youngin'.

right before bryan and i got married, my mom put together a CD of a bunch of photos of my sister and i throughout the years. i've never really gotten a chance to look through them, ever; my parents were very protective about the pictures and it was actually one of the things they fought over when they were getting divorced (uplifting, right?). this was the first time that i had seen most of the pictures and it was kind of interesting how similar i look now to child-veronika. anyway, some of the pictures are freakin' hilarious. here's some of my favorites of my sister and i together.

i'm the toothless one on the left, my sister's on the right. we're two years and three months apart. my sister and i were very close growing up; my mom said that i called her "my baby".

yup, i was one of the those late-pacifer freaks. how cute is my sister's incredibly round head?

ah yes, baking pictures. as evident by that last picture, i hadn't really grown into my gigantic mouth yet. these pictures were taken in our house in chicago.

doing some gardening. i actually have no idea where we were when these were taken. i love how my sister is really dressed up and i'm wearing a super-chic soccer ball printed shirt.

i've saved the best for last.

i understand that this picture needs a little (maybe a lot?) of explanation. my dad is a big fan of kids being exposed to as many germs as possible to strengthen their immune systems. he would fill up the kiddie pool with potting soil and let us go crazy. these pictures were taken at my grandmother's house, who is a registered nurse and the biggest germaphobe on planet earth. i distinctly remember her freaking out about how the dirt would get into our lady-parts. hah!

the giant recap post - picture obese.

if you'd like to purchase anything from our wedding, you can check out items for sale on weddingbee.

honestly, the days leading up to the wedding were so incredibly insane i'm not even sure where to start. i'll just dive in!

flowers
i believe i've mentioned it before, but i did all of the flowers for the wedding myself. i ordered the flowers wholesale from pennock floral and worked with the super-nice angelo. the flowers had to be in a cold room, which meant turning on the window AC to 60 degrees and freezing. after reading a bunch of tutorials on making bouquets, i started to strip the flowers (this is when you use this little metal doo-hickey to rip all of the leaves and thorns off of the stems). here's what i came up with:

bridesmaids
i told the girls to just pick a light pink dress, gold or tan heels, and a hairstyle that wasn't super hairsprayed and curly. how gorgeous do they look?

they used the little vintage pearl clutches and necklaces i got them, too.

groomsmen
the boys wore whatever gray pants they had and a white shirt. we bought them calvin klien gray-on-gray ties and versace socks as presents.programs
i know i showed a picture of the programs before, but here they are again:
the silhouettes are actually bryan and i!

reception
we hung lights back and forth above the tables. the doily runners were stretched out over long strips of burlap, and the flowers were placed on top. i thrifted about 125 small clear glass dishes and votive holders which held tealights. the table numbers were vintage frames that i turned the backs into chalkboards. you can see the napkins that took forever, too!

cupcakes and gelato
the cakestands were milk glass plates and candlestick holders that bryan glued together. the wood plaques have little stumps glued to the bottom to make the stand.

the cupcakes were amazing! the toppers are just little salt and pepper shakers that i found on ebay.

guestbook
here's that vintage typewriter that i was searching for - we just bought a new ribbon and cleaned it up, and it worked perfectly fine. the guests really seemed to like playing around on it and we got some pretty ridiculous messages as the night went on.

photobooth
this was one of the most fun parts of the night. bryan and i painted huge pieces of plywood with pink and white stripes and added burlap curtains. we used some program that he found to have the images from the camera show up on the computer as soon as they were taken. the guests used a remote to take the photo. here's some of my favorites:

seating chart
ohhhh, the shutter screen. we needed to create a divider between the reception and cocktail space. we also needed a spot to put the seating cards. after much craigslist searching, we found someone selling tall antique shutters. bryan hinged them together and we clipped the cards on with mini-clothespins. the cards were actually little tags with skeleton keys attached.

unfortunately, my mom forgot to pick them up the day after the wedding and they got thrown out.

random bryan & i pictures
just in case you wanted to see a couple more...

dancing!
our good friend DJ-ed, and it was such a blast. my dad and his girlfriend were the first ones on the dance floor and the last ones to leave. pretty much everyone was dancing and drunk. it was awesome!

random guest and assorted reception pictures
i loved looking at pictures of friends and family having fun - these are some of my favorites.

hope that you like all of the pictures! let me know if you have any questions or want to see another picture of something. there's tons, and i'd love to help.

outfit posts will be back tomorrow morning. i've missed y'all!

oh dear.

top: american apparel wholesale
skirt: vintage, borrowed from the shop
belt: vintage
shoes: seychelles
necklace: cheap-o from NYC

this outfit is from a couple of weeks ago (maybe you can tell from my long-ish bangs?) that i never got around to posting. not super exciting, and sort of a variation of this, but it's comfortable and i've been dying to wear the skirt before it sells. how neat is that braided waistband? the last couple of days have been so busy around my house that i haven't gotten a chance to take any photos whatsoever. it's not like you're missing much anyway; with the last couple of days being over 100 degrees, i've been wearing my running clothes all day. the pups and i have been sharing a tub of rita's sugar-free grapefruit water ice, and that's the only thing that's making the hot weather bearable. and lots of law and order. annnd watermelon.

i'm trying to figure out a new time in the day for me to do outfit pictures. it was perfect the last 2 months because bryan and i stopped at a park on the way to work (we worked for the same company, no, we did not meet there), but now that's not possible. i'm leaving the house at 8:30 and going to the opposite end of the city, and have a much longer commute. riding in heels was realistic when the ride was 10 minutes, not so much when i'm riding uphill for 20 minutes. perhaps i'll have to switch to pictures later at night, which means a possible location change. decisions, decisions.

i visited my mom and grandma this weekend outside of washington, DC to help my grandma find a dress for my wedding and rehearsal dinner. that poor lady - she's 4'10" (maybe - probably a bit shorter) and a little plump. her waist is tiny, and so are her arms, but she (like my mom, my aunt, and myself) has a larger bum. my grandma lives in the sticks (middle of nowhere, ohio) and was very frustrated that she couldn't find anything to fit her at the stores near her. my mom and i encouraged her to come to the east coast, where shopping is a bit better. we found two dresses that really flatter her figure: a empire waist dress with a matching jacket, and wrap dress with a v-neck and collar. she needs the hem taken up a lot, but overall, it looks great.

my grandma and my mom at the YMCA. my grandma - who is 80 years old - does a cardio kickboxing class every week. when she can't do some of the moves (like touching her toes, kicking her leg over her head, etc. etc.), she makes up her own. she is easily the oldest lady in the class by 30 years. i can only hope that i'm as energetic as her when i'm that old.