Have you ever attended a wedding and felt like you were one of the guests of honor? If the answer is yes, it may be that you were invited to Johanna and Andrew’s gorgeous wedding. The celebration was about being with their closest friends and family and having an absolutely fabulous time. Photography by Kortnee Kate Photography.

What aspect of planning your wedding was the most fun?

The most fun part of planning my wedding was trying to think of ways to surprise and delight my guests.  I enjoyed incorporating little pieces of our families and our relationship in subtle ways, like including our "Bee" on everything from stationery, to our napkins, favors etc. . . It was exciting to watch guests get excited by all of the details I had arranged.  One of my favorite tasks was designing all of my paper needs.  At the end I think I was just coming up with extra pieces so I could come back and hang out with Kristen and Phil.  I loved the immediacy of the process.  In 5 minutes I could see a mock up and it was so easy to say "what if we made that a little bigger, or what if we made that a different color?"

The most challenging part of wedding planning?

I honestly didn't find the planning to be stressful or challenging.  I had planned both of my sister's weddings and helped several friends along the way with their weddings so I felt very comfortable making the decisions I made.  I was "one of those girls" who has been planning their wedding their whole life so many of the decisions, like where we would get married or who we would hire for certain things had been determined long before I was actually engaged!

Your painted Tom's shoes are fantastic!  Where did this idea come from?

I am really not a fan of bare feet on the dance floor. Sure, I've been guilty a time or too but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be forced to go barefoot at my own wedding so I spent some time looking for an attractive and comfortable pair of shoes to wear on the dance floor.  After tirelessly searching for something that would foot the bill (clever pun intended!) I remembered a friend from grade school who had always done gorgeous water color paintings.  I thought incorporating my wedding flowers and colors into a custom design would be the perfect way to customize an otherwise boring, but comfortable shoe. Fortunately she was up for the challenge and created 11 pairs, one for me and each of my bridesmaids to ensure we could dance the night away in comfort and style!

Your wedding venue, The Pinecroft at Crosley Estate, belonged to your great grandfather, what were some other elements you incorporated that had familial significance?

We featured a Crosley Hot Shot at our cocktail hour, I had a custom made headband that featured crystals from my mother's debut in 1965.  I had the stems of bridal bouquet wrapped in pieces from a dress belonging to my grandmother.

Tell us about the subtle bee motif you incorporated throughout your wedding. 

I love monograms and the idea of "branding" your wedding.  I think having a logo or a key image incorporated into different elements really helps tie things together.  I wanted my guests to know I had worked really hard to pull everything together and incorporating our "bee" into so many of the pieces of our wedding helped convey that nothing was there by chance.  I picked the "bee" because I thought it was clever play on our married last name "Brun" and visually more interesting than just the letter "B". The irony is of course that I am deathly allergic to bees but I thought that made it even more personal!

Having designed so much of your wedding, including the cake, what were some other elements you wanted to include?

Not to sound like I didn't have an incredible wedding but there were a million things I would have loved to include at my wedding. Practicality and the budget prevailed but I thought it would be super fun to have makeup artists at the reception to provide female guests with a quick touch up, eyelashes or a great lipstick.  I know its been done a thousand times before but I am a sucker for pashminas as favors and would have loved to monogram them for each of my guests to include at their place setting, sadly it was late June and a pashmina in 90 heat is just silly!  I am a sucker for flowers and had I an endless budget I would have covered everything in a ton of flowers!

Did you have a special way of asking your bridesmaids to be part of your wedding?

I wouldn't say I went out of my way to ask my bridesmaids to be in our wedding in a "special" way, it was more important for me to let them know that being in our wedding was something I hoped was an honor and not an inconvenience. To try to convey this, I had shirts monogrammed with each of their initials and included in the pocket a DIY gift card to be redeemed June 29 for hair from a salon named desire and makeup by BRIDEface, refreshments and good times. I wanted them to know that I would try my best to make being in my wedding a fun time and not a huge expense from them.

To ensure that our bridal party felt special, we had the groomsmen change into white dinner jackets and the bridesmaids all changed into floor length Badgley Mischka sequin gowns for the reception.  I wanted our bridal party to really feel like participating in our wedding was fun and special.  So many times brides think their bridal party should be at their beck and call to make the event happen, meanwhile some weird uncle they never speak to shows up and enjoys the party without having to lift a finger.  I tried very hard to make sure our bridal party knew they had been a special part of our lives as individuals and as a couple and make our wedding a celebration that they could enjoy.

How much of a role did your husband play in the planning process? 

My husband manages an event and banquet facility of the west side called Twin Lanterns.  He was initially very excited to participate in the planning which lasted all of about five minutes when I started bombarding him with all of the possible choices for color palette, linens, china, invitation etc. . . The biggest and best part he played was in letting me plan the wedding of my dreams. He supported me when I melted down over shades of blush and assured me it would be great. He was the perfect planning buddy!

We heard you fell in love with multiple dresses, how did the final one make the cut?

Oh the dress! Maybe that was the most challenging part of the wedding planning process.  When I first went to the bridal salon, I had a dress in mind.  It was gorgeous and romantic and everything I wanted.  It was also expensive.  In an attempt to be budget savvy, I tried on several other dresses and ultimately settled on one that was cheaper and one that I thought my future husband would like. When I went home that day, my loving fiancé said "so, did you find THE ONE?" at which point I broke down into tears, called the store and canceled the dress I had just purchased.  I went back the next day and after hours of further debate selected the dress that I wore for our ceremony.

A few months passed and Andrew and I had decided that we would have a first look and take family photos before our ceremony.  I didn't like the idea of missing everyone's reactions as I walked down the aisle so I went in search of gown I could wear for pictures and then change into for the reception.  I found one that I loved and bought it immediately.  I thought I was finished but then I thought, perhaps the dress I had purchased wasn't "formal enough" so I went in search of a satin skirt I could wear over the lace dress I had just purchased.  I thought this was an even more brilliant idea as I would have one look for pictures and our first look, and one look for the reception.

I had the second dress I purchased altered to make the skirt removable and re attachable so I could wear a satin skirt over the shortened version or reattach the original lace skirt.  (There was so much drama surrounding my dress purchasing but in an attempt not to vendor bash, I have omitted the details that make this an incredibly long story.  But like I said, this probably was the most challenging part of wedding planning).

What were your something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?

My something old was the headband I had created with crystals from my mother's 1965 debutante dresses, my something new was my wedding dress(es) my something borrowed was a pair of earrings that belonged to my grandmother and had been worn by each of my sisters on their wedding days. My something blue was supposed to be a pair of blue Badgley Mischka shoes but when the time came to walk down the aisle I opted to stay comfortable and wear my custom TOMs wedges.  At the last second I panicked about my something blue and handed my sister Crosley a blue pen.  She wrote "Crosley was Here" to serve as my something blue.

In retrospect would you have done anything differently?  If so, what?

I had a great wedding and loved every second of it.  I don't know that I would have done anything differently but I find myself thinking, what I would do if I got to have another wedding.  It's not fair that you only get to have this kind of celebration once!  I could have had so many different styles of weddings, I loved what I did but could have easily chosen so many different things.

What surprised you most about planning your wedding?

I think the most surprising part of planning my wedding was how much I was actually able to enjoy myself on the day.  Like I said, I had planned both of my sisters weddings and I think for both of their weddings, I felt the traditional stress a bride feels and really had a hard time letting the little stuff go.  I was worried that I would have the same stresses and would not be able to enjoy all of the things I had planned.  In order to help ensure I could be stress free on the day I spent hours with my wedding coordinator telling her how I wanted the day to go.  I hope she wouldn't say I was high maintenance, but I am sure I was!  I gave her a list of all of my biggest fears and told her how I would want her to handle certain hypothetical problems.  In the end, I put my faith in my vendors, after all I had hired them based on their reputations and had no reason to doubt them.  As with any big event there were a few hiccups but I was able to remember that I had gotten the wedding of my dreams to the man of my dreams and the little stuff really didn't matter.

Your advice to future brides.

I really think the best weddings are ones that are planned around the guests enjoyment.  So many brides think the day is ALL about them and that the wedding couple are the only people that matter.  Obviously, your wedding day is a celebration of you and your husband and your love, but you have asked hundreds of people to give of their time (and money) to come to your event.  Not considering your guests needs is a sure fire way to have guests leave early and unhappy.  Sure you can suck up the heat for a 30 minute ceremony outside, but can grandma? Try to anticipate the details that make someone feel like you cared about them, my guests are still talking about all of the little details we incorporated.

CREATIVE PARTNERS:
Ceremony: Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel | Reception: Pinecroft at Crosley Estate | Photography & Videography: Kortnee Kate and Ted Miller/Kortnee Kate Photography | Wedding Planning: Karen Montgomery/ i-do Boutique | Flowers & Event Design: Courtenay Lambert Floral & Event Design | Hair: A Salon Named Desire | Makeup: BRIDEface | Ceremony Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Reception Shoes: TOMS custom painted Marnani Design | Stationery: Poeme

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