Such a fun group of photos we’ve seen pop up on Pinterest this week! Enjoy these images that our readers have been saving, and come follow along with Junebug on Pinterest for more! There is so much wedding goodness to be found!
What were the top three priorities for you in planning your wedding?Getting gorgeous real wedding photos & hosting a wedding at a chic, Chicago wedding venue that represented our personalities and tastes so that we would have no regrets.
Making sure that our guests felt taken care of, and had a great time.
Having a memorable celebration.
What wedding traditions or cultural traditions did you incorporated into your wedding and what did they mean to you?I was born in Ukraine so I wanted to bring in a few cultural elements into our Chicago wedding. The most prominent was incorporated during the ceremony. After I arrived at the altar our Maid of Honor and Best Man laid out a traditional ukrainian vishitiy rushnik in front of us – a hand embroidered towel. Jon and I stood on it during the ceremony. The use of the rushnyk dates back to the 16th century. We have the towel framed in our apartment now. Additionally, our band learned two traditional ukrainian wedding songs. It was really great to see my grandma on the dance floor during those songs! The band did a phenomenal job. I think our guests had the most fun with the Ukrainian nesting doll favors. People were very excited to open them up and see how small the last piece could get. I hope that our guests are reminded of our wedding when they see the nesting dolls in their homes.
Were there any places where you broke the rules in your wedding planning? Why and how did you do that?We tried not to focus too much on the rules and just focused on planning an event that felt right for us. We planned our Chicago wedding from our home in New York, so a lot of decisions were made virtually instead of in person. We took a trip to choose our venue and picked all the vendors through references and skype interviews. On top of that, we did not hire a wedding planner so most of the logistics and research fell on me. During the reception, we broke away from a few traditions, but not by a long stretch. We did our first dance at the end of dinner instead of in the beginning of the night, had a few more toasts than were suggested by my wedding book, and did not have a head table, but instead had a sweetheart table.
What was your biggest wedding planning success?I think our biggest accomplishment was planning a great wedding long distance without a wedding planner in 11 months. I think we accomplished our goals and were able to have the day exactly the way we had imagined it. We are also extremely happy with the photos from our day. Olivia captured the day exactly how we saw it and we will always look fondly back on our photos.
What was the most important thing that you learned through the wedding planning process and what would you tell other brides-to-be?I learned that its important to understand your own tastes and preferences, but that you also dont have to have the image of the day in your head from day one. We approached the planning process one task a time and found that one element often inspired the next. Our venue inspired the style of our wedding, my dress to some extent inspired the flowers and so on. I think dividing the process into a sequence of tasks kept both Jon and I sane throughout the wedding planning process. With so many sources of inspiration it is really easy to get lost and overwhelmed by all the available options, so we found it absolutely vital to focus on what we wanted, and we tried not to go back on a decision once wed made it – just make one decision at a time.
As we wrap up our big Caribbean Honeymoon Giveaway (we’ll announce our winner this week!) we’re excited to jump on to the next fun opportunity to share some wedding goodies! This week’s giveaway… an awesome package from the all new online marketplace, YourCloudParade.com!
The perfect place for couples to plan, shop and design their dream weddings all in one spot, Cloud Parade hosts thousands of items and hundreds of unique wedding shops that allow you to purchase everything from a beautiful wedding dresses and accessories, to invitations and stationery, to one-of-a-kind decor finds. We also adore Cloud Parades fun cloud feature, which lets you build inspiration boards as youre browsing and gathering wedding ideas that you can view later or share with friends.
With such a wide range of stylish wedding items to choose from, Cloud Parade is giving away a basket of fantastic items for one reader to try for herself! Our lucky winner will receive:
Two sets of 5 Thank You cards and envelopes from Typologie & Co
Your choice of four whipped lip butter flavors from Live Beautifully
Ten 5 oz. bottles of Jon’s Slow Burn Hot Sauce and four 4 oz. jars of Meyer Lemon Marmalade from J and R Foods
To enter to win, simply check out Cloud Parade and then leave us a comment here letting us know some of the features, items or brands you love! We’ll accept entries all week long, through the end of the day on Sunday, April 7th, and choose our winner at random on Monday, April 8, 2013.
Typologie & Co – Committed to unique, fun and modern wedding paper products, Typologie & Co. is an innovative graphic and invitation design house that creates dream invitation suites from proposal to party. Their passion for graphics, decor and fashion is evident in their designs that are always super chic and stylish. This weeks winner will receive two sets of Thank You cards that include five cards each from Typologie & Cos Geometric line, created exclusively for Cloud Parade!
Make Pie Not War – Handmade with precious and base metals, hand forged shapes and fun silhouettes, Alana of Make Pie Not War is an expert at creating unique pieces of jewelry that women love to wear for both casual and special occasions. This weeks lucky giveaway winner will receive a Hammered Sweet Bow Necklace in sterling silver from Alanas Cloud Parade shop. Perfectly feminine and dainty, this pretty piece of jewelry is ideal for a bridal shower, maid of honor gift, or even your own wedding day!
Live Beautifully – Committed to handcrafted, all-natural skin and beauty products that smell wonderful and help to heal and rejuvenate your skin, Live Beautifully creates their delicious body products from the finest essential oils and natural fragrance oils. The winner of our Cloud Parade giveaway will get to choose four flavors of whipped lip butters (out of 22!) that will come in a lovely hand-sewn drawstring bag. Mix and match to find your favorite flavor combination!
J and R Foods – Always made fresh with local ingredients and never any preservatives, the dynamic duo at J and R Foods are skilled at making gourmet, handmade jams and sauces that make perfect little gifts. A wonderful option for wedding or bridal shower favors, each J and R Foods order is customized and made to order to fit your event’s look, colors and feel. Our lucky winner will get to try out these fantastic products from J and R Foods: ten 5 oz. bottles of Jon’s Slow Burn Hot Sauce and four 4 oz. jars of Meyer Lemon Marmalade – all of which will be customized with the labels and ribbons of your choice. Yum! (Hot sauce photo by Studio EMP)
Good luck to all our readers! Be sure to enter today!
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