On October 31, 2015 my fairytale love story finally came true! Many of you that know me personally are aware that John and I got engaged last November and decided on an extended engagement for the simple fact of saving money, no stress during planning, and enough time for creativity for the execution of the most perfect princess wedding! With my knee surgery in April and literally being house bound, I had my “Knot Wedding Planning” binder for guidance and have been slowly making different pinterest projects over this past year. When I got the news of my cancer, my firsts immediate thought was, “I am not getting married when i’m bald”… so I didn’t!
My sisters and cousin immediately all came to Pittsburgh and we began planning a two week wedding! With insurance issues and legalities, it just made sense to push up the wedding. My amazing cousin Cindy is also planning her fairy tale wedding for next July, and when we got my news she so graciously even brought up the idea that myself, John, Cindy and her Fiance Aaron all get married with a short intimate marriage together! It was soooo unbelievably thoughtful and broke my heart that she would ever do such a thing for me… but I refuse for my diagnosis to ruin that many amazing wedding plans:) I initially was going to settle on a small courthouse ceremony, but all of you that know me know… I typically “Go Big or Go Home”! My mother in law made a few calls to my initially booked venue and to our surprise they had an open ballroom on Halloween! In that instant, I knew it was meant to be, I would have the wedding of my dreams.
We began initially by calling all of my booked vendor’s to see who was open and free on such short notice, looking at financing, and getting a list created for bare necessities… that was prior to us meeting my angel, Jamie from “Jamie’s Dream Team”!
My aunt had a neighbor who was diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age as well, heard our story and circumstance surrounding the wedding and encouraged us to reach out to Jamie! My aunt was determined to help, and so graciously wrote an email describing our situation and within 4 hours Jamie wanted to meet my sisters, cousin and I and she was fully on board to make my dreams come true! My sisters and cousin went to meet Jamie that day and the wedding planning was full blast! I mean, this wedding was to take place in 2 WEEKS!!!
Luckily I had the majority of my wedding planned, with my “The Knot Wedding planner” in hand, my sister and cousin were in full wedding planning mode. Due to the fact that I have had doctors appointment, tests, and procedures, my days were literally booked hour by hour but I still wanted to be a part of this creation!
John and I decided that this wedding would be both meaningful and sparkly:) not focusing on my diagnosis at all, but simply our love for each other! With my fascination toward Disney, my lifelong goal of being a princess, and a little bit of fairytale magic— our theme ended up being that of a Princess wedding. After many arguments between him and I, the normal wedding stress and my increased hormones due to my fertility treatments, it was hard but we made it through!
When the day finally arrived, I wasn’t nervous at all! I was soooo excited to marry the man of my dreams! Both John and I decided that since this whole wedding was going to most likely be a bit emotional, we wrote our vows to each other and provided each other with small gifts to exchange on our wedding day!
My girls and I stayed at the Hyatt House– donated through Jamie’s Dream Team and the boys at our home on N Vireo Dr. The girls woke up bright and early and began hair and makeup promptly at 6:30 am. It was all so worth it though! With my mom and Johns mom present during our princess transformations, all of us girls slowly but surely became gorgeous pink goddesses! **Side note: my reasoning for having pink as my wedding colors had absolutely nothing to do with breast cancer, PINK is my favorite color and I was always planning on having pink! The boys most likely rolled out of bed around 10:00, began drinking from our keg and put their tuxes on just in time for the photographer to arrive!
One of the most meaningful parts of my entire day was receiving the gift John gave to Cindy to give me the day of our wedding. Because we chose to sleep in separate places the night prior to our wedding it was a bittersweet moment not to actually exchange the gifts. As I pull a picture frame out of the blue gift bag with crinkled stuffing, I immediately began to tear… he wrote me a poem. I also got a MK wallet, a jewelry box engraved with the words “I DO” and our wedding date, and the most precious engraved necklace with our wedding date and my new initials “MEK”.
I also left him a gift on our bed with specific instructions to wait until morning to open it. I hand wrote a letter describing our story and my love to him, then I wrote out my specific vows. I sealed the envelope with a kiss wearing one of my favorite lip sticks. I then had wrapped a photo book from my boudoir session, for his eyes only.
Our wedding day was absolutely spectacular and anything I could have ever imagined! From our wedding party, to champagne on the party bus, to the most beautiful ceremony to a dipped kiss on the alter, to the paper airplane release to the horse drawn carriage with pink sparkly hooves, to the amazing venue with fireworks, a chocolate fountain, and Photo Booth, what more could I have ever asked for! Our DJ was spectacular, my photographers and videographers were there to capture the entire night… and looking back I would just love to have it all start over again! I specifically want to thank all of my friends and family who were present for making the nigh absolutely unforgettable— and to remind my other friends and family who could not attend to mark your calendar because as soon as i’m CURED we will have a spectacular party in celebration!
Please click the link below to see our beautiful teaser by ShoFilms:
shesparkleson.com 
