Well, it sure has been a very busy month! First and foremost, Michael and I are finally married! We had a wonderful (but busy!) weekend. But I'm not going to lie, we're both feeling a lot less stressed now that it's all over. The wedding photographer has given us a timeline of 2-3 weeks before we receive our wedding photos so we'll post them then. For now, we'll just post a bunch of pre- and post-wedding shots that we and our guests took throughout the weekend. The ceremony was beautiful and the dinner we had afterward was great. The only thing that rivaled the food was the good company!
As I said, it was pretty ridiculous around here for the couple weeks that lead up to the wedding but I think it was all worth it. We had a lot of help from Michael's parents who organized a big open house slash dinner for Friday evening, as most people were arriving in Cincinnati that afternoon and they also held a brunch for everyone on Sunday as well. Hmm... there's so much to write about... so I guess I'll just go through it chronologically for you.
Kiff/Maid of HonourOn Wednesday evening, Kiff (my best friend/maid of honour/chief cook and bottle washer for the weekend) arrived at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport. So rather than picking her up and driving right back home, we thought we would let her savour her first taste of Kentucky by making a stop at Newport on the Levee (basically directly across the Ohio River - which serves as the state litne - from downtown Cincinnati). We had dinner at Hofbrauhaus, a German/Bavarian restaurant and brewery. Kiff felt at home as she was just in Germany last year haha. Oh, andhe fried sauerkraut and wienerschnitzel were awesome. Eventually we got home and after making list 1.0 (this was the first of many versions of the list of things we had to do over the next couple days) we hit the sack.
Thursday was probably our most productive day. After dropping Michael off at work, Kiff and I first went to an immigration appointment downtown, where I got all the details for the next stage of getting my US residency. I found out that in three months, I should have temporary work papers AND temporary travel papers (awesome news considering the consulate and border told me I couldn't leave the country for a whole year!) After that, we scoured pretty much every grocery store in the Greater Cincinnati area (ok, not really - probably every one in the Hyde Park area though) and after about 6 stops, finally found a ton of white flowers at a decent price. I had already put together cute little tins for the flowers at the ceremony but had yet to fill them with anything. We figured it would be cute to have a bunch of different types of flowers filling them as long as they were all white. I must say, the carnations, mums and fuji mums looked great in them. We finally ended up at Fresh Market where we found everything we needed at a very good price.
Our car after the flower run to Fresh Market
Our floral arranging progress on Friday
Cookies from Busken's
By noon, Kiff and I were back at the apartment, arranging flowers and figuring out some last minute decorating details.
The only things missing were Brenda and Lorraine!Eventually, Brian (Michael's best man) arrived from the London/Sarnia area and hung around just long enough to keep both Kiff and I in stitches before we all piled into the car and went to pick up Michael. We all went for dinner across the street from our place at the Hyde Park Tavern (I highly recommend it, by the way), where we roughly figured out what we would be up to for the rest of the night and the next few days. I must say, it was great to have both Brian and Kiff down a couple days before the craziness of all the festivities began. There's no way we could have gotten everything done without them - plus, it was a lot of fun to have some new people to play Guitar Hero with late into the night! :)
Friday was just as busy as Thursday. Kiff and I headed over to the Chapel in Glendale to decorate and the boys had a couple of errands to run (and also brought us whatever we needed or forgotten).
Brian/Best Man, 'helping' us decorate at the Chapel :)What we thought would have taken two hours, soon became six and with the help of my sisters, mom and gramma, who had arrived at the Sheraton (close by the Chapel, where they were staying) in mid-afternoon, we finished everything as fast as possible, drove the half hour back to my apartment, got dressed and made ourselves as presentable as possible, and then headed back up to West Chester (about half an hour away), where Michael's parents were hosting their party. The party was great. There was a band (and even bagpipes, which I know Brian just loved!) and it was so nice to meet all of Michael's family that I hadn't yet met. The food was amazing (and of course, there was too much) and I think everyone had a really good time.
Me, on a ladder in the Chapel, tangled in lights, thule and ivy... Not feeling stressed at all!
Bridgy looking for a picture of a hairdo at the hairdresser's
The paparazzi (aka Kiff) takes pics of me leaving the hairdresser's and walking next door, back to my apartment to arrange flowers on Saturday morning.
Rockin' my rollers
Thank goodness, we all made it to the Church on time, and, despite the slight confusion and changes our officiant made at the last second, everything went very well and smoothly. Our decorations were very simple with white lights behind white thule and greenery and candles everywhere but, being that the sun had just set, it looked gorgeous! It's amazing how good our friends and family look when they're all dressed up! haha..
Rockin' my rollersAfter the ceremony and about a half hour of photos, we all drove up to Monroe (about twenty minutes north) and had the most wonderful dinner. We had 5 courses, which culminated in the best Filet Mignon I have ever had. If you're in the mood for an amazing meal in Cincinnati, you must go to the Brandywine Inn! We were all so stuffed after the meal that, despite it's beauty, no one was very hungry, so we decided to wait until brunch at Michael's parents' house to cut it.
Our beautiful (and yummy!) White Chocolate Romance cake with raspberry filling
The Groom's cake (carrot)For those that don't know, in the South, it is traditional to have a smaller cake for the Groom - either decorated as a theme or in his favourite flavour.
Kiff saved the day (again!) when we forgot the cake topper, she sprung into action, taking apart my mom's little bouquet and decorating our cake top and table for us. What would we have done without her?.....
Kiff tried on this dress at Macy's (we found it in the changeroom in the clearance section) and gave me her fiercest model look. Enjoy this while you can. When she sees this, she'll probably make me remove it! haha...Everyone looked wonderful, I think we all had a good time and it was easily one of the best days of my life.
