I Guess I Do

 photo PRESS_zps60f7d5cf.png  photo ADVERTISE_zps8e385a24.png  photo IGUESSIMDUE_zpsba13f561.png  photo IGUESSIMDUE_zpsba13f561.png

Monday, September 16, 2013

Ariane & Mike : Michael Kareha Photography

Meet fellow Huffington Post blogger Ariane Fisher and her husband Mike.  After reading her Huffington Post article, I knew I had to feature her wedding on I Guess I Do. Her humor and tone achieved the relatable quality I love, and after reading this, I'm sure you'll agree.

What I love even more, is that an I Guess I Do moment caused this couple to start their own thriving business! After planning and experiencing such an amazing wedding, all they had to show for it were some still photos.

Ariane and Mike then co-founded StoryMix Media and their team developed WeddingMix which takes all of you and your friend's raw photos and videos and turns them into custom video memories you can share! Enjoy Ariane's story in her own words below. 
...

You know how most little girls dream of their wedding day? That wasn't me. I was more the backyard pot luck dinner kind of gal. But my fiance had big plans in mind when he popped the question. His plan: have an upscale, hard-rocking party that no one would ever forget.
To finance our party (wedding), we put the majority of the budget into our two priorities: booze and band. The rest would have to be DIY, which was fine by me. I like a challenge. I let him do most of the planning, and I set about my DIY tasks.

These included... are you ready for it...?
  • save the dates
  • invitations
  • favors
  • centerpieces
  • bouquets
  • veil
  • purse
  • cake
  • and dress. yes. my wedding dress.
Oh. Did I mention that I didn't know how to sew? So I learned. I had big budget wedding dress dreams and a $500 wedding dress budget. So, I went home to New York and visited the wholesale fabric district. I bought $1000 worth of fabric for $500 and was all set.

I spent the majority of our 7 month engagement learning how to sew with the help of a friend who was a seamstress. No worries, she forced me to do everything but the alterations mostly on my own.

The cake was definitely the one thing I wouldn't do over again though. I had been a cake decorator and had always planned on making my cake. I didn't plan on severe carpal tunnel the week of the wedding. I couldn't hold a pencil, let alone a decorating bag.

So, I did what any self-respecting bride would do... I got one of my best friends a bit drunk and convinced her to do it! There may or may not have been jello shots while decorating the cake. And parts of it may have been missing in the middle, but it looked pretty good in the end. 


The day of the wedding was quite the orchestration. I had to arrange for all our DIY decorations to be set up, the cake to be transported and assembled, get ready, get photos, oh, and get married! Something had to fall off the table.

Ok, so the dress was a bit of a wrinkled mess because I forgot to steam it. But worse than that, was the news an hour before the reception that one of my bridesmaids (an amateur calligrapher) had not created the table cards. At all.

"Here" she said, handing me the blank stack of cards. "Sorry". Turns out my hubs had forgotten to give her the list and she "forgot she had promised to do it". Oops.

That meant no time to get photos in our historic venue because we were stuck at the bar scribbling out table cards. Cue angry bride. 



So, yet again, I did what any sane person would do... shots. Lots of 'em. I figured I could ruin my own party by being angry or I could have an awesome time. The decision was helped along by copious amounts of Uncle Jack (Daniels), but I had a blast. Seriously.

Our favorite bar band played alternative music from 6pm til 1am. The top shelf bar stayed open the whole time. We convinced the band leader to tell the guests that he didn't know how to play "The Chicken Dance", "YMCA" or any songs we didn't like.

The best part is that years later, we still have friends coming up to us and saying that our's was the best party, not just wedding, they've ever attended.

My lessons learned from the experience:
1) Hire a wedding planner or day-of-coordinator
2) And more important to me, get a wedding video. We spent months choreographing our first dance with nothing to show for it but pretty pictures later on. I seriously regret that. It's the main reason we started our company.






1 comment:

  1. Amy | Marilyn's KeepsakesSeptember 18, 2013 at 9:56 AM

    Ha! This is great! Sounds like the wedding ended up being a blast and I definitely give you credit for not letting those "i guess i do" moments ruin your wedding.

    ReplyDelete