lizziethelittlebit's biography
We got our pro pics! Our photographers were amazing and I was so happy to see that they captured some of the major things that DH and I missed!
Photos are courtesy of Theresa Scarbrough Photography. If you use any of our photos, please give proper credit to Theresa and me. Thanks! :)
Here was our teaser...
Mine (left)/ Bridesmaids (right)
Mine and Bridesmaids together
Personalized bling:
DH's Bout
Rings
Escort Cards/Favors
Guestbook/Card Box/Table Decor
Dining Room/Head Table Centerpieces/Guest Table Centerpieces
Table Numbers/Bride & Groom Chairs
Menu/Appetizers
Bridal Party Entrance
Cake Cutting
Salad and Entree
Best Man Toast
Maid of Honor Toast (totally crying!)
First Dance
Dessert and Ice Cream Bar
All of Our Guests
Just a collection of some pictures from our families' and friends' cameras!
Damask Aisle Runner:
This aisle runner is made out of heavy weight damask fabric. It is 75 feet long (25 yards) and 4 feet wide. LOCAL PICK UP Only. Asking $38.
3 - 18" tall and 3 - 16" tall glass cylinder vases:
I used these for my head table centerpieces (the shortest vase size is not available). LOCAL PICK UP Only.
$10 each for the 18" tall vases (the tallest one), or all three for $25.
$8 each for the 16" tall vases (the medium one), or all three for $20.
3 pounds of clear glass marbles:
$1 for all three bags plus shipping. LOCAL PICK UP PREFERRED.
Brian and I met through a wonderful website known as... MySpace. I don't normally accept random friend requests or respond to emails from people I don't know. But after looking at his profile, and seeing this cute picture of him holding these small fish, I thought he looked like a pretty down to earth guy that might be cool to hang out with. My first impression was right, and here we are today!
This is the picture that reeled me in!
Brian and I had been talking about getting married forever. We had gone ring shopping a few months prior to us actually getting engaged, but I figured he wouldn't actually buy the ring and propose until some time in 2009.
The night of our engagement (November 7, 2008) was "game" night with friends. I was actually the one who organized it! He had asked me earlier in the week if he should ask his mom and step-dad to come over, which I thought was kind of strange. I had figured though, that he was just inviting them over to make me think that he was going to propose, but that he wasn't really going do it and throw me off since I had already started looking for wedding venues before I even had a formal proposal (I'm an over planner like that and a total Type A). I even stuck my hands in his pants pockets before everyone came over looking for the ring. I am such a snoop!
So pretty much the entire night had passed, and no proposal. I was ok with that, and was just enjoying catching up with our friends who we hadn't seen in a while. Then, all of the sudden between rounds of Catch Phrase, Brian got down on two knees (he was sitting on the floor) and said, "before we get started with the next round, I have a question to ask Liz." He was holding the ring up and said, "Liz, will you marry me?" I was so surprised, I nearly fell walking over to him because my knees were shaking. I was crying, he was crying, my girlfriends had a few tears in their eyes. And of course, I said yes!
These are our two little boys. The black one is Brutus and the fawn one is George. They have such huge personalities that are strangely similar to ours. Friends have actually said that Brutus is like me (mellow and quiet) and George is just like Brian (hyper and always causing some sort of riff raff). :)
So after having our original venue booked for 11 months, we ended up scrambling to find a new place because of a change in management and a price increase of $40 pp. :(
Here is our new venue. It's currently undergoing a major remodel, so will be brand spanking new by the time our wedding rolls around. The best part is, I love it even more than our original place. :)
Summer is my favorite season, and the summers in Chicago are way too short. So, I'm taking advantage of getting married in the season and using as many bright, summery colors as I can! I've changed my original colors of fuschia, orange, and apple green to add a few more colors in. We'll now have fuchsia, a more muted orange (cantaloupe), coral, and canary yellow, along with the touches of apple green.
I am so lucky to have such a talented mom. She's a professional seamstress and will be making my dress!
It's going to be a combination of these three dresses. It will have sleeves and a neckline like the first picture, a rhinestone sash like the second picture, and ruffles on the back like the third picture. I'm so excited!!!
Here's rhinestone embellishment we bought for the band.
UPDATE: Here she is! My mom did a FABULOUS job and I couldn't be happier. I'm especially thankful for all of the time we got to spend together while she made this for me. It means so much to me that she made this with love. I couldn't be more excited to wear it on my big day!
HAIR:
I plan on wearing a side ponytail with this hair pin bought from seller tulet on Etsy
MAKEUP:
Change of plans, as we had a couple of snags with the bridesmaid dresses. My mom isn't local and the girls measurements were off. So, to make everything a lot easier for everyone, we decided to just buy the dresses.
Each of the girls will still be wearing a different color.
MY MOH and sister, Giao, will be wearing this Mori Lee dress in Lipstick.
The rest of the girls will be wearing this Alfred Angelo in Coral, Tangelo, and Sunshine. The only difference is that their sashes will be the same color as the dress.
My college friend/roommate, Katie, will be wearing the tangelo. Sisters, Jen and Sarah will wear coral and sunshine.
Here's a pic of our inspiration cake. Our bakery is going to make one just like it (except without the branches)! :) The top tier, which will be ALL mine, will be chocolate and bavarian cream, with buttercream icing. The two bottom tiers will be pumpkin and cream cheese. YUMMY!
Here are our Save the Dates. FI is an avid/competitive fisherman, so it's particularly fitting!
We had the design made through MyDavinci, and my sister added the Save the Date text and date to the front of it.
I made these pomander balls to hang on the chairs up the aisle for the ceremony. It only took me a couple of hours to make 6 of them. I only wish it took less flowers to make them! A note for other gals planning on making their own pomanders, I used 3" styrofoam balls, and after I put all of the flowers on them, the ball is about 8 inches. if you're going to be using larger flowers, I wouldn't buy styrofoam larger than 3 inches because it really looks gigantic!
It took a few tries (and some help from the PW gals), but I finally got my bouquet put together just right. I got all of the flowers from Hobby Lobby for about $30 total, which is a fantastic deal for real touch flowers. The quality is so good, you seriously cannot tell that they aren't real, even when you touch the petals!
FI's bout:
These will be our centerpieces (the votives will be in holders, I just got lazy). They work out to be around $11 per table! I love DIY projects. :)
I bought these premade bouquets and bouts from Save-on-Crafts. They're real touch silk orchids and seriously do feel real!
I changed the ribbon and added the little letter charms, and voila!
The pic on the left is for my mom and FI's mom. The pic on the right is for FI's sister-in-law.
For the flowergirls...
My ever so talented mom made my clutch for me out of the same fabric that my wedding dress will be made out of. I love it not only because I think it's super cute, but even more because it was specially made for me by my mom and is an original. :)
Our invitations were designed by Designs By Georgia, who I found on Etsy. She was wonderful to work with and did a fantastic job!
I bought the pocketfolds and matting (it was actually just cardstock that I cut into the proper mat size) from Cards and Pockets, and the cover weight cardstock I printed everything on came from Xpedex. I used my Samsung CLP 315 printer to print everything, and the Cricut paper trimmer to cut everything.
Sorry for the bad photo quality, could not get a good pic with my camera. Here they are!
The monogram will go on our guestbook/card box table. :)
My bracelet:
My headband I'll be wearing for the ceremony instead of a veil (made out of the same embellishment that will be on my dress sash):
Guestbook:
Cake Stand (rhinestone embellishment is also the same as what will be on my dress and my headband):
Manzanitas and pillars for ceremony (FI built the pillars and my mom helped me make the manzanitas):
My amazingly talented girlfriend took our e-pics for us. I think she did a fabulous job, especially considering who she had to work with. ;)
Since we're getting married outside, we decided to do a sand ceremony instead. Our set looks similar to this, except we're using bud vases for the individual colors. Frame came from Kohls and the sand came from Hobby Lobby (pink) and Joann's (orange).
I booked an awesome deal on http://www.bookit.com. We'll be staying at the Dreams Villamagna in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.
RECAP:
We missed a couple of days of our HM due to bad weather and getting stuck in Dallas on our way down, which was a huge bummer. But, we made the most of it when we got there! The weather wasn't great most of the time there, but on the bright side, the resort was beautiful, the staff so friendly and polite, and the food amazing. Best vacation we've taken in a long time. :)
Venue & Catering: Valley Lo Club in Glenview
Cake: Chef Paul Catering
Photographer: Theresa Scarbrough
DJ: Don Kaminsky of XL Entertainment
Transportation: Rockford Charter Coach
Hotel: Sheraton Chicago - Northbrook
DOC - Sharokina Pazand of Events by Sharokina
Makeup - Ryan Jaeger
I'm so honored to have once been a PW Hostess. The ladies on PW are so amazing and were such an inspiration to me during my planning days. I was so sad to give up my hostess badge, but knew it was time to let another lady step in and be as much of an inspiration to others as I hope I was during my hostess days.
