1 Year

1 year ago I married my absolute best friend and favorites person on the planet. And it's been the best year yet.  I've never been happier or more in love with my Michael. Marriage is awesome <3

For more wedding pictures and a recap of the day:

Wedding Prep 06.20.15

Wedding Ceremony 06.20.15

Wedding Portraits 06.20.15

Wedding Reception 06.20.15

Wedding Reception 06.20.15

Our favors were bookmarks with the lyrics to our song (the theme from The Princess Bride) "Storybook Love" on the back.

You remember our photo guest book, right?

We had a table to memorialize any  close family who had passed (my grandpa, my aunt, Michael's cousin, some of his grandparents, and his aunt and uncle).

...red roses are my favorite flower. A bit obvious, no? :P

I'm kind of obsessed with how gorgeous our reception was.

and how PERFECT our cake turned out! (Flavors, for the record, were white cake with vanilla custard filling, white cake with strawberry filling, and chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling-all topped with the most fantastic buttercream.)

Michael's uncle also made us a little clay likeness of us posed like Buttercup and Westley that was on the cake table.

SO MANY COOKIES.

Italian cookie table #forthewin

Pretty pretty head table!

Each table had a movie with its table #, including ours <3

Wedding Portraits 06.20.15

Wedding Ceremony 06.20.15

St. Mary's Catholic Church in Massillon (which was built in 1876) is the church I grew up in and where I always dreamed of getting married. It was extra beautiful for our wedding day.

(I am particularly grateful for the photos of the church since, a few weeks ago, there was a fire at the church and it sustained a decent amount of heat, smoke, and water damage. It will be ok but it's going to take awhile to get it back to working order.)

Our little ring bearer, Timmy, (my cousin Megan's son) was so nervous!

We were going to have people shower us with the dried rose petals I've kept from every rose Michael has ever given me. Unfortunately it was still raining when the ceremony was over so this got delayed until after the reception.

...walking down the aisle to my guy.

This picture is titled: "Hiii...!"

He cried a lot <3 

My something borrowed was this rosary that belonged to my great-grandmother. All the women in my family use it for their wedding day. 

(Something old is the dress, new is the veil/shoes/jewelry, etc., and blue is the garter).

Wedding Prep 06.20.15

Finally!!

Let's look at some wedding photos, shall we?

The day was Saturday, June 20, 2015 and I woke up excited and ready to get married. 

My bridesmaids and flower girls all came over to finish getting ready together and my photographer came over to document the entire thing (and our 2nd photographer went to be with the boys while they got ready).

I have wanted to wear my mom's wedding dress since I was a little girl, and I could not have been happier that I was able to make that dream come true and we were able to alter it so that it was perfect and everything I could have wanted!

Honeymoon Recap {at Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun in Riviera Maya}

Some photos from paradise...

Michael and I spent 7 nights at the all-inclusive, adults-only, Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was a small, mostly calm (but with plenty of activities and events) place and 100% perfect for what we wanted for our honeymoon! The staff were all exceptionally helpful and nice and...um...unlimited food guys. We ate a lot. And relaxed. And had fun.

Kustom Kufflinks Review

I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!

And that means today is the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. And typically, at the rehearsal dinner, we give gifts to the bridal party as a big THANK YOU for everything they've done to keep us sane and to help make the wedding amazing! From day one we knew that we wanted to give out nerd/comic themed cufflinks to each of Michael's groomsmen (and one for Michael) because...well...if you know Michael or his friends and family...it would make so much sense.

When I started researching the options for these cufflinks I was lucky enough to find Kustom Kufflinks and I am SO GLAD that I did because we had the best experience and ended up with the perfect gifts for the guys!

Glitz and Garters Review

Something old...something new...something borrowed...something blue.

For me those things are being represented by my wedding dress (which used to be my mom's), either my veil, shoes, earrings, or tiara (all are new so...*shrug*), an old rosary that the women in my family all hold for their wedding day and...my beautiful blue garters from Glitz and Garters!

Glitz and Garters is an Etsy shop that sells, you guessed it, garters!  Ranging in price from $19.95-$39.95 (and that includes 2 garters--one of which would get tossed during the garter toss! However, if you are not doing the garter toss or are not interested in keeping a garter, you can also get just 1 garter at a reduced price) these are by far the most reasonably priced, and prettiest, garters I could find! So I was thrilled when they offered to partner with me for this review and send me a set!

My #WeddingPaperDivas Bridal Shower Invites & Thank You Cards #IC

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Wedding Paper Divas. 

I received a product and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

(Also note that I have edited most of these photos to omit any contact information or addresses to protect the privacy of my loved ones--so that is why there are blank spaces in the pictures.)

Hello my lovelies! We have some wedding talk happening today! Do you remember when I posted about my Wedding Paper Divas sample kit? WELL now I am going to tell you all about the bridal shower invites and thank you cards that I ordered from Wedding Paper Divas!

In April I'm having 2 bridal showers: one for Michael's mom's side of the family, and one for mine. This means I needed 2 very important kinds of stationary: bridal shower invitations and thank you cards (for all the gifts I'll be receiving at the showers!) And, as always, Wedding Paper Divas delivered an amazing experience and spectacular results!

First, we needed to choose which designs to get. For the thank you cards I found the prettiest, simplest, most affordable options and then Michael helped me narrow it down to the Flourish Focus Thank You Cards. For the bridal shower invites I chose about 6 or 7 of my favorite designs and let my mom choose her shower invitation from that and Michael's mom choose hers. My mom went with the Dreamy Details shower invitations and Michael's mom chose the Rose Ring ones. I loved all of them!

#WeddingPaperDivas Sample Kit #IC

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Wedding Paper Divas. I received a product and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

By now, you all know that I'm planning my wedding. (Which is less than 4 months away, btw!) And I've encountered various kinds of brides and ways of approaching a wedding. I am 100% that girl who has pictured my wedding forever and the main theme and aspects of the wedding that I've always dreamed of? They're happening. I've always wanted to get married in the church I grew up in-and I am. I've always wanted to wear my mom's dress-as I am. I've always wanted lots of red roses. Happening. I've always wanted red and white as the colors-yepp. And then in the couple years leading up to my actual engagement, Michael and I had settled on various aspects of our future wedding. So...suffice it to say....we have a very clear vision and it is being realized!

And that vision is being consistently realized in every aspect of the wedding--not the least of which is the stationary! It's always super important that your stationary (save the dates, invites, thank you cards, bridal shower invites, etc.) are cohesive with your entire wedding--they're oftentimes the first (and last) impression your guests will have about your wedding so make sure you get the whole thing off on the right foot! One amazing place to turn when you're looking to order your stationary is Wedding Paper Divas.

Amy's Original Bridal Hangers Review

I wish I had my wedding pictures already. I realize my wedding isn't until June but I just know that the wedding photos I will have of these hangers are going to be so much better than mine. I mean...isn't most of the point of these super cool hangers that they're adorable in photos? Pretty sure it is.

In case you've never heard of this concept: it is a current trend to have personalized hangers for the bride and/or bridal party with names (or titles etc. --such as "Bride") bent into wire for the hangers, and sometimes something engraved on the hanger itself-mostly to be used as a photo prop (not to say that dresses can't hang from them--they can and they do. Just so long as they hang from the sturdy hanger and not the soft, bent, wire). I was lucky enough to receive personalized hangers for myself and my gals from the makers of the original bridal hanger--Amy's Original Bridal Hangers!

Back in 2010, Amy (who has a background in Interior Design and has has a business of creating beautiful handmade things since 2005) and her husband began selling the original personalized wire wood hangers. And from there they became a phenomenon! Something fun I discovered throughout chatting with Amy is that she is a fellow Ohio-an! She's from the Columbus area and is really all about supporting that community (she's even currently offering a 10% discount off all purchases made in Ohio!)