When we first met, I was in high school,
and Malcolm was in college.
and i was afraid of him.
He was too handsome and too confident
for a little high schooler like me,
so the few times he contacted me via text or phone call,
i shied away.
That is, until one year later, when I was a college student myself.
This time I took the initiative and contacted him.
But i could not think of anything to say to him…
so i made up a lie, as an excuse to text him, and hit SEND.
Yes, our relationship started on a lie.
But from that one lie, came hundreds of text messages back and forth in that week.
Hundreds over my limit because then,
I had to change my phone plan to unlimited!
From that one little text message,
came 1,640 days (4 years) of daily contact.
For the last 9 months of our relationship,
we have been planning our wedding.
Every day since August 19th, has led up to THIS DAY.
(that’s a lot of pressure!)
But we made the conscious effort to never get tied up in the
“should’s” or “have to’s” or “normally….”
Instead, we made our wedding ours.
We decided to share our day, or rather, the weekend,
with our closest friends and family
in a city that we both love: Chicago!!
We knew a destination wedding was in the cards from the beginning,
but in the end, decided on Chicago rather than Phoenix.
Friday night before the wedding,
we each spent time with our friends and had Bachelor and Bachelorette parties.
Quality time with friends is always time well-spent!!
Malcolm’s family and friends flew from British Columbia,
so it was very important that he spent ample amount of time with them!
On the morning of May 7th, Malcolm and I enjoyed breakfast together.
We chose to do this so our stress or nerves wouldnt get the best of us!
Then we went our separate ways to get ready,
eventually meeting up for the First Look and pictures.
Malcolm wore a suit that he already had because its very him.
The suit is Calvin Klein, the skinny tie is from Aldo,
and the shoes are from Zara.
Our great friend Brad helped us SO MUCH throughout the weekend:
Thank you Brad for all your work and generosity!!!
Thank you Brad for all your work and generosity!!!
In the beginning of the engagement,
I started going cra-zy with details.
Being a photographer, i know pretty details add so much character to weddings!!
But i soon realized, details=decision-making
and i am NOT friends with decision-making.
Thus, i went detail-FREE,
obviously except for my dress and accessories!
I had so much fun exploring different wedding dresses,
jewlery and flowers,
all the while coming back to the main priority:
Does it look like me?
Is it my style?
My bouquet cost a whopping $24
from the one and only Whole Foods!!
My cousin was kind enough to put it together.
I forgot yarn or ribbon to tie around the flowers…
but we found this ribbon on a gift and made it work!!
My bracelets and earrings were from Kohls
and were the only “new” items i wore.
These fabulous shoes were a vintage find from a store in Hancock!
Lastly, my beautiful dress was made by Sarah at VintageOpulence on Etsy.
She hand-creates each dress and hand-dyes them too!
Then my aunt altered my dress to fit perfectly.
Then my aunt altered my dress to fit perfectly.
I had two fantastic make-up artists a.k.a my sister and friend Briana…
but after they applied the eye-liner and shadow,
i was suppose to apply the mascara…
but i forgot.
and i still cant forgive myself.
flossing is required even on your wedding day!
All photos by CamillaRain Photography
(Sara Kauppila)
(Cole Peterson)
thankfully, they trusted me editing their photos.
because i obviously had to edit them…
thats a given.
_____
This blog post was monster long…….
so I will save the other segment for tomorrow!
