A Chicago Wedding Recap

I will say it til I am blue in the face, Stephanie was a lifesaver on our wedding day. Because of her mad planning skills and sheer rock star talent displayed while coordinating our wedding, two of my close friends booked her within weeks. Almost a month ago, at the wedding of Candice & Landon, we were reunited. After I danced for a solid three hours, a bridesmaid's responsibility, we took a little picture together. Today, over twitter, she asked me if the little picture would make it's way onto this bloggity blog. Be careful of what you ask for.
I think that we both look equally pretty {after an outdoor ceremony & dancing}, but my aviators {gift from the bride & groom} give me a slight advantage if I do say so myself.

p.s. Stephanie is based out of St. Louis but will travel, as long as there is a McDonald's at some point on the route. Check out her blogsite here.

Since we're chatting about Candice & Landon's wedding, I might as well share a few more pretty pictures The first picture with all {but 1} of my best friends was taken during the cocktail hour. Isn't her dress amazing!??! I had serious envy.

The flowing feathery ruffles were to die for. She was such a beautiful bride. With killer pink heels.

And the feathery hairpiece was the cutest thing that I have ever seen. She made it herself for less than $10 and it complimented the dress {and her birdcage veil} perfectly.

My favorite photo of Candice, ever. Hands down.

A little preview of their day can be seen here. professional photos by katherine salvatori photo.

Tying the Knot: Lifesaver

I was the type of bride-to-be that swore off a DOC. I thought that I had it all under control. I never thought I could relinquish ANY detail to someone else. And I certainly didn't want to fork over the big bucks to someone whom I didn't even know to be our DOC.

And then in came Stephanie . Well, kinda. One day I peered over the cubical walls and saw a staffer from the St. Louis office checking out my blog. I walked over and tapped her on the shoulder, introduced myself, and cautiously asked how she heard about MY blog. Out came "ohmygawd i love your blog blah blah blah." We could have talked for hours. And so our little friendship began. We could have talked all day about Jessica Claire, fab wedding dresses, and color paletts....but we're auditors and it was busy season, so we went back to our cubes.

Stephanie volunteered to come all the way from St. Louis to be our DOC...for free. How can one say no? When she showed up at the rehearsal, it was like a breath of fresh air came thru the church. There is no way that I can ever repay Stephanie for everything that she did for us to allow our wedding day to run smoothly. There is NO way that we would have ever gotten thru the day without her. Do yourself a favor, hire a DOC or a close close close friend, that isn't in your bridal party, to be your DOC.
Here are some of the things that Stephanie handled.

{Kept the church coordinator calm and away from me, kept us on time during the big day, pinned on boutonnieres, assisted with first look, ensured reception hall set up correctly, made sure lunch was delivered to church, got everyone up and down the aisle, cleaned up the rooms in the church we used, collected gifts & took them up to our room, distributed remaining payments to vendors, kept reception flowing smoothly, fixed every little problem that came up, assisted with the tear-down of the reception, and everything inbetween}

Stephanie, I cannot tell you how blessed we were to have you there on our big day. You smile, your kindness, and your easy-breezy beautifulness has touched us all. You know how I love to post a pretty picture with each post, right? Well I was going to steal a picture from your facebook profile. ha. Instead, I'll share one of our favorite Jessica Claire photos from one of her weddings that we both drooled over:
Check out Stephanie's blog and if you are in the St. Louis or surrounding area, do yourself a favor and have her as your DOC...you can thank me later.