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| My Community Bio | |||
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| Knot Name: AnneAlex | |||
| Wedding Role: Bride | |||
| Wedding Date: October 18, 2003 | |||
| Location: Rochester Hills, MI | |||
| Age: 25 | |||
| What I do when I'm not on The Knot (occupation): Student, Singer, Youth Programs Coordinator | |||
| About our wedding: Here's the order for my bio: Wedding Pictures DIY Details Vendor Information Honeymoon Details Knottie Stuff The following are links to items that are not directly in my bio. Clicking on a link will open a new window: Template Download Page Wedding Program Invitation Instructions Photomontage / Slideshow Spain Honeymoon Photos Spain Reviews and Tips for Travelers My Photography Wedding PicturesWe were able to have a beautiful fall wedding on strict budget without making too many compromises. Our biggest fortune was finding so many excellent vendors who gave us phenomenal deals. In an area where $30,000 weddings are the norm, we were able to pull off a formal Saturday evening affair with 160 guests for only $15,000 (including the rehearsal dinner & gifts!) I admit it took a lot of hard work, research, and DIY projects, but working in a budget only forced us to be more creative than we would have been otherwise! Every aspect of the wedding had meaning to us which made the whole day very personal and unique. We can really say that we had the wedding of our dreams. The best part was that we were able to have all of our friends and family there to celebrate with us! It certainly was a day to remember... and luckily we have the pictures to help us relive it over and over again... The Bride & The Groom  The Flowers  The Rings with our invitation in the background  The Wedding Presents (given to me- I love butterflies! Necklace from Red Envelope.) My present to him was a pre-wedding weekend where we could leave the wedding planning stress behind and spend quality time together in a Rustic Cabin in the woods all to ourselves.  Accessories! Something Old: My mother took the diamonds from the engagement ring my father gave her and turned them into custom moon & star earrings for me. Why yes, those are saucy red shoes- worn for the reception (honestly, I would have worn them the entire time if some elders had not insisted that I wear something "more appropriate" for the ceremony!) ;-)  The Wedding Party- I asked the bridesmaids to choose their own long black dress in whatever style or design they wanted and groomsmen all got to wear tuxes that they already owned (since they were musicians)- they just coordinated vests. Our bridal party loved how comfortable they were and they all thanked us for not making them spend tons of money on attire! It was also a lot less stress for us not having to coordinate things or collect money from people.   The Rehearsal Dinner. Our rehearsal dinner was held at Meadow Brook Hall on the campus of Oakland University. This is where we shared our first Valentine's Day together and OU is the reason that we met. Our out of town guests, wedding party, and immediate family were all invited. During dinner we featured a photo montage that included pictures of us as kids, pictures of our friends and family, and pictures of us during our engagement (created by my loving husband ;-). After dinner, guests were invited to take a personal tour (given by me) of the historic mansion.  Getting ready... (the Fredrick's Dream Corsage did wonders for my figure!) We hired a hair dresser and make-up artist to come to our hotel and do everyone's hair and make-up there. It was such a stress reliever to just wake up and not have to travel anywhere. I had a friend who helped us out- but if you can find someone to do this for you- it's definitely worth it! 
   Meanwhile, in the parent's hotel suite... a light lunch was being served for anyone staying at the hotel and Alex takes the time to help his father get ready.  We had pictures taken before the ceremony- which turned out to be a wonderful thing. We were able to get in all of the special pictures we wanted ahead of time so that we were able to spend more time with our guests later. It also added to feeling much more relaxed than I might have been during the ceremony had we not seen each other first. I don't remember what Alex did, but I think he licked my ear- in any case, it's obvious that we were having a good time.  The Church and the Limo. The first picture was taken before the ceremony began and the second picture was taken near the end of the ceremony, the sky went from completely overcast and rainy to clear and sunshine in just the 45 minutes of our wedding ceremony! All of our guests were saying things like, "What kind of strings did you pull to get THAT to happen??" It was incredible.  Getting ready to be given away by dad... we had a difficult relationship growing up and it meant so much to have him stand by my side and support me in my new beginnings. Saying our vows in such a beautiful church..  The Blessing. Right after the minister pronounced us Husband and Wife, the church clock turned 3:00 and the bells started chiming for the time- everyone thought it was part of the ceremony, because it happened so perfectly in time with what was going on. I think it was a sign ;-) We also had a choir which sang a special hymn written by my great-grandfather in 1920. Our guests were in tears during the unity candle ceremony- the choir was beautiful (and special to me because I sing with them and they volunteered to be there for me).  The new Mr. & Mrs. 
  As we walked out of the church, a gust of wind sent my veil flying straight into the air- it was an amazing sight!  I love this picture of us with our guests. It's amazing to realize how many people love and support us..  We kissed A LOT on our wedding day- here's the wind playing with my veil again! And a picture of us walking to our limo from one of the funny little cameras our photographer used.  The limo company had champagne on ice waiting for us inside the limo- which we quickly consumed :-). I think this is a neat shot of the mirror on the ceiling of the limo. This was a 14 passenger Lincoln Towncar stretch.. and it really only comfortably sat the 12 adults in our wedding party. You can see some of the guys got to squeeze in a bit of football on the TV.  To kill time between the ceremony and reception, we hosted a "cocktail" hour at a local Orchard where fresh cider and doughnuts were served. The owners of the orchard gave us the cider for free as a "wedding gift". It was so cool to pull up and see everyone standing around in suits and dresses hanging out next to a barn with chickens, pigs, and mountain goats. Here you can also see how the pashminas looked on all of our bridesmaids. We were going to get dark red, but I almost like how bright they are here- it was easy to see where they were in a crowd!   While our guests were enjoying cider and doughnuts, Alex and I snuck off for a little private time. The photographer caught us and then we posed ;-)  The Reception Site 
 
 Instead of pictures of other weddings in our family (many of them are divorced & remarried) we put pictures of us as kids in the foyer as guests walked in. Here are some of Alex's pictures... I just love that Record Player frame.  The Cardbox/Birdcage- to me it symbolized beginning our love nest together.  The Grand Entrance- our bridal party entered to the "Austin Powers Lounge Theme" (which was so appropriate since a groomsman was named Powers) and we followed shortly behind to "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra.  The Cake... was absolutely to-die-for-delicious. Right after our entrace, we cut the cake so that it could be served immediately following dinner. We had two flavors, one was Lemon Raspberry torte (made for the tiered cake), and the other was Mocha Caramel with a brownie bottom (a sheet cake too heavy to stack into tiers!). We had tons of leftovers after dinner, but NO leftovers after dancing. The reception site boxed the leftovers up and everyone took some home- I even caught people taking two or three boxes home! In the close up you can see how the baker used some skeleton leaves like the ones found on our invitation- I think that was very thoughtful of them. :-)  Toasts. First the best man, then the maid of honor. They were both excellent toasts!  As Alex's Aunt (the Nun) is saying grace... I wonder what the best man was thinking..  Instead of clinking glasses, guest couples had to come up and demonstrate a kiss for us to do. This led to a lot of "back-breaking" kissing! The couple below ended up dropping the glass and breaking it- can you say.. extreme kissing?! It was a lot of fun :-)  The Groom's Cake (a wheel of Aged Gouda Cheese- he loves cheese!) which was a surprise and was later boxed up for guests to take home. Here you can also see the head table decoration and recycled unity candle arrangement.  Greeting guests. We had listed in our ceremony programs that we would greet guests at the reception, so we made sure that we visited our guests during dinner. After all- we got to eat before everyone else!  Our first dance was "At Last" by Etta James and at the end he dipped me and kissed me (this is just so picture perfect!)..  We combined our father/daughter and mother/son dance to "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Instead of doing a bridal party dance, we had an Anniversary Dance where the DJ announced that all couples who joined the dance floor would add another year of happiness to our marriage.   The Garter Removal. Yep, he went "there".  The Obligatory YMCA and Alex on fire! 
 Taking a Break to Enjoy the Sunset. I definitely advocate taking some time to yourselves to enjoy the excitement of the day. It will go by so fast that you just need to step back and take it all in. My step sister caught us on the balcony enjoying ourselves and asked us if she could take this picture- I'm glad she did. :-)  Back to top DIY DetailsWe saved $15,000 on our wedding by never paying full price and by doing a lot of things on our own. The more you force yourself to stay within a budget, the more creative you have to be to make your dream wedding possible. The following items are things that we made because we wanted our wedding to be personal and we needed to save money. The Invitations I definitely suggest making your invitations if you can. We couldn't find any nice fall invitations that weren't cheesy in our price range, so I came up with an original design and worked with a local printer to create over 200 invites, envelopements, and envelopes for under $300. We did two different invitations. The first invitation was sent to our wedding guests with all kinds of information. The second invitation was given to the choir without all of the extra info, but still very nice looking. Knottie SnowGoddess was kind enough to place my Invitation Instructions online along with her variation on them.   The Programs (pictured on right above) Look familiar?CLICK HERE to see the full layout of our traditional Presbyterian service with thank you message, hymns, special music, readings, and unity candle. The Map Instead of sending extensive maps in our invitations, we decided to put them in our ceremony programs so that guests only needed to follow directions from the church to the reception. We used Adobe Illustrator to create these maps.  Save the Dates Since we had so many OOT guests, we decided to create a save the date that would easily slide into our Christmas Card mailing. This bookmark has a self-adhesive stamp at the top (made from scratch) that guests were asked to place on their calendar to "save the date". It turned out really well and it was fun going over to family and friend's houses to see our little sticker on their calendar! Thank You Cards We wanted a thank you that shared some of the highlights of the day with people who weren't able to make it, but still sent a gift. This is the front of the card, we wrote personal notes on the inside. We ended up making them on our computer at home and then took them to the copy shop to have them printed on cardstock (which was cheaper than doing it ourselves.) They turned out very nicely and they made nice notecards to send to our vendors after the wedding as well.  Out of Town Info On our RSVP card, we included a line for guests to request out of town accommodation information. The picture below shows what they received: a state map with a detailed map of the metro area, important locations "flagged" with neon arrows and the suggested routes highlighted, a brochure of the hotel with detailed information about the selection of rooms, coupons for discounted airfare and car rental, and a "Welcome to Detroit, MI" letter including important things about the area for out of town guests. The maps were free from the Michigan Department of Transportation. Click Here for Free Michigan Maps  Invitations for Rehearsal Dinner These vellum invitations were pre-printed with the gold border, the rest was done on our laser printer. A great place to find unique and fun pre-printed invitations (and lots of other bargains) is Tuesday Morning.  Placecards for Rehearsal Dinner We had a red and gold color scheme for our rehearsal dinner, so I made heart placecard holders out of gold craft wire to hold the placecards. These have since been recycled as napkin rings and memo holders. ;-) Centerpieces for Rehearsal Dinner Keeping with the red & gold theme, the RD site was able to supply these gold vases and we just purchased red roses from Costco (2 doz. for $12.99) and tied the red & gold ribbon around them to spruce it up a bit. A pretty centerpiece without a lot of fuss. (Sorry I don't have a better pic.)  Placecard holders turned into Napkin Rings Given to my MIL as a gift. She's a caterer for some very special events in her small home town and she loved these handmade gifts. ;-) 
Unity Candle Another self-made item- my $5 unity candle made from JoAnn Etc. clearance items. Can you see the skeleton leaf on the center candle? Faint- but there. I got a little creative with the photography for this one ;-) Pew Bows This is not the full bow, but it shows the elements. We purchased small "picks" of wood fruits and silk leaves to place in the center of our satin lined organza bow. I suggest that you make fewer and space them out in the pews rather than trying to make them for every pew or squishing them all into the front rows (which is what happened with us).  Wishbowl Taken from the Martha Stewart idea and twisted with a fall flavor. I used the large vase in the middle to hold the "wish cards" (there's a decorative mum at the bottom) and the smaller vases on the sides to hold the pens wrapped in floral tape with mini-mums on top (see close up of flower pens below).  The Centerpieces We collected wine bottles from different celebrations with family and friends over the course of our engagement and included them in our centerpieces. We made cards with the story behind the bottle for each table. To personalize it even further, we had specific bottles placed to go with the people at the table who we shared the bottle with. It was a lot of work, but our guests were so flattered- some of them ended up taking the little story cards home with them!   The Placecards and Favors The day after our engagement we visited La Framboisiere des 3 in Quebec where we sampled some of the local wines. We wanted to share that special occasion with our guests, so we had the wine imported in little bottles to serve as our favors and placecards. Kind of like a little bottle of love potion ;-)  Drink Menu I made this drink menu to honor our attendants while giving guests ideas for drinks. The menu sat on the bar and I put a cheat sheet on the back for the bartenders (ie. if someone ordered a Laura- they'd get a Cosmopolitan Martini). It gave our guests a chance to get to know the wedding party by name and the wedding party loved ordering drinks named after them- they felt "famous" ;-). It was the least I could do for everything they had done for us!  Wine Charms & Napkin Rings My mom made these for us as gifts for one of our showers. Our dining room and dinnerware is black and gold (I include the inspirational posters), so these match perfectly. The charms and napkin rings are simply craft wire, beads, and some charms that were originally for scrapbooking.  Cake/Card Box My mother-in-law made this after the wedding to hold our cards and momentos. I think it's so cute that she made a hat box look like our wedding cake!  Guest Quilt My mom made this beautiful quilt for guests to sign instead of a guest book. It's in the shape of a tree with leaves of different colors for guests to sign. We made the pattern from scratch and pieced it all together. It will definitely be something that we can treasure for years to come.  Table Camera Wraps This is a nice way to avoid spending a fortune on wedding cameras while still making them look nice on your table. I also included a "scavenger hunt" on the wrap to give guests ideas about what to take pictures of. We ended up with a bunch of great pictures! CLICK HERE to see the results!  Butterfly Pins My mom made these butterfly pins (from Martha Stewart) to go in my hair. Only mine were in red, orange, and amber to match the flowers- you can barely see them through my veil. They were really easy, and they added a nice little homemade touch. Lollipop Bouquets The bridesmaids loved these candy bouquets, and it gave them something to practice holding during the rehearsal. They were really easy to made- I used a foam cone to create the shape and hold the lollipops in place.  Flower Pens I recently made these as shower favors for a friend's upcoming wedding. I think this is perfect because the shower will have games that require guests to write, so they are both pretty and useful!  Recipe Labels These were made for the same wedding as the flower pens from above. The bride wanted to give her guests the family recipe on the back of her cookie favors, so I made these to match the design on her bags. I think this would also make a great shower favor.   Martha Stewart Placechairs and Paper Lanterns Also made for friend's wedding. You can see the purple, blue, and green colors throughout.   Pew Flower Cones Same wedding as above. Really easy DIY project. Made paper cones, stuffed & glued artificial flowers and greens, hole punched on sides, threaded ribbon & knotted the ends on the inside of the cone.  Parent's Gifts & RD Favors These are really only half DIY items. We presented gifts during the rehearsal dinner to our wedding party, parents, readers, and out of town guests. Mothers received a two sided frame- one side had a handwritten "Thank you for being my mom" letter from us and the other had a picture of Alex or I as children. Fathers were given a monogrammed handkerchief and notecard set (not pictured) to "wipe mom's tears and respond to notes of gratitude from the wedding." Readers were given floral embroidered handkerchiefs (not pictured). Rehearsal Dinner guests (many of which were OOT guests) were given a boxed set of notecards with collectible poster art from Meadow Brook Hall's annual antique car show- the Concours d'Elegance.  >Wedding Party Gifts OK, now these really weren't DIY at all... Each bridesmaid received a set of pearls & rubies set in gold (signifies purity & love), a red pashmina, and a framed picture of herself with me or her significant other. (Bridesmaids also received surprise Isotoner ballerina slippers on their chairs at the reception!) Groomsmen received a monogrammed cigar holder/liquor flask combo (you can see one of them using it in wedding pictures of us in the limo!)  Back to top VendorsPhotographer (A+)- Andry Sander (206) 354-2405 http://www.andryphotography.com Orchard (A+) Long Family Orchard, Commerce Township Rehearsal Dinner Site (A+) Meadow Brook Hall (Maggie) http://www.meadowbrookhall.org Reception Site (A+) Beacon Hill Golf Club (248) 684-2200 Wedding Cake (A+) It's a Matter of Taste (248) 360-4150 Wedding Gown (A+) Alex Hanson, style #CA121 http://www.bridesave.com Veil (A+) Cathedral Length Candlelight Ivory w/ pencil edging http://www.ebay.com Alterations (A+) Expert Alterations (Hana) (586) 264-5695 Invitations (A) Alternative Printing (248) 852-0944 (Designed by me, ordered papers and printed by Alternative Printing) Tuxes (A) Men's Wearhouse (Rochester Hills) http://www.menswearhouse.com Florist (A) Lori Donahue of Designs by Lori, Ltd. (248) 360-9306 Transportation (A) Crystal's Extreme Limousine (248) 852-4554 Hotel (A) Best Western ConCorde Inn Waterford http://www.bestwestern.com DJ (A-) Jordan from Powerz Entertainment (586) 416-8700 http://www.powerzdjs.com Videographer (D) Saving Time Video (248) 651-5944 HoneymoonWe are both students and decided to marry in the fall (our favorite season), so it wasn't possible to take a honeymoon immediately following the wedding. Nine months later we were able to take a 3 week trip to Spain. Click here to see our honeymoon photos! Delta Airlines will be flying us to Spain and back. We received a PHENOMENAL deal of 2 round trip tickets for less than $1,000! Normally EACH ticket is around $1,200. It almost seemed too good to be true- but we booked it as soon as we saw it! Madrid, SpainHotel Gran Versalles Our hotel in the city center of Madrid, Spain.   High Tech Madrid Aeropuerto Hotel Madrid Our hotel near the airport in Madrid, Spain.  
 General Information on Madrid, Spain Granada, SpainGran Hotel Ma Luna de Granada Our hotel in Granada, Spain.  
General Information on Granada, Spain Sevilla (Seville), SpainGran Hotel Lar Our hotel in Sevilla, Spain.  General Information on Sevilla, Spain TransportationTalgo 200 Rail Europe Despite recent trouble in Madrid train stations, we have decided to use the high speed rail for our long distance traveling in Spain. Preferente class please!  Tenerife, Canary IslandsSheraton Mencey Hotel Our hotel in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the Canary Islands. Alex found a phenomenal deal on Orbitz.com! We were able to book this 5 star hotel that (normally runs 260 Euros per night) for only 110 Euros/night with our 7th night free! I love my frugal sweetie! 
 General Information on Tenerife, Canary Islands Back to top KNOTTIE STUFF
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