This was a beautiful, sunny (but HOT) day in Pittsburgh. Wedding days are a lot of planning. A LOT. But I now understand why people say they are so worth it. I wish I could relive this day over and over again. This is coming from the girl who was convinced she wanted to elope. Thank you, Johnny, for not letting that happen!
I plan on going into the wedding details, but this post is just an overview of the weekend.
The Night Before
We started the weekend on Friday with our rehearsal at Phipps, followed by a rehearsal dinner at Girasole with our parents, grandparents, siblings, and their significant others. Johnny and I had dinner there to celebrate one year before our wedding, so it was the perfect location for the rehearsal dinner.
After dinner, we returned to the Oaklander, where we had our hotel block and a welcome dinner for all our friends and family who stayed in hotels the night before the wedding. Seeing everyone and building up the excitement leading to our wedding day was so nice. Since we already had dinner, we moved from table to table and briefly talked to everyone who took the time to celebrate with us. Not long before midnight, Johnny went home, and I had the whole presidential suite to myself.
The Wedding Day
Image: Rachel Rowland
I want to go into so many details about the wedding day, but then the blog post would be too long, so I will keep it short and sweet and make my own post later. We started getting ready around 9am. Since we didn’t have an official bridal party, I invited friends and family to get ready with me. If I had to plan our wedding all over again I would make this decision again. It was so fun; my friends wore whatever dress they wanted, I was able to invite as many people as the room would fit to join me, and everyone got to enjoy the morning stress-free.
We then had photos and videos taken and went to the outdoor garden at Phipps, where we had our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception were held. Our main goal when finding a venue was to keep everything in one place.
Despite the heat, we had so much fun. I had a hair change thanks to my talented cousin Alexis, people loved their personalized notes for their escort cards, we changed into custom shoes I made, my younger cousins loved their coloring book place cards, we did a t-shirt toss for our intro, crushed our self-choreographed first dance, the Pirate Parrot and Iceburgh made an appearance, the Bachelor Boys Band kept the dance floor PACKED, the specialty drinks and bartenders at “Theo’s bar” was amazing, and our friends and family made us feel so loved.
The night ended at my old college bar, Hemmingways where I got a shot pitcher to remember old times.
Farewell Brunch
Waking up the next morning was tough because we were tired, but the brunch made it worth it. The wedding day went by so fast that it was hard to talk to everyone. The brunch at the Oaklander allowed us to have more time with our guests, and we gave our guests food before they made their way home. It was nice to have it at the Oaklander because guests were able to get food before checking out. This allowed guest to enjoy eating without the stress of packing the car or bringing their luggage.
Overall, this weekend was a dream! We had so much fun, and I wish we can live it again. As I mentioned before, I will discuss the wedding day and provide more details. In the meantime, watch this AMAZING video from Penderville Wedding Films to see how much fun we had on our wedding day.
Sustaining Nicole 
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