Wedding Day, Part Deux

When we left off, I was finally getting my hair and makeup did for the wedding. The ceremony started at 7:00 p.m. and the wedding party needed to be at the church no later than 5:15 p.m.

My sweet sis-in-law, K8, took the charge of taking me and the various parts of my dress to the church. Due to the unexpected delay, caused by dirty-stank hair, I was running a bit behind. No stress, though. We were in a stress-free, fun-filled zone. I decided long before the wedding that I wouldn't let anything get me down on the big day. Nothing. So we rolled with it and when Nikki was finished working her magic K8 carted me off to the church.

K8 is one of the most amazing women that I know and I feel more than honoured to now share a last name with her. The hotel staff was wonderful on our way out and made sure to delay me until BF made his departure.

I was so excited that it was finally time to be at the church that I had not even realized or cared that I had not seen any of the flowers or decorations there. I was scooted off to the Bridal Room, which was adorable and so smartly laid out. (right off of the entryway adjacent to the doors of the sanctuary - no schlubbing through the basement for us!)

The girls helped me in more ways than one: B ran the music, K8 managed the veil and applied my deodorant (what a trooper), KT helped me into my shoes, L and R got me in the dress and everyone helped me count off on my last minute push-ups. Thank you, CrossFit!

We had so much fun but time was seriously crawling. I kept wondering if there was something wrong with the clocks. Every time we looked down at the clock it said that it was 6:25. I was ready for 7:00.

Finally it was time. We had the most fantastic organist and trio of strings play the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to Pachabel's Canon in D (my all time favorite). Seeing BF for the first time after the doors opened will be a memory that I cherish for always. He was beyond handsome and left me giddy as my dad walked me down.

The ceremony was beautiful and special beyond words. BF's dad is a Bishop in the Methodist church and sweetly agreed to marry us. He does a good wedding. During the vows I nearly lost it and definitely choked up and cried. I have never been overwhelmed with happiness like that before and I look forward to happening again one day, due to BF I'm certain.

Afterward the organ played us out of the sanctuary and the strings struck up with Outkasts, "Hey Ya!" They were awesome.

We took pictures very quickly at the church and then made our way over the reception at the Stoneleigh Hotel. A huge thank you, to K8's mom for letting us use her brand new 7-series to haul our cookies to the party.

For those that are interested in flowers and wedding decor, we kept it pretty simple. We had two wreaths made for the front doors of the church. They were monochromatic coral carnations and hanging in the center of the wreaths were an "L" and "M." We had friends snag them off the church doors and take them to the reception where they were hung on the two bathroom doors - now standing for "Ladies" and "Mens" room markers.

I wanted wheat to be incorporated into the arrangements and bouquets as much as possible. My family comes from a long line of wheat farmers and it was important to me that our heritage be represented in this way. Wheat was used to mark the family pews, in the groomsmen boutinners and in the bridesmaids' bouquets. Loved it. Edwards Floral Design of McKinney did a wonderful job. We then had two large arrangements flanking the altar. One of our ushers took one of the arrangements to the reception after the ceremony. We used it on one of the front tables rather than purchasing an additional arrangement. Budget friendly solution for flowers. Huge props to our photographer Misty, of Alta Moda Photography, she is a genius and has a talented eye. See more of her work and more photos from our wedding at Pictage.com (password: dorff09), or at Misty's blog.

We tried to stick close to our originally proposed budget and I think we might have even come in just under. Hooray for stretching every dollar.

Anyone else have money saving tips for planning a wedding?

Went to the Chapel, and it was Great

Eight weeks ago today BF and I were joined in holy matrimony. It was the happiest and funnest day of my life. Here is how it went down. This might require more than one post so bear with me.

Saturday, November 28th was the perfect day. Perfect weather, perfect friends, perfect hair/makeup/nails, and the perfect groom. (He is sweetly sitting by my side as I write this post in Mid-City Cafe)
The day started with me waking up with one of my best friends, Brittany, in a super swank suite at the Stoneleigh Hotel. We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed down the road to get our nails did with the rest of the bridal party. Heaven. That is the only word to describe being surrounded by all of your best friends while getting your feet and hands worked on. Not to mention the fact that my amazing sis-in-law brought all of the components for mimosas. Nothing like starting your day off with a little bubbly.

When our bubble toes were finished we all headed back to the hotel to move into the Penthouse Suite. It was time to start setting up for the reception and meet the hair and makeup artist, Nikki. (She owns The MakeUp Junkie and is amazing. Pretty sure she is some sort of a magical being because she sure made me look and feel like $$$Million)

Setting up the reception was super fun and a great way to pass the time while waiting for my turn in the chair. You might recall from previous posts that the last few months prior to the wedding were spent collecting and painting picture frames and pie plates. I put together an extensive collection of photos of BF and myself and had them all printed in B/W. They all went into the frames and were strewn about the reception site. There were also hundreds of votives.

Here are a couple of our closest friends admiring one of our spray painted works of art.

The reception space was a breeze to decorate and actually needed very little in the way of adornment. It was the original home of the owner of the hotel in the early 1900s and looked and felt like a house. A house decorated by Dorthy Draper, no less. So we kept the flowers pretty light and just accentuated the beauty of the space. Easy enough, right?

The dining room was my favorite room by far. Lovingly named, "The Pie Room," it was the hit of the evening. My dessert of choice is always pie over cake, so that is how we rolled at this wedding. I can't wait for you to see it in the next post. You'll start licking your monitor. Don't worry, I won't tell a soul.

This is where my sweet brother comes into play...again! I'm telling you, he was a stellar component to the success of our wedding. At the last minute (not knowing all of the other work that he was doing for the rehearsal dinner) I asked him to make some signs for the reception. The space is sprawling and I wanted to ensure that our guests knew that they were encouraged to explore. Here is what he came up with. They were a spin off of the napkins that I had made for the reception boasting the phrase, "Eat, Drink & Be Married."

Pretty amazing, huh? He is a genius and I only hope some of those genes made it into me too.

After the decorating it was time to get my hair and face done. I thought that it would be easiest for Nikki if my hair was a bit dirty for styling purposes, but I was wrong. My maid of honor, Katie, stepped up to the challenge of cleaning me up in the tub. That is a good maid, there.

After washing my hair, Nikki started on my makeup and hair. I will let the picutres speak for themselves.

Before:

After: "I feel pretty. Oh so pretty..."

In preparation for the day I had made a special "Bridal Suite" playlist on my i-Pod. The ladies spent the entire day leading up to show time at the church dancing and singing to the likes of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Duffy, Katy Perry and Rihanna. It was a blast.

Gaga, oh la la...

This post is getting pretty lengthy so we will save the ceremony for tomorrow. It was fun and I didn't make it through the ceremony without crying.

Frame it

My Mom and I have been trying to do decorate the reception space as much as we can ourselves. Brainstorming and throwing out creative ideas has been a ton of fun as my mama has been blessed with both the brainy and creative genes. She is a one-woman show!

BF and I chose the Stoneleigh Hotel for our wedding reception and it is spectacular. We have rented out the Penthouse, which is no ordinary penthouse but the home of the original owner of the hotel in the 1930s. It is a home. We figure that the decor will be pretty easy. The space is gorgeous that it needs little embellishment anyways. Our goal is to make it look like it is our house.

That is where the creative kids come in. Mama and I figure that we will just strategically place votive candles every where along with framed photos of the BF and me, along with family and friends. Rather than buy a bunch of expensive frames Mama has been on the look out at her local thrift stores for frames with interesting textures and shapes. When she finds these, usually at the whopping price of $.25, she scoops them up and takes them home to be painted. All of the frames will be white and should stand out nicely against.

Check out her before & after weekend painting project...

Before

After

Pretty good, huh?