I’ve saved my favorite element of our wedding for last:  Photography!  We funneled any would-be videography budget all into photography and I’ve never had a second doubt!  Photography is the element of your wedding that captures every other piece and freezes it together with all the other details forever.  All that planning and energy and effort you put into all the little design elements can last forever through your photographs (even though they are all a blur on the day of).  As you’ve seen throughout this week, I love Stacy Sodolak’s photos and am so glad that we found her!

So to close out my time here on EAD Weddings, I leave you with my favorite moments of our wedding - the sweet and the silly, the serious and the celebratory:      

{Read the rest of this entry…}

My last two posts of my week-long wedding recap are mostly photograph-based.  Not that I don’t love gabbing about our wedding incessantly, but I think the pictures speak for themselves when it comes to little itty-bitty details (and when it comes to my last post: my favorite photographs - obviously).

I will say this… the details made our wedding.  Even if no one notices the little things separate and apart from each other (as you will), they notice the big picture - which is comprised of all those little things.  So chin up as you obsess about escort cards and chair ties (oh the arguments my mother and I had about chair ties), guests will notice that you put the time and effort into making your wedding personal!

Some of our “little things”…

• Our tables were all named after important places in each of our individual lives and important places to us as a couple (our birth places, our colleges, our universities, where we met, our favorite vacations together, etc).  My mom hand-wrote all the escort cards in her fabulous handwriting and they were displayed on a French Memory Board that I made out of an orange silk fabric and lacy ribbon.  Continuing with the “important places” mini-theme, Evan and his mom danced to “In My Life” (”there are places I remember“) by the Beatles for their Mother-Son Dance.

• My love of paper was carried out through the celebration: hurricane candles wrapped in yellow and ivory paper hung from the trees at our ceremony and the same paper formed the cones filled with flowers marking our ceremony aisle and wrapped the vases of our tall centerpieces.

• The Groom’s Cookie Bar that was featured yesterday not only boasted over 700 cookies homemade by my grandmother, but also included take home bags emblazoned with “k & e: how sweet it is.”  Our first dance was James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is.”

• Lots of “our songs” were not quite first-dance-appropriate… so we featured our favorite quote from one of them - Widespread Panic’s “Climb to Safety” - on our wedding program.

• I’ve already written about my mother’s wedding gown, but I also wore the garter that she and all my aunts were married in, as well as the six pence they all stuck in their shoes!

• My dad, who is not a tuxedo kind of guy, sported his custom made Chuck Taylors that I got him last Christmas at our reception - they were a huge hit!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Considering that the whole entire purpose of a wedding is… (wait for it)… to get married (!!! who knew, right?), it was shocking how little focus there often is on planning the ceremony that actually binds two people together.  Of course, we were no different - waiting until what felt like the last minute to really get down to the nitty-gritty of our ceremony.  But once we began talking about what we wanted said - to our guests, about our idea of marriage, and to each other - it really sank in how monumental those 20 minutes were going to be… the first 20 minutes of our lives together.

We chose a simple, non-denominational ceremony, officiated by one of my parents’ friends from the 70s who became a minister later in life.  It was very special for me to have someone who was present at the beginning of my parents’ relationship present at the beginning of our union.  While the ceremony was Christian-based, we really focused on choosing music and secular readings that were meaningful to our lives together and writing vows the described our thoughts on what a good partnership should be.

We hired a string trio (2 violins / 1 cello) to set the tone for our ceremony - Arundel Ensemble - and they were wonderful!  I’ve heard lots of brides say that they didn’t even notice the music as they waited to walk down the aisle, but every note to me was clear and added to my excitement and reverence for the moments to come.  As the families were seated, “Simple Gifts” was played - Evan’s favorite piece of classical music.  The bridesmaids processed to Canon in D - one of those traditional weddings songs that I absolutely adore and wanted to put somewhere, but not as my dad and I entered.  As a “surprise” to Evan, I asked Arundel to play “The Ludlows” from Legends of the Fall as my dad escorted me down the aisle, which is one of our favorite movies and an extremely beautiful piece of music.  Of course after one too many glasses of wine about 3 months prior to the big day, I let the cat out of the bag.  Oops.  But it was still very special!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Ah Food and Drink… that’s what everyone comes to a wedding to do isn’t?  {Besides exclaim over how the lace pattern on our invitations matched the lace inlays on my dress, obviously.}

I’ll start with the beverages… we were very lucky to have picked a venue that let us bring in our own alcohol.  We saved a pretty penny by buying wholesale from Specs and Costco.  The quotes we received from other venues for just beer and wine (and I’m talking only Miller Lite and Yellow Tail) were at least twice what we ended up paying for our booze.  We did decide to cut out the hard liquor as both of us are winos and neither side of the family cared about the lack of vodka or bourbon.  It was wonderful to be able to select beer and wine that we enjoy in our everyday lives and not be forced to pay a huge mark-up.  In place of a “signature cocktail,” we had a Bubbly Bar, featuring prosecco and cava displayed in huge ice bowls.  Guests could choose to drink the good stuff “straight” or mix their own custom champagne cocktail with Chambord, fresh berries, Bitters soaked sugar cubes, hibiscus flowers, or pomegranate and peach puree.  The Bubbly Bar was a huge hit with our guests - and with me, as I was nary without a Kir Royale the entire evening (as it should be!).

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Pretty Maids All in a Row:

Oh bridesmaid dresses.  AKA, Bane of My Existence.  We had quite the time choosing dresses for my seven lovely ladies, partially because I was a bit of a Color Fiend, and partially because I really wanted something that wasn’t so… well, bridesmaid-y.

Color - I knew I wanted the girls in a deep raspberry color (or dark pink, if you must) but at first I was not set on them all being in the same dress.  However, after surveying national (non-bridesmaid-y) stores, there didn’t seem to be enough (or any) selection of dresses in the correct shade for them to all pick their own dress.  Then I figured “Ooo, hey, J. Crew makes bridesmaid dresses now!  That’ll be perfect!”  At that time J. Crew carried a color in their chiffon line that seemed like it would fit the bill, but then when we ordered a sample, the dresses were shocking magenta.  No good.   So off to the bridesmaid-y dress shops we went… Even with the plethora of colors offered, almost everything was too pink or too red or too purple.  I was like the Goldielocks of Color Swatches.

Style & Fabric - Given my {Midnight} Garden Party {thrown by Anthropologie} theme, I figured that tea length dresses were more appropriate than long gowns.  But it seemed like every dress we tried on just wasn’t “it.”  Fabric played a huge role in this dilema as well.  Shiny duponi silks felt too preppy; satin felt too formal; and shorter styles in chiffon and cotton looked too sundressy for a cocktail reception in March.

Below are 9 of the many dress we tried on… and when I say “we,” I mean my fabulous matron of honor C, who has been my best friend for over 12 years.  C and I pounded the pavement last September and hit pretty much every bridal salon in Dallas seeking the holy grail of bridesmaid dresses.  Hopefully by now she’s forgiven me for forcing her to model all that synthetic fabric (seeing as she was a ridiculously easy bride and we picked out her bridesmaids’ dresses in about 22 minutes)… and hopefully she will forgive me for posting all these pictures of her in said synthetic fabric!

from author’s personal collection

{Read the rest of this entry…}

As do many of us who began our mini-adult lives with nothing to our name but our grandma’s chipped fiestaware and much-loved box-sets of Sex and the City (I even have Seasons 1-3 on VHS, what-what!), I am firm in my belief that its the accessories that make the clothes that then make “the look.”

And once I had “the dress” in my hot little hands, the hunt for wedding day accessories that invoked an elegant, vintage vibe (bonus points if I could wear them again) was on like Donkey Kong!

My very first piece of ornamentation actually found me before I even found my dress!  I had purchased this silk floral and feather headpiece during the “First Dress Debacle,” and I remained absolutely obsessed with it even after realizing that my initial gown choice was not right for me.  For the life of me I cannot remember who designed this piece, but I purchased it at Warren Barron in Dallas.  This piece was so much fun to wear - I loved how it moved and how it made me feel like a “bride” even after the veil came off!

Next up came the shoes… oh the shoes!  I knew I wanted punchy, colorful shoes to add that like pop of fun as I walked and danced.  Initially, I had a lot of trouble finding exactly what I was looking for and actually purchased ivory satin shoes with the idea that I would dye them a deep pink color and maybe add a shoe clip for some pizazz.  Then I found these beauties - absolutely perfect in every way - at J. Crew.  I also ordered raspberry colored platform flip-flops to change into, but these were so comfy that I wore them all night!  And I’ve worn them several times since the wedding - I love these shoes!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

If there is one “pretty thing” I love more than paper, it would have to be fashion, hands down.  So of course, the hunt for the perfect dress and the perfect wedding day style began as soon as I said “I will.”  While I had a general idea of what I wanted (well, more what I didn’t want: no beads, no beddazzle, no pouf), I still figured that I’d hit up several bridal shops before finding my dream dress.  Little did I know…

I can’t remember exactly where I first saw pictures of designer Lela Rose’s gowns, but it was love at first sight… her designs are so organic: the perfect mix of modern and vintage.  I had to give them a go!  At that time, there was only bridal salon in TX that carried Lela Rose - the oh so fabulous Warren Barron in Dallas. I had just begun a particularly difficult quarter in my last year of law school, but when I heard WB was having a Lela Rose trunk show, I rounded up my maid of honor, my mom and my aunt and we made the trek up to Dallas.

While Lela’s designs were truly gorgeous, it was hard to get a feel for how the dresses really look with a designer size 2 encasing me like the skin on an over-stuffed sausage. So the owners, Elle Warren and Ceclilia Barron (the two realest women you will ever find in a bridal salon) pulled some other dresses for me. There were many gorgeous options…

{from author’s personal collection}

and then, there was a Vera Wang… a wispy number with layers and layers of chiffon - it was soooo comfortable and so dreamy. I felt like a nymph in Midsummer Night’s Dream. And then they put the veil on my head…  I cried, the dress was so beautiful and modern and different.  It was the best I’d felt in weeks!

{from author’s personal collection}

Without a second thought, at my first bridal salon appointment, we signed on the dotted line.

And then… panic set in.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

While the Monica Geller in me imagined my wedding looking a thousand different ways over the years, one element remained a constant: I would be married - come hell or high water - in my home town of Austin.  There’s no other city like Austin in the world - the energy of the people and the natural beauty of the landscape are beyond compare, and we wanted our wedding to reflect that same energy and beauty.

With the locale firmly cemented, choosing an Austin venue was one of the first tasks tackled.  My mom and I visited several different venues and were overwhelmed with the options.  It seemed (and looking back, I think it was) like the biggest wedding decision of them all - the one that completely sets the tone for the whole affair.  I’d visited Laguna Gloria (part of the Austin Museum of Art) before but never as a bride-to-be, and something clicked the minute I looked at it from my new perspective.  Laguna Gloria boasts a historical Italian-style villa that provides a stunning backdrop without being stuffy.  The archetecture compliments the stunning grounds instead of competing with the natural environment.  The entire property maintains a certain elegance without giving up that organic vibe that is so “Austin.”

{Read the rest of this entry…}

If you’ve ever stopped by EA on a Thursday morning, than you know that I’m a huge paper freak!  I could spend hours upon hours in Paper Source; hand me a piece of sumptuous letterpress and I’m in visual and tactile heaven!  So when it came to our wedding and decisions concerning all-things-paper, I was as happy as a pig in slop.

I knew that my Inner Paper Maniac had to have letterpress for our formal invitations, but for our Save the Date Cards, I wanted something more fun and bright - I also realized that I needed to save some major coin on the STDs (don’t you just hate that acronym? ug!) to be able to afford the invitation suite my heart was set on (more on that in a bit!).  I toyed with the idea of a postcard but feared that half of them would either get lost in the mail or get lost in the shuffle of advertising postcards that invade our mailboxes everyday.  Snapfish provided the perfect (affordable, fun, & festive) alternative!  Using a 20% off coupon that I received after signing up for Snapfish discount emails, I created our Save the Dates, choosing a glossy foldover card, placing our favorite engagement shots by Stacy Sodolak in one of the many templates available, and sprucing the design up with our color scheme.  To top the entire package off, I dressed the envelopes up with coordinating ink and a custom return address stamp by Sweet Papery.

{Photographs from author’s personal collection}

I was quite pleased with how the entire project turned out, and I felt like the cards really set the festive tone for our wedding!

Now on to the Main Event…

{Read the rest of this entry…}

While I’m the first one on board for a 1980s Prom Party or a Tacky Christmas Sweater Holiday Fete, thematic weddings were just never my style.  Sure, I’ve seen them gorgeously and creatively executed by other brides, but my ideas for our wedding just didn’t seem to fit into any sort of simply categorized box.

I wanted Elegant… yet Fun and Festive.  I wanted Lively… yet Intimate.  And I wanted Vintage… but not Old-Fashioned or overly Traditional.

To get my bearings, I started with color.  Immediately inspired by this bouquet featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, I set out with an initial color palette of  raspberry and marigold.

{Read the rest of this entry…}