Wedding Week Part III: Outdoor Pics & The Reception

After the wedding we hopped onto the trolley and toured Milwaukee and the lakefront.

We got off to take some pictures.

The bridesmaids: (from left to right) Laura & Kayla my twin sisters, Kate my friend from high school and Corrine a friend of the family.

The groomsmen: (from left to right) Ryan's brother Danny, James his friend from high school and Chris and Joe his friends from college.

A beautiful bridge by the lakefront.

This is the spot where Ryan proposed to me. It's a staircase to a restaurant that overlooks the lake.

The art museum. (our reception building is just across the street from this!)

The cake cutting.

Banana spice cake, yum!

Here's a look at the back of my dress.

Dancing with my dad. Not sure what was so funny :)

Dancing with my stepdad.

Ryan dancing with his mom.

So there you have it! A look into the best day of my life! The whole day was filled with so much love and it was great sharing it with great friends and family.

Happy anniversary Babe :)

(all photos by Emily Jane Photography- Southeastern Wisconsin)

Wedding Week Part II: Getting Ready & The Ceremony

We have now come to the moment of getting ready for the big moment. Whew! I was a little nervous.

This is me looking out of the hotel window of downtown Milwaukee. The reception site was right at the end of this street, over-looking Lake Michigan.

This Ryan and his two best men, friends from college and high school.

Ryan's youngest brother and one of the ring bearers.

Me and my sisters have a good laugh before leaving for the church. They were both my maids of honor.

The outside of our beautiful church.

This is it! My step-dad is peeking around the corner, waiting for the signal to walk down the aisle.

Both my dad and my step-dad gave me away.

Here are all the groomsmen and bridesmaids.

The vows.

The kiss.

Ryan's family- I'm the first daughter!

My family. And yes, that is my brother (one of the ushers) that managed to escape most of the pictures :)

Of course, my mom needed her own picture.

One of my favorite pictures.

We had a trolley take us around for some pictures and then drop us off at the reception.

I forgot to get a picture with Ryan on the back of the trolley but of course him and Chris get one!

Next up...the pictures around Milwaukee and the reception.

Wedding Week Part I: The Decor & Details

Sunday will be my and my husband's 1st wedding anniversary. In honor of that, I would like to share with you some of our professional pictures and the details of our special day.

This first posting installment is of the decor and attire details.

This is my engagement ring (that Ryan designed himself) and Ryan's wedding band. The middle band of Ryan's ring is actually his grandpa's wedding ring (with the original initials and wedding date engravements intact) and then sandwiched between 2 titanium bands. What a special keepsake!

This is a locket my mom gave me at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. She bought the vintage locket from a lady in England.
Inside the locket are pictures of my grandparents (my mom's parents). I was really close with both of my grandparents and unfortunately they are no longer with us. So having this locket wrapped around my bouquet was a great way to have them close to my heart on my special day.

For my jewelry, I wore pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet. The bodice of my dress was very detailed so I decided not to wear a necklace.

My mom also gave me this beautiful hair comb.

My mom made my veil and I wore it just underneath my hair. It was very simple and came just to the edge of my train. Gorgeous!

And here is the dress. It was a Maggie Sottero dress. It wasn't the VERY first dress but one of the first couple of dress I tried on. I actually had it narrowed down to this dress and another Maggie Sottero dress that was very similar. I had to have an ivory colored dress because of my fair (pale!) skin. I was shocked that I bought this dress because I thought I never wanted a strapless dress or one with a corset in the back. This dress had both! But I loved and still do! I'm waiting the opportunity to wear it again :)

The bodice was made out of tule and just looked so elegant.

My shoes were gold colored with a fine mesh and a little sparkle.

I found vintage brooches for all of my bridesmaids to wear in their hair. They were all different looking but all had gold and pearls on them.

These were the bridesmaids bouquets. The colors of my wedding was cream, sage green and chocolate brown. The bridesmaids dresses were brown with cream colored lace. So the greenish bouquets looked great with the dresses.

My bouquet was full of all cream colored roses.

The guys all wore charcoal colored suits with sage green pocket squares, while Ryan's was a cream pocket square.

My mom made the ringbearers' pillows herself.

We had two ringbearers, Ryan's youngest brothers. That's right...my youngest brothers-in-law are now 9 and 10 years old! Their boutonnieres were just made of berries so that they held up throughout the day. You know how boys can be :)

Ryan wanted a cigar bar at the reception so I bought matchbooks with our names and wedding date printed on them.

On the reception tables, we alternated flower and non-flower centerpieces. Have of the tables had a vase filled with coffee beans (which smelled amazing by the way) and a birch covered candle. All of the tables had a few votive candles and pinecones.

Each placesetting had a turtle chocolate with an "L" on the top. They were made by a lady in the Milwaukee area and were the best treat EVER! They were a big hit.

Here is a picture of the flower centerpieces. White pumpkins were hollowed out and served as the vase. This is actually the head table. We decided to have two long tables put together to make one big square table. We thought that since so many friends and family were coming into town we would actually like to see them and be able to talk to everyone.

The pumpkins were filled with green and cream colored flowers, berries and twigs. They lasted 2 weeks!

This is the gift table. One of my mom's friend wrapped and decorated a box for the cards.

This is our wedding cake with a vintage cake topper my mom found (do you see a trend here...my mom did so much!). Ryan and I actually wanted pies for the dessert. We bought pies from a local farm that are to die for. They always make us think of fall. So we got this small cake to use for the cake cutting. It was pretty delicious too!- banana spice.
Guests were welcomed into the reception room with a table full of pinecones that held their placecards.
I printed the placecards myself and stamped and embossed the viney detail.

And there you have it...the details behind our wedding. Stay tuned to see pictures of the wedding party, the ceremony and the dancing!