The Girl with the Flowers

Having been a flower girl myself when I was 3, I know that it is a very exciting time in a little girl's life to be asked to be a flower girl in a wedding. There is something so perfect and innocent about a young girl wearing a white dress, flowers in her hair, carrying the tell-tale basket. As whimsical as it all may seem, there is actually an art to choosing and becoming a flower girl.

In choosing my flower girl, I wanted to have a little girl who was of a substantial age, who would take the position with maturity and excitement. I think if the flower girl is too young (I have seen flower girls as young as 6months old being pulled in a wagon down the aisle!) there is a chance of tears and "not wanting" to do the task at hand.

I also wanted a little girl who is very dear to my heart and my family. Typically, a bride chooses a niece, but since I am the oldest I thankfully do not have any nieces or nephews yet!

The very first little girl who came to mind is not a blood relative, although we lovingly refer to her parents as "Aunt Sandy" and "Uncle Pukey". (Naturally, there is a story behind the "Puke-y" party. And naturally it involves me. And it is just way more fun than "Uncle Kevin"!)

Her name is Drew and she is probably the smartest 6 year old I know! She actually reminds me of myself at her age - very talkative, smart, and full of spunk! Not to mention she's adorable, but that goes without saying!

Because the little lady lives in MA, I won't have much contact time with her leading up to the wedding. However, I did send her a card asking her to be the flower girl and she responded with a homemade card accepting and she even drew a picture of a bride for me!

I hope Drew is just as excited as Mike and I are to have her in the wedding party! I'm sure dress shopping in the upcoming months will be very exciting for her. Because she lives on the East Coast, I will be having her and her mother pick out her dress for the wedding. Probably the only requirement I have is that it be Ivory, to match my dress! (My dress is no longer shown on the shop's website for me to send to anyone :(! )

Although, I do LOVE this look.....Ivory Flower Girl Dress.

A beautiful UN-VEILING!

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a bride? After the white dress, one typical pictures a beautiful bridal veil. I was a flower girl when I was three in my Aunt Mary's wedding where I had the cutest little white dress. A couple Halloweens later I was still wearing said dress and my mom had made me a lace veil transforming me into....TADA! A bride!

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Veils have come a long way, even in the past 10 years or so. Just for fun, I decided to look for pictures of veils from brides of the past.

This bride from the 1920's is wearing a Cathedral Veil, the longest and most dramatic of all bridal veils. Notice that the veil is longer than the dress.

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The style of the 1950's was a lot more modern in the form of a shorter shoulder lenght veil.

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Although the styles and lengths have varied throughout the years and for all different brides, the significance of the veil stays pretty much the same. Of course a bridal veil has religious significance as a head covering to enter the church. And naturally, we all know the significance of the white colored dress! ;) The wedding veil is intended to show honor to the church, a young woman's parents, and her future husband.

Now, a veil has become more of an accessory for a bride. Every bride is in search of something new and different for their wedding veil; and it must match the dress!

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I chose to order my veil from a vendor on Etsy, whom was recommended to me by my wedding coordinator, Shannon of Shannon Gail Weddings and Events. Cindy of FascinatingCreations had a sample of a "poof veil" on her Etsy page that I fell in love with. It's definitely something dramatic and "over the top" but I am all of the above! It just shipped today and I am SO excited to recieve it and even more excited to try it on with my dress. (Which unfortunatly will not be until August-ish!) But I will still try it on, wear it around the house, wear it to brunch, the usual. (Have I told you about "Tiara Tuesdays"? I should blog about that! haha)

Here is a sneak preview of the sample of my veil. Of course, mine is custom made so it will be a little bit different. I'm all about surprises and our wedding is full of them! ;)

Here is a "poof veil":

Mine however, will not be Cathedral style as my dress has a lovely train on it that I do not wish to cover....

Here is Cindy's version: (All copyrights to Cindy of Fascinating Creations)

Sigh. I cannot wait to wear my veil! :)

 

Pictures!! Cristina of Cristina G Photography

I need to preface this by saying I absolutely adore our photographer. We found her on a whim through Facebook (oh FB!) and met with her at a Starbucks one snowy evening. She was a chance find, but Mike and I knew from the first sample photos she showed us, that Cristina of Cristina G Photography was our photographer. Not only did we spend a good two hours chatting about pictures, Coach, Tiffany's (obviously my favorite topics) but we were instantly attracted her to fun personality and beautiful work.

A couple weeks ago we decided to do our Engagement Pictures photo shoot with Cristina. We wanted something different than just outdoor shots, which we had previously done with a friend. We chose to go to Architectural Artifacts Museum and Gallery on the recommendation of our good friends Brandon and Herminia who had done their engagement pictures there over the summer.

The engagement shoot is a pretty good preview of what your Wedding pics will look like and we are so exicted to have Cristina shoot our wedding day! Here are some of my favorites! (Black and white of course!) :)

Thank you to Cristina of Cristina G Photography!

She does all kinds of photos - family, baby, maternity, wedding, senior pictures. Check her out!

"I'm a dancing machine"- quoted bride.

I feel like most of you should already know this. I don't know why I am going to try to explain because I think you actually have to witness it to understand.

I. AM. A. DANCING. MACHINE.

I danced in high school, I danced at a studio, I danced at parties, I dance on tables, I dance on Wednesdays, I break dance, I clog dance, I Irish jig dance, I ballet dance, I belly dance, I give guiDANCE. (Literally, I am an Advisor! haha)

Basically, if you're shocked, you don't know me very well. But it should come as no surprise that the MOST important wedding aspect to me is the music.

Music is essential to a party. And I don't take very kindly to people who try to undermine me when it comes to music. For example.....

We had a party on Fotis when I was in college. All of our parties were themed; this party was near the end of the year and it was "Cleaning out the Booze closet." Typical college town, some randoms showed up at our townhouse. And we don't take lightly to randoms because we had a purse stolen in the beginning of the year. Rewind: basically at all of our parties I controlled the music as I have killer speakers and an iPod with generally every genre. Then, Jesus showed up. Well, a guy who had a Jesus beard, loafers, and a love for Lil' Wayne.

I generally make appropriate playlists and just let them roll as the party goes on. If there are specific requests, I try to honor them and I also take note of my audience.

Jesus wanted to play Lil' Wayne so he decided to climb up to where I had put the speakers and my iPod (out of reach mind you!) and hooked up his own ipod. I realized this and kindly informed him that, no, this was not okay party behavior. I told him he could play 2 songs and then he was done.

Long story short, we got in a fight and I kicked him out of the party because he would not stop after the 2 songs, was touching my iPod, and my expensive speakers and I flipped.

DO. NOT. MESS. WITH. MY. MUSIC.

Mine and Mike's love of music is why and how we stumbled upon Toast and Jam DJ's. Upon reading their reviews on Yelp, we knew they were the dj's for us. They have a no frills, no cheese policy. Read: no electric slide (although I am a fan....embarrasingly) no terrible strobe lights, just good music.

We met with Kate and Rachel who will be our DJ's on October 10. They ROCK! They co-host Kate and Rachel's Old Style Show in Chicago. They really listened to our style and what kind of music we like. When talking with them I said, "Okay see the thing is, I'm a dancing machine" and Rachel immediatly wrote the quote down and put next to it "bride said this." Ha! They have no idea who they're messing with but I WILL NOT be leaving the dance floor until it's time to go home!

ROCK ON!

Let's start at the very beginning....

Since I was about 9 years old, I dreamed of my wedding day. White dresses, sparkles, flowers, all eyes on you. What more could a girl ask for!?

Now that we are less than 5 months away from the big day, I've started to freak out slightly. Which is why I decided I needed an outlet of some sort and since I'm a natural born writer - BOOM! Hello blogs!

We have most of the larger details figured out. Fall wedding, black and white formal affair, perfect date (10/10/10)!

Mike and I have been dating since 2005. No, seriously! We met in 2004, while still in high school and wound up reconnecting when I was at NIU. (Mike went to UTI.) And the rest is history; it really is! The next 80 years with the same person? And you're only 23? Dumb questions if you ask me. To us, this is it. Once you find love, you never turn back.

Our special day will begin with an afternoon ceremony at St. Patrick's Church in Lemont, IL. I recieved all of my sacraments at St. Pat's and attended grade school there from 5th-8th grade.

I really think it is a beautiful church, just blocks from my home and we're so excited to have a brand new priest, Fr. Kurt Boras, marry us! Next on our list is Pre-Cana which I'm sure will be an interested day!

Because our reception (at the Hyatt Lisle) is literally steps away from the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, we will venture there for pictures following the ceremony. I am OBSESSED with our photographer, Cristina of Cristina G Photo (www.cristinagphoto.com) so naturally I cannot wait for the picture portion of the day. (More on Cristina later!)

The Hyatt Lisle is a beautiful setting for our wedding reception. Very elegant

As beautiful as everything *hopes* to be, I am about ready to rip my hair out! It's a mix of anxiety, nerves, and expectations! Luckily we have the amazing Shannon Helmig of ShannonGail Weddings and Events on our side! She has been awesome through all of my "mini crisises" and very calm which I am sure she will be on the day of!

Stay tuned, I will have plenty more updates throughout the next 5 months! Honestly, as nervous and anxious as I am, I cannot wait to share this day with friends and family and most importantly, the love of my life, Michael Connolly!