Wedding Wednesday, One Day Late: Ceci and Joe

Cam and I went to our good friend's wedding in Milwaukee this past weekend.  What a fun town and a beautiful wedding! I am so happy for them--they are some of our dearest friends and make a wonderful couple.

We all stayed at this fun Irish pub and inn downtown and drove around some so we got to see more of the city. I was so impressed with the amount of green space, the beauty of the Lake, and the more Alpine architecture  I just don't think I would want to go during winter... 

My bloody mary came with a beer chaser. I was so confused at first, but I would never question getting free beer.

Cam and the groom at the rehearsal dinner.

 

Kentuckians at the rehearsal.

 

Kentucky girls at the Irish pub after the rehearsal (super flattering picture, I know. Lets ignore that...)

Ceci getting her hair done.

The bride, Ceci.

Ceci's shoes matched her dress perfectly. She even ordered a six pence from Australia (her family is Australian) to go in her shoe and wore her grandmother's jewelry.

The dress. I was with her when we found it and it was absolutely perfect for her with that vintage look.

Centerpieces being transported.

Seriously the calmest bride ever.  This was minutes before walking down the aisle and she was just sitting around, relaxing and smiling.

Gorgeous Catholic wedding in the church where her parents got married.

The wedding party.  She let us girls pick out our own black, knee length dress.  I loved that everyone's dress was slightly different.

Us with Ceci.

Joe and Ceci--just married!

Cam and I. Pale, cheek smashing pictures are so flattering, right?

Joe and Ceci's first dance. I couldn't get a good picture of the reception hall, but it was a gorgeous old ballroom in a country club where her grandparents had their reception.  Loved it!

Everyone kept the dance floor packed....

...But this little kid was my favorite of the night. He's 4, and his name is Oscar. Don't you just love him?!

Okay, not part of the wedding..but the weirdest things ever that you pass on the drive there and back. Giant wind mill farms.  These things are surreal--huge, metal windmills slowly turning. It looked like a creepy futuristic movie with hundreds of them out in a field.

Wedding Wednesday: Ali and Robbie's Wedding

Cam and I went to one of my good friend's weddings this past weekend in Louisville.  They had a full catholic wedding, followed by the reception at Locust Grove. It was beautiful and so fun, but Lord was it hot! 

Pictures from the "alternative rehearsal dinner" (all of us got together on Friday for pizza and beer and then met up with the bridal party afterward at the bar).

Outside of the church:

At Locust Grove:

They hung pictures of their guests in the trees. here is one of Cam and I (and there is one in the picture above of me eating ice cream). It was a neat touch to walk through the trees to the tent and find a picture of yourself (symbolic of the people who shaped their journey, of course, because she's deep like that).

I loved this one of Ali and Robbie (the bride and groom).

So apparently I'm just his guest?!

Bridesmaid dresses were calypso tie dresses, so each girl could tie it however she wanted

Sparkler send off.

Flashback Friday: Our Wedding

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary, so I thought today's flashback Friday would be fun to do about our wedding. 

After being engaged for a year and a half and having spent hundreds of hours planning and dreaming about this day, I woke up on Friday, June 5th at the Seelbach in Louisville, surrounded by my closest friends and with a stomach full of butterflies...

...to a dozen roses and this sweet note from my husband-to-be.

We girls threw on our matching robes that I had monogrammed (theirs were pink, mine was white), poured some coffee and mimosas, and sat around and talked while everyone got their hair and make up done.

Meanwhile, the boys had stayed together at the Brown and got up and went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for breakfast.

Because our wedding ceremony didn't begin until 7, we decided to see each other and take pictures before.  I was very torn about this decision, and wanted that moment of seeing each other to be special.  Cam reminded me that seeing in a white dress would be a different feeling for him than seeing me walking down an aisle to be his wife, so I finally agreed that pictures before would be best.  Honestly, that day I was so thankful to see him before.  My nerves were high and I was ready for a hug.

So, around two, after all the primping and pampering of the morning, it was finally time to see Cam.

The only thing that really went slightly wrong was lunch.  We had called ahead days before to have the Seelbach's room service bring lunch up around 11, and even after several reminder calls inquiring into the status of our food (I even went down and harshly spoke to a so-called "manager" in my wedding dress), it was 2:00, we had no food in hand, and we were absolutely starving. Needless to say, I was not impressed by the Seelbach's service.

Because we had such a large wedding party, we rented a party bus to drive everyone around while we took pictures (plus it was nice to have able to sit in the air conditioning between pictures, have access to a restroom, and everyone was appreciative of the cooler of beer, waters and ale-8s we had packed and left on the bus). So, we took the party bus by Jimmy John's and had sandwiches for lunch.  Not quite as glamorous as the Seelbach's, but by 2:00, it was damn tasty (and I took one of the girl's robes to throw over me to keep me from getting mustard or sauce on my dress to prevent any real disaster).

We then got out, walked through downtown and took pictures at the 21C's museum...

...and had a toast to the day at Proof on Main. It ended up being a beautiful  70 degree June day--we couldn't have asked for anything better.

We then made our way across to the river to get some skyline shots.

Finally, the bus took us back to the Church, for a few traditional family pictures before the guests started to arrive.

The church didn't want us to do the dedication to Mary during the ceremony because they felt it portrayed the view that we worshipped her. But, it was important to me, so we did it before the guests arrived.

Soon, the guests filed in and it was finally time. After everyone walked down the aisle...

...it was my dad and I's turn.

After a full Catholic ceremony that honestly flew by...

...Cam and I were finally husband and wife.

It was time to go celebrate!  We had our reception immediately after at the Palace Theatre. How fun was the Marquee--( note: I blurred our last name out, there's nothing wrong with the picture).

We waited upstairs while everyone filed in.

We were introduced by the Churchill Downs Bugler doing the Call to the Post and My Old Kentucky Home.

And after months of dance lessons together (which were so fun and I would recommend to everyone), we had our first dance to Moondance by Van Morrison.

We had heavy appetizers and hors d'oeuvres set up for everyone to eat (I adore the face Cam's boss was making in this picture--total kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar).

It was then time to cut the cake.

Soon, everyone danced the night away.

While I managed to take out the bar light when I threw my bouquet...

The boys enjoyed cigars the marquee lights.

We had a color-themed candy bar as favors so people could fill up goodie bags for the trip home.