Our First Shower!

This past Saturday, we had our first wedding shower.  It was hosted by Andrea, Jessica, Grace, and DeeDee (Justin's sisters, his brother's girlfriend, and mother).  They did such a great job!  The decorations were so pretty!  I knew it would be fantastic, but I was sort of taken away by it all when I came through the doors. Here are a few shots from that day!

  

The prettiest bride and groom to be!

 

The shower decor.  This table was so pretty!  I loved how the big presents were wrapped!  We had cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries that were dipped to look like tuxedos, and sixlets.

 

This is the buffet that had more strawberries, pretzels and a chocolate fountain to dip them all in!

Yum!

 

The bride with her hostesses...Grace, Jessica and Andrea.

 

My family: Mama, Em, Jordan, Johnna, Casie

 

Our first gift!  These towels are so soft!

I was so happy that we got the duvet cover that we really wanted!  Thanks Nina!

Andrea's mother-in-law gave us this big, comfy blanket with our names and wedding date embroidered on it.

I love this bake set!  Mama tried to steal it from me!

Justin's parents gave us our cookware.  I've already used the skillet and it works great!

One of the pretty presents that Andrea wrapped.

The shower was really fun!  And we have lots more...one in Corsicana for more of my family and friends from my hometown, one at Justin's work, and one at my work! 

Unity Candle Holders

So this isn't the best picture, but here is what I made for the unity candle holders. I took a brass colored pedestal and spray painted it brown.  I found this at a thrift store and it came with a slightly taller one all for under $2!  After the wedding I'm going to keep these and use these for decor in the house.  

The candle stick holders were given to me by DeeDee.  I was initially going to use them for the cupcake plates, but then realized that I liked the thinner bases better. I didn't want them to go to waste, so I decided to spray paint them brown and use them for the candle stick holders that each of our mothers will light just before the ceremony starts.  I added the pink ribbon at the bottom to give it just a touch of color.

  

Invitations have been made!

Justin cranked out these beauties a few days ago.  I think they turned out really, really good!  Each invitation will have a white inner envelope that I am going to line the inside with pink paper to make them look a little nicer.  The outer envelope and the RSVP envelope will be the craft paper brown envelopes that you see here.  I think they look so cute!  We'll be getting them all together and sending them out the first week of June!

Bridal Portraits

I had a few different places in mind for bridal portraits that were very different, but I’ve decided to have them done at a few parks in Highland Park.  I went back and forth between the locations, but I think that the parks will be the best place to take them.  They are going to look beautiful!  I like this location because it’s very different..you don’t see many bridals done here.  Every time I’ve driven by or walked through, it’s been pretty quiet  and there have not been a lot of people around.  This will help a lot because we won’t have to fight people in order to get good shots. 

 Flippen Park has a gorgeous gazebo and fountain.  This park will make for some really classy pictures.  There are also some pretty cool looking light posts that I think would look neat in a couple of shots.  

 Lakeside Park is beautiful with its tree and luscious grass.  I’d like to take a couple of shots with the lake in the background.  This location will be nice for all the full length pictures that we’ll do to get shot of the back of my dress and train.  The green grass is really going to be pretty against my white dress and my bouquet will add just enough color.  I’m sure this is where we will take the shots with the pink paper umbrella.  Won’t that be pretty!

 

 

 

Prather and Jester parks have some long stone staircases and some old stone bridges.  I want to be sure to take a couple of shots with both.  I liked the Dallas Arboretum with this aspect, but doing bridals on Memorial Day weekend at the Arboretum would have been really difficult with all the people that will go through there.  I know Marisa will be able to make these look stunning!

 

I can’t wait to work with Marisa again.  She is so talented and I’m excited to see what she comes up with!

 

Wedding Hair

My cousin Katy is doing my hair (and the BM's hair) for the wedding.  This past weekend, Katy, or Mary Kate if you know her only professionally, worked her magic and came up with a pretty do for me on the big day.

Here is Katy and I just after she was finished.  She did such a great job!  And my hair held the curl until Monday (when I finally had to wash it).  You guys know that my hair NEVER holds curl!  She also had this wonderful spray that added texture to my hair.  It's a dry shampoo spray that also has a brown tint in it that completely covered up my gray!  It was the coolest thing I've ever seen!  I'm going to get me some to spray on my roots when they start getting bad.  I really needed it that day!

I was really undecided on what I wanted when I went in.  I knew I wanted something pretty, but not too formal or fancy.  I had narrowed it down to down with big soft curls, half up half down with big soft curls, or some sort of messy bun.  After talking it over with Katy, we decided that half up half down would look best with my dress and the feel of the wedding and would still allow me to do a little more with my hair than just all down.  Here you can see where she made these little hair rolls all along the back to give my hair a little something extra since I've decided not to wear a veil.

 

I really love what she did!  And it was so fun to watch her work.  Just moving the smallest strands of hair would totally change the look.  I did my make up (minus lipstick) like I want to wear it for the wedding.  Mama gave me the pearl drop earrings for my birthday (just for the wedding!) and I'll wear a pearl strand necklace with a diamond white gold pendant that was my grandma's that she gave me for my 16th birthday.  I'm also going to wear a flower in my hair on the side that is pulled back the farthest (my right side)  I think I look like a princess! 

Wedding Favors

Aaaah! I’m so freakin’ excited about the wedding favors. You know, me and Martha Stewart are best friends now, and she has talked me into something fabulous that goes great with the wedding decor! We were just going to do the standard mint and chocolate spread on the tables for the favors (don’t worry, the mints will still be there! But you’ll have to get your chocolate fix by eating the grooms cake ;) and then I came across these beauties!

They are diy personalized matchbooks. But on the inside rather than matches (which could burn the whole place down with the rowdiness I’m hoping for at the reception, ha ha), there will be flower seed packets for everyone to plant! Rather than using her planting instructions, I’ve come up with my own…

“May my soul bloom in love

for all existence.”

-Rudolf Steiner

Please spread our love!

Scatter these seeds throughout

garden beds in full sun.

Gently water. Your flowers

should appear in a few weeks.

Aren’t these fabulous! I can’t wait to make them!

Pink Paper Parasol

I have been searching for a pink paper parasol for a while now.  I wanted to use this as a prop for my bridal portraits.  I finally found one at world market and it was only $6!  The good deals just keep coming!  Here’s a picture of it..it’s going to look so pretty with my dress and the sun shining through the paper!