I Guess I Do

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Monday, December 22, 2014

Happy Holidays


Look who's the stud of the Kelley Christmas Card this year...

Wishing all of our followers the happiest of holidays! We'll see you in the new year on January 5th with some resolutions and nutrition tips that actually work, but until then don't let me stop you from shoving your face with cookies!

Talk soon UnBrides. See you in 2015!

xo
 

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Winter Wedding Wear

Have a wedding to attend this winter and don't want to freeze your butt off? Here are some options that will keep you cozy...



 

Monday, December 15, 2014

Favorite Christmas Treats




I'm sure a lot of you have seen these corn flake cookie wreaths, which happen to be my favorite treat at Christmas! Here's the recipe so you can try them too:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter of margarine
30 large marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups corn flakes
Red cinnamon candies

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt butter and marshmallows over moderately low heat, stirring constantly. When melted, remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of food color and the vanilla extract. Add more food coloring if desired. Stir in corn flakes. Drop mixture onto wax paper 1 tablespoon at a time. Decorate with red cinnamon candies. Let stand 30 minutes or more until cool. 

Simple, Easy, and Sugary...the way I like it!



Thursday, December 11, 2014

I Give You The Gift Of...Nothing





Is it weird that Kyle and I haven't exchanged Christmas gifts in over five years? Maybe its the fact that we are always traveling over the holidays, or the fact that we don't really need anything.

I always pride myself on being a good gift-giver. I love shopping for my family and trying to find gifts that will be funny or meaningful to them. But for some reason, the thought of buying gifts for my husband doesn't even cross my mind. 

Are we weird? Tell me UnBrides - do all of you exchange gifts at the holidays?



Monday, December 8, 2014

Ali & Cole : 1826 Photographic

When brides come to me for wedding advice, I always say to make it as personal as you can. Your wedding should reflect the type of couple you are, and Ali & Cole's wedding is the epitome of that statement! You can tell by their pictures what a fun-loving couple they are and that there is no doubt they threw an awesome party!

Not only did they get married on a boat by a comedian, but their I Guess I Do moment involves an accident with an ice cream truck. Yes, you read that right. Enjoy Ali's hilarious story in her own words below...
...
I was not a typical bride. I had never really dreamed or thought about what I wanted my wedding day, wedding dress, etc. to look like. All I knew was that I wanted to marry Cole, the love of my life. When we first discussed ideas for what our wedding would be like, we were just throwing out a lot of random ideas. 

We were kind of reception experts at this point. We had been to 30+ weddings over the last 3-4 years and we knew what we wanted. Some rip-roarin' rager that was completely out of the box. Cole, I believe jokingly, threw out the idea of having a pig roast in a warehouse at his family’s marina. I thought it was brilliant and we wouldn't have restrictions on our 450+ guest list. We could make it a little more formal but the concept was casual, which matched our personalities better. From there the “out of the box” ideas kept on rolling. 

Cole came from a Lutheran family where as I grew up Catholic. We wanted to get married in a place that was both special to us. Cole’s uncle was married at sunset on his parent’s boat out in the middle of Lake Erie a long time ago, which I always thought was a beautiful story. So we intended to get married out on the water where we both had great memories and we both felt God the most but we needed a boat large enough to fit our extended families (over 150 people) who would be traveling from all over to celebrate with us. Then it hit us, the Goodtime! We have had a lot of drunken excursions on that boat (so we knew our families would fit right in) and we are lucky enough to call ourselves family friends with the owner Joe Lamb so what better place to get hitched! 

Now to figure out who to marry us. Well that was pretty much a simple story. Cole and I attended a comedy show at Hilarities in downtown Cleveland. Cole pointed out to the current comedian on stage “Hey, that guy is in my volleyball league and he married some of the people I play with.” Me-“you want him to marry us.” Cole- “Sounds great.” Josh (the man who married us)-“I’m in.” 



We spent a lot of time planning all of the extra details to our wedding since we were basically building a wedding venue from the ground up. My sister works with some badass teachers who, with a little persuasion at the annual Christmas get together, agreed to be our bartenders. We had cardboard cut-outs of ourselves there for people to take pictures with instead of the usual photo booth (Yep-pictures to follow of that). And we also had a beer wagon (Yes, I said beer wagon). The bridal party rode on Cole’s cousin's boat for the party in between the ceremony and the reception. It was just a group of unhip 20-somethings with bad dance moves on a really big, really old boat, but if you drank enough and squinted, the in between party looked a lot like a grand R Kelly video (Drunken, squinty version of in between party). 

Finally, our last “unusual” wedding detail was the ice cream truck. And yes folks that’s where we get to our I Guess I Do moment. Now, we got the idea from my parents to have an ice cream truck at our wedding because they had attended a graduation party with an ice cream truck and everyone loved it! Cole is much more of a pie person and I am more of a bag of chips kind of lady so we knew we didn’t want to do the “cake cutting”. We thought an ice cream truck full of goodies would be the best solution to satisfy our sweet tooth friends. 

They could not recall the name of the company so I started googling around for local ice cream truck rentals. The company we used shall remain anonymous for the reasons you are about to be told. The company was very friendly on the phone and willing to accommodate any needs we had. However, I could not find any pictures associated with this company we were using. I figured it must be a “mom and pop” type business possibly new to the internet, I guess. We booked them and I explained that our “unusual reception” would be held at the marina and laid out the land for where the truck will be located. 

The story is very unclear since we have heard multiple versions and everyone had hit the beer wagon or the special cocktails provided. Supposedly, as we were inside celebrating after our bridal party was announced and speeches were commencing the ice cream truck had some “technical difficulties.” As the woman who was driving the truck came to her designated parking space, she was not aware that a 45’ tall telephone pole was within her vicinity. As she backed up, she hit the telephone pole, the pole broke in half and landed directly on our videographer’s car. It completely demolished the back of his car. I apologize that I have no visual evidence of this, but we have yet to see any pictures of the incident.



Now, with some quick thinking family members, including my uncle who is an insurance agent and knew our videographer, we were able to talk him down from calling the police. Because if there was one thing we did not need, it was police arriving at our party before the sun had even set. Cole and I became aware of the incident, however, by the time we were told the story everything had already been handled. The ice cream truck workers apologized immensely and offered us lots of treats including Hawaiian ices which we lushly paired with our favorite spirits. One of the fine ice cream truck workers even offered for me to come back and make some ice cream. As Cole tried pushing me on the truck, I so kindly declined and informed Cole lovingly that if I have to go in this truck so did he. 

We both continued on with talking to our loved ones and dancing the night away. Everything turned out amazing and we have countless people to thank. We felt so much love from our family and friends and it wouldn’t have been the spectacular night it turned out to be without them there. So my advice to any brides out there: 1) Don’t let your husband push you into a suspicious ice cream truck alone 2) Relax and enjoy every moment the day will fly by 3) Remember it’s all about the two of you beginning your lives together 4) Something will go bad that day whether it’s something small or an ice cream truck blasting top speed through a telephone pole to total your videographer’s car…shake it off, get a drink, boogie down, it will all get figured out. 

Photographer: Jamie Speer at 1826 Photographic (we absolutely loved her!! ) DJ:Brandon Stone (He has done so many weddings we have attended and DJ’ed my sister’s wedding we love him! And the first pic to pop up on his website is my husband in the backwards capts hat) Ice Cream Truck: (The ice cream truck will remain anonymous for reasons listed above)  Decor: My mom did the decorating her side hobby/company is called “One Less Worry”  Catering: Mesenburg’s  Venue: Huron Lagoons (The venue was actually in a warehouse at Cole’s family’s marina, however, they don’t usually have weddings there)  Videographer: Larry Oper, our family friend, and last but not least we got married on the Goodtime by a part-time comedian/on the side pastor Josh Womack. He also has a business for comedians helping with best man/MOH speeches! Hair: Megan West- Moxie Salon tel:(419) 621-7776 Sandusky,Ohio Holly Ensign Locksmith Salon Sandusky, Ohio tel:(216) 378-1778


Thursday, December 4, 2014

My Go-To Wedding Gift

As I stated on Monday, no couple will ever complain if you give them cash! But if you are looking for something nice to wrap up in addition to that, my go-to gift is always to frame their wedding invitation. 

Go to your local art store and buy nice card stock, layer it to create your matte. Then tape or glue their invitation to the center and place it in the frame. Voila! You've now created a custom framed invitation for the couple. Something that would likely taken them years to do after the wedding!

(I still haven't gotten around to framing our invitation suite...it's on the to-do list for 2015, along with working out.)

Have a great weekend UnBrides!




Monday, December 1, 2014

You Can't Go Wrong With Cash

When it comes to wedding gifts, you can't go wrong with cash. Save the registry gifts for the showers. No couple feels like lugging a big set of plates or a blender around while drunk after their wedding.

But then comes the million dollar question...how much?

Now this is just me personally, but at the very least I give a hundred dollars for both Kyle and I. And if either of us are in the wedding then I'll give two hundred. 

It isn't until you have planned a wedding that realize just how expensive it is. Plates are at least fifty dollars a person, which is where I came up with my gift amount.

Only you know what you are comfortable with giving, it may be more, it may be less. But that is my general formula for all of the weddings I attend. 

My mom also recently brought up about how we should give checks instead of cash, so you can make sure the couple gets it and cashes it. I think going forward I will follow through with her idea...

I know talking about money is awkward, although it is a standard when it comes to weddings. But I also think it's important not only to talk about how much a couple is spending on a wedding, but how much you are giving to them...

Tis the Season for Giving!