Friday, September 23, 2011

Things are moving along

Matt and I got to cross of a few more items off of our wedding "to-do" list over the past week.
Last Sunday we met with Reverend Dennis to begin planning our ceremony. Reverend Dennis is very funny and down to earth. We are excited to be working with him and know that he will help us in planning a wonderful ceremony.

Matt and I also decided on a company to do our centerpieces for the reception. Lavish Weddings in Brookfield has a large variety of elegant and beautiful centerpieces for us to choose from. We will be deliberating over a few of our favorite choices in the coming weeks and hope to have centerpieces chosen soon.



This week I also made a decision on dresses for my bridesmaids! I had a certain dress in mind and was about to chose it, when I came across a Bill Levkoff dress that was just perfect. It's a very pretty dress and I know all of my bridesmaids will look beautiful in them.


8 and a half months to go!





Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Kawakami Wedding

This past Saturday we celebrated the marriage of Kari & Jeremy!!
We had a great time at their amazing reception.
It made us both very excited for our own quickly approaching wedding :)













Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Engagement Photos

Our engagement photos are in! We had SO much fun shooting with Ron from Jolie Images at Potowotomi Woods in Wheeling and The Leaning Tower in Niles. We love the end results :)
Here are just a few of our favorites!
























































Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Capturing Memories One Frame At A Time



Wedding planning has been in full swing lately! Today we booked our photographer/videographer! We are really excited to be working with Jolie Images (Wheeling, IL) for our special day. They offer a nice blend of photojournalistic, traditional, contemporary, and artisitic photography and their work is amazing. Can't wait to have our engagement photo shoot in a couple of weeks!






Monday, April 18, 2011

Ceremony/Reception Entertainment



We decided on and booked a DJ from An Enchanted Evening to provide music services for our ceremony and reception! Our meeting with the DJ went really well and we're super excited to be working with this company! We also are in the midst of planning entertainment for our cocktail hour. As of right now, it's under wraps as we want people to be surprised, but it'll definitly be fun and entertaining for all! Can't wait!!


Monday, April 11, 2011

Engagement Party!!

This past Saturday Matt and I celebrated our engagment with our family and friends. Despite a hiccup in the plans in the beginning, it turned out to be an amazing evening! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped us celebrate this special event with us. We love you all! xoxo










The Horah...courtesy of J.B. and the Alferes boys







Tuesday, March 8, 2011



With the venue booked, the reality of our engagment was finally hitting me. I wanted to go and try on some wedding dresses, just for fun, since I knew there was MORE than enough time for me to find a wedding gown. I tried a couple of places and found beautiful dresses in each store, however they dresses just didn't look good on me. Being so little I quickly realized the challenges in finding a wedding dress that looked good on me in all aspects. After 2 weeks, 5 stores, and 12 dresses, I was starting to fear that I'd never find a dress that I loved that would look right with my short height. A lot of the dresses I liked could have been shortened, however this would change the whole look of the dress. Then I remembered that two good friends had told me about a bridal boutique in Highland, Indiana shortly after our engagement. I decided that I should check his place out - and am I glad I did!! It was like a bride's dream store - so many gorgeous gowns for ALL shapes and sizes. Just like the other stores, I thought I'd look around and just try some dresses on for fun. The second dress I tried on was amazing. It was a beautiful Maggie Sottero private collection gown. I tried it on and come out to show my mom and "aunts". My mom and I never understood why girls cry when they find their ideal dress, but yet we both found ourselves tearing up. I knew this had to be the dress if my mom was crying! Although at that point I thought I had my wedding dress, I still wanted to try on the other dresses I had picked out that were still in the dressing room. After trying on 2 more that were immediately "no"'s, I tried on a dress that changed everything. This dress was the first one that actually made me feel like a bride! My mom was not thrilled with it but told me it's my day and my choice. After going back and forth between the 2 dresses, I decided to go with the second one. The seamstress immediately began measuring me and planning out how to customize it to make it look perfect on my body shape. Once it was pinned here and tucked there, my mom saw how the dress would look on me the day of the wedding and she agreed that I had make the right choice. I really feel like the dress was made for me and fits my personality perfectly. I can't wait to wear it on my wedding day and hope that Matt loves it as much as I do. I'm so gladd I said "Yes" to that dress!!