Southern hospitality

I came home today to find a beautiful floral arrangement from the owners of the store where I bought my wedding dress ( Warren Barron Bridal in Highland park)!  What a sweet gesture.  Not only do they carry the most beautiful designer dresses in Dallas, and have the best customer service but now they also send me flowers to say thank you? Amazing. There is no better place to buy a wedding dress in Dallas, period! See picture below, and came with the sweetest card!

Card reads "Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of such an exciting time in your life. We are thrilled that you found such a fabulous dress. You're going to beautiful on your wedding day! Love Cecilia & Haley

Bridesmaid Luncheon

God has blessed me with amazing family and dear friends so I wanted to do something special to show them how much I love and appreciate them.  I decided to host a bridesmaid luncheon over memorial day weekend in Dallas. I know what your thinking, wait.. isn't the bridesmaid luncheon supposed to be the week of the wedding?  Yes, it is. I know what all the books say.. but I honestly don't care.  It is my wedding so I can do whatever I want.  I decided I wanted to host an event where I could formally ask my bridesmaids to be in my wedding.  I decided to take them to Bonnie Ruth's a great french place in Frisco.  They have an amazing brunch with unlimited mimosas (perfect for my group of friends).

My mom, Nancy and bridesmaids!

Here are the invites I sent each girl...
Inside it says..
"In honor of you who will stand by my side
You are helping to make me a happy bride
I would like to thank you in my own way
Please join me for lunch on this special day"

I wanted to give my bridesmaids something formal asking them to be my bridesmaids. After months of reading and planning, I decided to take then to lunch and give them a small gift with a personalized card formally asking them to be in my wedding. Below are some pictures!

Made by ExQuisiteInvitation on etsy.com


For the little ones in the wedding...

After our lunch we all went dress shopping..  It was a great weekend and I am so blessed to have such amazing girls by my side.  Here are a few of my favorite pics..

Bride with her bridesmaids

My flowergirl, loving my bridal shoes

XOXO,
 The Bride

An afternoon with Vera..

The last few months have flown by.. I honestly don't know where the time has gone.  I have been really busy working on my dissertation and finishing up my final classes for my doctorate, which has left little to no time for wedding planning.

 However, I did accomplish one BIG check of my checklist and that is MY WEDDING DRESS.  Let's be clear, I have been searching for the perfect dress for years ( way before I was actually engaged).  I tore out hundreds of dress and thought I had found "the one" about five times.  After becoming engaged, I waited a while before I went dress shopping.  There were a few reasons for this.. First, I wanted specific people to be able to come with me. It was really important to have my closest friends there to help me pick out the perfect dress.  Next, I was overwhelmed with emotions.  I felt really excited about the process, but started to feel nervous that I wouldn't find anything that came close to my expectations ( I mean I have been dreaming of "the dress" since I was like 3 years old).  As the whole process became real to me, I started to feel really worried and had a ton of anxiety about the whole process. What if I don't find anything I like? I am not sure how normal that is, I think most brides are just really excited.  In fact, the first time I went dress shopping I required a few mimosas to calm down. Lucky for me, I had my dearest friends by my side and they were awesome at calming me down!

Two of my bridesmaids and my little flowergirl

Once I arrived at Warren Barron Bridal in Highland Park, my entire attitude changed. The dresses in that store are amazing ( if you are getting married go there, they are so awesome) and they are so friendly.  I had a very specific idea of what I wanted and actually thought I knew which Vera Wang dress was "my dress."  To my amazement, when I tried on that dress, I hated it.  I think I almost cried at that point because I remember thinking "great, now what" ( remember I had spent years looking at dresses).  Next thing I knew the consultant pulled a fabulous dress that she said was going to my dress.  I was doubtful, until I put it on.  The moment I saw it, I knew it was "the one."  I walked out of the fitting room to get my girls approval, and my matron of honor had tears in her eyes. I was very practical about the whole thing, at that point I knew the search was over! I didn't cry, like I thought I would.. which is odd considering I cry watching "say yes to the dress" when they girls find their dress. It was a perfect day, followed by a perfect bridesmaid weekend!!!

Celebrating finding "the dress"

Planning the wedding of your dreams- the search for the perfect vendors.

I am aware that not every bride has the luxury of planning her wedding for years like I had.  Sometimes you fall in love in world wind romance and next thing you know you are left to plan your dream wedding with no idea where to begin!  So here are some things I have learned during my 4 year wedding planning journey.
1) Collect lots of bridal magazines.
Listen I understand that maybe you feel a little silly adding "Brides" to your groceries at checkout, but trust me it pays off.  I remember several times checking out with my bridal magazine only to have the cashier say " how congratulations, when are you getting married?"  Then comes that odd moment where I had to say " Oh, I am not engaged yet" this was almost always followed by a weird facial expression from the cashier and a quick change in subject.  What I find ironic about this is that since I have been engaged I have yet to have anyone ask me when I am getting married when I buy Bridal magazines.. sometimes I just want to yell out " I am engaged and getting married, just so you know" but I resist that impulse.  Okay so back to why you should collect magazines.  First it really helps you begin to form your "wedding style." Much like your personality, your wedding style will start to take form as you see ideas you both like and hate.  I would cut out ideas I liked as well as ideas I disliked.  I wanted to be able to show potential vendors what I didn't want my wedding to look like as well as what my dream wedding would look like... It helps you start to paint the picture you already see in your head so others can bring your vision to life!!  After you cut out ideas, there are several ways you can do it from there.  Some of my friends have made "wedding inspiration boards" where they began posting things they loved.  Others just simply cut them out, and put them in a folder.  Personally, I preferred to make a binder where I could organize my ideas by specific category.  This worked well for me, but you have to find your own style.  After you are done with the magazines, donate them to another soon-to-be bride while some things may go out of style, many things remain the same and will be able to give the newly engaged girl a good starting point. ( I will be passing all mine down to my younger sister, who just recently got engaged and will be getting married six months after me)

2) Research, Research, Research- google is your best friend. Use the internet to your full advantage.  Start googling weddings in your area.  I started by look at photographers blogs ( note, photographers work will show the entire wedding and list all the vendors).  I browsed through hundreds of photographers blogs in the city I knew I would marry in.  I started to become familiar with the local vendors.  I got to the point where I could look at a wedding and know who the vendors were before reading it at the bottom of the blog.  This does a few things. First, it helps you see what is out there.  You will begin to see work you like and things you don't like.  You get to see what vendors commonly work together which can give you some hints to the price of the wedding etc.  This was a great starting point for me.  From the blog world I quickly moved into the entire internet by finding each vendors website and digging deeper.  At this point here are some tips I found helpful.
-Start by browsing the vendors website. Look at their portfolio, read the feedback left by clients, look at the general flow and professionalism of their website. I can't tell you how many times I have discarded a vendor just by their website. I mean come on, you are a videographer but you have no videography on your website??  Yeah, I am passing on that.  Vendors know often their website is the first ( and sometimes only) thing clients see, therefore how much energy they put into their website says a great deal to me. After all, this will be the same energy they are putting into your special day.
-Join theKnot.com.  Once a member, join a local community board.  Read what local brides to be are saying about vendors.  Most of the time this will be your greatest source of information.  You will be able to read reviews of brides who have used the vendor you are researching in the past and talk to them about their thoughts and concerns.  The girls are honest and helpful, in my experience at least.  Also many of them have been to their fair share of weddings and can help give you ideas maybe you hadn't thought of.

-Become a "social butterfly" Once you find vendors you think you might be interested in, add them on facebook, twitter etc..  The advantage here is you will get to see their real work.  You will get to read what others say about them, their work ethic, their talent etc.  One of the big things I leaned here was I got to see how long their turn around is.  For example, I was highly interested in a videographer ( can you tell I am on the hunt for a videographer right now?) however as I began to follow their work I noticed they were taking 8-9 months to complete the edited wedding videos.  I knew that was not what I wanted.  One of my favorite things about social networking is you can also kinda get to know your vendor.  For me it's important that my vendors value marriage, are loyal and trustworthy people.  I also love being able to read what Brides, grooms, mother of the brides and wedding guests say about the wedding.. what did they rave about?  Facebook is a great way to do that!
3) Pull it all together. Once you have a few possible vendors in each category and you have read every bridal magazine since 2000, then you are ready to start pulling all your dreams together.
-Make/buy a Wedding binder.  Remember the episode of "Friends" where monica is planning her wedding and pulls out this big, decorated, organized binder?  Yeah, thats the idea you are going for here.   In the process of planning my wedding I have now had 4, yes 4 wedding binders.  Let me share my rationale.  My first binder was my PLAN A.  This was my dream wedding, no matter what the cost.  It is the princess marrying the prince, all the bless and red carpet.  My second was my PLAN B.  This was a little more conservative in budget, some fancy some plain jane.  My third was my PLAN C.  This is budget friendly, for us it was eloping to Paris, France!!  And now, my fourth is my actual wedding I am planning now.  I combined things from each of my three binders into one, kinda like the greatest hits of wedding stuff to me.  I had my fourth binder personalized with my name on it because I knew once I got engaged, this baby would be going with me everywhere!  It has really been a life saver.  Whenever I book a new vendor, I make sure I get their card and add it in my binder ( as well as my iphone of course). My binder is always up to date, and had pictures all over it of inspiration.. so someone could look at it as see my wedding vision.

Love the tabs!

- Buy a good wedding planning book.   While I am not here to endorse any particular wedding planning book, I will tell you I have bought several and this is by far my favorite.  " The Wedding Book- The big book for your big Day" by Mindy Weiss.  You may know Mindy, she is the go to wedding planner for all the celebrities.  Let's just say if anyone knows wedding, it's Mindy Weiss.  Her book walks you step by step through the wedding planning process.  Give you tips, timelines, ideas.. Fabulous book!  A must have for any bride.

How adorable is this? "Talk to mom" 

Tips:
-If possible start planning early. I was able to do all my research on vendors before I was even engaged.  This was the biggest gift I could have given myself.. I didn't know it at the time, but once you get engaged it is like time speeds up really fast, days fly by, and before you know it you are months away from your wedding.  I was able ( using tips above) to narrow down my vendor search to two in each category, with an additional list of "back ups" just in case.  This way once I was engaged I knew it was a matter of making a few calls. I already knew my vendors checked out and the type of work they would produce.  My fiance commented multiple times how thankful he was that we only had to go look at once reception venue.  He was impressed that I had a Plan A, B and C.  Know what you want a head of time, trust me you will thank me later!!
-Remember the wedding is about you and your man, NOT everyone else. I think most of the time family means well, but let's be honest they can stick their nose where it doesn't belong.  Your wedding is about the two of you spending your life together.  Do what you want.  Don't look back on your wedding a wish you would have listened to your gut on something, listen now!  Surround yourself with people who love you and want you happy, not those who criticize your every choice.
-Take care of yourself.   Mentally and physically.  Weddings are stressful, make sure you are taking time for you!  Sometimes that means you need to stop doing wedding stuff and sleep, take a bubble bath, go for a long walk.. whatever you need to do to keep yourself together.  DO IT!  This should be the happiest time of your life, so if you allow outside forces to upset you, you will have a hard time enjoying this process.
-Remember no one is as into your wedding as you are.  This was a hard thing for me to fully understand, but no one cares about your wedding as much as you do.  As the bride you care about every detail and its sometimes hard to understand why your friend doesn't care if you have an ivory runner with gold trim or a gold runner with white trim.  Remember it is your day, so while their advice is helpful its really up to you.  Don't be upset if they don't want to talk about wedding stuff every time you are together.  And keep in mind this is even more the case with your already married friends.  Once their wedding is said and done, they aren't near as into talking wedding anymore.. just the fact!  Doesn't mean they don't love you, they are just past that stage in their lives.  Find people who do care and will listen as you agonize over the details.  Sometimes that is found in a mother, or a sister.  Or reach out to the brides on theKnot.com, many of them are going through the very same thing.

- Savor every moment. More than anything, remember this time in your life will pass with time.. and you will miss it.  Savor the planning, the late night researching, the endless girl chats about your dress, the shopping dates with your mom.. cherish it!!  I know I sure am!!

I get giddy for shoes and wedding photos!

Every girl dreams of her wedding, the dress, all the details.. However, most girls didn't look for a top notch photographer for two years before her wedding.  Welcome to my world.  For me, a photographer is the most important vendor. Pictures are what allow you to tell your story over and over again on a daily basis when the wedding is over.  I love pictures that tell a story.  I have been to so many weddings that were beautiful with so many fine details that deserved to be captured only to see the couples wedding pictures and frown. No picture of the table scape, forget the invites, no pictures of the reactions of the guest during the couples first dance.

You can ask anyone, I am crazy in love with wedding pictures.  Every now and then on my search for a wedding photographer, I would find someone I thought I liked.  I would of course, follow their work only to later be disappointed by one of their weddings.  There are a ton of people who call themselves photographers out there, so brides beware!!  Just because you have a camera and think you know how to use photoshop does NOT mean you have talent.  Then there are those who have talent, know they have talent, and while their pictures look pretty awesome, they don't always listen to what their clients want..so the result is just okay.

Many of you know, my sister is a photographer.  She is wonderful, pure talent... sometimes she is so good she doesn't even see it. She will be taking some of our engagement pictures, which I can't wait for but when it comes to my wedding day I need her to be my sister.  She grounds me and keeps me focused, which will be much needed on my wedding day ( I also want her in wedding pictures).   

For my wedding I was looking for someone with pure talent, education specifically in photography, someone who is fun and will listen to what I see for my wedding pictures.  For two years, I have been watching Edmonson upload wedding after wedding and every time I look at their pictures I feel giddy. You know that feeling you get when you see a fabulous pair of shoes in the window? Yeah, just like that.  I knew early on, they were the only choice for me when it came to my wedding pictures, to the point I would have changed my wedding date if I had to so I could have them photograph my wedding. This week we booked them as our photographer and I couldn't be happier. They are so nice and fun!  Our pictures are going to be amazing!!  Prepare yourself. 

http://www.edmonsonweddings.com/    Photo Credit: David & Luke Edmonson ( all photos below)

VEGAS BABY

So in case you didn't know I have the best friend in the world, who happens to be my matron of honor!!  Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to take a few days off from studying to head down to Houston to see her and her adorable little family!  It had actually been a few months since I had since her so it was a real treat for both of us.  Also, I hadn't been able to show her my RING yet so that was an added plus.  Of course we talked wedding stuff, like we always do.. and she told me about some planning she had been doing.  VEGAS baby!  I am so excited for my bachelorette party!!  She is planning everything down to the smallest detail, it's sure to be an amazing weekend.  I have been blessed in my life to have amazing girlfriends and I can't wait for us all to take a weekend off our crazy busy lives to be together and celebrate life, love and wonderful friendships.  So now when I lay down to sleep, I am dreaming of Vegas!!  Give it a few days, I am sure the wedding dreams will come back to me soon..

Let them eat CAKE!

I think one of the high points of being a guest at a wedding is getting to eat the wonderful wedding cake.  For us girls, we enjoy other things about weddings of course. I know I have never been to a wedding where I didn't cry during the ceremony. To be perfectly honest, I cry even when I watch weddings on TV, even in a move when I know it's not real.  Yeah, I am a big sap. So I think most brides have a very clear idea of their dream wedding cake, I do not.  I have never really cared much about the wedding cake.  Of course I care how it tastes... and want it to look nice, but I am not one of those brides who has a dream cake.  I feel like I have so many other things, like my designer shoes, that I dream about when I think of our wedding rather than the cake.  Here is what I do know. I am very traditional about most things, like getting married in a church, music, my dress being white etc.. but when it comes to cake I think we will mix things up a bit.  We hate white cake, boring.  We love chocolate for sure.  So while I am not sure what flavor we will pick I can promise you it won't be white wedding cake.  The last few days I have been working on a wedding budget ( thanks Dad) and in the process looking up vendors.  I did find a cake that I think is rather fabulous.  I like this look, what do you think? ( Minus the pink of course)