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Once I was done twirling for the Baconator’s approval, we were on to the trolley to begin our Chicago Photo Safari. We decided way early on that since: I had so many places in mind to take photos; none of us had cars; the guests needed to get from the hotel to the venue somehow; and I’ve always wanted to ride in a trolley, that we’d rent a couple trolleys to truck us around the city. So we piled in with our wedding party, their dates, our photographers and a cooler full of beer, champagne and Red Bull (for the Baconator’s underage little bro) and were on our way to some of the most iconic spots around the city!
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| I just love this shot - 10 points for the Baconator for asking us to take it! |
Even though we were going to be seeing each other earlier in the morning for the tea ceremony, I really wanted to have a first look in the white dress. I spent most of the engagement trying to gauge the Baconator’s thoughts on different kinds of dresses and once I had the one of my dreams, I kept trying to throw him off the scent. While I loved the red dress and all the tradition that came along with the tea ceremony, walking down the aisle on my father’s arm in a white dress that my groom had never seen really was the wedding I had always dreamed of.
The Baconator went out ahead…
I know I just posted about the complete lack of groomy photos, so it’s not really fair for me to make a whole post of photos of me… but I’m not that kind of gal that will frame up a photo of just me in the house and Jordan did such a great job with these that they deserve a moment or two in the spotlight. I do totally understand if you’re sick of pics of me and want to skip ahead to my next post. No hard feelings, I promise.
We didn’t put aside time for me to take bridal portraits and I actually didn’t even think that these were “bridal portraits” as the camera was snapping away since we didn’t take them all at once. So, I wasn’t fluttery or nervous or shy as she was taking the photos—I just jad the usual wedding morning jitters. Looking back, I’m so glad that we snuck in the time for these photos before we met up with the boys!
We took a few in our hotel suite:
There have been lots of photos of the ladies getting ready, and I admit that I was a bit of a photographer hog, but I promise it wasn’t my fault.
If I learned anything from our morning, it’s to have a designated place for the men to get ready that has been run by everyone involved.
We planned on the boys getting shaves in the morning, then coming back to the Baconator’s mom’s room to get ready and have photos ops. Apparently we never ran this past his mom, so when he and the guys got to her room with tuxes in tow, his whole family was in the room and there was no place for them to get dressed. With no space to change, he and the guys went to his dad’s room instead…but the second shooter didn’t know that and found only family members when she arrived in MIL Bacon’s room and no one gave her directions on how to find the guys. FIL Bacon’s room number was a mystery and for some reason we didn’t make the appropriate phone calls to figure out where they guys were and suddenly it was time for the tea ceremony.
So, there are no adorable photos of the guys putting on cuff links or snapping on the rental ties or tying their embroidered sneakers. Instead, we only have a handful of post-tea ceremony shots of them eating lunch and the Baconator prancing down the hallway that our photographer managed to sneak in.
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The ladies were done and Mama Bacon was off with my side of the family showing them the city and treating them to lunch, so it was just the five of us in my hotel room to transform me into a bride.
Oh my, this is really happening??
While I was busy being distracted by my dream dress and finally writing my letter for our Letters of Unity ceremony, the bridesmaids got dressed and put on their finishing touches before helping me put on Big White.
I love this photo of my engagement ring, my something old/blue, my ruby red slippers and my aptly named “Chance” perfume. I cannot say enough about wearing Toms for our whole wedding day—my feet were so happy.
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As you might remember, I spent hours and weeks and months fretting over my dress decision, so even after picking her up after my final fitting, I was just the teeniest bit anxious that I might have made the wrong decision. But when I woke up that morning and my mom brought the dress down to my room, I knew I had made the right choice. It was my dream dress.
So without further ado, some glamour shots of the one.
My mom and aunts had gone to work on the hotel suite all morning and the ultra modern room with streaming sunlight was completely transformed into a warm and cheery Chinese experience prefect for the tea ceremony. Maybe the warmth was from all 30 people we stuffed in that little suite, but I’m still going to credit it to Mama B…
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| An instant heirloom - Our Chinese tea set complete with the traditional Double Happiness characters |
I set my alarm for 7:20AM to give myself a few extra minutes with my MOH before the day began at a bustling 7:50AM right in the middle of my hotel room, but I got up before the alarm and had a few minutes to reflect on what was ahead of me. Instead of impatiently waiting for the alarm to ring, I decided to let her sleep and shared my last minutes as a single lady with all of you.
Then there was a knock on the door and it all began…first the make up gal, Mary, and a few minutes later, my friend from DC, Dee, the hairstylist.
I know I have us all prepped up for photo-filled recaps, but it occurred to me as I was falling asleep last night (and after watching the first 50 episodes of How I Met Your Mother in a week) that I told you how we met and how we got engaged, but I never filled you all in on the bits in the middle and it’s the bit in the middle that make us different.
So let’s go back to that magical spring back in 2006 when the Baconator and I first started our romance in London. We wined, we dined, we explored, we traveled, we watched a lot of movies on my laptop… then after four months of easy, romantic-comedy dating we broke up. The Baconator is from Illinois and went to college in Indiana, I am from Minnesota and went to college in Washington, DC, so when I asked what was to happen to us when we went back to the US, he said he assumed we’d break up. There was no big blow out fight, no yelling and screaming, no tears (in front of each other, at least); in fact, it was a neat and tidy logical break up.
He reasoned that we were both really involved on our respective campuses, we have no future plans of living in the same place ever, and if we break up when we leave England, this whole relationship would be a perfect memory. I had to agree with him—I was an active member of my sorority, active in the student programming board, taking more than a full workload of classes, I had an internship and a waitressing job. Where was I going to have the time to maintain a long distance relationship?
I definitely didn’t have the time, but I loved this guy, didn’t I?
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(Word of apology: Sadly my camera was left at home all day, so this post isn’t quite as illustrated as I wish it could be)
The morning on the day before the wedding was full of hustle, bustle and bonding: the ladies of the wedding party, along with some ladies from out of town, set off to Potbelly’s for some pre-mani sandwiches and the boys were off to Wrigleyville for sandwiches as big as their heads.
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| Baconator with his dad and the Bacon Groomsmen getting pumped! |
The ladies were then off to get our nails done and some midday cocktails, but the boys had something so much more… um… manly to do: Whirlyball.
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Happy New Year, Hive!
(Who am I kidding, I’ve missed quite a few holidays, so please forgive me as I quickly catch myself up.) Happy Columbus Day! Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Hannukah! Merry Christmas! Whew, now that we’re all caught up, let me say that I’m so excited to share our wedding day with you. I can’t believe that we’ve already been married four months; I mean, come on, where did all that time go? My dress still isn’t dry cleaned (ew, I know, but I promise I’m working on it…) and the Baconator is still procrastinating his last few thank you cards, so how in the world is it already 2012?!
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| Photo courtesy of my über talented cousin |
(The alternate title to this post was “Did a Wild Animal Tear Apart Our Apartment?”)
We’re jetlagged, we’re tired, we’re checking our emails constantly for an email from our photographer, we both have colds, our apartment looks like the host of WWIII, and we both are having our first day back in the office…oh yeah, and we’re MARRIED!!
The wedding was amazing. I can’t believe that it’s over already. I really wish that we’d booked the venue for a couple more hours so that the night could have lasted longer and that we’d had more time to visit and dance with each and every guest. After dissecting the night the way that only newlyweds can, we came up with only two regrets: not eating more of our wedding cake and not getting more time with each guest. I have a feeling that no matter how much time we had with each person in attendance we’d still want more. The night was a whirlwind and I can’t wait to get the professional pics back so that I can start recapping.
Before the recaps begin, I’ll be stopping in with some South African honeymoon highlights and some other last-minute items that never got to be blogged. Until then, here are a few teaser pics to enjoy that were taken by my talented cousin, Jonathan.
Hive, I’m sitting in my hotel room while my maid of honor is still asleep, enjoying the 30 minutes before this day really begins. It’s quiet in here and the skies are blue out there and the Baconator has already lost his mustache socks. I feel scarily calm even though I know that in a few short hours, I’ll be putting on my wedding dress for real. I mean, last night, at the rehearsal dinner, I was already a blubbering mess as our family stood to do speeches, but today, I feel cool as a cucumber.
It’s really true, what they say.
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Hive, I have a confession. I am getting married on Saturday and I haven’t written my vows. Not one word. I kind of… um… forgot that I needed to write them. OK, maybe forgot isn’t the right word, but I just haven’t done them yet.
I’ve had them on this big long to do list of wedding greatness for months, but they still aren’t done. Now it’s down to the little, insignificant things on the list like ordering lunch on the day of so that we all don’t faint during pictures, wrapping wedding party gifts, printing inserts for the out of town bags. Oh right, and that one, big, huge, super important, cannot be ignored, reason that people come to the ceremony in the first place thing: vows.
The Baconator wrote his back in June. JUNE people. Really? How am I so incredibly under prepared? To get an idea of how long mine are supposed to be, I started sniffing around about his. Oh his? They’re roughly 2 pages of double spaced prose. Yep, the Baconator pretty much has vow poetry and mine go something like this: “Uh, ditto.” I have a feeling that’s SO not going to fly.
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Mrs. Bacon, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, Digital Advertising Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, IT Client Services Engagement Date: June 17, 2010 Wedding Date: September 2011 Venue: Ravenswood Billboard Factory About Me: I'm a Midwestern girl that can't seem to commit to staying in one place for too long and is constantly daydreaming about my next adventure. I am an aspiring foodie with a weak spot for the unusual and I love semi-reality food television. My other loves easily include laughing as a form of exercise, a book that I can't put down, summer baseball games, espresso with whipped cream, couch potato days and nights with the ridiculous Mr. Bacon, and our two kitties, Lincoln and Sawyer. We're planning a faux-destination wedding for 150 of our closest friends and family in the city we've both adopted as home that has a modern, yet whimsical twist and as many personal touches as we can manage.
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