Soon to Be Koo: November 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Step by Step: Some Toasts, Thanks and More Dancing

After Mr. S and I had cut our cake and enjoyed our first dance as a married couple, we were able to sit back and relax for a bit. Finally!

Daddy Stiletto started off with a sweet welcome for all of our guests at the beginning of dinner.

While we were able to sit and eat (unfortunately, my dress was much better for standing and dancing than sitting and eating, so I felt like I couldn't breath very well and only had a few bites of our fabulous dinner), we tried to make it around to the tables and say hello to our guests. I'll be honest, having just 100 guests we still struggled to talk with everyone. I wonder how other couples handle making it around to 200, 300, 400 guests!

I definitely had some crazy eyes going on here. It was getting overwhelming and tiring, but so nice to making it around to (almost) everyone.

Toward the end of dinner, it was time for toasts (or, I think it was the end of dinner, we changed things up at the reception and I couldn't tell you what exactly happened when!).

Sister and Made of Honor Stiletto stashed the notes for her toast in the cute little clutch that I made for each of the bridesmaids - remember those?

Her toast was very heart felt and endearing, and even brought some tears to Mr. S's eyes, I think. She held it together much better than I would have!

Next up was Mr. S's best man, Matt. We had absolutely no clue about what he'd talk about, especially since he lives out of state and doesn't have stories about Mr. S and I together.

Once I realized where he was going with the toast, I could help but laugh! Matt and Mr. S love to talk sports, and I once saw an online chat between them where Matt had said "I'd love to be the best man at your funeral."

At the time, I didn't know that this was a line from some sports radio show, and was a little miffed that Matt had such a dim outlook on the wedding! Mr. S later explained it to me, and I didn't think another thing of it. Apparently Mr. S had also let Matt know I had seen it, so I quickly received an apologetic email from Matt.

Of course, all was good and who would have thought it would later be a humorous start to Matt's toast?

Overall, we were both so happy to be surrounded by family and friends and hear their kind words.

At the very end of the toasts, Mr. S and I got up to say a few words of thanks. Well, I said a very few words before quickly passing the microphone off to him! Public speaking (even with family and friends) makes my stomach flip flop. Mr. S was much more of a natural and shared some sweet words.

Finishing it all up, Daddy Stiletto and I enjoyed a dance to Frank Sinatra's "The Way You Look Tonight." While I had been searching high and low for a great father/daughter song, I ended opening it up to him to choose a song that he liked, and this was a perfect fit!

Sadly, at some point our cake had to be whisked away to serve to our guests. Our topper and a bridesmaid bouquet held down the fort in its place.

As pretty as our cake was, it was equally as tasty! I had promised myself that I'd eat a slice of each flavor, but I stayed glued to the dance floor throughout the night. I finally gobbled down a piece after tracking down a fork from the catering staff!

The formalities were finally done so it's all dancing and fun from here on out!

*Please note: All photos from Laurie Peacock Photography

Next Up - We bust out our dancing shoes!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
Step by Step: Girls Get Ready
Step by Step: Guys Get Ready
Step by Step: First Look
Step by Step: Gettin’ Ready to Walk
Step by Step: We Get Hitched
Step by Step: Strike a Pose in the Park
Step by Step: Urban Love in Oak Park
Step by Step: Lookin' Sharp - Reception Details
Step by Step: Cut a Cake and Dance a Dance

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Step by Step: Cut a Cake and Dance a Dance

Even though we were able to sneak in a see the ballroom before the reception, it was SO exciting to come back in to a room full of guests! It was so fun to be introduced as the new "Mr. and Mrs. Stiletto"!

Because we nixed our head table at the last minute in favor of having everyone sit a different round tables, I had a momentary freak out about where the wedding party would go once entering the ballroom. We were all sitting close to the door we'd enter through, so it would be a rather lackluster grand entrance if people went straight to their seats!

Mr. S had the best idea - everyone lined up behind the cake and waited for us to arrive. Genius!

Note to future brides: your wedding cake may seem very intimidating when you go to cut it. Have your wedding coordinator or someone from catering give you a quick lesson. Even with that, we struggled to get through this sucker. It was too pretty to cut!

Nope, no cake smashing for us! I don't think we would have regardless (I get majorly weirded out about having food on my face in public!), but with a fondant-covered cake, there's no messy frosting to smush.

We played the song "All I Want is You" by Barry Louis Polisar during the cake cutting. It was Mr. S's pick and I wasn't sure how well it would work for this, but it was PERFECT. We had the most fun cake cutting and thanks to Mrs. Taffy, you can check out the fun!

Straight from cake, it was time to dance! Mr. S and I have always liked the weddings where immediately on entering the reception, the bride and groom cut the cake and dance their first dance. Getting it all done off the bat let us get two of those "must do's" checked off the list right away.

We danced to "Right Red Ankle" by The Decemberists. After many song debates between the two of us on out here in the blogosphere, this was definitely the right choice. But, as sweet as it was, 3 1/2 minutes seemed like a lifetime! I struggle having all eyes on me, and I felt like we were SO front and center during the song.

So, while I enjoyed our first dance, I was relieved when the song ended and all eyes could be on someone else for a minute!

*Please note: All photos from Laurie Peacock Photography

Next Up - some toasts and more dancing!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
Step by Step: Girls Get Ready
Step by Step: Guys Get Ready
Step by Step: First Look
Step by Step: Gettin’ Ready to Walk
Step by Step: We Get Hitched
Step by Step: Strike a Pose in the Park
Step by Step: Urban Love in Oak Park
Step by Step: Lookin' Sharp - Reception Details

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Step by Step: Lookin' Sharp - Reception Details

Without further adieu, I give your our fabulous, fabulous cake from Sugar Syndicate:

And, I give you my reaction to seeing our cake for the very first time. I was awestruck at how amazing it looked in person, and how it was even better than what I had ever envisioned. Oh, and it tasted as divine as it looked! (Half was chocolate cake with white chocolate peppermint ganache, the other was vanilla cake with mango curd and strawberries...and we get a complimentary mini-tier on our anniversary instead of having to freeze the top layer - counting down the days!)

Remember my escort card project? They turned out great and were a big hit with our guests.

Our granola favors that also incorporated a charitable donation. Purchasing of the granola plus the donation we made helped support programs for at-risk youth. And the granola was super yummy.

And, of course, my DIY menus. If I could do it all again, I would get back the hours I spent on these suckers! But, they looked cute on the tables.

Our table numbers were so popular with our guests - we even had one guest take home the their table's number! This was by far one of my favorite projects and was so super simple.

Since we didn't have a head table, I opted to place my bouquet in a vase as our table's centerpiece instead of the other centerpiece we had arranged, and placed the bridesmaid bouquets in vases on the gift / guestbook table.

Tables all set up...

Some yummy hors d'oeuvres. This was the plate they brought into Mr. S and I while our guests enjoyed cocktail hour. We opted to have some downtime together while everyone else socialized.

Also during the cocktail hour, our ushers manned the Polaroid guestbook. They took pictures of all of the guests and then gave them the opportunity to sign the book. After cocktail hour, it was brought up to the ballroom for guests to write in during the evening.

We left a little note to our guests asking them to write of messages of well wishes and advice.

Our guests definitely had a lot of fun with the guestbook! While not everyone remembered to come back and sign it, we had awesome pictures of everyone. And, later in the night we brought the Polarioid cameras out on the dance floor and took lots of fun pictures. We loooved looking at everything after the wedding, and have since taken the candids and added them to the guestbook.

Hmmm...do I spy a Bee in this picture?!

*Please note: All photos from Laurie Peacock Photography

Next Up - We cut our BEAUTIFUL cake and take time for some special dances.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Step by Step: Urban Love in Oak Park

Hold your horses, because I have a whole lot of fabulosity coming your way! While we had a lot of fun posing in the park after the ceremony, we had allotted most of our time for pictures throughout downtown Oak Park. We knew we didn't have time to head into the city for urban shots there, but Oak Park turned out to be a fabulous alternative.

For those of you who are familiar with Oak Park, we had our limo driver drop us off at the corner of North Boulevard and Harlem Avenue. From there we started walking east, stopping at whatever caught our eyes, and met the driver about an hour later at North Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue.

Straight out of the limo, one of my favorite shots. That needs to be framed and on my wall, pronto!

Oak Park has a great El/Metra train station, where we took some great shots. I couldn't envision how this would turn out, and I fell in love once I saw it.

Hmm...Mr. S can whisk me away on a train any day.

There happened to be a festival going on that day - "Oak-tober Fest"! We got a lot of stares and many well wishes as we walked through.

We were always very anti-jumping. It turns out, the jumping was a whole lot of fun! We didn't ask our bridal party to jump, but Mr. S and I gave it a shot. Sadly, this is the best out of the bunch, notice my feet planted firmly on the ground. Ladies, you must remember to SMILE when you jump. I did not, hence many angry looking jumping shots of me. And Mr. S and I could never get in sync with our jumps.

Love.

Yes, our wedding party was totally fierce. Don't they look like a force to be reckoned with?

Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. I'm not a naturally laughy, bubbly person. So I adore that Laurie caught a completely natural, carefree laugh on my part.

And also a very serious, sweet moment.

Us trying to look fierce. Who knew Oak Park had so many great murals? I had never really noticed them until we were scouted for good photo locations.

Once we hit Oak Park Avenue, our wedding party was more than ready to put their feet up! My one mistake was not considering the fact that they may not have been as excited to walk around in their fancy shoes as I was. While I was totally fine with powering through blisters and cramped toes, they were not! Fortunately we were way ahead of schedule, so we bought them a bunch of water and let them chill out.

After a bit of rest (and letting our photographers rest, too - they were working hard!), Mr. S and I headed over to a nearby park for a few more one-on-one shots. This was definitely a stand out of the bunch. These kids were playing football and made their best "Eww, you're kissing faces" for the shot. I'm normally not into things that are so posed, but this is so stinkin' cute.

One more sweet embrace...

...and dress shot...

...and finally, a bit of lovely flare...

...and it was time for Mr. S to flag down our limo to take us on over to the reception!

Did I mention that I love flare?

The sun was setting so beautifully at that moment, our photographers just kept on shooting after our friends had piled into the limo.

Fortunately, by the end of the day, I was a master at getting in and out of the limo in my heels and dress! It was definitely a well-crafted combination of grace and gymnastics.

Time to head on in and see the ballroom!

*Please note: All photos from Laurie Peacock Photography

Next up - All of the fun little reception details, including the cake of my dreams!