Wedding

Wedding Bells: Equally as Necessary | Part I

March 10, 2019March 10, 2019by Hailey MadisenLeave a Comment

Years and years ago, I had pinned THE most amazing dress on Pinterest. I vowed that when I got married, I would search high and low for this dress, resting at nothing. Okay, that may be a little extreme. I just vowed to find the dress because I knew, it was The Dress. Well, I did it. I found the dress. And when I called BHLDN, I learned the dress was discontinued. I searched eBay, I searched bridal sites, I searched all over. The only sizes I could find were a 2 or an 11; with the intricate beading on the torso of the dress, I knew neither of these sizes would be able to be fitted to my size 8 frame. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t completely crushed. I even cried a little. (Ladies, you understand.) The search continued and I quickly realized that I would have to sell an organ if I wanted to buy any traditional wedding dress in the short amount of time we had. So I settled on separates; this is honestly the best wedding hack I can give you. I paired the Kenzie Top in ivory with the Louise Tulle Skirt in ivory as well. I ran over to Free People and picked up a Seamless Romper in ivory for under the top (I hadn’t done enough research to realize the top is all lace. Like completely see-through lace). All-in-all, I spent under $400 for this bridal pair and felt like a queen on my day. Everyone I told was surprised the pair wasn’t an actual dress so I guess my wedding hack worked! My something old, something borrowed and something blue was all encompassed in one detail (I’m not sure if that’s even allowed but I did it). I wore Kenzie’s earrings and felt like they perfectly matched the vibes of my wedding and the color scheme of the girls’ dresses.

Everyone lately has seemed frazzled about our smart phones “listening to us”. (Whole post here.). Apparently how it works, is the microphone picks up on key words you say or type and suddenly your Facebook or Instagram feeds will start advertising for what they hear you saying. Lo and behold … this is true and actually worked in my favor. I stumbled across Birdy Grey in an Instagram ad around the time I was trying to figure out what to have my bridesmaids wear and I instantly fell in love. There are about 12 styles and multiple different colors to choose from. I knew I wanted burgundy for my sisters as the maids-of-honor because I love the contrast in fall with the rich reddish-purple and the deep greens of the earth and the pines at our venue. I also wanted them both to stand out in contrast with my bridesmaids. Mauve was an easy second favorite – this color would be the dresses for my bridesmaids. I asked that everyone on the bridal party choose a different style and it worked out so so well. The dresses are all $99 and with a purchase of 4 or more, we received free shipping. Win, win and win.

The decorations were just about the second easiest thing for us and arguably my favorite. We knew the tables and chairs would hold a lot of character so we wanted minimal decor. I love eucalyptus, the smell and appearance, so we ran two strands of eucalyptus garland down the center of the head table. The head table, along with every other table, had two candle pieces my mom and I crafted a few weeks prior. We had ran out to Hobby Lobby to buy all the items: white candles, twine, fake green leafy circular garland (a very specific term, you’re welcome) and cork coasters. We glued the coasters to the bottom of the candles to prevent any wax drippings from ruining the (rented) tables. We then glued the circular leafy garland to the bottom where the candle met the cork. We tied twine around the middle and voilà! I purchased minimalistic white IKEA dishes (for 70¢ a pop!) and cheap thin metal silverware from Sams Club. The mason jars we used for drinking glasses are now stocked in our apartment cupboards. #Repurposing. Every table had gold and white striped napkins to add a little something. Aside from the dinner tables, we had a small guest book table (my favorite idea was to create a Polaroid guest book – so so many people participated and it is one of my favorite things to look back on). Truth be told, that’s just about the only decor we had – if you don’t count the 8′ by 8′ wedding arbor one of our groomsmen built for us. The arbor that DAY. OF. my mom decided to decorate with flowers (which ended up turning out amazing). I was so happy with the way the minimal, simplistic decor all brought the space together. It felt cozy, clean and perfectly us.

All photos in this post were taken by the wonderful Lindsey Cole.

Wedding, Wedding

Wedding Bells: The Necessities

March 6, 2019March 10, 2019by Hailey MadisenLeave a Comment

Pinterest proved to be our saving grace when it came to planning our wedding in three-months. My Wedding Bells board had acquired over two-hundred pins from the last seven years so I quickly took to it, weeding out the definitely-no’s and getting giddy butterflies over the definitely-yeses. We knew we wanted a lot of greenery and, obviously, a lot of white. We decided on more of a clean, Rustic Wedding theme.

We visited a few venues together, aka five local parks, the last of which I literally cried at (cue the, “We’re never going to find a venue!” reel). Daniel, being the patient fiancé that he was, promised to find the perfect venue and, lo and behold, the first site he and one of our groomsmen looked at turned out to be a dream – he called in and made a deposit that day. Mind you, I had not even seen this venue and it was already ours. It wasn’t until about two-weeks later that we finally ventured out together and I once again cried. “This is PERFECT!”

With the venue chosen, we were able to better plan the next largest task: the tent. To be honest, I was completely against this idea – I had always wanted an outdoor wedding and a tent, to me, equated to an “indoor wedding”. (I see your eye rolls.) And, I thought, tents are tacky; like for high school graduation parties. However, because the weather in Wisconsin is so unpredictable, I knew it was a necessity. That and the fact that weather.com was saying there would be rain the whole week of October 6. Minor details. Because we were on such a tight budget, we went through the local Party Store (think Halloween costumes and happy birthday balloons) to order what they called a Party Tent that came with yellow string lights. At this point, I kept trying to remind myself that we needed to be as frugal as possible and tried to contain my inner diva screaming NO to the tent with yellow string lights. But picturing a “party tent” in my head did not go over well, not to mention the yellow string lights. (Both of which turned out to be amazing, FYI.) From this same party store, we ordered one hundred white wooden chairs.

As for the dinner tables, my hairdresser knew of a girl from high school who had started her own wedding rental business after getting married herself and having the hardest time planning out all the decorations, etc. Genius and also super convenient for us. I was able to find her rentals on Facebook Marketplace for about a third of the cost for the barn wood tables we were originally looking at renting. Pro Tip: Join as many Wedding Groups on Facebook as you can, especially those in the area; people are always trying to sell their lightly used wedding decor, giving recommendations for caterers, designers, etc.

The menu was probably the easiest part to throw together – think comfort food. Barbecued meat, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes and corn. Not much of a color pallet but, and I’m biased, the best food for an October wedding. And did I mention, only the meat was catered. We had looked into catering options but with plates starting at $17 a piece, we quickly wrote that idea off. One of mine and Daniel’s co-workers has a little smoked meats side hustle and gave us such a good deal on multiple large pans of the most am-a-zing meat. Two nights before the wedding, my mom and aunts had gotten together to peel pounds and pounds of potatoes that they then mashed and froze (the butter, milk and salt would be added the morning of). Most importantly, in my opinion, was the mac n cheese. My dad is about as big of a foodie as I am – when he heard I had wanted to make boxed mac along with the potatoes two days prior, he wouldn’t have it. He decided to wake up early on the morning of our wedding to make the homemade mac n cheese. My mom and I hauled all of the ingredients for the homemade food items from Costco – the most bang for your buck especially if you’re planning to feed seconds and thirds to one-hundred guests! (I honestly just texted my mom this past week thinking about that morning; we met in the parking lot exactly one minute after Costco had opened and traipsed through the store, Starbucks in-hand, buying way too many ginormous cans of corn.) Lastly, for dessert, whenever our family would ask if they could contribute in any way, we always responded with, “Bake a pie!”. We had a huge pie spread for dessert as well as little homemade wedding cookies baked by Daniel’s aunt and cousin; for our dessert, we cut into and fed each other homemade G.F. pumpkin cheesecake (to die).

All photos in this post were taken by the wonderful Lindsey Cole.

Wedding, Wedding

Wedding Bells: The Three-Month Decision

March 3, 2019March 10, 2019by Hailey MadisenLeave a Comment

When Daniel proposed on June 23 of 2018, I was in complete shock. “As you should have been!” Everyone says. But what I mean by shock is that I had no. idea. it was coming that day, let alone any time within the next two years. I mean sure, we had talked about it and I may have not-so-subtly pinned ring photos to my Pinterest Board titled Wedding Bells, but we had only been dating for a little over one year. There was no way this would be happening anytime soon. And then it happened and you should see the photos. Maybe if I’m feeling a little generous, I’ll post them later. But for now, believe me when I say that I would lose every game of poker if I played – my emotions are spelled out clearly on my face.

The following weekend, Daniel and I sat down at his favorite coffee shop and we brainstormed all that would need to be done in order to pull off this extravaganza. We both love fall, camping, the outdoors, so we knew we wanted that time frame because we wanted an outdoor wedding. I had also told him I didn’t want a long engagement. Which meant that if we wanted to satisfy both of our top requirements, we would be getting married in a little over 3 months. When Daniel originally mentioned October, I was so caught off guard, thinking he was joking. No one plans a wedding in only 3-months. No one has the budget to plan a wedding in 3-months. We knew we would be paying for the majority of the wedding expenses by ourselves (since as tradition goes, the bride’s family funds the wedding, at least the majority of it, but Sadie had already been engaged for three months at that point and my parents’ were financially well committed to that wedding. If we were going to do this, the majority of it was going to come from us.

The main things we focused on that day were the guest list, the mandatory items (venue, seating, shelter – weather in Wisconsin is pretty unpredictable – food and decor) and telling our families. That last part made me the most nervous; I worried that our parents would think we were crazy or that we were hiding something, per the rushed engagement. After we sat down and talked to each set of parents individually, the amount of support and encouragement we got was amazing, which solidified our decision. We would be planning our wedding in three-months.

All photos in this post were taken by the wonderful Lindsey Cole.

Uncategorized, Wedding, Wedding

We Do

October 13, 2018March 9, 2019by Hailey MadisenLeave a Comment

October 6 began and ended just as any other day would but it truly was better than just any other day has been. On October 6, I married my very best friend, standing alongside fourteen of our closest humans. WHAT. A. DAY. Sometimes I still find myself caught off guard by the simple fact that I am a wife; almost every day, I have turned to Daniel and said, “How are we married?!” I’m sure he is sick of my rhetorical question by now, but he politely rolls his eyes or shrugs his shoulders, offering a small smirk. It is so surreal to me that all of our planning, all of our lists, all of our budgeting has already paid off in what was the most important day of my entire life.

The week leading up to the wedding had me at about a 10 from the moment I woke up Monday morning. I took off work the last two days of the week to focus on all things wedding — nail appointments, errands and finalizing just about everything. The constant stream of questions that were flooding my phone daily was enough to make me want to drop my iPhone from a twenty story building (insert “dramatic Bridezilla” comments here). Thursday morning, Daniel stopped over for a quick coffee before heading to the venue to wait for the tent delivery. On his way out, he turned to me and held out his hand. “Give me your phone today. I’ll answer any questions that come to you; you just enjoy the day with your mom.” (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)

Our day itself could not have gone smoother. Becca brought Einstein Bro.’s bagels to mom and dad’s early Saturday morning where I loaded the cream cheese onto my Asiago bagel and we all crammed around the kitchen island, mom and dad included. We talked and laughed and sipped coffee, tangible excitement was in the air. All the bridesmaids drove together, starting with a pitstop at Starbucks before arriving at the venue at 10AM. As we made the last turn down the final road before the venue, trees changing color lined both sides of the road, leaves covered the ground, the music stopped before (to my surprise) Daniel’s voice floated throughout the car. Tears instantly welled in my eyes — he had written and recorded a song to surprise me with on our wedding day! Titled Waterfall, which is only fitting seeing as he proposed at LaSalle falls in upper Wisconsin. Needless to say, I was a teary-eyed baby as we pulled up to our wedding venue; but I was also more excited and sure than even before of the commitment we were going to make to each other.

After we unloaded our many, many bags of goodies, makeup, clothes and hair styling tools, we popped champagne, toasted to MARRIAGE!, and prayed the rain away. (While the mist did stop just in time for our ceremony, we resorted to keeping the chairs under the tent which turned out looking (truly) better than I had hoped.). Felicia arrived around 11AM to start make-up and Elle was soon after around noon to begin hair. I really cannot believe for all the stress I carried the weeks leading up to the wedding, how smoothly everything came together. The ceremony began a little after 3:15PM but hey, my make-up wasn’t done! As long as the bride is causing the hold up, it’s acceptable for a wedding to start late… I definitely read that somewhere. Anyway, I fully expected to be a wreck walking down the aisle, seeing family and loved ones surrounding us but as I tried to meet as many eyes as I could walking down in order to truly take in the moment, all I wanted to do was run down towards Daniel. I was more excited than nervous! We prayed, read personally written vows, Daniel kissed the bride and we were pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Kerlin!

The stress definitely caught up to me, though, and we stopped at Starbucks for mint tea on the way to the Port Hotel that night where we would be lodging for the next two nights. The following morning, Daniel and I were up and dressed by 7AM, making our way to Walmart where we would proceed to spend over $40 on honey, Throat Coat tea, throat lozenges, Theraflu, etc., as well as a cozy pair of slippers for my blistered feet. (Said virus is still with me today, eight days later.) Daniel is such a good sport — never once did he act annoyed about my coughing or constant complaints. Sunday night, we walked a block from the hotel to a restaurant called Pasta Shoppe where he saw on the menu they had French Onion Soup. This did wonders for my throat and made me feel amazing for the whole twenty three minutes until my bowl was empty. I am seeing more and more how thoughtful Daniel is, especially towards me. He has an amazing heart, one that is sensitive but strong, caring and protective. The majority of our time at the Port Hotel was spent sipping tea, resting in bed in the massive oversized robes or relaxing in the Jacuzzi. We were spoiled.

On our way home after two days in Port Washington, I convinced Daniel to swing by IKEA (“It’s totally on the way…! Only a twenty-minute detour…!”) to pick up an identical bedside table to what he has on his side. We walked through the showrooms and fantasized about what our future kitchen and Man-Cave would look like until the store opened at 10AM and we were able to make a beeline for aisle 23, pick out the white-stained nightstand and continue home. I told Daniel I was going to put a roast in the slow cooker with potatoes and carrots that we could eat for dinner to which he responded, “I love being married!” I rolled my eyes and offered a little laugh while secretly jumping up and down inside, my cheeks turning a subtle pink. My parents made dinner for us the following night and afterwards, my dad’s typical question, “Daniel, espresso?” It was already late so I figured he would turn it down but he agreed, saying it was so he could stay up all night taking care of me. At nights, I have to sleep perched high on two or three pillows and even then, sometimes my throat will betray me and a coughing fit will start. I feel so bad waking Daniel up but he never seems to mind — he reaches out his hand to touch my arm or rub the small of my back and in these moments, my heart just about bursts. This virus is kicking my butt but it is also bringing out the sweetest husband so can I really complain?

I don’t want to forget coming home to our cozy apartment, sunlight streaming in, the tree right outside our balcony golden yellow, the most beautiful fall shade. I don’t want to forget Daniel being the happiest sick person — after coming down with the virus himself, instead of being annoyed, he reasoned with me, saying, “When we have kids, they’re going to be getting me sick all the time.” I don’t want to forget Daniel losing his voice and still trying to sing, seeing which notes he can or can’t hit that day. I don’t want to forget that even though we have gone through about fourteen bottles of YoungLiving oil trying to purify the air, even though we have gone through three tissue boxes and a few rolls of toilet paper blowing our noses, even though our throats feel like tiny swords are poking through, even though I am feeling crabby and defeated because of this never-ending virus, we have each other. And we have this love. And truly, that is enough.

All photos in this post were taken by the wonderful Lindsey Cole.

Uncategorized, Wedding, Wedding