our one year wedding anniversary!

this sunday, august 30, marks my husband devin and my first wedding anniversary. the year went by so fast, but at the same time it seems like it was so long ago too! we had a *perfect* hot august day. sunshine galore. the entire day went off with out a hitch. our vendors were all wonderful and exceeded our expectations. and, of course, it was the beginning of my love affair with weddings and all that goes into planning them. i started heidzillas right after we got back from our honeymoon but i never really touched upon my own wedding details on my blog, so i thought now would be a perfect time. the post is a little long for a wedding recap but it’s the vendor preview, ceremony, reception and details all in one! photos are all copyright corey ann photography.

our vendors included:

salon: charles scott
bride & maid’s attire: brides by the falls
groom & men’s attire: american commodore tuxedo
ceremony: the hanna garden at western reserve historical society
reception & hotel block: wyndham hotel at playhouse square
photography: corey ann photography
ceremony quartet: heritage string ensemble
band: grand avenue band
florist: blooms by plantscaping
bakery: wild flour bakery
transportation: all occasions limousine
valet: all star valet
stationery: maria barone stationery and vedda & sons printing

wedding day review:

i’ll start my recap rather chronologically: invitations and stationery were a huge priority for me. my friend and coworker maria designed all of the printed pieces including the invitations, the menus, favor tags, valet tags, photography log-in sheet.

while the entire day was memorable, i always think back to the special time i had with my bridesmaids at the salon. the main thing was that we had plenty of time and didn’t have to rush (by design.) my bestie mallory chauffeured the seven of us (6 bridesmaids and me) in her gmc acadia. my cousin laurie handed me my favorite starbucks drinks as i got in the car, and then “forever” by chris brown was cranked. we had fun getting pampered at the salon while we munched on bagels and had mimosas.

after salon time, we grabbed subs and went back to my mom’s hotel suite for getting ready. we had probably a good two hours to finish up make up, get dressed and packed up and take a bunch of fun girl shots with corey.

meanwhile, this was going on.

the limo picked us up at 3:00 pm sharp and we headed to the hanna garden. we had time to do bridesmaid formal photography and i got some shots with my family and by myself.

it was at the hanna garden we first got to see our flowers. they were *just* what we envisioned. i love lilies and roses!

although there was about 30 minutes or so in there that i thought would drag on forever, it was finally time for the ceremony to start. our programs matched our invitations.

we had the best.flower.girl.ever! to this day, if you ask her to show you “heidi’s wedding” she’ll immediately turn her head to the right and smile HUGE! like her mom had her practice for our photos every day leading up to 08/30/08!

walking down the aisle and seeing devin’s face at the alter was my utmost favorite moment of the day. we didn’t see each other before and the anticipation and excitement for this walk was the best feeling ever.

during our ceremony, we had one fun surprise that our guests are still reminding us of: entertainment provided by the blue angels since the  air show ran over scheduled time!

do you? i do! do you, i do. we did!

self explanatory ;)

this quite possibly could be my favorite shot of the day. and no, rice does NOT kill birds, that’s an urban legend.

our goooorgeous bridal party. i really like navy and gold, huh? (side note: i’m so excited to see our color scheme was so popular in 2009 because it wasn’t just yet in 2008!)

some fun bride and groom time:

oh and back to the stationery – when our guests left the western reserve historical society, the valet attendants we hired placed these thank you map tags on rear view mirrors. this was randomly one of my favorite details.

in the limo, our flower girl grace insisted on sitting in the back seat with devin and me. she was hysterically cute all.day.long.

now to the reception! i actually designed all of my decor – invitations, guest book, escort cards, etc. details – after i picked out our cake design. i loved the dotted swiss pattern so much and decided that pearls would be our accent with navy and gold.

we had a slight wine/champagne theme going. our table numbers were cobalt riesling bottles with the numbers stuck in the corks. our favors were champagne splits. table menus were held up with champagne cages. the escort cards were champagne corks with the card sliced into the cork. not shown – our card box was a hinged wine box.

i always had in mind to do “make a wish, take a wish” jars for my wedding. it might have even been my first diy project ever if i remember correctly…

onto our grand entrances: this is my favorite photo of devin’s best friend dan, ever. ever, ever.

once we were announced as mr. and mrs. for the first time, devin dipped me unexpectedly!

we chose to do cake cutting before dinner so that guests would still be paying attention after announcements, would not rush the cake table with cameras and get in the way of our photographer and also so the wyndham had plenty of time to cut and serve it.

our best man started the toasts off during which he mentioned i should become a wedding planner… hmm….

our maid of honor followed with another touching speech, then a welcoming from my dad and a blessing from devin’s dad.

i love love love this shot of the bouquets on the table all a glow with our pretty ladies behind standing toasts.

after dinner and some table visiting we did, it was time for our first dance – to howie day’s collide. this photo was my cell phone and computer desktop background for months:

after our first dance, grand avenue band started for our father/daughter and mother/son dances.

my dad and i have been dancing together since i was about 4. we usually jitterbug, but for our dance, my dad chose “i loved her first”. i think he picked the song out before devin and i were even engaged :)

devin surprised his mom with “have i told you lately?” by rod stewart for their dance. she always sang it to him growing up. this photo will forever make me pause and smile.

after the dances were done, the floor was open. and it was packed for the REST of the night. the band only took two breaks during which our guests also had to take a breather and get drinks because we were so winded.

this had to have been during the ONLY “must play” song of the night: my humps by black eyed peas. flame away, i love that song. this photo makes me laugh, i’m clearly singing along and devin’s playing his usual too cool for school.

i could go on and on and on, but i won’t….. oh but back to stationery one last time – here’s the photo we had turned into our thank you cards : ) thanks for making it this far in my wedding day reminiscing!

if you want even more photos of our wonderful wedding day, you can see our photographer, corey ann’s recap of our wedding day here. and a bunch more of my favorite photos that i picked out for corey to blog here.