Wedding - Part 1

Here we go! Bloggin' the wedding. The first half at least. Again, all these lovely photos are curtesy and property of Powerhouse Studios.

I was a little stressed out the morning of the wedding, but as soon as I got to the Vineyards (and we got all our decorations up) the amazing staff took care of everything (seriously they are all rockstars) and I was at ease.

Brendon and I decided to see each other before the wedding and have a "first look" so that we could knock out the majority of the photos and focus on hanging out with guests after the ceremony. I would seriously recommend this to anyone and everyone. It saves you a ton of stress and precious wedding time, and gives you and your soon to be spouse a chance to breathe and relax together before the big walk down the aisle. Plus you get to actually enjoy the cocktail hour! And no, seeing each other first does not make it any less special when you walk down the aisle. It was still beyond awesome.

My beeeautiful sister and best friend!

I had a mullet dress, short in the front, long in the back! I wanted something simple but nontraditional and something I could be somewhat comfortable in since we'd be outside. After one seriously long day of dress hunting I found this baby. After a few alterations it was perfect. And of course, it has pockets! I put them to use, I had my lip gloss and vows in there!

I was really nervous about seeing Brendon before the ceremony. He had no idea what I was going to be wearing and as it was not your typical wedding dress, I was hoping he'd like it! And he did! We got to hang out and be giggly for a bit while our photographer took pictures and then we headed over to do some family shots. And I have to say, we have some good looking family and friends.

After all the pictures were taken the girls headed up stairs to hide out while the guests arrived. Then before I knew it, it was time to walk down the aisle.

LOVE this picture!

An AWESOME picture of Kristy right before the ceremony. Guurrrl, you so pretty!

Z!! Seriously the best, best man ever. I might have even stolen him a bit to be a bridesman at times. He was there for us all day throughout the entire wedding ordeal. We cannot thank him enough for being so awesome. And dang we miss you Z! Hawaii is calling our names.

 Cutest flower girl and ring bearer ever? I thinkso. I had a tough act to follow down the aisle.

I cried my way down the aisle. As soon as I heard my song start playing I lost it. Walking down the aisle with my parents by my side, surrounded by everyone I love, to meet my soon to be husband is enough to make any girl tear up a little. And as I am a big baby, I teared up a lot.

Our ceremony, for us, was absolutely perfect. I think I've talked about it before, but I'm going to do it again because it was just so awesome. Since we are not religious, we kind of butted heads with the venue provided minister when we told him we wanted a non-secular ceremony that didn't mention God (gasp!). He didn't want to budge so we fired him. Just kidding, it wasn't that dramatic and we respect everyone's beliefs, we just all agreed it wasn't going to work. Luckily we have an insanely gifted with words friend who just happened to be ordained. Our good friend Derek wrote and officiated our ceremony. And it was wonderful. He is a truly amazing writer (he recently finished writing a book!) and we couldn't have asked for anything better. He knocked it out of the park. My favorite part was a quote from our beloved Albus Dumbledore, "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Thank you Derek. You are the bomb.com and should seriously do this professionally. 

We also wrote our own vows, which I would highly recommend to anyone getting hitched. Seriously, there is nothing like promising your love to each other in front of everyone you love, not to mention legally, using your own words. We chose a number of lines to stick to so they would be about the same length and then went from there. I finished mine the morning before the wedding and I think Brendon did too. I was super nervous about writing and reading my vows but when the time came it was easy peasy, although I choked up a bit. I loved hearing Brendon's and I loved reading mine to him. Best. Thing. Ever.  

PDA!

Officially hitched!

 

The next half will cover the reception portion of the wedding where we all dance our butts off, and in my case, the bottom of my shoes off. 

Lions, Tigers, and dams, oh my!

Yesterday Brendon and I visited the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary. We were a little skeptical when we pulled up, but it turned out to be really awesome. All the animals are rescued, so it isn't a typical zoo. Most of the animals were pets or circus animals that had to be surrendered. Some of them had sad stories but it was great to see them in a happier home. It was a quiet little place and you get to get really close to the animals. Plus the weather was b-e-a-utiful! All the animals were out enjoying the sun, it was the perfect day to go. The zoo is out in the hill country outside of town. I love the hill country! Home sweet home. Unfortunately the hill country is full of cedar, so our allergies were a tad out of control, especially poor Brendon. But we had a blast!

You could feed some of the animals! It was a lot of fun, minus the slobber. I got to feed bambi! All the animals were very ready to get a snack, they knew how it worked and were showing off their cuteness.

 This is Bobo, he was so sweet! He loved getting attention. And he was beautiful! All the birds at the zoo were super friendly, it made me sad because they used to be peoples pets and probably miss having human interaction. Fortunately all the employees/volunteers seemed to really care about the animals! We are going to look into volunteering there!

Baby Mr. H in the hill country dying via allergies.

After we left the zoo, we went on a little drive and checked out the Lake Travis dam. You couldn't walk across it (I guess that makes sense since it's a hydroelectric dam, danger zone!) which was a bummer but it was very impressive! Not as big as the Hoover dam, but it makes the Canyon Lake dam look like a baby.

 

 

           

It was a great day. I feel like we hadn't had a day off together in forever! Today, the weather did a flip flop and it got really cold and windy. Felt like winter again. Yesterday it was like 75 degrees and tonight it's going to freeze. Texas you are weird.

Wedding details

So we've been married for almost 9 months and I have yet to blog anything really about the wedding, aside from a quick summary. It was seriously the best day of my life. There was so much wonderfulness that I feel like I will never be able to do the day justice. But I am going to try, starting with all the crafty details. Because I am a crafty lady.

But, first and foremost I have to say that all these fabulous photos are courtesy and property of Powerhouse Studios. Thank you Breanna for documenting our special day so beautifully. I highly recommend her if you are in the San Antonio area and in need of anything photo related. She's a genius behind the camera. Check out her website, you might see a couple familiar faces on the home page.

When I first started looking at ideas in wedding magazines and blogs (which is a very scary process, the wedding blog world is INSANE) I was like, omg this is too much, lets just elope. But then I was more like, I can do this. I can make this stuff. So I did. I made all of our wedding decorations, as well as put them up the day of with help from my mom and sister... in 90+ degree humidity... post hair and make up, aside from the beeeeautiful flowers that our venue provided.

I spent a LOT of time crafting our wedding (but not nearly as much as some people do. Bridezillas y'all, they exist). Brendon helped a ton too. I had a billion projects I wanted to do but I narrowed it down to a few things I felt were worth the time and effort. I'm glad I did because even just the few I did kept me busy up pretty much right up until the wedding actually started. At times it was overwhelming and I thought I had bit off more than I could chew, but it was worth it to see it all come together that day. It made our wedding feel like us. Plus, it probably saved us a ton of cash. PLUS, the venue is beautiful on its own and the flowers were phenomenal, so I didn't have to do much.

      

I was on the fence about having a program, I mean people know how weddings work. But I decided to have a little fun with them, they turned out to be a blast to make. I wanted them to set the tone for the day, let everyone know it was going to be nontraditional and fun was the name of the game. I was really proud of them except I'm a super douchebag and put my best friend and bridesmaid's maiden name instead of her married name. I was mortified when she pointed it out, I proofread those suckers 10,000 times and I didn't catch it. So embarrassing.

Brendon and I made 200 pinwheels for our guests. TWO HUNDRED. The idea sounded great at first, but then we started making them and I never thought we would finish. Our fingers nearly fell apart but it was worth it when we saw everyone holding them up as we giggled down the aisle post-marriage. I also sewed yards upon yards upon yards of white bunting. Because that's what the wedding blogs said was cool.

I think my favorite detail was our little "LOVE" backdrop for our ceremony. I collected a bunch of various blue, yellow, and orange ribbons over the months before our wedding. I got letters Hobby Lobby and painted them white then attached them to one of the ribbons. I had no idea what I was going to do with them until the day of, and I ended up with this. The flowers coordinated pretty perfectly. "LOVE" now resides in our dining room, aka the corner of the living room where we eat. It makes me happy.

Okay, obviously I didn't make the cakes. My mom found Jessica from Jessicakes (cutest name ever?) in New Braunfels, and Jessica made these delicious beauties. I pretty much left the details up to her and she did a fantastic job. How cool is that hamburger groom's cake? If you're in the area and in need of a cake, I can totally give you her number. She's amazing!

This is also not something I made, but something I loved. Obviously animals are an important part of our lives and there are way too many of them suffering out there without a voice to speak for them. So instead of traditional favors we donated to the ASPCA in honor of our guests. They sent us these sweet little cards for all our guests. I kind of felt like our animal family was represented this way, plus we got to help some four legged friends in need!

 I lined our flower girl basket and made our ring bearer pillow out of the same fabric and ribbons. I wanted them to have a kind of quilted feel so I ended up actually using one of those quilting star designs on the pillow. Also, check out our bling! Our rings look nothing like that now, that was the cleanest they will be for years. Or ever.

Instead of a veil, I opted for a headband. A veil for an outdoor wedding in Texas seemed a little silly. I could just picture being slapped in the face by it via an unfriendly breeze mid-ceremony. Plus a veil felt a tad too traditional for me. Originally I had just planned on tying a simple ribbon in my hair, but I started wanting something a bit more special. I found lots of lovely decorative headbands online, but they were all outrageously expensive. So I figured I'd try to make my own. And I was really happy with the end result, and it's not something anyone else will ever have! I found some pretty trim, sewed on a gazillion pearls, and added a satin ribbon. I wish I could find an excuse to wear it again!

Of course, eventually (and hopefully soon), I'll post pictures that actually include people and wedding events. There is just so much goodness! How do I condense it into one post?