Dallas Wedding Planner is excited today to share the fall wedding of Anne and Mark. They became husband and wife on November 14, 2009 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas, Texas. Sarah Kate, Photographer captured the personality of this couple on their wedding day.

How did the two of you meet? Mark was attending a Texas Bar function with his law firm in the Grand Ballroom at the Hilton Anatole hotel.  Anne was, coincidentally, attending the same event with her parents (her dad is a partner in the same law firm).  Anne and Mark were introduced for the first time as people began taking their seats at the dinner table and Anne’s mom “suggested” that everyone sit boy/girl which had the effect of rearranging the table so that Anne and Mark sat beside each other.  The next day, Mark got Anne’s phone number from her dad at work, and they’ve been dating since!

Tell us about the proposal. Mark went back to the scene of our first meeting. After much cajoling, the management at the Hilton Anatole agreed to let Mark rent the entire Grand Ballroom for an evening when it was not reserved. The employees of the Anatole set up the room so that the 20,000 square foot ballroom was completely empty except for one small dinner table with 2 very large chairs that look like they came from Alice in Wonderland, a small dance floor, and tea lights arranged in a large circle around the table (see picture – everyone likes to talk about the chairs).

Mark worked with one of my sisters, Amy so that I thought I was meeting her at the hotel for her work party.  But, when I walked in the ballroom (15 minutes late), I saw Mark and the lit candles waiting for me and realized what was really going on.  After Mark proposed, we danced to “Mrs. Robinson” on our mini dance floor, opened some champagne, and had a nice dinner in the giant ballroom all by ourselves.

Tell us about your wedding gown: Gown: (after trying on about 1000 dresses) – Monique Lhullier .  I wanted something that looked a little vintage and the champagne color helped with that. It was classic, but different enough so that it wouldn’t look like everyone else’s wedding dress.  I loved my dress and the look of it combined with my veil and hair piece. My hairpiece was custom made by my sister, Elizabeth. My veil was custom made by the woman who altered my dress.

Did you have a design inspiration for your wedding? I love Anthropologie and Mark loves the store Billy Reid.  Both are colorful and carry slightly different things.  They both use a lot of fun patterns and Billy Reid has a Southern Antique feel.  We wanted the wedding to look and feel like the things we love and so we pulled bits and pieces of themes from those stores.  We also wanted our wedding to be a festive occasion and for everything to be bright, colorful, and fun in order to encourage that mindset.  We used birds throughout the wedding because I love them and they added to the cheerful feel.

How did you decide on your wedding colors? The wedding colors were orange and red.  I love red and thought that the two colors would feel like fall without being boring, and they were bright, festive, and fun!  Sometimes I wish I was a calm person who could go with pastel colors…but I’m not.  So, the bright red & orange made me feel upbeat and like the wedding had some personality.

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding? Goodness, yes!  I hope I can remember them all…here goes:

• My sister made my hairpiece.

• My mom made the precious bird cake-toppers that were on our wedding cake.  The birds look like Mark and I and the bride’s dress was made from pieces of my mother’s wedding hairpiece and from my wedding dress.

• My friends & sisters helped me make the programs.

• My mom sewed my nephews custom-made ties (for the program passer-outers and bow tie (for the ring bearer) so that they’d coordinate with the…

• homemade ring bearer’s pillow that was made with the same fabric as the ties and had an “R” embroidered on it in gold string

• I collected the birdcages that I gave to the florist to spray-paint and fill with flowers for the tables.

• We made the seating place cards with a bird stamp and guests names.

• I spray-painted papier-mâché numbers for the tables and initials that the seating place cards were pinned to.

• My friend helped me design and print all of the wedding stationary.

• I made a “comment bubble” shaped chalkboard for our photo booth.

• I had our guests leave a copy of their photo strips on scrapbook paper and leave papers in our wish-wall so that I could create a guest book.

Not only did we get comments about having an amazing tasting wedding cake, but we had many comments and cell phone pictures taken of our groom’s cake.  We had the groom’s cake shaped like Mark’s  favorite frozen dinner: a Nighthawk.  I’m a little disturbed by the frozen concoction, but Mark used to eat them as a kid and never grew out of the habit.  He eats them after late nights at work at least twice a week.  The macaroni and cheese was amazing.  We loved our bakery and thought that Bronwen Weber with Frosted Art Bakery was amazing.

Three adjectives that describe your wedding day: Festive, cheerful, exciting

What are the hardest decision you made during the planning process? How to save money!, what to do myself vs. buy, and how to stay true to my ideas even when no one else could see where I was going.

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding? Brainstorming ideas!  I came up with enough ideas/themes/concepts to get married about 100 more times.  Let’s assume that I don’t actually do that but the creative process was fun.  I loved working with my friend, Jill, who designed my wedding stationary.  The hands-on process was awesome and made me feel like I had so much freedom in my choices.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day? I really can’t pick one!  All day, I just felt lucky to have most of our friends and families in one place to celebrate Mark and I.  I was so excited to get married to Mark and could feel the same energy from all of our loved ones which was pretty special.

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day? I don’t think we had one!  Everything went perfectly, as far as we know!

What advice would you give a bride planning her wedding? Stay calm and relaxed.  You only have one time (hopefully) to do this, so just have fun and make it your own.  Don’t worry about what other people think is weird – weddings are amazing because they are uniquely your own and reflect the personality of the couple – if you pay attention to everyone else’s opinion every time, the wedding might not feel like yours. If things don’t go exactly as you planned, remember that at the end of the day, you’ll be married to your partner…and that’s the best part.

Where did you honeymoon?
We went to Bora Bora in French Polynesia.  It was breathtaking and relaxing.  We didn’t want to come back home.  We stayed where they’d just filled the movie “Couples Retreat” so we went to see the movie the week before our wedding to get a sneak preview!

Here’s a list of wedding professionals and teamed together to make Anne and Mark’s wedding exactly as they planned.

Photographer:  Sarah Kate, Photographer
Ceremony  Location:  The Belo Mansion
Reception Location: The Belo Mansion
Florist Name:  Brianne Denton – Blue Lotus Floral Design
Videographer: Lenicam Productions
Musicians: DJ, Michael Schnieder with Astounding Sounds; String Quartet Divisi Strings
Lighting: Astounding Sounds
Photobooth: DC Photo Booths
Bakery:  Frosted Art Bakery
Hair/Makeup: Jenine Galante
Stationary: Jill Efrussy

Congratulations Mark and Anne.  You had a beautiful wedding day. Thank you for sharing your day with Dallas Wedding Planner and all of our readers and fans.  We wish you a lifetime of happiness and joy together.  A huge thank you again to Sarah Kate, Photographer for providing these awesome images of Mark and Anne’s wedding.