4th of July: Wedding Recaps

Well hello Clevelanders! My first blog from the other side! I have had several e-mails in the past month asking me all about the Courthouse and what it is like getting married there. I had no idea that so many people were getting help from my blog. I appreciate the e-mails very much, and will do as much as I can to help everyone. (Incidentally, I am starting a small business as a wedding coordinator. Since the wedding I have had numerous requests from friends/family to help out with their weddings, and because of my genuine enjoyment of the process, I am hoping to turn it into something I can do on a regular basis. I will likely be extremely cheap or free for my first few attempts, but I am excited!!)

On Wednesday morning, the boy and I packed the car up, and made our way into Cleveland, and drove immediately to my hair trial. I know I was cutting it close, but I was never able to meet up with a hairstylist on any of my other trips into town. I brought a pack of hair extensions I bought At Sally's beauty supply, and my laptop full of inspiration pictures of Carrie Underwood.


I immediately clicked with my stylist Becky as she played around with my hair. I left feeling confident that she would pull off what I wanted for my hair. Here's a few pics of the trial (I have NO make up on here, so just look at the hair :) I wanted to have my bangs pulled back a little more on the day, and have a little more height on top. She will be coming to my house on the morning of the wedding.



After that, we made our way downtown to pick up our marriage license. Since we are getting married in Cleveland, the spot to pick up our licence is the Courthouse! It was so surreal walking in there and realizing that in just a few days we would be back there at our reception! It only took us about 15 minutes to park, walk in, fill out a quick paper, pay $40 cash, and walk out with our marriage license!!!!

After that, we made our way to my house to unpack the car. We had a bunch of liquor, boxes of chargers, all of our luggage, and my wedding dress in the back! After unpacking, the boy, my mom, and I ran out to the store to pick up some foot pads for our shoes, and for the boy to pick up a last minute gift for his groomsmen. I also did not have a wedding band. The fantasy band with emeralds that I had wanted did not exist anywhere, so I had to end up getting it custom made. I wanted to look around for a good fake option to use for the ceremony, but they didn't make anything small enough for my minuscule finger(4.25), and I realized that I just wanted to use my engagement ring in the ceremony, since it already had alot of meaning to me. Besides, I already had a brand new fabulous 3 carat blue topaz ring that I would be wearing on the big day as my something blue.

After we went home, my friend (and bridesmaid!) and her husband stopped over for some beers and to help us assemble my programs. The boy and I had stayed up late at his work to print them the night before. This was honestly a very last minute project for me that I did not feel like spending a whole lot of effort on. I printed the pages off on a laser printer in black and white, and bought some cardstock in shiny gold, white, and black, and figured I could figure out some way to bind them. We ended up just folding the pages inside the cardstock, and using some stretchy ribbon to hold them together. We had a Catholic ceremony, so if anyone wants my template, just ask! Here is a picture of a finished one. These went into a basket at the front door of the church, and I only had one left out of the 75 I made. My sister stamped the peacock stamp at the back underneath the quotes I had looked up about peacocks.


They also helped us to put our place cards into our wine corks that we had cut slits into and alphabetize them all. I don't have any pictures of us putting them together, but here is a picture of them in action on the big day.



After that it was time for bed! One day closer to the wedding!