Wedding Fashion/Style

Awww, the wedding fashion!! One of my favorite subjects :)


I want to show you all of it, from the hair, makeup, dresses, and SHOES!!! (Can you tell which of my favorites is my favorite! Haha)


The day started out like any other day...oh, except that it was my wedding day! I woke up and showered and then headed to Granny's to get my hair rolled for later. Many of you know Granny, and consider yourself lucky that you do...she's fabulous!! Well, she also happens to have been a hairstylist for over 40 years and just recently retired. You can bet that having her do my hair on my wedding day has been a dream of mine and hers since forever. Having her there was so special to me!


That afternoon we headed up to the hotel where we all finished up our hair and I had my makeup done by a sweet friend, Amanda (too many Amanda's to keep up with these days!). She was referred to me by her cousin, and a good friend from high school and I couldn't have been happier!


Makeup done..hair, check! All my girls looking beautiful and then it was time for the dress!! I'll let the pictures tell the story, they say it better than me anyway :) Enjoy!

Oh, and I just HAVE to mention the fact that we were being escorted by some very handsome men!! Ladies...most of these fine looking gentlemen are single, but the hot blonde is all mine ;)

**All photos were taken by Amanda Marie Portraits**

Wedding Vendor Highlight - The Florist

When it came to choosing a florist, I was pretty much at a loss. There were thousands of vendors for our choosing and prices all over the board. Luckily, my mom has been friends with Steve, the owner of A Little Ben's, a floral shop in Cleburne, TX. Steve was a pleasure to work with, and although we chose not to do extensive floral arrangements, the work that he did for us was beautiful! Take a look!

**All photos were taken by Amanda Marie Portraits**

Wedding Vendor Highlight - The Cakes

Mmmm, cakes! This may be the yummiest looking post I've had so far :)


I am blessed to have a wonderful cousin, Geri, who is very talented in cake design! Every cake you see in my events are usually done by her..my granny's retirement party cake, bridal shower, wedding, etc...and there will be more in the future (which she's already pressuring me for. Ha!)


For our cakes we did a traditional brides cake with white and chocolate layers, white fondant icing, and white detailing.


We (Kevin) struggled for months to decide what to do for Kevin's cake and we LOVE what we finally picked out. His cake was red velvet (our favorite) and oh so yummy! Take a look! 

Oh...and one of her adorable son, Mason...how could I not?

Geri, thank you so much for all you do! The cakes looked and tasting amazing and we are so thrilled that you could be a part of our special day! Love you cousin :)


**All photos were taken by Amanda Marie Portraits**

Wedding Vendor Highlight - The Venue

Just as a little backstory, Kevin and I were engaged on March 21, 2011 (See proposal post here). By mid-April we had our wedding date set...November 11, 2011 (11/11/11) would be the day that I married my best friend! Kevin and I have been together since 2004 and it's been a long road full of learning, growing, and love. He is my true love and the most amazing man. He is already a great husband and I can't wait to see the awesome father he will be to our kids in the future.


Anyhow, throughout our 8 month engagement, planning was a crazy ordeal. Not so much in the middle, but at the beginning and of course the end it was just plain stressful. In the beginning, there is tons, I mean TONS, of research to do and you're hoping this whole time that you are picking all of the right people for your big day. 


First up, the Venue...kind of important right? We knew we wanted to have our ceremony and reception in the same location so our guests wouldn't have to travel, so after many emails and phone calls we had our sights set on four locations. We set out one weekend with my loving parents and my trusty spreadsheet (don't act surprised!) to gather, record and compare all of the specifics of each place.


After the first two, we were pleased, but it just hadn't quite been what we were waiting to see. We discussed the differences over lunch at On the Border (90% of meals with my parents are at OTB, no shame), and then headed to The Ashton Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.


Now I am telling you, it took me all but 2 minutes to know this place was "the one". It was absolutely beautiful, had the charm of what we were looking for and just felt right. We immediately decided it was it, I called the 4th place to cancel our meeting and we had the contract signed by the end of the week.


This hotel is located in Sundance Square, it's an ornate and historic building and the architecture and decor throughout the reception spaces and hotel itself were beautiful. Unfortunately, I have to stop here on gushing about this place. In the end, the management of this hotel revealed their true colors and the story is so heart-breaking I don't even want to re-live it and it isn't worth the time for me to write or you to read. Bottom line, I would not recommend our specific location, however, it was absolutely beautiful, our perfect location and our wedding was everything we dreamed it would be!


Some more photos of this beautiful place!

**All photos were taken by Amanda Marie Portraits**

Wedding Vendor Highlight - The DJ

My first pieces of advice to anyone who is planning their wedding, is 1) decide on your budget between your future spouse and any others who may be helping you out, and 2) decide what is most important to you and spend your money there. Everyone will be different in their priorities and that's fine, but find out what they are! Chances are, you can't afford to do everything exactly the way you can dream it (and if you can, consider yourself very lucky!).

For us personally, our three main important things were:

1. Photography

2. Entertainment

3. Food

With those being our top three, that's where our money went. Yes, we absolutely got push back on spending on certain areas from others, but this was OUR wedding and we had to stay true to what mattered the most to us.

With entertainment being one of our top two items, we did some serious research here. Again, right off the bat you start seeing the big differences in everyone you talk to. We knew we wanted a DJ and not a band and we knew we wanted a professional DJ, not a "I'm the coolest guy in the room" DJ and certainly not an "I know how to play an iPad DJ".

We wanted a full on Director of Entertainment and that's EXACTLY what we got! After one phone interview and a sit down meeting, we decided on Marc Poster, owner of MWP Customs. We loved Marc from the beginning. He was very detail oriented, knew his business, and extremely helpful in any area related to our wedding. Marc knows this industry and really became more of an overall wedding coordinator for us. He alleviated stress in any way possible and was an absolute delight to work with.

Oh, and did we mention that he helped us throw one hell of a party!! At one point during the night, I looked over the dance floor to see it completely packed and everyone jumping up and down to the music and thought to myself, "YES! This is exactly what we wanted! We did it!"

Marc, thank you so much for working with us for our wedding. We had a fabulous time and have heard nothing but great things from our family and friends. Many have shared with us that this night holds some high rankings in their lifetime of memories. You helped us achieve exactly what we wanted in our wedding (so much so, that Kevin still talks about wanting to do it again every year! I'll need to talk to him about that...haha). We will be forever grateful for you and will recommend you to anyone we know!


**All photos were taken by Amanda Marie Portraits**

Wedding Vendor Highlight - The Photographer

Our photographer...How do I even begin! Our wedding photography was our numero uno when it came to importance for our wedding. One of my photographer friends said it best when I asked for her advice: At the end of the day, the cake is eaten, food is gone, flowers are dead. All you will have when it's said and done will be the memories and pictures from your special day. We knew our photographer had to be amazing and we wanted to be able to look at our pictures forever and be able to remember exactly how we felt in each moment that was captured. We. were. not. disappointed.

Our photographer was Amanda Harrison, owner of Amanda Marie Portraits. You may recognize the name, she was also the one who shot our proposal that Kevin set up! She possesses mad talent, is the sweetest person you can know, and not only did we gain a life-long photographer, but I really feel like we've gained a life-long family friend! We've gone through so many great memories already and I'm looking forward to working with her many more times in the future.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our engagement shoot as well as the wedding!!

Amanda, if you are reading this, THANK YOU so much for all that you've done! You are an amazing woman, a crazy talented professional and such a wonderful part of our family! We are in love with every memory you've captured for us and can't wait to work with you again in the future!