Today, Dallas Wedding Planner is thrilled to feature the wedding images of Jesse and Rachel captured by Poser:Image.  They were married on September 19, 2009. As you will see in this feature, Jesse and Rachel’s personality definitely came out in their wedding.

Tell us about your wedding gown: I actually bought my shoes first! I randomly came across them one day while shopping at Nordstrom Rack, they were Betsey Johnson and were ivory with blue polka dots. I loved them and knew I could wear them with my wedding dress. The dress required a little more effort than the shoes; I searched for a dress for about 6 months and therefore tried on a ton of dresses. I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted the dress to look like, but I thought I was never going to find one that fit my vision. I would either like the top or the bottom, but never the whole dress. I think my mom thought we were going to have to find someone to make what I wanted, finally, I found my dress at a trunk show at Lulu’s that had everything I was looking for.

My mom actually made my veil. She did an amazing job, I am trying to convince her to start selling them on Etsy. Also, my mom and a good friend made my necklace out of a broach that belonged to my great-grandmother. It served as my something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.

Jesse, along with all his groomsmen wore Toms Shoes that matched our wedding colors during the ceremony so I put on Red Toms to go with his during the reception.

Wedding day colors: Aqua and Bright Red.

We noticed from your images, the ceremony shots of you both washing each other feet.  Please explain the significance of this in your wedding ceremony.  Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. And to give his life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:26b-28. Jesse and I began writing a mission statement for our family during our pre-marital counseling and finished it in the weeks leading up to the wedding. A main focus of our mission statement is service, and we feel that it is important to serve each other attempting to serve each other more today than yesterday.  Foot washing is the greatest act of humility and servant-hood, and as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his death (The master serving the servant) we wanted the first act we did as a married couple to be one of service so Jesse and I performed a foot washing ceremony as a symbol of our mission and our commitment to serving each other.

Did you have a design inspiration for your wedding? Jesse and I wanted our wedding to truly represent who we are. We love to have fun, we are most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt and we love candy, especially cotton candy, so we decided to do our engagement pictures at the State Fair of Texas. Jesse and I love to go to the state fair every year, and he always tries to impress me with winning me a prize, so it was the perfect location. From these great pictures by Poser, our save the date was created to look like a vintage carnival poster, and we used a picture of us with the ferris wheel in the background, we also decided to do a “fair foods” theme (we had burger sliders and fries, pulled pork sliders with cole slaw, fried mushrooms, frito pies, grilled corn, etc) for our menu and everything seemed to just fall into place.

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding? Creating relationships with people we met in the wedding process. Our vendors became our friends, especially our photographer Erik and his wife Destiny and our DJ Ben Illian.  I am confident that the friendships we formed with them will last for years to come. In fact, Jesse actually served as Erik’s intern during our engagement and with Erik’s support and guidance, has started his own photography business, Jesse Leos Photo.

What are the hardest decisions you made during the planning process? What we were going to have the guests throw when we left the wedding reception was by far our hardest decision. Jesse thought it would be fun to do water balloons, but not wanting to get wet in my wedding dress, I vetoed that decision, but not without some “discussion” from both sides. We ended up throwing paper airplanes (the guests were able to make their own out of an assortment of paper) to represent the flight museum. The kids had a blast making the airplanes and it was fun to see them flying as we ran through the crowd as well.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day? The ceremony.  We could have gone home right after the ceremony and been completely satisfied…the reception was an added bonus.

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day? Unexpectedly, nothing went wrong…or at least that we know.

Tell us about your reception goodies.  We noticed in the images cupcakes and candy and bottled drinks. Jesse and I love all things that are sweet. We worked with our caterer to create a cupcake tower instead of a wedding cake and root beer floats instead of a grooms cake. My favorite flavor was the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcake, it sounds gross at first, but they were wonderful. A candy bar was also a priority for us; I ordered all of our favorite candy and then we purchased candy coated popcorn and kettle corn from Popcorn Papa to create a bar where the guests could fill popcorn bags to take candy and popcorn home with them or to snack on during the reception. The caterer also provided a cotton candy station where guests could get fresh cotton candy during the ceremony. We also used Jones soda in our wedding colors for our toasts and as decorations on some of the tables. Our guests are still telling us how much of a sugar rush they were on.

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding? We had a hand in most of the details at the wedding. Originally, my mom and I were going to try to do everything ourselves, however, we were introduced to Justin Bolton, a friend of the family who is just getting into the wedding industry. We worked with Justin, incorporating ideas we had and items we had already purchased with his ideas and then trusted him to put everything together on the day of the wedding. Our wedding was only the second wedding he had ever done, and he decorated the whole reception and made all the flowers for the ceremony, I was in awe when I got to the reception, it looked amazing and the flowers were perfect.

What advice would you give a bride planning her wedding? Make sure you have support, don’t try to do everything yourself, and make sure to have someone in charge of setting up the reception so you don’t have to worry about it. Also, make it your wedding, it doesn’t matter what everyone else says or has done, this day is about you and your husband so make it yours.

Here’s a list of Jesse and Rachel’s wedding vendors:

Photographer:  Poser:Image
Ceremony  Location:  Tyler Street United Methodist Church
Reception Location: Frontiers of Flight Museum
Florist Name/Wedding Planner: Justin Bolton Designs
DJ:  Ben Illian
Caterer & Bakery:  Festive Kitchen
Hair & Make-up: Destiny Clausen

Thank you Jesse and Rachel for sharing your wedding day and wedding thoughts with us.  It looked like you have a fun fabulous day.  Dallas Wedding Planner wishes you years of joyous anniversary celebrations.

A huge thank you to Poser:Image for the awesome images.