What we love about Jessica and Samuel’s wedding is after viewing them on “Girl Meets Gown” that their wedding is so them. When we saw Jessica try on her wedding gown during Girl Meets Gown we said, “that is perfect on her, just perfect for her personality.” We asked Jessica three words to describe their wedding. She told us, “eclectic, organic, boho-chic-vintage” and we can definitely see that in their wedding.

Enjoy our interview with Jessica and their wedding day images. The first image of Jessica and Samuel was taken by Tirzah Photography.  All of the other wedding images are by Shelley Paulson Photographer.

How did the two of you meet? We met in Israel the summer of 2008 while Sam was directing a music festival and I was there for the third time just hanging out, traveling with a girlfriend and there for an event.  I had been a fan of Sam’s music for sometime and found out he was going over to Israel.  Having been over there before, I recommended some people he should get in contact with while there. Since I was going to be there at the same time as him, we decided to meet up. We became really good friends after that. Sam started to win my heart in December of 2008 and in March surprised me yet again in Israel and proposed to me while I was on a school trip.

Tell us about your wedding gown: My gown is Amalia Carrara of Eve of Milady.  It’s made of a new fabric that reminds me of the veins of dried leaf!  A very classic but earthy, forest princess like, organic in nature and has an understated feel.  My goal was to be barefooted-so shoes were not the main focus for me at all. HA! My mom found me some simple pewter slip on flats by “Me To” to where in the woods.  My veil was AMAZING!  I designed it, and made everything but the train. I typically wear very Bohemian styled wraps on my head in different ways and styles – it’s kinda my trade mark with my friends so I wanted to incorporate that into my wedding.  I used some of the fabric from my dress for the main wrap and then made scruffy, fabric/lace flowers to be attached, even using some of my great grandma’s fabric. :)

The flowers for the ceremony, my bouquet, and tables were purchased from a woman in the mountains who had a wild flower nursery. One of my dearest friends, Charlotte from Norway made my bouquet after I told her what my favorite flowers were from the batch they had picked up the day before the wedding. Using wire hangers as a form, she wove and created the most beautiful bouquet, that was like a piece of art! Twigs were sticking out and it tapered down. It was so lovely.

Wedding day colors: How did you decide on your wedding colors? Inspired by the natural fall colors in the area… Kinda vintage peacock colors.

During the ceremony, the couple washed each others feet, as an act of humility and servant hood toward one another. To make the ceremony even more special, Jessica’s father officiated the ceremony.

That is one of the happiest couples that we have seen.

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding? The two days putting all my ideas into reality with all my friends at the barn and ceremony site.

Their wedding took place with old barns and a clearing in the woods.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day? EVERYTHING!  My favorite part of the wedding was hearing all the drums sounding out through the woods as I rode up on the horse-Samuel singing to me-and then the kiss.  I mean, everything was my favorite!  My FAV might have been the bonfire/drum circle we had at the end of the night-all my girls and I danced around the fire and sang our hearts out. Which, by the end of the evening my couture dress’ hem line was 3 inches deep in red mud. It was glorious.

Did you have a design inspiration for your wedding? Sam and I wanted our wedding to reflect us, our style, what we love, and who we are. I’ve always loved eclectic, vintage-boho fusion type looks and wanted that for our wedding.  A little bit of an Anthropologie feel thrown in there along with organic textures.  We wanted it to be, earthy, with a touch of hippie, woodsy…just out of the box. Most of the decor for the details came from my personal home decor items and antiques I had been gathering for years. They now adorn my house.

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding? Tons.  I hand made all my invitations, including painting all the paper.  Everything was DIY. HAHA I had 16 bridesmaids who are my dearest friends-they all came down and we made antique hymnal paper decorations, made and painted wooden signs.  We TOTALLY gutted the barn and pulled out vintage dinner booths for seating. We hung all the lanterns, the guys cleared and created a lighted dance floor.  Everything, we did ourselves, we even spread out the 2 dump truck loads of saw dust in the barn.

What are the hardest decisions you made during the planning process? How many porta potties we needed – if at all.  I mean, really? They are so ugly. If I’m going to have to use them, where can we hide them?

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day? My horse was left in her paddock, so she was very antsy-so when we approached the sight (me on her) I was a little nervous she was going to throw me! I had grasshoppers crawl up the layers of my dress and spit on it. (I wasn’t aware they did that until that day.)  Also, one hour before the ceremony while I was at the site, I had a huge bug fly right into my eye ball. It took ten minutes and my bridesmaid from Australia to get it out…yeah, my eye makeup was pretty much a memory by that time. I laughed and said “I guess we needed some kinda drama for the tv show!”

Where did you honeymoon? My love took me to the smokey mountains.  We were tucked away in a wooded luxury cabin in the mountains. It was heaven!  I had never been and always wanted to go there. It was magical.

Jessica and Samuel we wish you the very best as you experience life together as husband and wife.  May you have many more magical moments to come.

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.

How did the two of you meet? We met when we were both students at Stephen F. Austin State University about 10 years ago.  We were introduced by mutual friends. We were friends for almost 5 years before we started dating!

Tell us about the proposal.  He proposed to me in our back yard….It was just me, him and our dog…it was very intimate and i was VERY surprised.  He tried to get the dog to give me the ring but she would not cooperate with him, so instead he just got down on one knee and asked!  It was PERFECT!

Tell us about your wedding gown. I got my wedding gown, veil and shoes all at Alfred Angelo in Frisco.  The gown was a very simple, trumpet style, strapless gown in ivory, with just a little beading under the bust.  It was the second dress i tried on out of about 30 and we all just kept coming back to that one.  It was so me.  My veil was an ivory fingertip length veil with satin ribbon around the bottom, also very simple.  I was really going for a chic, elegant, kinda 1940′s glam look.  The shoes were pale pink (my favorite color) with a little beading across the toe strap. I would not change one thing about the whole ensemble.

Did you have a design inspiration for your wedding? We were really just going for a chic, sophisticated look without being to stuffy.   The main things we wanted were to have enough food, EXCELLENT cake and just to have fun. When people think back on our wedding, I want them to think “wow!!  That was so much fun!”

How did you decide on your wedding colors? Our colors were pale pink and chocolate brown and ivory.  We choose pink because it is my favorite color and brown because it is a fall color and looks so good with pink.  We wanted brown as the primary color with the pink as an accent color…because i believe there is such a thing as TOO MUCH pink and i didn’t want our wedding to look like it had been hosed down in Pepto.  I think it turned out beautiful.

Our favors were little bags of mixed nuts and pink M&M’s with tags that said Brian and Cher, Nuts for each other!!

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding? YES!!  We made all of our favors ourselves (even the tags).  We printed all of our programs and invitations, reply cards and accommodation cards.  We also did the floating candle centerpieces on the tables.  Our florist provided the petals and the floral centerpieces. I also made the cake toppers myself.

Three adjectives that describe your wedding day: beautiful, elegant and FUN.

What are the hardest decision you made during the planning process? Choosing the menu.  All of the food was we tasted was so good it was really hard to decide what to actually serve.

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding? Dress shopping (it’s like playing dress up for grown ups), cake tasting – I LOVE all things cake and menu tasting.  My husband would definitely say cake and menu tasting.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day? Seeing Brian’s face when I rounded the corner for the first time…it was the best.

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day? The giant blob of mud that ended up on my dress during pre-wedding pictures!  Seriously, it was like the size of a 50 cent piece.  Thankfully one of my bridesmaids had a tide pen that took it right out.  After that, you could never even tell that it happened. All brides must have a tide pen with them on wedding day.

We really wanted it to be a reflection of who we are as individuals and a couple.  We had traditional ceremony music but the pre-ceremony and post-ceremony music was non-traditional, Beatles, Van Morrison, U2, Radiohead, all courtesy of our string quartet.

What advice would you give a bride planning her wedding? Try not to stress out.  Get as much done as far ahead of time as you can so you can enjoy the last couple of weeks before the big day.  It is only one day and no matter what happens, you still end up married at the end of it.

Where did you honeymoon? We honeymooned for 3 nights in London and 4 nights in Paris!  We didn’t actually go until 3 weeks after the wedding to make sure we were rested up for our big trip!

Here’s a list of Cher and Brian’s wedding professionals who helped make their wedding day a success.
Photographer:  Crosswhite Photography
Ceremony  Location:  Timarron Country Club, Southlake, Texas
Reception Location:  Timarron Country Club
Florist Name:  Justine’s Flowers, Ft. Worth
Musicians:  European Ensemble String Quartet for ceremony, Randall Stout DJ (Greg Michaels) – reception
Bakery:  Sweet Memories, Keller
Hair: Daisy at Daisy’s Salon and makeup by Luisa at Daisy’s Salon, Dallas
Wedding Planner:  – me. We did have a coordinator that came with the site, Alexis Schreffler. She was AWESOME!

Cher and Brian congratulations on your wedding.  Enjoy your new life together.  Thanks again to Andrea Crosswhite of Crosswhite Photography for sharing Cher and Brian’s wedding day images with the Dallas Wedding Planner readers and fans.

How did the two of you meet? We met at the Taste of Addison in 2007.  I was with a group of friends and Mike was with his group of friends.  There are different versions of who talked to who first, but Mike called me the next day and asked me out for sushi and as they say….the rest is history.

Tell us about your wedding ensemble: My wedding gown is Evita by Maggie Sottero.  As soon as I put it on, my mom, sister, two  bridesmaids and future mother-in-law all got teary eyed.  I loved that it was different from all the other dresses I had tried on.  I bought the dress and cathedral length veil at Lulu’s.  My shoes were my favorite! (J.Crew)  I love that I can wear them again.  I also wore a feather headpiece that I purchased from Etsy.com.

Did you have a design inspiration for your wedding? No.  I picked things I liked and hoped they would all come together.  We wanted our wedding to be fun, and it was just that.

Wedding day colors: How did you decide on your wedding colors? The wedding day colors were the hardest to decide.  I changed my mind about 4 different times.  I finally chose the yellow and grey combo because my mom used yellow in her wedding.  We didn’t really know what direction we were going in as far as the design goes, but we knew we wanted a modern elegance and in the end it all came together.

Is there a story behind the mustaches? Throughout the planning I stalked wedding blogs and websites!  I saw the mustaches on a Martha Stewart website and I thought they would be a fun prop for the photo booth.  Not only did the guests love them, they made for some memorable photos.

What are the hardest decision you made during the planning process? Picking a venue.  Finding a place that met all our needs and within the budget was a difficult balance.  Between the hidden fees and constricting policies, we decided against our first choice and went with The Empire Room, which proved to be an amazing venue.  We couldn’t imagine our wedding being anywhere else!

Adjectives that describe your wedding day:
Ana: elegant, romantic, FUN
Mike: exhilarating and beautiful

What was your favorite part of your wedding day?
Ana:  Seeing Mike for the first time.  We decided not to do a “first look”, so seeing him at the end of the aisle smiling back at me as the doors opened made it all worth the wait.  Nothing could top that!
Mike:  I agree!

How did you decide on the design for the groom’s cake? I collect Buddhas.  I try to buy a Buddha from every city I visit.   Little did I know that Mike’s nickname growing up was/still is “Budd ah”!  It was only fitting that we have a Buddha as his groom cake.  The Buddha cake stole the show!

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding?
Invitations, Programs, Table Numbers, Mustaches, Bathroom Baskets

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding?
The DIY projects. Mike and I worked on all the projects together.  It was great to see us work so well together.  I was creative genius and Mike figured out how to make 200 of them. We were also blessed to have flowers flown in from Hawaii for our wedding.  Mike’s uncles are florists in Hawaii, and as a gift to us, they hand threaded the strands of orchids used in the entire wedding and hand made leis for us to wear during the reception.  It made our wedding unique and personal and added a touch of Mike’s Hawaiian background.

Where did you honeymoon?
Hawaii! We spent 3 days in Honolulu visiting the major tourist sites including Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and Waikiki Beach.  We then flew to Kona and spent 3 days resting and relaxing at a resort.  The last 2 days were spent in Hilo, where we visited Mike’s family.  It was great to meet his family since they weren’t able to attend the wedding and to personally thank his uncles for the beautiful flowers.

What advice would you give a bride planning her wedding?
Plan as much as you can as early as you can.  We has a year and a half to plan our wedding and 2 months before the big day, we were done!  Also, choose things that will make your wedding personal and will show your personality. And TRY to stick to the budget!

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day?
The most unexpected event that happened was that nothing unexpected happened.  All went as planned.  We credit the wedding planner and all the vendors for doing an amazing job!

Here’s a list of Ana and Mike’s wedding professionals:

Photographer: Cesar & Tanya Perez, Perez Photography
Ceremony  Location: The Empire Room
Reception Location: The Empire Room
Florist Name: Samantha Lekkas, In Full Bloom, Clyde & Gordon Flowers (Hawaii)
Musicians/DJ: Norma Garcia, Feel The Beat Musical Productions
Bakery:  Fancy Cakes by Lauren
Hair/Makeup:  Mo Bowers, My Fairy Godmother
Wedding Planner:  Christina Stuntz of Signature Events
Lighting: Lite Dallas
Photo booth: Booth Booth
Linen Rental:  BBJ Linen

This wedding was beautiful and looked like everyone had a blast. Congratulations Ana and Mike.  We wish you both years of joy and happiness together.

Tell us about your wedding gown: I got my wedding gown from Lasting Bridal Couture in Addison. The wedding gown was Pronovias. I loved it because it was simple and unique all at the same time. It had pockets which made it unique, but was strapless with a ball gown type skirt. I found the shoes at a boutique in Dallas. They were very comfy which i liked. My veil and accessories were purchased from a boutique in Addison, Circle Park Bridal.

You look gorgeous Chelesa in that gown and we love those shoes!

Wedding day colors: Fall colors: deep red, orange, yellow and purple.  The bridesmaids wore black cocktail dresses of their choice-they were all so unique!

What was the hardest decision you made during the planning process? The decisions that took the longest to make were the hardest - my dress and the location for the ceremony and reception.

What was your most favorite part of planning your wedding? The whole journey, and seeing it all come together.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day? Getting ready with my wonderful bridesmaids before the wedding. Also, seeing Josh for the first time during the ceremony. The reception was just an amazing party!

What was the most unexpected event on your wedding day? My maid of honor pretended to not have the ring during the ceremony-all the bridesmaids played along, until the last one pulled it out of her pocket!

Did you have any DIY items at your wedding? My mom and I made homemade hot chocolate mix  for all the guests as favors.

What advice would you give a bride planning her wedding? Start with the big, expensive tasks first, like the place, dress, photographer, and dj and go from there. Also, try to get all the planning done at least a month before the day so you’re not as stressed close to the wedding.

That’s great advice Chelesa about getting the planning done early.  Brides need a chance to rest and relax before the big day.

Here’s a list of the wedding professionals that Chelesa and Josh worked with.

Photographer:  Jared Rey
Ceremony  Location:  The Hilton Bella Harbor
Reception Location:  The Hilton Bella Harbor
Florist Name:  Rockwall Flowers (Darby is great!)
Musicians: John Baird, a school friend
Bakery: Rockwall Cake Factory
Hair: Melissa Downs, Avalon Salon in Snider Plaza, Dallas

Congratulations, Chelesa and Josh.  We wish both of you many days of joy and sunshine with your life as husband and wife. Thanks once again to Jared Rey for sharing these images with Dallas Wedding Planner.

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.

Stephanie shared with us: “We are both from the same small town, about 30 minutes east of Dallas. Both of us graduated from the same high school and, although we had Spanish class together (and Ulises thought Stephanie was pretty cute), we never really knew each other. It wasn’t until after college that we met through mutual acquaintances and we quickly became good friends. During Thanksgiving of 2005, Ulises went in for the kill, planted one on me and we’ve been together ever since.”

And don’t they look great in these photos taken by Cesar and Tanya Perez of Perez Photography.

We love this photo of Stephanie and Ulises coming down the aisle.  Don’t they look so happy?

The lighting in this room at the W Hotel is gorgeous.  It highlighted their monogram and all the details that Stephanie worked so hard on during the planning stages. A great tip for 2009 brides on how the look of a room can significantly change with the use of great lighting.  Way to go Lite Dallas on a good well done!

Still smiling, Stephanie followed a current trend today and wore a different dress by designer Vera Wang for the reception.

Stephanie said, “I wanted simple and elegant with a twist of contemporary. I worked for over a year to plan the event, even down to creating my own monogram and all the paper things (save the dates, invitations, escort cards, etc.) involved. In the end, the event was a huge success – a big party just like we wanted. The DJ and band kept the dance floor crowded for the whole night, which couldn’t have been better suited for us, as a couple. We worked hard to incorporate Ulises’ Hispanic traditions into the ceremony, as well as in the music at the reception. It was truly a testament to the love that we have for each other and it flew by way to fast!”

Stephanie’s advice to the 2009 bride: “My best advice is to stay very organized, it helps more then you could even know. Aside from that, make sure to step back and breathe. It might get overwhelming at time, but it flies by and the next thing you know it’s all over. ENJOY IT!”

Thank you Stephanie and Ulises for sharing your wedding with us and a huge thank you to Perez Photography for permission to post the gorgeous images of this great Dallas real wedding on our blog.

Stephanie & Ulises’s Wedding Vendors:

Ceremony: St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church
Reception: The W Hotel – Victory Park Dallas
Photographer: Perez Photography
Wedding Coordinators: Rebecca Hackl Events - Rebecca Hackl + Chrissy Collins
DJ: Andy Austin
Lighting: Lite Dallas – Andy Austin
Videographer:  Watson Videography – Chris Watson
Wedding Cake: Lakeview Bakery
Cigar Roller: D’Havana Cigars – Sabino Sotelo
Florist: Bella Flora
Band: Signed Sealed Delivered
Hair + Make-Up: Elan Makeup Studio – Anita Haar
Dress 1: Blush Couture
Dress 2: Warren Barron
Gelato: Paciugo: Paciugo

The groom, groomsmen, officiant and ring bearer all wore original “chucks” AKA converse shoes. The bridesmaids wore champagne dresses with black waist ties, while the maid of honor wore black with a champagne waist tie.

Guests were provided red fans and parasols during the garden ceremony and took place at dusk.The wedding colors were red, orange, champagne & black. Flowers were in bright hues of reds and oranges.

A 1958 Rolls Royce was waiting to deliver them to their reception site which was a catholic chapel that was preserved and converted into a dinner hall.

What a cute couple! Lottie looks great in her Mori Lee wedding gown and her birdcage veil and Clint in his suit from Express.

Here are some things Lottie shared with us about their wedding day.

We wanted our day to reflect our day-to-day personalities. We love art, music and culture so these attributes were infused into our wedding theme. We took touches of vintage style and mingled it with modern appeal.

Did you write your own vows? We did write our own vows and I loved the line , “we begin as an empty canvas where we can choose the colors that will be the masterpiece of our future”.

Any DIY items? I designed our programs, place cards and guest book.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Mixing modern style with a flair of vintage.

What’s next for you as a couple? We are enjoying traveling, art, great music, friends, family and loving life!

Wedding Photography: Emily Lockard Photography
Flowers: Blooms Forever
Birdcage Veil: Circle Park Bridal of Addison
Seamstress: Maybe Sew
Hair & Makeup: Instinctive Hair Couture
Caterer: Joe T Garcia’s
Transportation: Romantic Remembrances
Cakes: Cakes by Fran

Today, Dallas Wedding Planner features the wedding of Susan and Adam. They were married on November 8, 2008 at St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson, Texas and continued their celebration at Kirin Court. A special touch at the reception, was Susan and Adam’s fathers who both welcomed their guests to the reception – Susan’s in Chinese and Adam’s in English.

Susan and Adam are both graduates of Texas A &M, where they met.  Adam proposed to Susan under the Century Tree. An Aggie tradition to that you are only allowed to step under the Century Tree with a girl if you intend to propose.

We love these fun ring shots. Susan and Adam’s wedding day was captured by Stacy Reeves Photography.  Thank you Stacy for sharing some of their special wedding day memories with us.

This picture just shows you what an awesome job the use of lighting can have on a plain ordinary space.  The lighting done by John Stem of JH Pro transformed this room into a fun happening space to celebrate the love between Susan and Adam.

All of these details were handled perfectly by wedding planner, Kathie Seeley of Grand Events. The menu cards were adorned with the favors for the guests – chopsticks brought from Taiwan by the bride.

A chocolate bar was set up instead of the traditional groom’s cake.  Truffles, petit fours with a “P” initial. Chocolate strawberries and chocolate chip cookies were a big hit with all the guests and packaged in Chinese take-out containers with the couples monogram on them.

Dallas Wedding Planner asked Susan to give today’s 2009 bride her best advice and she shared the following with us:

“My advice to today’s 2009 brides is to don’t wait so long to get help if you need it.  Getting a wedding planner was one of the best decisions I made through the whole wedding planning process.  There are just too many details to think about!  Also, it makes the actual wedding day stress free and a blast!  I was able to enjoy the day and not have to worry about making sure if everything was set at the reception.”

Wedding Planner: Kathie Seeley of Grand Events
Photography:  Stacy Reeves Photography
Floral:  April McNosky of AprilMayJune Designs
DJ/Lighting: John Stem,  JH Pro
Cake:  Le Gateau Cakery
Ceremony: St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church
Reception: Kirin Court Share and Enjoy:

]]> http://dallasweddingplanner.com/blog/2009/02/09/real-wedding-susan-and-adam/feed/ 0 http://dallasweddingplanner.com/blog/2009/01/20/real-wedding-jessica-and-jason-key/ http://dallasweddingplanner.com/blog/2009/01/20/real-wedding-jessica-and-jason-key/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:44:01 +0000 DWP http://dallasweddingplanner.com/blog/?p=11461 Dallas Wedding Planner is featuring the wedding of Jessica and Jason today.  On September 13, 2008, the day Hurricane Ike blew through Fort Worth, Texas Jessica and Jason were married at the beautiful Robert Carr Chapel. After the ceremony, the couple celebrated with family and friends at the Bass Hall, Maddox Muse Center. Thanks to Jessica’s florist, DiFiori for submitting this gorgeous wedding.  They did a awesome job on the floral for this elegant wedding.

Jason and Jessica met in Denton, while they were both attending school at the University of North Texas.  They both lived in the same apartment complex one door down from one another.  They were introduced to each other by a mutual friend. They became friends,  later started dating and three years later were getting married!!

We love this cake.  It looks so elegant.

Dallas Wedding Planner appreciates Jessica’s photographer, Candids by Kassie for providing these great images she captured on their wedding day.

We asked Jessica to share her advice to those brides planning their wedding day.

“My best advice for the 2009 Bride is to enjoy every second of your wedding day.  Don’t let someone upset you and if something isn’t perfect don’t freak out, it isn’t worth it.  Make sure you dance on the dance floor, sit down with your friends for a minute, eat the food you spent months trying to decide on, drink more than one cocktail, have a piece of the bride and grooms cakes, and stop for two seconds to have a moment with your new husband to take everything in.“

Ceremony: Robert Carr Chapel, Fort Worth
Reception: Bass Hall – Maddox Muse Center
Photographer: Kassie Kitchens of Candids by Kassie
Florist: DiFiori
DJ: Monty Benton, Texas Affairs to Remember
Lighting: David Neale, Entertainment Solutions and Bass Hall
Wedding Cakes: Lesley Jenson, Lesley’s Cakes
Ceremony Music – Aria Strings
Hair: Andrea McCormick and AnaRae Hartmancock, Jennz Day Spa
Make-Up: Victoria Hines – Freelance makeup artist for Nars
Invitations/Programs: Paper Planet
Wedding Gown Designer: Lazaro from Patsy’s Bridal Boutique, Dallas
Shoes: Stuart Weitzman
Jewelry/Hair Jewelry: Haute Bride
Veil: Michelle Miller Couture
Bridesmaids Dresses: Jim Hjelm
Bridesmaids Jewelry: Dogeared (Nordstorm)
Flower Girl: Us Angels