I don’t know who made plans for us to stay at a hotel on the night of our wedding. It seemed strange to me, especially since we would be going back to work the following Monday and wouldn’t be taking our honeymoon for a while. I guess I would have rather gone home, but we went to the hotel instead. It was nice, the room looked like any other hotel room I had stayed in, and the staff had set out a bottle of wine for us. It was nice but we still had to meet our checkout time the next morning. If we would have stayed longer we might have used the pool or something. We did get to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant, but again the food was nothing spectacular. I really, really would have rather been at home with my new wife than checking in and out of hotels!

This was a nice part of the day. Krystal had a Corporate SUV pick her and her girlfriends up from her parents’ house, and I left my house in a regular limousine that was for six people. When we left the church, Krystal and I rode in the limousine and our families rode to the restaurant in the SUV. It’s funny that we got an SUV for the day because we both drive Hondas and normally would never think of buying/driving a SUV for the environmental impact but…it happens. The thing I liked best about Chaffee and the reason why we went with them is because the interiors of the cars are black. I just think it looks nicer. Also, from my brother’s experience (he didn’t rent any cars for the day of the wedding) it makes the day nicer for our parents when they don’t have to do the driving.

This is an old family tradition, dating back to when I was maybe six or so. Once a month my family would to a Friday Fish fry at Erv’s, and I would be allowed to get an ice cream drink. It was great. My parents continued to go when I was too cool to hang out with them on a Friday night, and then I started going again. It’s fun. It’s probably not the most healthy thing to eat, the portions are huge and you get a really big serving of everything from the fries to the slaw. It’s all good food, and the staff is the nicest people you’ll ever meet. They’re honest people, and I love that they recognize me. Krystal has gone a couple of times, but for the rehearsal dinner we thought it would be nice to have both families together for a Friday fish fry. No friends, just family, and it was great time. The place is a conversation starter in itself. I really think people should stop by if they are in the area.

This is a pretty cool place. I had been here before with Krystal’s parents, and they were really for the idea of having the reception here. It’s a fancy restaurant dating back to the thirties (maybe), the décor is unique, the food is great, and it would cost a lot less to have the party at Mader’s than having the party at a more trendy restaurant or trying to rent a big hotel hall. Because we were a small party (our guest list was a mere 120 people), we were able to arrange easily a Thanksgiving wedding reception. Mader’s usually has a Thanksgiving brunch, so we spoke with Mary and the chef and arranged for a menu with traditional Thanksgiving food but to also include items a bit more fancy. I can’t remember the food, all I know is that there was turkey and I ate everything. The restaurant and surrounding gardens are really beautiful. We have hundreds of great pictures from here. One thing my mother really liked about Mader’s is that they arrange the wedding details for you, and take care of ordering the flowers and arranging music and whatever else we might have wanted. It was great.

This was one of the best things about our wedding, the amazing group of photographers we got to meet with and discuss photo plans. Front Room is a group of six photographers, which means that there is lots of creativity and talent in their office. Neil was the photographer that worked on our wedding, and we loved our pictures. He took a wide range of photographs, some ranging from really artistic to really traditional. We were able to choose a several pictures that would please our parents, our more trendy friends, and then the pictures that we liked best. I love how happy Krystal looked on our wedding day, and how he was able to capture all these small moments of friends and family talking and dancing and having fun. Having a professional photographer was a huge part of our budget, but it also created lasting memories. I loved the pictures. We have one of the prints in our hallway, and I love looking at it.

I did not have the best experience here, but when my best man went to have his suit fitted he said his experience was better. I had made my appointment and when I arrived they were short staffed and I was made to feel like it was my problem. If it was up to me, I would have gone to Men’s Wearhouse because I have gone there before for my brother’s wedding and I bought other suits from there. My mom made the appointment so I went to Savvi instead. My opinion is that customer service should count for a lot, and they really failed to deliver with a smile. The suit was fine, and my best man did get treated with more respect and better hospitality. If it was up to me I wouldn’t go back. And I don’t think I will.

I asked Krsytal, she said that she didn’t have a make-up person. Instead, Kyrstal said that she bought new make-up at Clinique a few weeks before the wedding. She spent over $300 on facial creams and mascara and stuff, but she said she needed new make-up and this was a good time to have a clean start.

I choose this place because this is where my brother got the ring for his wife a few years ago. I went with him and I really liked the store. When I booked my appointment, I met and spoke with Eric and told him what I had in mind. He was able to help me chose something really unique and special. I really appreciated his patience, and also felt 100% confident that he really knew his stuff about diamonds and rings and quality jewelry. We picked something from the brand Nicole Rene and I had my wife’s sister come in a make sure that Krystal (my wife) would like the ring. It was over a six month process, but Krystal loved her ring, and it was no problem to go back and have the ring refitted when we discovered that it was a tad to big.

Krystal took care of this section of the planning process. While it was my job to get everyone’s mailing address, she went about and looked for invitation suppliers. There were lots of places in and around Milwaukee that could make the invitations for us, and places that sold the supplies and kits for us to make it ourselves, but Krystal really liked a template that she found online. It was a site that let us make our own wedding webpage, and then we could have the invitations made that matched. It was expensive. It was twice as much as we had planned to spend on invitations, but they were really nice. For 100 invitations, which was the minimum, we paid around $275.00 and this included the envelopes with the return mailing address on the back. It sounds expensive, but the invitations looked great. Really bright colors, we got to chose the wording, and they sent us a sample to make sure we had what we wanted written. They were really professional about when they sent the cards, which was perfect for us.

This was something we found out from friends at work: Disney has a webpage called the wedding registry, and it allows couples to register from trips and hotels to make a wonderful honeymoon vacation. We decided to do this instead of registering at some store because it we both wanted to go to Disney World, we though it would be nice to have our friends and family help us pay for the trip, and it would be fun! We actually got lots of positive feedback from friends and family about our decision to register for a trip. People were able to pay what they could, and then they could help pay for something that would build memories. It was a great trip! I loved it, I think it’s a really fun place, Epcot was a shock as to how cool and innovative it was. Disney World is for people of all ages. And the registry makes it easy to go.