We have some gorgeous Texas wedding inspiration for you today courtesy of the uber-fab Lauren Clark Photography!

Kristopher and Ashley were married at the Baylor Chapel in Waco, with the reception at Vera Estates.

I am in love with Ashley’s amazing champagne gown.

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We just received the first set of our photos back from Melanie and I couldn’t wait to share them with all of you!

(You can click any of the photos to make them larger)

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I still can’t quite believe it when I say it, but I’m a married lady now!  A “Mrs.”!  After all, at 30, I had come to think that I may never get married.  And I was okay with it.  I was okay because I knew I hadn’t met the one for me yet, and rather than get married just to be married, I knew I would rather be happy by myself.  But then I met Chris, and all of that changed!  I wouldn’t trade my single days for anything - I really “found” myself and figured out what was important to me in life and in relationships.  And I had a ton of fun!! ;-)  But now that Chris is in my life, and is my husband, I’m happily and excitedly looking forward to the next chapter.

So, how was the wedding you ask??

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With our vision and inspiration board in place, we were ready to start planning. The first step was choosing a wedding date. Because we wanted to keep costs as low as possible, we decided to get married on a Sunday and also keep our wedding to 75 guests or less. We were both very clear that we wanted immediate family and friends only. Because 80% of our guests would be coming from out of town we did not want to make our guests request more time off of work than absolutely necessary. As a result, we decided that we would either have a Memorial Day or Labor Day Sunday wedding since most people get the following Monday as a day off. We ultimately chose the Sunday before Memorial Day as our wedding date and used that date (5.25.08) as a theme that would carry through to all aspects of our wedding.

Choosing a venue was a simple decision for us. We knew with our limited budget that the many beautiful hotels, mansions, arboretums, ranches, and plantations in the Dallas area would be far outside of our budget. So, we chose the next best alternative…a country club with smaller fees and a low food and beverage minimum.

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One of the reasons we chose our venue was because of the giant stone fireplace downstairs in the Great Room. Since we’re not getting married in a church, I thought the fireplace would be really pretty to get married in front of.

*That’s my Mom, who’s 5′6″, standing in front of the fireplace.

The next step in the equation was to figure out how to decorate the fireplace for our wedding, but since we are on a fairly tight budget it couldn’t cost a lot. After searching around online, I found this photo by Melissa Schollaert via Snippet & Ink. I love that the candles give off a warm glow, and the greenery intertwined with it gives some interest. I also liked that the mirror would reflect not only the candlelight, but whatever is going on in front.

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Cara and John were married at her family’s beautiful ranch in Camp Verde, TX and who better to capture their event than the fantastic Brooke Schwab?  I am absolutely smitten with Cara’s Amsale gown - it’s one of my very favorite dresses.

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Once we decided that the lace handkerchief paisley design would be our inspiration, I knew that I wanted to put it on all of our print pieces. We started looking at different invitation vendors for a good Save the Date format. I knew that I wanted to include a photo of us, a guide to Greenville, and a schedule of wedding weekend events. We looked a tri-folds and other options, but I wanted to print the photo directly onto the paper instead of having to enclose a real photograph in the packet. We weren’t really able to find everything we needed and all of the vendors we’d found didn’t really understand my vision of including the lace design or wanting anything to do with my project. I was pretty discouraged in the beginning. The Save the Date had to be the attention-getter, the first piece that would really brand our event, and had to entice our guests to travel far and wide to the destination. A lot of people had never heard of Greenville before and we had to really sell it to them, so this piece needed to be huge!

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I don’t think it’s any secret that the most fun part about wedding planning for a newly engaged woman is shopping for the dress. Because my parents live in Dallas, I was so excited that I could spend time with my mom and search for gorgeous fashion in the South’s most fashionable city.

I made appointments at Patsy’s Bridal, Warren Barron Bridal, Saks Fifth Avenue, Stanley Korshak, and Neiman Marcus. We decided not to set a budget for the dress until we could shop around and see what I liked and what seemed to be reasonable. I’m not a label snob, but I really wanted to wear a dress that made a statement and one that I’ve always dreamed of wearing. I didn’t know if I wanted lace, beading, no lace or beading, ballgown, trumpet, or A-line because I just didn’t know what would like best on me. Even after I thought I’d found the dress I wanted to keep shopping because I knew I’d never get to do it again.

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Heather from Eclectic Images shared a few images from a recent wedding of one of our readers! Rachel and Patrick married at Casa Blanca in Round Rock a few weeks ago and the wedding was lovely! Remember these centerpieces from earlier in the week? All DIY by Rachel.

First up, the dress designed by Melissa Sweet.  Doesn’t Rachel look radiant?!

The Happy Couple during the ceremony….

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Brooke Schwab is absolutely one of our favorite photographers.  Not only is she insanely talented behind the camera, but the weddings that she shoots are just phenomenal.  Those colored shoes the other day?  Yep, that was one of her weddings (Laura was shooting alongside Brooke for that event).

Brooke sent us yet another absolutely gorgeous wedding that we just had to share with you!  I was sold on the wedding the second I saw this:

How cute is he?!  And to top it off (as if anything could top him), Lindsay’s color scheme is just fabulous.  These have to be the most perfect bridesmaids dresses I have ever seen.  Just look at how the simple floral arrangements and the dresses together POP.

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We have a lovely real Southern wedding for you today shot by the very talented Brooke Schwab.

Jacqui and Alfredo were married in Hempstead, Texas at a family ranch.  Wow, did they have a gorgeous setting!

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I have to admit that choosing a wedding photographer was one of the biggest decisions for us.  Photography is important to both Chris and I, and we both wanted beautiful pictures to look back on, but it was a little daunting to find that right person to capture our day.  There seems to be so many photographers out there and unless you have people who can give you recommendations, it can be hard to narrow it down.  A big point with us was price.  We wanted those beautiful pictures you see in magazines and on the blogs, but many of those photographers were just out of our budget.  Searching on the internet and following links from other sites helped me to kind of form a group that I thought were pretty good and were within our budget.  The thing is, though, many of them seemed to be kind of the same - there wasn’t one that really stood out from the group. 

Then I came upon Melanie Johnson’s blog.  She is a photographer trying to get her business started and was looking for couples and brides!  I LOVED her work.  The coloring of her photographs was absolutely beautiful, and the way she captured her subjects’ emotions (mostly children, even still)  really spoke to me.  I wasn’t sure at first if hiring somebody “new” was a good idea, but I kept coming back to her site, so I contacted her.  We really hit it off, and after meeting with her my fiancee and I were ecstatic to hire her! 

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