The Dress
Vendor: The Princess Bridal
I have been in love with this dress from day 1... more than I can say for the groom! (Definitely kidding). The only problem I could see from the get-go was that the sash it came with was champagne-colored which had nothing to do with my teal/purple color schematic. After several failed attempts at finding an appropriate colored sash to replace it with at High Fashion fabrics, Joann's, etc I resorted to an internet find. Bridal white is the way to go, FYI.
Not pictured: Sash
I love this hanger- ordered it on Etsy. Thanks BlackScrapCat.
Had to get a picture of my bustle because the alterations lady at The Princess Bridal was so amazing.
The Shoes
Vendor (Mine): Alfred SungVenor (Ryan): Al's Formal Wear
Any of you who know me well will recall (or at least have heard about) the high heeled incident of 2005. For those of you who do not remember the fall heard round the world- basically I ripped the hems out of my jeans. I wore heels. I fell. I broke bones. Nothing like breaking both elbows and alternating a sling from arm to arm your 5th year of college to make you feel young again. I had zero desire for a repeat performance on the biggest day of my life and so I decided that flats were probably the way to go.
I searched for a while (read: on the internet on my lunch breaks during busy season) for flats that were cute AND the correct color- a very tall order, apparently. As any good internet shopper knows, it's hard to discern colors on the computer screen. I never found anything that really spoke to me, so I decided to order some ivory peeptoe flats I found and some accessories from the site our bridesmaid dresses came from and play arts & crafts. They wound up working out perfectly... and I got to match the bridesmaids. You know how I feel about matching, Melissa.
Save the elbows!
This is probably the first, and only, time you will see a blog where a bride mentions the groom's shoes. My soulmate is a different sort of man, my friends. Many of you close to the wedding have heard (probably on a near daily basis) that Ryan wanted to get married in a white tux. I unequivocally put the kibosh on that from the very beginning. When it came time to go to the tux store to pick out his tux and his groomsmen's tuxes, he behaved so well (only longingly touched the white tux on display twice)... that it tugged slightly at my heartstrings. He felt very strongly about these shoes, and I just couldn't stand to squash another one of his dreams. Truth be told- I actually love them.
Next best thing to a white tux.
The Rings
Vendor (mine): Dickinson by Design
Vendor (hubs): James Avery
I absolutely love Ryan's ring. Now, when he first insisted to me that his ring would come from James Avery it caused me to re-think this whole marriage thing... however, after seeing the one he picked, I think I'll concede defeat to him. Oh yeah, I also love my ring too. :c)
Rings-a-lings
The Bridesmaid Dresses
Vendor: Alfred Sung
I thought I knew 2 things when I got engaged when it came to what I wanted for bridesmaid dresses: I wanted each bridesmaid to pick her own style and that I wanted them to be a citrus-y green. As you can tell by pictures, I actually only knew one thing. After rifling through bridal magazine after bridal magazine, I absolutely fell in love with the Jade peau de soie that Alfred Sung carried, not to mention they had a plethora of pretty cuts to choose from. I've said it a million times and I'll say it again- my bridesmaids are absolutely beautiful.
Sassy ladies.
The Bride's Cake
Vendor: Edible Designs by Jessie
If you are planning a wedding, or really any event, do yourself a favor and go visit Jessie. She's such a sweet lady and her cakes could not be more tasty. I didn't know exactly what I wanted my cake to look like, so I mainly did a lot of pointing and saying, this top with this bottom, with this pattern... and voila! Choose your own adventure cake.. don't mind if I do. I love how it turned out.
I believe the first two layers were vanilla with almond creme filling and the top two are lemon with lemon creme filling. I will let you know in one year if I remembered that correctly.
Close-up.
The Groom's Cake
Vendor: Edible Designs by Jessie
Long before Ryan told me that I was the one, he informed me that at his wedding he would have an X-box cake. This is the detail of the wedding that Ryan felt the most strongly about. Just to give you an idea, his conversation at Jessie's was about twice as long as mine. He also may or may not have consulted JT on which games he should have on the cake. JT is overseas serving our country, so obviously determining the most meaningful games for Ryan's cake was a high priority.
Final Verdict: Halo & Madden.
How amazing is Jessie?
The Invitations
Vendor: Amanda Lamb
Amanda is my amazing former co-worker who's sadly left Houston to live and work in Austin. She made the mistake of mentioning one time in training that she makes wedding invitations for fun. I emailed her to see if she was still in the business or would be interested in doing ours- thus began a whirlwind of romantic email exchanges regarding fonts, colors, serifs vs. san-serifs and just in general me getting to witness Amanda's creative process at work. She is truly amazing and I absolutely loved our invitations. Thank you so much Amanda! If you are interested in contacting her, let me know and I can get you her email address. Please pardon the quality of these pictures- I took them on my camera phone. I am clearly not a photographer!
Front of the envelope
Invitation front. (P.S. This offer has expired).
The enclosures were in a pocket on the opposite side of the invitation. Amanda is brilliant.
RSVP postcard.
The Programs
Vendor: Amanda Lamb
After doing such a stellar job on the invitations, we decided that we needed Amanda's touch on as many wedding-related items as we could manage. I told Amanda I wanted to do something kind of fun and different for our programs and she came up with this idea completely on her own. I loved it immediately. I think, judging by the pics below, that it was a hit.
Forgot your lipstick? No problem, grab a program.
Nothing accessorizes a suit quite like a fake stache.
The true use of the program.
Brendan laughing in the face of gender roles.
The Table Numbers
Vendor: Hobby LobbyIt took me forever to come up with a cute, semi-original idea for table numbers. After hours of wandering aimlessly in Hobby Lobby and Michaels, I finally decided I wanted to use chalkboards. We bought chalkboards, wooden numbers and had a few paint parties to get them the color they needed to be. Of course, we had no idea what we wanted to write on them. On the way to the lake one day my inner accountant reared its ugly head when I found myself suggesting to Ryan that we write sayings including each of the table numbers. That, dollfaces, is how these came to be. Ryan & I had an awesome time coming up with sayings for each of the numbers. Some of my favs were: 3 Times a Lady, 6 on the Beach and Dressed to the 9's.
If you were having trouble remembering the date, table 11 was for you.
Table number action shot.
The Table Overlays
This is another of my wedding ideas that evolved over time. I was originally set on having chair sashes. I combed the internet for HOURS trying to find chair sashes that looked like they were the right color. After approximately 20-25 hours of doing so I decided that it was a lost cause and it was time to go back to the drawing board.
My next idea: table overlays. I spent another 5 hours (learned my lesson the first time) looking for the right color table overlays to no avail. My Mom & I decided, after much consternation, that we could just order fabric and cut it ourselves. After searching every Joann's and Hobby Lobby we could find, we wound up deciding that this lace-y aqua colored fabric we found on the internet would probably match... kind of... if you squinted your eyes and had a few glasses of adult beverage. Clearly this exercise had worn us down because we purchased all they had left of it- which is definitely the biggest risk either Caddy or I has ever taken in life.
One night up at the lake my Dad, Mom, Ryan and I spent hours upon hours in the garage assembly-line style cutting this bolt of fabric into overlays on the ping pong table while drinking wine. So, while the lines may not have been that straight- those overlays sure made for a lot of laughs and a night I'll never forget. As a bonus, I actually think they turned out wonderfully. Thank you so much Team Boarman... I'm so blessed to have a family who will spend an evening with me wielding a wine glass and scissors.
Made in Conroe, with wine love.
The Escort Cards/Favor Bags
Vendor: Amanda Lamb
Much like table numbers, I spent FOREVER trying to come up with a fun idea for escort cards. My friend Ashley had adorable apples and Justin & Lindsey had horseshoes... so I felt like I had some big shoes to fill. One day while surfing the internet I found a picture of some bags with fun patterns and I decided that we could roll the escort cards and favors all into one. I consulted Amanda on this and she agreed it was definitely a possibility. Amanda MADE beautiful bags with escort cards that perfectly mirrored the theme of the invitations. Have I mentioned she's amazing?
Next line of business: what do we fill them with? I knew that some of my guests didn't like, and/or were allergic, to chocolate- so that was out of the questions. I wandered around CostCo for about an hour on the phone with my Mom. We finally decided that toffee popcorn was a fabulously universal selection. After sending her a phone picture of the size of the cannister, she and I did some mental math and decided that we probably needed about 17 of these cannisters. I paid and went on my merry way.
A few days later when we were assembling the escort card/favor bags we learned that we really only needed... wait for it... 5 cannisters. So if my parents give you a canniester of toffee popcorn for Christmas, now you know why. You also know where my understanding of spacial concepts and mental math comes from.
Purple, teal & geometric all over. Makes my heart smile.
We definitely forgot to pick those up prior to seating ourselves. Faux pas.
Floral
Vendor: Darryl & Co
There's really not too much of a story to tell when it comes to the floral except that I loved all of it. I highly recommend Darryl & Co if you're planning an event, particularly if it's at the Bell Tower because they're about 2 minutes away.
My gorgeous shakeweight for the evening. White roses, lillies & hydrangea.
Can't tell you enough how much I loved these - Picasso calla lillies & purple hydrangea.
White pomander balls that lined the aisle.
More ceremony decor.
Snippet of the head table.
Flower girl's ammo- white rose petals. The basket is from Etsy, of course.
The candelabra centerpiece. White lillies, cream roses & purple hydrangea.
The twiggy centerpiece. That is in fact the technical name.
Pretty shot.
PHEW! And now I have finally finished blogging about the day I became Mrs. Martin. It's a toss up as to whether documenting this or passing the CPA was more difficult. Stay tuned for tales from the honeymoon and lots of other fun wedding festivities for the ladies in my life.
Boom- married.
