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The Unplanned Wedding

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What’s Inside...

Feature Stories

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All the Right Shots All the photo shots to remember on your big day.

Out of the Ordinary One brides story of her unexpected military wedding.

Guide to Destination Weddings Everything you need to know when planning your ideal destination wedding.

A Little Rain Never Hurt How to deal with the every day stresses of the wedding process.

Letter from the Editor...

Growing up, I always fantasized about my fairytale wedding. My grandparents were the biggest influence on my life when it came to love. Their love was exactly what I pictured for my future. Throughout my life, I’ve had many relationships, but I never felt that connection like I saw in my grandparents.

It wasn’t until I met this guy that I knew he was my love. Every time I saw him, I would be the happiest I’ve been all day. Every time he would text or call me, I would instantly smile. Every time we spoke, he gave me butterflies. I knew I found the love of my life. Although we haven’t gotten married yet, we know we will one day.

A wedding is a day that you get to show the love you have for your partner to your friends and family. My mission is to provide you with the knowledge you will need to give yourself and your partner the wedding your love deserves. Through experience and research, I want to make sure your wedding goes as smoothly as possible. I included many storied and articles on how to cut costs at your wedding and how to manage the planning process for the best possible results. I also include my own personal experience with my family’s and my wedding planning.

Your day means just as much to me as it does you. Happy wedding planning everyone!

With Love, Victoria Kloss 10

Letter From the Editor

Recently Engaged I started dating Hillary in December 2012 and within just 3 months I knew I was going to marry her...but we were both young, broke, jobless and still had over a year left of college.

This gave me plenty of time to plan out the special proposal that she deserved.

By summer 2014, we had both graduated and found jobs. Hillary and I had talked about celebrating our new milestones, and I figured that might be the perfect opportunity to propose. However, to make sure that Hillary would not think that she was in for a surprise, I had to plan out the night carefully.

My brother, Matt, and I had brainstormed for months about how I could make such an important night seem only like a celebration of our recent accomplishments. I figured that to throw Hillary off, I would suggest going out to the Olive Garden to celebrate with the gift card that I had received for graduation. While discussing our Olive Garden plans, Matt

chimed in that he had “won” a gift certificate from work to the Nicollet Island Inn Restaurant in Minneapolis that was about to expire, so he offered to trade certificates. Little did Hillary know that Matt and I had planned to switch the certificates all along. Once at the Nicollet Island Inn Restaurant, Hillary and I were given a romantic booth overlooking the island. Throughout the meal the manager continued to stop and check in on us. As we finished our meal, the manager told us that occasionally a complimentary horse drawn carriage ride is randomly given to couples at the restaurant and that we were the next couple to “win”. Hillary was fooled!

Little did she know I had planned out the gift certificate trade and the “free carriage ride” with the manager. After dinner we went on our carriage ride down Nicollet Island and around the Stone Arch Bridge. When we arrived at the bridge, we got out to take our picture and walk around a little bit. I gave Hillary a gift that I had been carrying with

“We are all a little weird and, life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compattible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love”

-Dr. Seuss

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Before

All The Right Shots

The images you don’t want to miss out on!

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED! When telling a story through a single image think about including more than one person in the shot – when you do this you introduce ‘relationship’ into a photo which will conjure up all types of thoughts in the viewers of your shots.

Having said that, sometimes carefully framing a second person OUT of your shot can add to the story you’re trying to tell. Leaving evidence in the shot of a second unseen person can add questions to your viewers minds (ie a shot of a person alone at a table with two cups of coffee in front of them – or a shot of someone talking animatedly to an unseen person). Unseen elements of a photo can add a lot.

Getting Ready Bride

Groom

Bride having her hair styled and makeup applied Bride’s gown hanging Boquets Bridesmaids getting dressed Mother buttoning up the bride’s dress Full length shot of bride in her gown loking at herself oin a mirror.

Father seeing the bride in her gown.

Bride with her parents/siblings Bride with bridesmaids

Groom getting ready with father and groomsmen.

Groom with his parents/siblings Groom with his groomsmen Groomsmen putting on ties.

Groom putting on boutonniers.

Groom with ring bearer (if applicable)

The Processions The Ceremony

The Reception

Exterior and interior shots of the site before guests arrive Groom walking down the aisle with his mother Close up of groom’s expression Bridal party walking down the aisle Both grandparents walking down the aisle Bride and her escort walking down the aisle.

Bride’s escort giving her away Both set of parents watching the ceremony Wide shot of the guests, from the couple’s point of view.

The Kiss!

Still of decor The cake hors d’oeuvres and specialty drinks Bride and groom ariving Close-up of friends and family making toasts The first dance Bride dancing with her father Groom dancing with his mother Guests dancing Bride and groom cutting the cake Boquet toss Newlyweds’ vehicle Bride and groom leaving the reception

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Readers Stories Classic Love This would be a story that one of the readers sent in and was chosen for this spot. These stories consist of stories about each couples love story either about their wedding or the process before. Now I will be using dummy text to show where the words would stop and start again. Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean.

A Love Above All Others A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.

True High School Sweethearts The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane.

Before

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Out Of The Ordinary

By Alicia Colletti

It’s something most little girls dream about: the big white wedding, standing up in front of all of her family and friends with the love of your life and saying “I do”, dancing the night away and eating as much cake as possible. The typical day made extraordinary by following tradition after tradition. However, for some people the wedding process is a little less traditional.

Mrs. Samantha Bullman (nee. Knowlton) always dreamed of a big white wedding. Fortunately, Sam will get what she’s always dreamed of, but not in the traditional way she pictured. Sam met Senior Airman Andrew Bullman on September 28, 2013 at a get-together at a mutual friend’s house. “Throughout the night, there wasn’t much contact between Andrew and me, but we did make some conversation here and there. When it was time for me to leave [Andrew] asked to walk me to my car,” Sam said, “The next day we became Facebook friends and through that we exchanged phone numbers.”

Through their communication, Sam learned about Andrew’s career. “I never imagined dating a soldier.

It wasn’t a life I ever pictured for myself, but it was something I knew I could handle.” Sam and Andrew began officially dating on October 27, 2013. “For me, it wasn’t ‘love at first sight’ but I was going through a lot when we met. Andrew was incredibly patient with me. That’s how I knew I loved him.”

In August 2014, Sam and Andrew took the next step in their relationship. “We got a cute little one bed-

room apartment. I brought my cat and we adopted a german shepherd puppy. We had our family, but as things became more serious I began to worry and make plans for if Andrew were to get deployed; what would that mean for me and for us. Would I be able to live like this for the rest of my life, in constant worry? I can and I do, because he makes it worth it. I couldn’t imagine moving away from my family and friends to any other part of the world, but I would do it for him.”

In July of 2015, Sam’s planning for the future was forced up a notch. Andrew proposed to Sam after a date to the movies. “Planning a wedding is difficult when someone involved is in the military and to complicate matters, my brother is enlisting in the army. We had to plan so that he could be there but that didn’t give us enough time to plan for a full wedding. Eventually we came up with the solution of having two weddings.”

Sam and Andrew legally wed on September 25, 2015. It was a small ceremony with just the bride, groom and immediate families. They are planning a more traditional wedding for October 8, 2016 with all of their friends and family members. “It’s awesome. Who gets two weddings?! This was the best solution for Andrew and me. Honestly, we couldn’t be happier that we got married this way. We get the benefits of being husband and wife now, but I still get to plan and have the wedding of my dreams.”

During

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Pictures Provided by Courtnay Trione

A Little Rain Never Hurt

By Victoria Kloss

Stress is a big part of any wedding process. Learning what you should do and things that most brides forget will help you prepare for every aspect of your wedding.

So what are a few things that our reader brides have stressed about? We chose two of our newlywed readers (Lindsay Lebo and Courtnay Trione) to discuss some things that they stressed about and some ways to prepare for the unexpected.

Conflict of Interests: When planning your wedding, you choose the closest and dearest people to share this magnificent experience with you. You want everyone at your wedding to be happy and enjoy every moment of the day. When thinking about your wedding party and guests, many brides and grooms get overwhelmed from all the different personalities and opinions. Although you are trying to please everyone, just remember that this is your and

your fiancé’s day. Don’t let them stress you out, they are there to witness your commitment and love to one another.

When asking Lindsay about the biggest obstacle she faced when planning her wedding, she said that it was definitely trying to please everyone. She was thinking too much about everyone’s opinion and trying to somehow make sure everyone got what they wanted.

It wasn’t until her sister said, “It will be beautiful no matter what you do because it is your day and that is all that really matters.” After she got this validation, the wedding process went easily.

“Don’t get me wrong, there were times that it was stressful, but spreading the stress over two years made for it a very seamless process.”

-Lindsay Lebo

Picutres Provided by Lindsay Lebo

Courtnay agreed that the conflict of opinions between family, friends and the wedding party was one of the biggest obstacles when planning her wedding.

It’s hard telling someone that you don’t like something or an idea they have. It became very overwhelming for both Courtnay and her now-husband Nick when dealing with all of the different opinions and personalities of each person.

“It’s hard to share this day with so many people who are truly genuinely excited for you, but also have their own ideas and opinions.”

-Courtnay Trione

friends congregate and take in the festivities. That alone makes the wedding that more special.

Along with all the normal stresses of a wedding day, the weather is a big factor that comes into play for some lucky brides. Courtnay was blessed with rain on her wedding day. As the old tale says, it’s good luck if it rains on your wedding day. She was very stressed about the weather but it wasn’t until she realized that she couldn’t do anything about it and to enjoy her day no matter what.

Don’t stress the little stuff: It’s hard to remember to just sit and enjoy every moment of your wedding day when all you want to do is make sure everything is going as planned.

Spending all that time to make sure that one day is perfect is very hard to forget. Just remember, the day comes and goes fast, enjoy it while it lasts.

Lindsay was given the advice to make sure you sit and take in the day by a friend of hers. On her special day, she was making sure everything was going as planned and found herself not paying attention to the atmosphere and enjoyment of her wedding.

She went and sat in a guest’s seat and took in some of the reception festivities from their standpoint. It was great to see her husband, family and “You should really try to stop yourself several times to look around you and take in the situation. It will all be gone in a blink of an eye!”

-Courtnay Trione

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Wedding coordinator vs. Do it yourself: Many couples don’t know whether to hire a wedding coordinator or just try to do it themselves.

Courtnay decided to hire a wedding coordinator while Lindsay did it all herself. Both of them had very different experiences and definitely loved their own individual outcome.

Hiring a wedding coordinator can be a relief when it comes to the stress of planning it yourself. Courtnay decided to try to relieve some of her stress and hire a wedding coordinator. Even though it was supposed to relieve her stress, she explains that if she had to do it again, she would have done it her-

self. There were many little things that didn’t go her way.

While Courtnay had problems with her coordinator, Lindsay decided to go the opposite route.

Planning her own wedding was the dream that she could make real. She planned every aspect of her wedding in the most organized way she could think of, a three inch thick binder full of research and planning. Even though she was extremely stressed, she had to step back and look at the overall picture to realize that everything was coming together like she dreamed.

“And in her smile I see something more beautiful than the stars.”

–Beth Revis

Top 7 Honeymoon Destinations 1

2

Bali, Indonesia

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

4

3 Sonoma, California

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After

Paris, France

Orkney, Scotland

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Venice, Italy

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Cape Town, South Africa

The Vow November 2015, Volume 8

PUBLISHER Victoria Kloss EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Victoria Kloss MANAGING EDITOR Victoria Kloss ART DIRECTOR Victoria Kloss BEAUTY EDITOR Victoria Kloss COPY EDITOR Victoria Kloss ADVERTISING SALES Victoria Kloss

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Rain or Shine, Love Wins How two brides overcame their stressful situations.

The Unplanned Wedding How one bride had to overcome the obsitcales of a military marriage.

HONEYMOON GIVEAWAY SWEEPSTAKES

The Unexpected Journey

May Cover Contest

January Reader’s Cover Contest!

Top Flowers for spring Weddings TOP 10 HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS

Rain or Shine, Love Wins TOP 10 HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS HONEYMOON GIVEAWAY SWEEPSTAKES

The Unplanned Wedding

January Reader’s Cover Contest!

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