So after we were dressed and ready, we headed outside for our first look. We decided to do a first look because we were following the Polish wedding tradition where the bride and groom receive their parents’ blessing before leaving the brides’ house to go to church for the wedding ceremony. Since we were going to see each other before church, we wanted the first time we see each other on our wedding day to be special and private, so we decided to do a first look. It was crazy how quickly our nerves were eased once we were together.

I absolutely love how these photos turned out, especially the contrast of us all dressed up against the red, industrial, graffitied wall.

After a few minutes alone, we headed back inside for the blessing.

Then it was time to get married!

We got married in the church where we both grew up. We both went to the parish elementary school, and made our first communion and confirmation in this church. We were also supposed to be married by the former pastor who we grew up with, but he passed away before the wedding.

Even though it was our wedding, the kids stole the show.

Our ceremony was a full Catholic mass, and we alternated between English and Polish.The priest who married us was excellent, and even though we only met him a few days before our wedding, he did a great job making the ceremony special for us.

The photographers caught some great candid shots of the kiddos.

And just like that we were husband & wife!

We took some pictures exiting the church, then returned inside to take a few posed shots.

After that, we all piled into the party bus to get the party started!

Part 3 coming soon!

The post We’re Married [Part 2] First Look, Blessing and Ceremony appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

My wedding day sta rted bright and early at 6:30 AM. The hairdresser and makeup artist were both going to arrive at my parents’ house 7 AM to get all of the ladies glammed up.

Meanwhile, Tommy and Alex were getting ready in our apartment.

Don’t be fooled by how put together Alex looks in these pictures. We must’ve tucked in his shirt at least 500 times before we even made it to church.

Finally, it was time for me to put on my dress. My dress is from Maggie Sottero in the Emma style. I bought it from Paisley Bridal, a local wedding boutique. If you live in the NYC area, check them out. Nicole, the owner, is a pleasure to work with and was super helpful every step of the way!

My mom wanted to make sure that the veil did not come off! Haha.

My earrings and bracelet were from Tejani Jewlery on Etsy.

My shoes were from Betsy Johnson Blue and TOMS. I needed a good comfy shoe for all the dancing we would be doing later that night and the TOMS totally did the trick, while still being pretty enough to wear with a wedding gown.

After we were dressed and ready to go, we exchanged gifts and had our first look.

Part 2 coming soon!

Linking up with Thinking out Loud

The post We’re Married! [Part 1] appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

I wanted a set of nice pictures of just the two of us. Like with everything wedding related, we procrastinated. I wanted to have fall themed pictures since we are getting married in the fall, but we ended up having our photo shoot on December 30th. Since the colorful leaves were long gone, I was worried that the pictures wouldn’t look great, but bare trees and all, I love them!

Our photos were taken at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University by Neo of Studio 27.

What are your thoughts on engagement photo shoots? Did/would you have one?

The post Wedding Planning Weekly: Engagement Photos appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

When Tommy and I started wedding planning, the first thing we looked for was a reception venue. After all, who needs flowers, a DJ, guests and all the other stuff if you don’t have a place to put them all. I researched and read reviews on The Knot and finally chose 4 venues we would visit on our first day out.

So we get on the highway excited to visit our first venue of the day and we hit traffic. We were still 30 miles away in slow moving traffic when we decided to cancel our first appointment. Luckily, we were only a few exits from the following venue, so we got off and decided to kill some time in that area. The venue was on a commercial strip so we drove back and forth a few times to see where to stop and each time we did, a sign caught my eye. The sign was advertising another venue that was just down the road and on the third time that we passed, I told Tommy to turn so we could check it out.

Driving up to the venue, I was blown away.  The venue is an old 1920s mansion that is now used for hosting events. Since we didn’t have an appointment, the wedding planner only gave us a quick tour because she had another couple coming in less than 10 minutes. We left with more info about the venue and a list of available dates.

The next three venues we visited were what we started calling cookie cutter venues. They all looked the same, offered the same food, photo opps and we were just not impressed. We kept comparing them to the first place we saw, and none of them even came close.

The next day we called back to put a pencil hold on the first venue and made an appointment to go back for a full tour and to discuss the details.

What we loved most about the place is that the whole house is ours for the day. There aren’t any other parties going on and we can decorate the whole place the way we want. We can be there early and stay late without having to worry about other people being there. It has multiple outdoor spaces that we can use, with fire pits and heat lamps in case it is a chilly night. It has history and character and it just felt right when we walked through the door that first time.

Even though it felt like a huuge weight off our shoulders to have our reception venue, there is still so much to do!

 What is your dream wedding venue?

The post Wedding Planning Weekly: Our Reception Venue appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

we got ENGAGED!

It was a total surprise and I almost ruined it (as usual), but we are so happy. Tommy was also sneaky and got the resort photographer to sneak up on us on the beach and catch everything.

After I said YES! the photographer took some fun pictures of us around the resort.

I plan on sharing some of our wedding planning adventure on the blog, but I don’t think we will be doing much in the area until later this summer. For now, I have to work on remembering to call Tommy my fiance!

The post We’re Engaged! appeared first on Frolic Through Life.