Weddingbee Blog

The vibe in my hotel room was pretty much amazing all morning. I think I owe that in large part to this lovely lady and lots of prayers sent her way that week:

This statue of The Blessed Mother belongs to my Mom and traveled to State College with us for the wedding weekend. Why you ask? In my family, the ladies pray to Mary for good weather and lots of love and happiness on the big day. Having a statue of her in the room, facing out the window, served as a reminder to pump up those prayers - especially since earlier in the week they had been calling for rain on Saturday.

Thanks to Mary, and the prayers of many family members, we had nothing but glorious sunshine and lots of smiles, hugs, and love filling the room.

Oh, and did I mention these gorgeous people?

My Mom

My Sister

My Cousin

I got to spend a little quiet time with my family before the rest of the bridal party got to the suite, and it was wonderful. I had 9 bridesmaids, so quiet time was not easy to come by that day! Don’t get me wrong - I loved having a big bridal party, but I also cherished the moments just laughing and hanging out with these three.

In addition to the bridesmaids and Moms, I also wanted special friends and family members to join us that morning (if they wanted of course!) as I got dressed. Cheeseburger Mom sent out the texts to my aunts so that they could make their way down to the suite, and at that moment my bridesmaids started to arrive!

With the arrival of my girls also came our flowers, and OHMYGOD. To say that I loved my bouquet would be the world’s greatest understatement. It. Was. Perfect. Exactly what I wanted. Thank you, thank you, thank you Stephanie of Woodrings! Here’s a teaser:

My florist used ivory hydrangea, amnesia roses (shout out to Mrs. Perfume, my flower soul mate!), pale pink roses, white ranunculus, mini Picasso calas, and eucalyptus leaves and buds - a pretty close match to exactly what I wanted!

My maternal grandmother passed away in 2002 and was very special to me, so I wanted her close to me on my wedding day; my bouquet was wrapped in scrap material from her wedding dress, and her crystal rosary was draped throughout my flowers. It turned out to be more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.

My bridesmaids were now hanging out in the room and had also grabbed their gorgeous bouquets (made of similar flowers, with a little more greenery).

Everything and everyone seemed to be in place, and it was time for me to become a bride and step into the dress!

Cheeseburger Tips:

1. Pad. Your. Schedule. - I cannot stress this enough. I was late getting back from the salon since I had a little hair revision, but luckily I had allotted almost an hour and a half in between the salon and the trolley pick-up time. This huge chunk of time gave my Mom, MIL and bridesmaids time to get dressed and get to my suite while leaving me time to get dressed in front of everyone. It also gave me time to relax. Relax. Now there’s a word you want to use a LOT when thinking of your wedding day!

2. Clean Up Your Room! - Sounds silly, I know - and I was a crazy person about this. My suite had two rooms (a bedroom and a living room), and I made everyone (including our photographers - thanks guys!) put their stuff (coats, purses, etc.) into the bedroom, keeping the living room free of clutter. I know you can’t see a lot of the room in the pictures, but I’m glad that peoples’ bags and coats aren’t in any of the shots. Mrs. Shortcake mentioned that these items had ended up in her photos (and she had to edit them out), and I made a mental note back then to keep things nice and tidy! It also made sure that we had the maximum amount of space since we had a LOT of people!

Catch Up!

• Grow Old Along With Me: We moved to Happy Valley!
• Grow Old Along With Me: The Good, Bad, & Ugly
• Grow Old Along With Me: The Girls Get Prettier
• Grow Old Along With Me: We Exchanged Gifts
• Grow Old Along With Me: Burger Got Dressed

All Pictures by the lovely and talented Jessica Ames