A Wedding Fit for a Princess

Simple, rustic and a wedding that was everything I could have dreamed of

Just over a week ago, I married the man of my dreams.  No really, I held out looking for the right guy so long that my mom was starting to think I was searching for a unicorn.  Christian isn’t a unicorn, but he’s pretty much the next best thing.  We are compatible in so many ways, right down to every detail of the wedding.  Ladies, he actually took an active part in planning out every detail of the wedding with me.

It was such a Disney day – even our flowers bloomed on the day of our wedding! These poor hyacinths had been struggling in the changing weather before the wedding.

We chose to get married in the church in which I grew up.  Over the years at Saint Richards, my family has served in a number of different ways and when I walk through those doors, I feel home.  It was a bummer not to be able to bring the dog to the wedding, and the priest even joked that he was surprised we didn’t try to sneak him in, but every thing about the ceremony was just beautiful.

PSST…These aren’t even the professional photos – I cannot wait to share those with you!

We were lucky enough to get married two weeks after Easter – which meant that the church sanctuary was full of flowers – from hydrangeas to easter lilies, hyacinths to daisies and just about everything in between.  It was such a blessing.  Our church is large, so to have had to bring in flowers could have been tough.  But Father Mike did an excellent job of keeping the flowers in full bloom.

My Wedding Shawl

When I picked a dirndl for my wedding dress, I knew that I would need a shawl to go with it for the church ceremony.  I searched high and low for patterns – ranging from the super intricate, I’m going to give myself a nervous breakdown trying this to the simple and subtle.  It took forever to try to find a pattern that I really liked, and then I went back to one of my favorite pattern sites, Purl Soho and chose their bamboo wedding shawl pattern.  Its a simple lace pattern that looks beautiful.  With the colors and patterns in my dirndl, I wanted something soft and elegant, but not too busy.  And with the bamboo wedding shawl, that’s exactly what I got.  I knit this shawl using a german silk yarn that I picked up at the Tonidale Yarn Store here in Pittsburgh.  It took almost two skeins to get it as long as I wanted, and was about $35 a skein.  The way it made me look and feel though was priceless.  You can find the pattern here.

The Dress – The Dirndl

My husband was born in German, and half of my family lineage is German, so when it came time to pick colors, and food and all of the little details for the wedding, we thought – why not German? So we went with a Bavarian theme and having an overall theme made picking the little details a lot easier…except for the dress…there are so many incredible dirndls! I had the hardest time picking just one – and then had the same problem all over again for my gorgeous red headed maid of honor.  Dirndls aren’t just beautiful.  They’re easy to wear and flatter just about any body shape.  They come in so many fun fabrics, prints and styles.  I’m hooked for life.  The only tricky part is the sizing (because in the US we went rogue and made our own sizes) and getting it shipped to the US.  Most sites I found shipped all over Europe but it got a little tougher when it came to getting the dress over to the United States.  There are a few sites though and the one I ordered through…twice (again, the sizing)…was Ludwig and Therese.  My Mother-In-Law picked up the blouse for me on her travels home to Germany, as they are sold separately, but Ludwig and Therese have loads of gorgeous blouses to choose from on their site.  If anyone needs me for the next week – I’ll be glued to my computer shopping for my every day Dirndl….

When I fell in love with this specific dirndl, they were out of my size, so I had to go a size up and get it altered.  I was a bit nervous finding a place in the US who could successfully alter a dirndl – as they have a bit more construction than a typical dress a seamstress might see over here.  We stopped into my favorite little town of Ligonier to see Amy at The Fitting Room.  This woman took the dress in flawlessly and made both my mom and I feel so pampered.  And we couldn’t believe how competitive her prices are.  If you are in need of alterations for something special, Ligonier is worth the drive.  Stop in and say hi to Amy.

The Hair

Because it was so perfect and fit the theme so well!  I stopped by to see the one and only person that I will let touch my hair (besides myself…I admit to having cut my own hair many times…though I always told Mel I let a friend do it), Melanie at Salon Bella Rae.  I totally asked for something different for my trial hair appointment but that didn’t phase Mel.  She took a look at a few pictures that I had snagged from Pinterest and went to town.  When your eyes are bad, and you forget to put your contacts in, you end up putting your complete faith in your hair dresser as you can’t see what they’re doing until they’re done and you can put your glasses back on.  With Mel, I never worry though.  Every time I see her, I have half of an idea of what I want, and she knocks it out of the park.  The dress, and the hair, totally made me feel like Belle from Beauty and the Beast for my wedding.  I felt like a total princess.

The Food

John Marshall is the go to caterer for our family for so many reasons.  Not only has he helped us out with Baptisms, Communions, Graduation Parties and weddings before – but he and his staff are all amazing people who just want your day to be perfect.  We’ve known John personally through church and family friends for years now so it was a no brainer for me who we would pick.  When I asked him if we could do a Bavarian menu down to having pretzels and beer cheese as our appetizer, he told me “Anything you want, Sweetie”.  And he meant it.  John pulled out all of the stops and helped us put together the perfect menu, including the leibkuchen inspired Gingerbread cookies.  We had many guests remark that it was the best wedding food they’ve ever tasted!  To take a look at his services or to contact his team, click here.

I don’t want to share too many photos because our amazing photographer Greg Tarr will be getting us our photos in just a few short weeks and they are going to be stunning.  I’d highly recommend Greg for any photo needs that you have.  With a background in photo journalism, he’s a great photographer, but he’s also approachable and totally made me feel at ease – which is saying something.