Every time I watch this video I cry! It was just the most incredible day I could’ve possibly imagined. Juicebox Media made this video and I truly feel they couldn’t have done a more perfect job of capturing the day for us. It’s like a little mini movie of our love story. Thank you Juicebox Media and thank you Be Inspired for this magical day. Looking back on at all, it feels like a perfect dream.

The post Our Wedding Video appeared first on Ali Manno (Fedotowsky).

Some of you may have seen some of our wedding photos in Us Weekly recently. I have to mention Us Weekly quickly because they have been so incredible to us. Really. I know some people don’t give a lot of credit to weekly mags, but over the years we have developed such a great relationship with Us Weekly and the people there (thank you Peter and Brody!) and that’s why we decided to share our wedding photos with them! The issue with some exclusive pictures might still be on stands if  you wanna run out now and grab a copy!

Ok… let’s talk about this wedding! This perfect PERFECT day! We were SO nervous in the few weeks before the wedding because Los Angeles was getting record high amounts of rain. It felt like it rained for almost 2 months straight with a few sunny days sprinkled in. Luckily for us, our wedding day was just gorgeous! 70 and sunny! We got married at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palo Verdes. Is this place not stunning?!?! As many of you know, we originally had our hearts set on Mexico as a destination wedding, but then Zika got really serious and we didn’t feel comfortable asking our friends and family to travel there. So we then started our search for the perfect state side destination! And Terranea was it!!! It totally felt like we had a mini destination wedding. The resort is just gorgeous and the views cannot be beat! Plus we were so grateful that all our family and friends stayed at the resort with us. That was important because we wanted the wedding to be a 3-day celebration! Not just the day of the wedding. It was the prefect location.

The landscape of Terranea is stunning, so stunning that I didn’t think it could be more beautiful. That’s until Kellye Kodak Clifford of Precious & Blooming flowers stepped in and took our ceremony site to a whole other level! She did all the flowers for the wedding and wow – just wow! When we first met with Kellye, we told her that we thought we wanted blushes and creams as our wedding colors. But as we began to discuss the flowers more and as she showed us photos, we realized that we wanted a more sophisticated style. We are so grateful she took the time to go over every little detail with us so that the flower colors were just perfect!

And I cannot say anything more about the wedding until I thank Natasha and Laura from Gather Events. These two women are superstars!!! We absolutely would not have been able to do this without them! Wedding planning and wedding stress are NO JOKE! I had no idea how much went into planning a wedding. Laura and Natasha handled every little detail and all the logistics of the wedding, which gave us more time to handle personal aspects of the wedding like my dress, family stuff, our vows, etc. What I loved most about working with them is even when I was sure things were stressful on their end (especially the week before the wedding when things were changing LAST minute!) they never let on that they were stressed. I cannot even begin to explain how much that meant to us. Every time we talk to them they were thorough, prepared, and calming. And everything went so smoothly and perfectly on the big day with them coordinating everything from start to finish. If you need wedding planners, I could not recommend them more highly! You girls are the best!!!

Speaking of planning, four weeks before the wedding I decided I wanted a second dress! Ha! Anyone who has gotten married knows how crazy this is. I mean, I absolutely ADORE my ceremony dress by Alvina Valenta that I got at JLM Couture Bridal. The moment I walked into JLM I knew it was the place I was going to find my wedding dress. I had been to two other dress appointments prior to that and honestly felt disheartened. I remember saying to my best friend Stef, “maybe I just don’t like wedding dresses” since nothing I tried on was good enough in my mind. That is until I went to JLM Couture. I was obsessed with EVERY dress I tried on. I love them.

I LOVE the white Kate Spade pumps I wore with the bow detail on the heel. For those of you who have been following me for a long time, you know I’ve always wanted to wear converse under my wedding dress and I ALMOST did! But decided not to because my dress just looked so much better with a little height. But I changed to flats AS SOON as the ceremony was over

My earrings and hair piece are by Maria Elena Headpieces. She custom made me my hair piece! And Molly’s flower headband is so beautiful! The woman who made it has a shop on esty. She’s saving the money she makes from the headbands to adopt a baby of her own! Please support her shop!

So even though I found my dream dress, I decided I wanted a second because I wanted have more freedom to move and dance at the reception and my ceremony dress was very fitted and wouldn’t allow me to “break it down.” Ha! So that’s when I reached out to Val Stefani! I was able to meet with her and her business partner and they were just the sweetest!!! They rush made me this custom gown and I couldn’t be more appreciative for what they did so last minute! I wanted the dress to be fun yet simple and they delivered! Two weeks before my wedding, I was in Mon Amie bridal salon getting it altered and fitted to my body. Thank you Mon Amie for helping make the second dress a reality!!!

My bridesmaids wore dresses by Jenny Yoo. I just loved how they turned out! I knew I wanted them to both wear different dresses that were different colors but I really didn’t know how it would all turn out. I thought they couldn’t have looked more beautiful! And I couldn’t have been more proud to have them by my side as I married the love of my life! Raya is my sister and has been there with me since the beginning. And Stef is my absolute best friend. I love her like she’s my sister. I would do anything for her.

And when I was getting ready with my bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law and future sister-in-law we all wore robes from Pretty Plum Sugar! So pretty!

How cute is little Molly being pulled in this wagon by my 4 year old niece Lennon? When I was waiting to walk down the aisle, holding onto my father’s arm, I saw Molly and Lennon start to go down the aisle and I just lost it. It was a proud mom moment for me. We were going to put her in this little white dress for the ceremony but last minute I changed my mind and just thought she looked so darling in her little white kickee pants onesie with this flower headband. Plus I wanted Molly to be as comfortable as possible in the wagon since I knew Lennon was nervous about pulling it. But Lennon did such a fantastic job! I am so proud of her. Lennon’s dress is Jenny Yoo, BTW! And a huge thank you to my dear friend Lisa (who hates being the center of attention) who jumped into save the day by helping walk Lennon and Molly down the isle! I bring up that she hates being the center of attention to point out how selfless she was in being so willing to do this for us. She never hesitated when we asked! That is a true friend!

Owen was a part of he ceremony too! Kevin’s mom and dad walked Owen down the aisle We couldn’t get married without having him there. He’s our first baby! And his little “Best Dog” bandana is so precious!

Ok, more wedding details!!! The furniture rentals by Found Rentals were oh so pretty. I want all their stuff to decorate our house! It was important to me to have some lounge areas at the wedding especially since one of our friends was 33 weeks pregnant with TWINS! She needed a comfy place to put her feet up! What a trooper by the way for coming to the wedding when she could have gone into labor at ANY moment! Twins tend to come very early! And how gorgeous were the benches from Found Rentals at the ceremony site?! (1st picture above) We also rented the bar (below) from them and served drinks with “Manno and Wifeo” stir sticks and A+K napkins by For Your Party. Open bar of course

When our wedding planners told me about these beautiful wooden seating charts with calligraphy by Red Letter Day, I had no idea they would turn out so incredible. This display was like 6 feet tall!

The table settings were simple, elegant, and beautiful! We got the chargers, rose gold silverware (to die for!) and water goblets from Soiree 8, the classic linens are by Modmix,  the menus matched our invitations – we got both on Minted!

When Kevin and I went cake tasting at Beverly’s Bakery we couldn’t decide on just one cake – so we got three! How perfect is her work? She also did the cake for my baby shower – the most beautiful naked cake I’ve ever seen!

We also wanted something unique for another dessert option at the wedding so we got a s’mores cart! I actually saw this cart by Mallow Mallow at an event and thought they were SO yummy so we got it for our wedding! Although I will say that I am super bummed that I never got to have one at the wedding! Ha! I was so busy dancing the night away that I never ate one.

People keep asking me what my favorite part of the day was. Obviously this is an impossible question! Everything was so perfect, but one thing that stood out to me as one of the absolute BEST parts of the wedding (besides marrying Kevin of course) was the band!!!! I’m not even kidding. The Golden Coast Allstars were just that – ALLSTARS! To be honest, I was hesitant about a band at first. I was so used to the original versions of all our favorite songs that I was worried that a band wouldn’t play them quite right. But the Golden Coast Allstars couldn’t have proved me more wrong! They were BETTER than the originals! All of our guests kept coming up to us on the dance floor and yelling “This band is incredible!!!” I felt like I was at a concert! I couldn’t recommend these guys more. Thank you a million times over to the owner Danny who spent a ton of time with us going over the playlist and making sure our ceremony music was just perfect! This band also did instrumental versions of Sweet Disposition, Ho Hey (as I walked down the aisle) and Geronimo (recessional) – all of which were perfect! Thank you Danny! You guys are the absolute best!!!

Are you guys loving all these photos as much as I am? Ok maybe I am loving them a little bit more since they are of my wedding day. Ha! But they are stunning right? That is thanks to Brandon Kidd Photography. Brandon and his wife Kristin are such a great team and documented all these amazing moments for us. Not only are they talented but they are just overall good people. Brandon goes above and beyond in his role as a Photographer. Multiple times leading up to the wedding and the morning of the wedding when I was feeling stressed (the morning of I was worried that I was taking too long to get ready because I had to keep stopping to care for Molly), Brandon totally put me at ease. Before the wedding day, he emailed us a couple times to assure us that everything was under control and he was going to do everything in his power to help us enjoy every minute of our day. He is a gem! He and his wife both are! Check out all their gorgeous work HERE.

Juicebox Media also helped document the day too!!! They made us the most incredible video that I will be posting soon in it’s own blog post!!!! I keep saying that I wish I could bottle up the feeling I had on my wedding day and experience it forever and I feel like Juicebox Media did that for us with the beautiful video they made us. So make sure to come back to my blog later this week for that!

And I can’t forget the super fun photobooth with lighting that’s better than any snapchat filter! Ha! No really. It’s AMAZING! I will be having Project Photobooth at ALL my future events! Stayed tuned for another post with A TON of the photobooth pics! I can’t fit them all here or this blog post would be 100 pages long!

And I have to give a shout out to my glam team!!!! Emma Willis of Contour Fossa has done my makeup for a little while now and I just adore her! She is crazy talented!!!! Briana Cisneros not only colors my hair (she’s a color master!!!) but she also gave me this gorgeous up-do! 1011 makeup did all the hair for my bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law and my niece Lennon! Her little up-do was just too cute!

And last but certainly not least I have to thank Leila Lewis and Alex Meyers from Be Inspired.  Leila has been such a huge part of our lives throughout this entire wedding process. And she even swooped in and planned my magical baby shower right in the middle of all the wedding planning! Leila and Be Inspired, not only connected me to my wedding planners and vendors, but she helped us find our venue from the get go! She also attended the wedding as a guest because she has become such a huge part of our lives! We couldn’t imagine not sharing our big day with her. Leila, thank you. Thank you for answering countless emails at all hours of the day/night – some emails from a very stressed out bride-to-be (sorry about those btw – he he). Thank you for making our wedding day everything we could have wanted! You are the BEST! And we are forever grateful. Love you Leila!

To you Molly – not my daughter  my other Molly Thank you. For EVERYTHING!

Now that I’ve given you all of the details, I want to try to put into words the emotion of the day. Although, I really feel like it’s impossible to explain the feelings surrounding our wedding day. I can say this, during our ceremony there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen! I think every single person came up to us after the ceremony and told us they cried. This is one of the few instances in life where you feel good about bringing 100 people to tears! Ha! Also in tears, Kevin and I. Neither of us could hold it together as we read our vows. We didn’t share our vows with each other before the ceremony. All we knew is that we were both going to end with the same line “I promise to never forget this moment.” And I promise I won’t forget.

The day wasn’t just emotional, it was SO FUN!!! In fact, I was enjoying myself so much that I forget to wear my veil!!! And I forgot to wear the small bow that went with my second dress. Oops! Oh well!

Under the “emotion” section of this post, I have to talk about our officiant and dear friend Mith Niles. Mith has been a part of my life for 10 years now. He has seen me through good times and very dark times and has been by my side through some very tough breakups on my journey to find love. When Mith met Kevin – he knew I had found my partner in life. Mith and Lisa (his wife and my other dear friend!) are family to us. We love them unconditionally and we know they love us unconditionally right back. When we asked Mith to be our officiant we were so nervous because we didn’t want him to feel pressure to take on such an enormous responsibility. Being the amazing person that he is, he accepted our request with a heart full of love. And on our wedding day, he gave us the most beautiful ceremony we could have ever imagined. Thank you Mith! We are eternally grateful.

And to my husband Kevin! My husband! I love saying that! I love you. I am so grateful for this life you and I have built. Thank you for marrying me. Thank you for being my partner, my equal. Thank you for being the most amazing daddy to Molly. I promise to love you always. I promise to work everyday at being the wife you deserve. Thank you Kevin Manno, my husband, for loving me unconditionally. Your love makes me better

I’ll leave you all with a few more photos to enjoy! Love you all! Thanks for supporting us and our marriage!

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The post Our Wedding Day – I’m Mrs. Manno! appeared first on Ali Manno (Fedotowsky).