Wednesday, November 13, 2013

what he wore

navy-and-grey-wedding-groom-attire

patrick was not super involved in the planning of our wedding. and i mean that in the BEST possible way. he helped me whenever i asked, gave his opinion on things that mattered to him, but for the most part it was "you like it? and your parents are okay with it? okay it looks great to me." he was the ideal groom...but there was one thing he was very particular about and that's all things having to do with his attire.

he said from the very beginning that he would not be wearing a tuxedo. and that was just fine by me. if you went to our wedding you can kind of see how a tuxedo would have looked a tad bit out of place.

brooksbrothers-grey-suit-fall-wedding

he chose a grey suit early on, which made my decision about the bridesmaid dresses even easier. he chose the "fitzgerald" suit from brooks brothers. they were amazingly helpful in placing orders to dozens of stores across the country so that our groomsmen's suits could be pieced together.

brooksbrothers-grey-suit-fall-wedding

contrary to what my father says (he still turns beat red whenever we bring up the fact that last christmas he asked everyone "who wears bowties besides a clown?!" and pat solemnly said "i do.") bow ties are the bees knees! and patrick heckel is a man who can pull them off flawlessly.

navy-bowtie-polkadots-tiebar

navy was the obvious choice, and as an ode to his unwavering love for his wife....he went with polka dots. we bought all the ties from the tie bar  and gifted the groomsmen theirs.

much like his decision to not wear a tux, he was also dead set against a very feminine boutonniere. when we sat down with our florist for the first time and the subject of his boutonniere came up he immediately said "no, no, no, no" when we started to flip through a book of flowers. he wanted something simple. something masculine. with some green. and silver brunia was just what he was looking for.

boutineer-grey-navy-wedding-fall-wedding


last little deets..
shoes are cole haan via nordstrom. 
belt is from childhood (probs made it in boys scouts to be honest, he loves that thing and i fear the day the leather finally gives). 
and bless his heart, he wore his watch. i gave it to him as a birthday gift a few years ago, and when i saw it on his wrist at the altar i found something so sweet about it.

Monday, November 11, 2013

the loveliest lovely.

last week i was mortified when i went to parallel park and....well i had forgotten how to do it! 

in my frustration (and a tad bit of embarrassment) i thought to myself: "i used to be so good at this!" and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

i don't live in chicago anymore.
and i just got so very sad. 

the city that played host to so many firsts for us, will not be the city that we grow roots in. 
it won't be the birthplace of our babes.
it will be a place we always visit, but never stay. 

i know that we made the right choice moving to florida.
our priorities have shifted.
stuff that wasn't important to us when we were 22-28 years old is tremendously important to us now.
and there are a million and one things i don't miss about chicago.
but there are a million and one things that i do miss. 

i think this sums it up best: 

"Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch , you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real."

Chicago: City on the Make, Nelson Algren

by the way, if you live in chicago, i KNOW you've either seen a couple get in a throw down screaming fight over parallel parking or you have been one half of said couple. very early on in our relationship, pat had the utter audacity to tell me that i wasn't "doing it right" and our perfectly lovely day went to hell in a hand basket in a matter of ten seconds as we both left the car screaming "YOU DO IT THEN!"