This Kind of Love: Our First Look

Whether or not we were going to have a "first look" was a hot discussion topic during the months leading up to the wedding. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, the bride and groom have a staged time to see each other for the first time, which is still captured by pictures, but isn't when the bride is first walking down the aisle.

I think some of our family members would have rathered that we not see each other before the wedding. Just for curiosity's sake, I did a little bit of research on the tradition of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding. Turns out it dates back to the time of arranged marriages, and was set up so that the groom wouldn't see the bride before the wedding, think she was ugly, and back out.

Since we were not worried about that happening, it came down to a decision on logistics. We had precious little time between the end of the wedding ceremony and the start of the reception, and if we wanted to take a decent amount of pictures, we'd have to take some beforehand.

From a more emotional perspective, I'm so glad we had a first look. I'm a pretty high-strung person, and as cheesy as it sounds, Zac is truly my source of calm. Seeing him before the wedding instantly calmed my nerves and helped me to relax, and I'll be forever grateful that I didn't enter that church as a ball of nerves!

It POURED while we were getting ready, so our great plans to take pictures outside was foiled. Luckily, our wonderful photographer had a back-up location, and we headed to the Conservatory in Cincinnati for our pictures.

Walking into the Conservatory. This is one of my very favorite pictures. I was totally unprepared for the way we would attract attention - as we were walking in, all of the people leaving the Conservatory and in the lobby started clapping!

Is this the coolest thing ever? An artist was sketching inside the Conservatory and drew a charcoal drawing of me! She gave it to me to keep - I think we're going to frame it for our living room.

After we took some individual pictures, it was time for our first look. Good thing, because I was going crazy being so close to Zac and not being able to see him! He stood with his back to all of us, and I slowly approached him.

Getting closer!

Almost there... and I start to cry! In our video, you can see me look at the photographer and say, "What do I do now?" At that point, Zac turns around and I just look at him and say, "HI!" It's a lot sweeter on the video, I promise!

Feels like we'd been waiting our whole lives for this moment.

We took A LOT of pictures!

This is not my favorite picture, but I realized I hadn't shown you a full-dress shot! My dress was lace, and was so beautiful! There are other pictures that you'll see later that will give you more of the dress.

Up until this point, our day had been a bit crazy and not what we had expected. Starting with the first look, everything just seemed to fall into place, and our perfect wedding day began!

This Kind of Love: A little help from our friends

We had the most amazing bridal party in the world. My bridesmaids were my two sisters and two best friends from college. Zac had his brother, two best friends from college, and his cousin. They were so supportive for the whole planning process, and were a blast during our wedding weekend. We are so grateful to have such great friends!!

Handsome guys

My favorite girls

I just love this picture!!

Our friends got us through a scary time the morning of our wedding. Through a miscommunication, the bag containing our rings, Zac's tie, his cuff links and his socks went missing over night. When they realized they couldn't find it the next morning, everyone went into panic mode, which could also be described as "whisper quietly and don't let the bride find out what's going on mode."

When they thought they weren't going to find it and had totally given up hope (as in, my brother-in-law went to the mall to see if he could get me a temporary replacement ring), my mom approached me as we were getting ready and this conversation happened:

Mom: "So, today at the wedding, you're going to have a different ring, but it isn't a big deal."

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Mom: "Well the bag is gone, but it's not a big deal, so you're going to get another ring, which is fun, and then we'll find it and everything will be fine."

Me: "Mom. What are you talking about?"

Mom: "Someone stole your wedding ring."

This led to me having a slight melt down, mostly because I wasn't sure if my wedding band was insured, or just my engagement ring, and because my fingers are freakishly small and you can't just get a size 5 ring from the store at the mall.

We were trying to figure out alternative plans, and my sweet hairdresser even offered to let me get married wearing her grandmother's ring, which fit my finger, when Zac called me. Because they found the rings. Someone had turned them in to the front desk an hour before we were supposed to leave the hotel. Call it fate, call it karma - call it whatever you will - but the biggest disaster of our lives went away as quickly as it started.

I was probably the least worried about it of anyone, since so much of it was kept from me that day. Thankfully, all we're left with is a good story to tell (that has a happy ending) and something that I can tease my brother-in-law about. All's well that ends well!

This Kind of Love: Pictures of Us

After we finished getting ready, Rachel took pictures of Zac and I by ourselves. I was totally shocked when these ended up being some of my very favorite pictures. I think she really captured our pre-seeing-each-other nerves!

 

Hey there, gorgeous fake eyelashes that were TOTALLY worth it!

My handsome hubster to be.

So you can get a shot of his outfit. We ordered his suit online. For real. From this website. It was less than $200 for the whole three piece suit, and you put in custom measurements, so it looks like it was made for him (because it was). We've since ordered him another one!

We were running late on the way to pictures (shocking!), so Zac had some fun.

I hope you're not already sick of the recaps, because there are a few more coming...