Special Post: Re-Living The Wedding Of Our Dreams

It’s not often that I delve too deep into my personal life on my blog, but as many of you may recall I’ve shared several key moments of my engagement and wedding that both took place in 2012. The profound impact these milestones have had on my life was simply too big not to share with you in some way. And so I want to now share with you the full story of my happy ending. The story of how I met Scott, his creative engagement and our fairytale wedding were all beautifully captured by the talented Dream Weddings TV crew and aired live on our NBC affiliate on Sunday, February 10, 2013. Words alone can’t express how grateful we are to our vendors and generous family and friends who all shared a role in making this possible for us. And as for all the creative details and special touches, I’ll let the video tell the story!

Whether you’re also planning a wedding or are just looking for some creative inspiration, please check out these wonderful businesses and individuals who helped to create our beautiful day!

Baldy Beard Brew – Signature beer creation, “The Dirty Shirley”

This nano-brewery is the next big thing to hit beer! Not only do they create a delicious product, they deliver it with a big dose of personality and humor. We had a great time getting to know the Baldy Beard guys as we brewed our own beer for our wedding. And now I’d love to help them reach their dream of opening their own brewery in York, PA–consider supporting their Kick Starter Campaign here! #DrinkWithFriends

CARMINA-CRISTINA Professional Makeup – Bridal makeup

A fabulous friend and an even more fabulous professional makeup artist! Carmina created a wedding look for me that I could have only dreamed of. And with the rain–her expert products and techniques were a day-saver. Her international background and training really shines through her work. I still use her products and techniques almost daily.

Dennis Baker Photography – Engagement and wedding photography

The day’s rain made no easy task of capturing the stunning wedding photos that Dennis did. It takes a truly talented professional to work under such extreme circumstances, organize a wedding party of almost 20 people and keep posed photos to just an hour. Not more than a day after we said “I do” our wedding photos were already uploaded and ready for viewing!

Dream Weddings – Filming and TV production

We feel truly lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the Dream Weddings TV crew. They were just as excited about our love story and our wedding plans as we were and their enthusiasm helped to make the whole planning experience that much more special. Be sure to check out their site where you can watch episodes from all their seasons! Also–a big shout out goes to host Martine Cajas who also runs House of Clarendon, the premiere cakery based in Lancaster, PA

Flowers by JDK – Wedding flowers

The professionals at JDK rose to the challenge of a tight floral budget and a big wedding! All we gave them was a color scheme and described the feel of our wedding and they did the rest to be sure our bouquets, centerpieces and accents were anything but expected or ordinary!

Hess Tent Rentals – Tent and dance floor rentals

When you’re planning an outdoor August wedding, you have to plan for heat and rain (and we experienced both in extremes). This is why we were so lucky to have a huge tent big enough to accommodate “Plan B” and the professionals of Hess Tent Rentals to work with us up to the last minute to see that we were covered–literally.

JoS A. Bank – Groomsmen suits

Among the most common groomsman complaint for a wedding is spending a good amount of money on renting a tux that you’ll never see or get to use again. With the help of a very generous contact at the JoS A. Bank store in State College, PA, we were able to get our groomsmen (and almost every man in our families) a top of the line suit for under the price of a tux rental. It’s worth thinking outside the box here! Though I may not get to wear my wedding dress at any upcoming occasion I can think of, Scott has gotten a ton of use out of his wedding suit in just the past 6 months.

Lavon Films – Wedding videography

Derek and his crew put some major hours into our wedding filming and editing. The pressure of capturing every intimate moment from a wedding is a lot to manage, but they made it look like it’s what they were born to do (and maybe because it is)! Thrown into the midst of tears, rain and last minute changes in plans – they somehow turned this footage into only peaceful and happy memories on film!

MixedUp Productions – Wedding ceremony and reception music

There’s no doubt that music can make or break the mood of any event – and for a wedding the stakes are even higher. Damian from MixedUp Productions rose to the occasion with a perfect blend of music to match our ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing late into the night. Owner, Mike Miller also made a guest appearance at the end to add a very personal touch!

Mountz Jewelers – Engagement and wedding rings

I won’t deny that when I get a particular vision for what I want, it’s hard to settle for anything else. Lucky for me (and especially Scott) we had the perfect hometown jeweler to meet our every request. From a custom built engagement ring where Scott got to hand-select the diamond, to a one-of-a-kind wedding band designed to perfectly match it’s unique shape–Mountz provided our sparkle.

Salon Evolve – Bridal hair

You can’t beat the convenience of a salon that’s located within walking distance from your front door. But more than location made this the perfect fit for our wedding party. Owner, Dana met our every (even last minute) request and his stylists quickly and beautifully styled our hair to exact specifications. There was no stress, no drama and more than enough time to even enjoy some wine before the ceremony!

7 Layer Designs – Custom created wedding invitations

Owner, Jess is one talented lady! She had no problem offering me a ton of options for custom-designed wedding invitations that were anything but “out of the box.” I wanted the invites to match our style, our wedding colors and to stay within a tight budget. Jess hand-stamped, cut and folded nearly 200 invites and helped me get them out well before the 6-week time frame (even with wax sealing involved)!

Tara’s Bridal – Wedding dress

My wedding dress buying experience would have been very different had I not been recommended to Tara’s Bridal shop in Camp Hill, PA. They only sell samples and there’s usually just one of each dress, so unique and couture is their specialty. But what really made my first dress stop also my last, was that the prices start as low as $300 – making high-quality wedding dresses extremely accessible for every bride and budget. I don’t want to think about what I would have paid elsewhere for a much lesser dress…

The Harrisburg Senators – Rehearsal dinner reception

As we mentioned in the Dream Wedding video, so much of our wedding was about relationships. Scott’s special relationship with the Harrisburg Senators baseball team allowed us a very unique rehearsal dinner where we rented a suite in the stadium. Guests enjoyed some upscale ballpark food, baseball, fireworks and Scott throwing out the first pitch!

Weddings by JDK – Food, rentals and event coordination

Amanda and Steve with JDK were our heaven-sent helpers who worked tirelessly to create our dream wedding while staying within our very real budget. It helps when your friends are also talented professionals who work for the premiere catering/wedding company in Harrisburg! JDK handled everything from design, event rentals, menu creation and flower coordination to day-of event set-up and all the clean-up afterward. Let’s just say it takes a dedicated army to pull off that type of work!

Weddings by Paul V – Engagement photography

Paul is an extremely talented photographer based in the Harrisburg, PA area. His work is found in a ton of trendy publications and he can also be found snapping shots of downtown night life on the weekends. We were so lucky to have Paul’s talent capture the exact setting of our engagement at 4 different locations along the riverfront of Harrisburg.

 

A Short (And Needed) Break

The Bennis Inc Blog is on hold for a few weeks while I take some much needed time off to reorganize and refresh after a very hectic (but wonderful) month. While a small part of me will miss my weekly writings, I can’t say the surf, sun and sand won’t help to keep me occupied. Have a wonderful rest of August and look for some new topics coming your way in September!

 

 

Our Perfectly Imperfect Wedding

Just a little over one year ago I wrote an article entitled, “When You Don’t Plan Everything, Everything Goes As Planned.” I regarded this as one of the most insightful thoughts I had stumbled upon in a long time. It was a great turning point for a self-proclaimed perfectionist and I felt a release from all the pressure trying to control everything this brought about. But in the months since that post, I experienced some big (and wonderful) life changes that really put this mindset to the test. A monumental event like a wedding is something you HAVE to plan for. And there’s an entire industry of vendors who are supported by this very fact. But today I don’t want to share with you the 7 months of planning and prepping that led up to my wedding day, instead I want to share with you the even more important fact that over half a year of planning in no way means everything – or anything – will go as planned.

When It Rains…It POURS.

From the moment we decided on an outdoor venue, I knew there would always be one aspect of the wedding I couldn’t plan – the weather. Back in January, what more could we do than check the Farmer’s Almanac and naively say, “Oh how could it be that bad?” We had countless sunny days throughout spring and early summer until we hit late July. The thunderstorms would hit every afternoon but blow over relatively fast. Still we were optimistic. Whether it was a circling tropical storm or the most comically bad luck, August 4^th produced some of the heaviest rainfall we had in a long time. From 11am until 2:30pm the rain flooded the streets and came down in every direction imaginable. Our entire event crew was left scrambling on the farm (our outdoor wedding venue) trying to batten the hatches and save what they could of the items that had already been setup.

It was bad, but the day was young. I still had faith it would blow over and all would be fine for our 5pm ceremony….

The rain continued with a second storm hitting around 2pm. There was too much mud to even get down the driveway of the farm. Scott and I had planned all of our photos before the wedding and I was to meet him in the grove for our “First Look.” There he stood in the pouring raining, waiting almost an hour for me to arrive. Separated from each other all day, we were both nervous, uncertain about the weather and sad for how the other must be feeling right now. I wanted nothing more than to see him and know that everything was going to be okay. This may not have been the wedding we planned, but it was our wedding to make the best of.

Finally the rain went from pouring to drizzling and with the help of my family and multiple umbrellas, I made my way to Scott. With a complete disregard for the cameras and film crew around us, Scott and I fell into an embrace and sobbed into each others’ arms with the relief that we had each other – and nothing, not even rain, could stop us from getting married today. Looking at our “First Look” photos now, they are some of the most genuine snapshots of love and happiness. Had the emotions of the day been any lighter, I know we wouldn’t have such vivid memories from that very special moment.

The Outdoor Wedding That Almost Wasn’t.

With the ocean’s worth of rain that had just fallen down and yet another storm on the radar, our wedding planner said that everything would have to be moved under the tent. Our ceremony, our cocktail hour, even our dancing that was supposed to be under the stars would all be shoved under a tent only big enough for our dinner tables. At that point my plans for the day had already been shattered and my emotions shot so what more could be shocking at this point?

The bridal party left the farm to stay hidden from guests and to freshen up. Returning to the farm right before the ceremony, the skies had lightened and our guests were being seated in the chairs outside – we were having an outdoor wedding after all! I saw so many familiar faces of friends and loved ones, who despite the mud and the earlier rain, were thrilled to be there and to see us get married. My heart had never felt fuller.

A Dry Wedding?

Given the day’s earlier events, nothing about our wedding should have been dry. But then again nothing about our wedding seemed to be predictable whatsoever. Our event planner told us that the quantities of beer and wine we thought we delivered weren’t all accounted for. We were short 5 cases! It was only cocktail hour and already we were running out. We still have no idea where the alcohol accounting went awry, but at that time we just knew we had to fix it fast. The event crew ran out for us and purchased what we needed. The rest of the night, finding a dry cup was about as rare as finding a dry eye. We have enough leftover to throw a pretty nice New Year’s Eve Party too!

First Dance Follies.

Partly for our wedding and partly for a fun hobby, Scott and I took dance lessons a few months back. We learned all the steps to the basic dances that would help us to look just a bit more polished on our big day. As most weddings do, the bridal party is announced before the bride and groom go into their first dance. Scott and I decided to get a little creative and he picked me up to carry me into the tent. Before the lift, he stepped on the train of my dress which had been bustled to tuck up neatly out of my way and he ripped the bustle right out! No, this doesn’t mean any extra skin was showing and thank goodness the only thing that ripped was the small stitch keeping the bustle pinned up, but the train swung loose through our entire dance. At first this wasn’t too bad, but with every turn or dip, the train would get caught under one of our feet – producing a really awkward step-hop sort of first dance routine. Again…not at all what we had planned!

With this all occurring before dinner, we had at least another 5 hours of celebration before us. As much as we could have been focusing on what else would go wrong on our wedding day, we were instead living in the moment and enjoying the first party we hosted as Mr. and Mrs.

Holding the train throughout our first dance

Our Dream Wedding: Act II.

With every passing hour, the skies lightened and there wasn’t another single drop of rain. We actually had quite a few guests tell us how lucky we were to have the weather we did. All they knew was that the day’s rain had made for a pleasant and cool evening. It seemed the rest of our wedding was going to be carefree and enjoyable, but I still couldn’t come to terms with the fact that our guests would never experience the outdoor lounge area and dance floor under the stars that had been my most exciting part of the reception design.

Off in the distant grove area, I started to see the event crew move a few cocktail tables, then a bar, then the couches came out – it looked like a glowing after-party just beckoning you to join in. Scott and I were able to see the finished area before any of the guests came over from the tent. It was spectacular! There were chandeliers in the trees, blue lights illuminating the trunks and 2 lounge areas that created a fun and festive atmosphere completely separate from the rest of the traditional touches of our wedding. As guests curiously made their way from the tent, Scott and I enjoyed a (second) first dance all our own. My broken bustle had been repined and nothing stood in our way from taking in this perfectly imperfect moment….no rain, no stress, no disasters….just us.

While this may not have been the wedding I planned for, it was absolutely the wedding I always wanted and it wouldn’t have been possible without our talented (and tireless) wedding vendors:

• Weddings by JDK
• Dream Weddings
• Lavon Films
• Dennis Baker Photography
• Carmina Cristina
• Tara’s Bridal
• Mixed Up Productions

…and of course of loving and supportive family and friends!

 

With This Ring

On Saturday, January 14^th my life changed forever. The man that has been my best friend, business advisor and better half, Scott Shirley, asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. And without a breath of hesitation, I said yes! Every day since then it’s felt like Christmas, waking up to the best present I could ask for—a lifetime with my soul mate. Because I openly share so much about my life with my blogging friends and followers each week, it’s only natural that I would also share the excitement of my engagement with you as well.

As I tend to do with every milestone in my life, I reflect deeply upon what this symbolizes. And this one is quite special. The ring on my left hand symbolizes a promise and a vow that I take very seriously. It’s a vow that will witness the passing of decades and the birth of new generations. As it sparkles and shines with barely a week of age, I’m brought back to the memory of my mother’s diamond ring. Her ring has been worn and tarnished by life’s most precious and beautiful moments. It’s a ring that I’ve known ever since I was a child and can’t possibly imagine her without. Close in age to my mother when she first received hers, I imagine what precious moments of my own life will be witnessed by this ring.

This ring will wrap around my father’s arm as he walks me down the aisle this August. It will take my husband’s hand for the first time as we say our vows and turn the key to our first house. This ring will rock babies to sleep and change countless diapers over the years. It will cook, clean, fold and work hard. It will fit perfectly into my husband’s hand as we walk and lay softly on his chest as we fall asleep. It will clap for joy in the happiest of moments and wipe away tears during the saddest.  It will witness graduations, marriages and grandchildren. And finally, when this ring outlives my own life, it will be passed on to my children to forever remember the beauty of our love and the life which it created.

It’s difficult to comprehend the amount of memories this ring will record. While its sparkle may never be able to show me my future or my past, it will always be there to serve as a reminder that life is precious and love is truly spectacular.