Meet Bri and Kevin who wed at a gorgeous castle in Michigan. Bri is a long-time family friend and my parents attended this wedding. They raved about how beautiful the venue was and how much fun they had at the reception, so I was completely shocked when I read Bri's story. It just goes to show you never know what goes on behind the scenes! Their I Guess I Do moments include non-existent programs, a flower frenzy, and a forgotten dress. Enjoy Bri's story in her own words below.
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My name is Bri and I married my long-time love Kevin. I met Kevin my freshman year of college and it was love at first sight…for him anyway. It took me a little more convincing/growing up to get there but never-the-less here we are madly in love and best friends. I grew up having OCD. If something is not planned out to the exact moments, I am in a flurry of panic for the "unexpected." So planning my wedding was SUPPOSED to be a dream come true.
So much PLANNING and organizing! I was in heaven, especially given that I had 18 months to do it! So there's NO way that I was going to come into snags or total melt downs. NO WAY. I was far too prepared for that. Well let me tell you, you can be as prepared as possible, but things are going to go off script. How you handle them and the people you have to help you smooth things over are the only things that are going to matter (note: if you still want bridesmaids and a groom at your wedding, handling the obstacles is going to be your most important task).
One thing that I’m still baffled by is that my fiancé still wanted to marry me months into the planning process. My stress was stretched to the max (between planning a wedding 1200 miles a way; being in another wedding less than a month after mine; and realizing I only have a FRACTION of the control I wanted to have) and I was MISERABLE to live with. I would’ve left my ass after the first blow up fight.
THE PROGRAMS
My theme was Peacock feathers. I am a big fan of the "cool" colors on the color wheel and the peacock feather tied together the three colors beautifully. So while sticking with my theme I found these fan programs on Pinterest. This was fitting as the wedding itself was outside and we were getting married in August. The icing on the cake was there was a woman on Etsy who made peacock feather shaped ones! Too good to be true?! (I would later find out...yes it is).
So much PLANNING and organizing! I was in heaven, especially given that I had 18 months to do it! So there's NO way that I was going to come into snags or total melt downs. NO WAY. I was far too prepared for that. Well let me tell you, you can be as prepared as possible, but things are going to go off script. How you handle them and the people you have to help you smooth things over are the only things that are going to matter (note: if you still want bridesmaids and a groom at your wedding, handling the obstacles is going to be your most important task).
One thing that I’m still baffled by is that my fiancé still wanted to marry me months into the planning process. My stress was stretched to the max (between planning a wedding 1200 miles a way; being in another wedding less than a month after mine; and realizing I only have a FRACTION of the control I wanted to have) and I was MISERABLE to live with. I would’ve left my ass after the first blow up fight. THE PROGRAMS
My theme was Peacock feathers. I am a big fan of the "cool" colors on the color wheel and the peacock feather tied together the three colors beautifully. So while sticking with my theme I found these fan programs on Pinterest. This was fitting as the wedding itself was outside and we were getting married in August. The icing on the cake was there was a woman on Etsy who made peacock feather shaped ones! Too good to be true?! (I would later find out...yes it is).
I had placed my order with the lady 6 months before the wedding. Now would be a good time to mention that I was living and planning my wedding down in San Antonio, TX and that the wedding was taking place in Charlevoix, MI. Not exactly ideal, but I was on top of things, nothing would go wrong when you ordered the programs 6 months in advance....right?! WRONG. SOO WRONG. After many emails and phone calls to this terrible woman I had my mom print, cut out and build my own programs 5 days before the wedding. Thank God she’s a kindergarten teacher and cutting/assembling is something she does daily. I ended up calling my bank and demanding a refund from the “evil” program woman who set out to ruin my day. She and her programs never made it to me, but the ones that my mother so graciously put together for me? They ended up being significantly cheaper and looked just like the originals would have.
THE FLOWERS
So a great way to save money (so I was told) is to order your flowers off an online wholesale place. You can get better colors and the options are more specific. Having a budget and all, I was all about saving some money. Especially since I was not up in Michigan to scope out the floral places and such. I found a website, Fifty Flowers and let me tell you did I save some money! Well as luck would have it, my flowers arrived 2 days early for the wedding AND they gave me the wrong amounts for each color. I was livid! Not only were the the wrong colors but they were early! They actually made it to the hotel before I did.
So a great way to save money (so I was told) is to order your flowers off an online wholesale place. You can get better colors and the options are more specific. Having a budget and all, I was all about saving some money. Especially since I was not up in Michigan to scope out the floral places and such. I found a website, Fifty Flowers and let me tell you did I save some money! Well as luck would have it, my flowers arrived 2 days early for the wedding AND they gave me the wrong amounts for each color. I was livid! Not only were the the wrong colors but they were early! They actually made it to the hotel before I did.
Luckily I was checking in that day so they sent them up to my room. How the hell was I supposed to keep 60 fully bloomed "poofs" of flowers alive for 48 hours?! We couldn't store them at the venue and there was a significant charge to store them in a floral shop so we had to improvise. My dad and I went to the closest Wal-Mart and bought two large tubs. We then bought plant food, spray bottles and googled “how to keep hydrangeas alive.” We cut down the stems, added cold water and had the flowers on constant mist in the bathtub of the hotel room. My dad would be designated to "flower duty" for the next couple of days. The night before the wedding I moved rooms into the wedding suite. There they had a full size fridge! That night my bridesmaid’s and I set to work on making 8 beautiful bouquets. We placed them in vases and put them in the fridge.
The next morning I woke up and it was wedding frenzy! I left to get my hair done with my girls. After hair, it was back to the hotel for make-up and the dress. The dress that in my flower issue-focused mind, I had forgotten was dropped off a few days earlier for steaming in a town 30 min away...and it was never picked up! Two of my bridesmaids cancelled their hair appointments and raced off to go pick it up. As luck would have it, one of the groomsmen's mom was a hair dresser and she did their hair when they got back while my husband and I were doing first look photos.
The next morning I woke up and it was wedding frenzy! I left to get my hair done with my girls. After hair, it was back to the hotel for make-up and the dress. The dress that in my flower issue-focused mind, I had forgotten was dropped off a few days earlier for steaming in a town 30 min away...and it was never picked up! Two of my bridesmaids cancelled their hair appointments and raced off to go pick it up. As luck would have it, one of the groomsmen's mom was a hair dresser and she did their hair when they got back while my husband and I were doing first look photos.
So while crisis one of the day was being averted, crisis two hit. I'm back in the hotel room getting my make-up done when I open my fridge to get the flowers out... and they were dead!!! I mean there’s dead, and then there’s my flowers! There were two bouquets out of the 8 that survived.
After DAYS of keeping them alive in a bathtub with a squirt bottle and lots of attention, they died the night before in the fridge!! When I had first gotten into my room I never thought to check the temperature of the fridge. It was turned down LOW and I literally had to use a knife to "chop" the ice in the vases to free my dead bouquets. I couldn't believe it. 
My photographer was fortunate enough to capture the photos on camera of this dreaded outcome. My sister/maid of honor went into solution mode and we ultimately decided that there were enough "surviving" flowers to give each person their own "flower" (singular) to hold. Gone were the ribbon tied bouquets made with love, sweat and determination from the night before. In their place was a lonely single flower per girl as the bouquets. Was I upset? Absolutely...was there anything that was going to make those bouquets magically reappear undead?...No. So I decided I couldn't let it bother me. My ladies ended up taking most of the photos without their 'flowers' and I don't miss them in my photos at all. I was even complimented on the "simplicity" of them as the dresses were so vibrant it may have taken away from them to have so many flowers.
Sure, your first instinct is to immediately go into a panic. "WHAT do you mean the flowers are dead?!?!?" "The programs have been 'in the mail' for TWO months now!!" etc. But you cannot let the stress and TIME you put into this event going on without a glitch get to you when it doesn't. Because trust me ladies, it won't. It can still be the prefect day (glitches and all) but your outlook is going to be the determining factor.
Either way, my wedding went on. And either way it was the most magical day of my life. With these "hiccups" as I so lovingly call them, I like to think (for sanity reasons) that my wedding wouldn’t have been the unique experience that I hold so dearly in my list of life events.
Venue: Castle Farms in Charlevoix, MI Caterer: Grey Gables Inn D.J.: Ryan with Rusch Entertainment Flowers: Fiftyflowers.com Photographer: Jeanette Warner Photography Hair & Nails: Hair Qtrs. Cake: FunCakes Rental (yes it was fake!!)
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