically stole those ties. They were awesome quality and arrived in their own personal boxes.

Photographer: JK Photography of Grand Rapids

Jen did our e-session, my boudoir, and obviously captured our wedding day. She was more than awesome. Super fun to be around, a lot of energy, and captured some really great shots. I highly recommend her!

Videographer: Captured Productions

I can’t say anything more about Aaron other than his work speaks for itself. He was so easy to work with and we barely knew he was there - in a good way! I can’t wait to see a sneak peek from him! He is a little pricey, but his work is phenomenal and more than worth its cost.

Linens: AECC of Troy

Colleen & Crystal were easy to work with and responded to emails literally within the hour almost always. I was only bummed about ONE thing: originally I had decided to do chair covers and sashes. So we put down a deposit on them (a separate contract from the linens). Then we decided we wanted chivaris. I asked the girls if the deposit from the chair covers could be moved over to the linen balance. They said no, that we had to forfeit the amount, which I thought was silly since it is the same company. They did offer sashes for my bridal shower instead. Overall, I was happy with the quality of the product and the service. I would recommend them because I felt that they were professional and I had NO doubt in my mind that they would deliver. They made me feel very comfortable!

Chivari chairs: Candelite Chair Covers & Linens of ?

Rita was by far the vendor I was “worried” about the most. Her emails were quick, but they usually contained misspelled words. Overall, yes, I was happy with the final product. However, she called the THE MORNING OF the wedding telling/asking me to send her pictures after the wedding of the room because of how beautiful she thought it looked. It didn’t bother me then - and I believe it was a sweet gesture, but looking back, I thought... “Really? You had to call me the day of the wedding and ask me that? You couldn’t just email me?!” Also, she forgot to send the sashes that were supposed to go on the bridal party’s chairs. Did I care/notice? No. I actually don’t even think I would have liked them, looking back, but it’s the principle. Regardless, Rita’s prices cannot be beat and she was easy to work with.

Limo: Allstar VIP of Royal Oak

More than impressed with this company. I did my research (mostly on BBB and on the WDIV “Best of” contest) the most for the limo. I had heard so many horror stories! They received fab reviews on the “Best of” website and all of their emails/phone calls were professional. The “party bus” showed up on time and was spotless. My MOH also booked them for my Bachelorette party, which we also had a great experience with. They were a little on the higher side...I think we paid $1,000 for 6 hours of the party bus for the wedding. In my opinion, totally worth it after hearing all the things that could go wrong!

Rehearsal Dinner: Antonio’s in Grosse Pointe Park

Brian, the manager, was great to work with and everyone loved the food and ambience. This was always one of our “date night” locations, so we knew the food was going to rock, but it was good to hear from others that they loved it, too.

Hair: “David, the Salon” of Grosse Pointe

Liza, my long-time stylist, did my hair and brought along an assistant (Barbara) for the morning of at my house. She was awesome and I always recommend her!

Makeup: Posh Brides by Kari of Milford

I hired Jazmine for makeup for everyone day-of. I had a trial done (conveniently on the same day as my boudoir), was super happy, and didn’t change a thing for the big day. Posh was easy to work with and Kari threw in lip glosses for each girl.

Invitations/paper products: Jenny Daniel of Ferndale

We were referred to Jenny by some friends that had her do their paper products for their wedding. We met with her once and knew she was our girl! I was more than happy with our paper products, and we got a lot of compliments on our invites and day-of products. Jenny also does this part-time, so please contact me if you want her information.

Cake: Josef’s Pastry Shoppe of Grosse Pointe

Amazing. One word. We gave Anthony, the owner, a picture of the cake we wanted to replicate and he did it perfectly. The head chef at the GPYC commented on how it was the best buttercream cake he had ever seen - the buttercream looked like fondant it was so smooth. OH, and not to mention, the cake itself was AH!mazing. My husband’s family has always gone to Josef’s, so we knew the quality was going to be awesome. We had Anthony make us some sample cakes (which were huge and inexpensive, by the way) and we were sold. He was so easy to work with, and gives you that homemade Italian vibe - which my hubby loved of course because he is Italian! We ended up choosing half carrot cake and half chocolate cake with fresh raspberry preserve filling mixed with chocolate mousse filling. Delicious. (On a side note, we did go to Elite Sweets bakery for a consultation after going to a friend’s wedding and loving her cake - the Dynasty flavor. We made an “appointment” which was really a joke because we barely got any customer service when we were there. The lady we “met” with was busy getting other orders off in between talking to us. We loved the cake, though, so we didn’t know what to do. That’s when we went to Josef’s and asked him if he could make a cake similar to what was in the Dynasty cake. It was even better!) I also highly recommend Josef’s because he actually makes his own batter every day. Most bakeries use a pre-made mix.

Candy bar: Bulk Foods of Dearborn (mostly), Candywarehouse.com

My MOH bought our candy bar for us as a gift to us. It was AWESOME and our guests LOVED it! We went together and bought most of the candy from Bulk Foods, and they gave us a 10% discount. She spent well over $500...it was a crazy amount of candy.

Guest book: Blurb.com

Awesome product, easy to do. I received a ton of compliments on it!

Jewelry: Harris Jems of Royal Oak

Jim Harris is a private, independent jeweler who was referred to us by friends. He works on a referral basis and he is awesome. Apparently, my hubby literally drew what he wanted my engagement ring to look like and Jim created it. Everything Jim has is hand-made. We will be going to him for all of our future jewelry purchases!

I guess my biggest piece of advice is...don’t always go with the “biggest” name out there. Oftentimes, these places don’t have the best customer service. They think that they can just get by with their great services, which sometimes they can. My hubby and I were/are really big into supporting local companies and finding vendors that really cared about what they are doing.

I think I got all of our main vendors...but I’m sure I forgot something! If you have any more questions, please let me know! I will post more pics when I get them :)

pro pic sneak peek!

head over to jen's blog to see our sneak peek! i am more than thrilled with them!




yay!!

...more!

our BIG day!

what a fabulous one it was!

my post is going to be short and full of pics (those are the best ones anyway, right?)...more to come later as i get some free time!

blurb guestbook

i made one! it's on its way. soon, i hope! (i upgraded the shipping for $0.60 more to have 2-day delivery - i mean, really? $0.60?)

here is a sneak peek preview of the cover:

and, like erica said, you can use any font already installed on your computer! so i used gotham, which is one of the two fonts used on our paper products. i really like how it turned out! i can't wait for the final product to come...!

my bachelorette party!

saturday was my big girly party and i had a riot! we started off at my house with a *ton* of food (mostly made by my sweet bridesmaids) and fun drinks - a homemade mojito mix and cosmos. we played a fun game called "how well do you know your groom?" which involved me taking jello shots when i got the answer wrong. then we played a game where i had to guess who got me each gift, and of course take a shot when i got it wrong! needless to say, i was quite a few deep into jello shots to start off the night!

the limo came a couple of hours later and we were off to a dueling pianos bar and ended the night at a local 80s dance club. it was FUN! i won't go into details (ahem...) but a fun night was had by all! here are some photos from the evening!

first up - the bride with her bridesmaids! they told all the guests to wear black and asked me to wear a bright outfit - which i think turned out so cute!

here's me and my future mother-in-law (left) and my mom!
here are 2 of my bridesmaids inspecting an "interesting" gift someone got me! LOL!
and here's me at the piano bar up on stage!

all in all...it was a fabulous night and i felt so loved by all of my friends! (we won't talk about things that happened after the piano bar...)

rehearsal dress dilemma

simply put: i couldn't find ANYTHING! here's how it went down in chicago:

i wanted white.
i couldn't find white.
i decided i could do white with a print.
i couldn't find white with a print.
i said, "fine, i'll do a LBD."
i couldn't find a LBD.

but then...THEN...we stopped into ann taylor loft. it's not a place i regularly shop, or in fact, i don't think i've ever bought anything there. it's not really my style. anyway, we went in and i spotted THIS beauty:

image from here.

it was perfect. it fit perfectly. it was comfortable. it was EVERYTHING i wanted! i bought it and i love it.

rehearsal dress dilemma SOLVED!

oh PS...and how appropriate the color's name is lake blue? :)

my FAVORITE accessory...

...no, it's not my fabulous shoes (i'm not biased, am i?), or even my most sparkly jewelry...

it arrived in this box the other day all the way from new york...

the box itself is beautiful, i think!

...ta da! my custom fabric flower! oh how gorgeous it is in person...! it is made of silk taffeta and there is a light organza material they weaved throughout.

again, this will be pinned to the upper right or left "corner" of my dress. i can't wait to see how it looks at my next fitting! yay!

GPYC visit

last week, geoff and i went up to the club to meet our florist. she was so sweet and is such a fun "vendor," although i consider most of our vendors "friends." anyway, while we were there, the club was being set up for fleet review...which coincidentally is the same setup for a wedding. so we got to see some tables and the captain's table that we chose!

now, take out that blue and white and add some gold, silver, and pearl with some navy and apple green to imagine our look!

DIY bride i am not!

...but i am pretty proud of these (few) projects that i (read: gram and i) accomplished last week!

first up, the unity candle!

i knew i wanted something classy and timeless...something we can light every year on our anniversary (so i knew it also had to be quite large). i chose a 9" pillar candle from michael's (yes i used a coupon!) and had some leftover ribbon from the birdcage.

(and i sort-of got some inspiration from here:)

image from the uber-talented ksenija. this, by the way, is the same florist we are using! her name is deborah...isn't her work g-g-gorgeous?

so here is my (ahem, gram's and my) version:
i made the bow all by myself! and we pinned the 1 1/2" ribbon into the candle - hot glue gun proved to be too slippery. then we glued the bow onto the pinned ribbon. add the cutest stand ever (also found at michael's, and yes, also with a coupon!) and...voila!

[can i just say...before i move on...that my grandma's house is one of those houses where there is always anything and everything you need. fabric scissors? check! mounds and mounds of straight pins all different sizes? yep! leftover ribbon and fabric to test out anything? got it! extra candle sticks just lying around in the upper shelf of the hall closet, in perfect condition to test hot glue on? you betcha! she just always has everything.]

next up...
the cutest things ever - at least in my opinion...

take this...
add a little bit of this......put them together and you get these!
these cutie-patooties will hang from the rear view mirrors of our guests' cars. the club has complimentary (is it complimentary if we are paying for it? ha) valet for our guests, so these will be placed on their mirrors before they get back into their car to head home for the night. i love the way they turned out!

stay tuned for some more checks off the list this week!

holy COW

remember this thing?

yes, that's right! that is our countdown on our refrigerator that began at 90 days! i can't believe we are down to 30 days. W-O-W! i have lots of fun stuff coming up so stay tuned!

glam city!

jewelry and makeup...a few of my favorite things!

last week, i ordered a bracelet and earrings from the white aisle (see posts below - i still don't know how to hyperlink an older post!) and i received them in the mail just a couple of days later. i am SO pleased with the quality, sparkliness (you know what i mean), and overall beauty of the pieces.




...and yesterday, i had my makeup trial appointment with the fabulous posh brides by kari. i was pleased with the final result, and it lasted all day long! the slightest reservation i had was that it was maybe a touch too dark. what do YOU think?

suits and tuxes...CHECK!

YAY!

i can't express how happy i am to have this (almost fully) taken care of right now!

here's how it went...
we wanted a tan suit.
we couldn't find the right color tan suit.
we searched for months.
we thought we could do tuxes, but they just seemed too 'stuffy' for the look we wanted.
we called brooks brothers.
we visited brooks brothers.
we made lots of discounted purchases on a new brooks brothers credit card.
we left happy :)

so without any further ado...
this is the look for the groomsmen, tie included via paul fredrick:

(at this point, he did not have on the matching suit pants, so ignore the color discrepancy)

and here is my groom-to-be in his ensemble:

(excuse the face, i caught him mid-smile...but he still looks adorable to me!) we decided to go with a solid navy tie for the geoff so that he stands out a little bit. he will also have a slightly different boutineer.

we also chose formal tuxes for our dads and step-dads for the big day. nothing super fancy - just a black tux (duh), black vest, and black tie. although that is much more formal than our groomsmen look, we (i) couldn't imagine our dads in anything but a nice tux!

my first REAL purchase!

...ok, that's a white lie. BUT it is my first-real-the-wedding-is-coming-soon-purchase! i bought the newbury earrings and september bracelet from the white aisle. i can't wait for them to come in the mail (who doesn't love packages on the doorstep, by the way?!) and try them on. i think they will go perfectly with the look i am going for and add a little bit of glam to my dress and flower (see below).

YAY! i am making progress ;)

september bracelet?

could this have been made for me?

it's from the white aisle and i think it is gorgeous! plus it's literally called "september bracelet." how could i say no? esPECially with a price tag of $24.99.

now here i go again...of course i'm not going to purchase it right now; i'm thinking to myself, "i'll just wait and keep looking." and then my inner conscious says, "MANDY! buy the blasted bracelet. your time is ticking."

what should i do?!

indecisive...

...is the best way i can describe myself right now.

i think for so long, i've had the luxury of putting off decisions until "closer to the wedding." well listen up! the wedding is CLOSE now! and i have to make decisions...which i think is why it's been hard for me to make these decisions - knowing that they must be final and knowing that this is the last time i can ponder over said decisions.

...because it's all.getting.so.real.now! YAY! 39 days folks!

BM jewelry

my bridesmaid kristen's mom is very talented when it comes to making jewelry. she offered a long time ago to make the jewels to be draped from my bridesmaids for the big day, and i was thrilled. i gave them to my girls at our BM dinner a few weeks ago. here is what they look like:
and this how i presented them. they all loved them!

ahem...an attire post!

ok. so, i have been withholding a lot of pretty details in fear that our guests will find my blog and know everything about the wedding. but, with 41 days to go, i don't care! (plus, i know my blogging friends will love some of these things!)...

i haven't shared the details of my dress, because, well...that is TOO dangerous. g knows about this site and i would just croak if i found out he had seen something not fit for his eyes just yet ;) BUT, i will share with you the embellishment that is in the works for my dress. feast your eyes on THIS beauty:
this is a custom fabric flower made by the sweet and ultra-talented girls of handle & spout. i can't quite remember how i was redirected to their website, but boy am i GLAD i found them. they are based out of new york, and have been SO easy to work with. i sent them the detached strap to my dress for them to match fabric and color and they whipped this up pretty quickly!

don't you just love it?! i do. and i know it's big. but...when else do you wear a gorgeous white (ahem...ivory) dress and an ivory veil?! that's what i thought.

what do you think?

yogi bear!

i never posted pics of yogi's session with mod4! he was such a good boy - so scared at first, might i add - but you can't even tell by how fabulous nick and jess captured him! i had this session done as a surprise for my mom and stepdad for christmas. here are a couple of my favorites from his session from their blog. isn't he adorable?! they have some great deals going on right now; go check mod4 out!

our e-pics!

we took our e-pics last week with the fabulous jen of jk photography and she posted our sneak peek on her blog today! when i first met jen last year, i instantly knew that we were going to book with her. she made me feel so comfortable at our first meeting, and even more so during our e-session. i can't wait to have her with me all day in..oh! 44 days people! if you are looking for a uber-talented and super fun photographer, look no further!

here are a few of my favorites from around our beloved MSU campus:







you can check out more on her facebook page!

needless to say, we are *thrilled* with how they turned out. i plan on making a guestook out of the pics or using them as table number photos. we shall see! i can't wait to get the rest of the edited pics from her to get started! yay!

as promised!

i finally got our camera cord back (hooray!), so here are some pics of some fabulous things :)

first up...me holding our first batch of RSVPs to come in the mail:
ooh...what invites, you ask? THESE invites...here are some pics of our set from the uber-talented jenny daniel...






these are obviously not professional photos, but i thought i would post some pics of them because i love them soo much! our invite girl, jenny, sewed the invites one-by-one on her sewing machine, and hand-tied all of the inserts together. we could NOT be happier, and everyone has told us how great and "us" they are, which is just what we were looking for.

enjoy some eye candy coming up!