Why the wedding is in Texas

Foyer- Hilton Garden Inn- Granbury

I have several people who keep asking why the wedding is in Texas- I figured I would clarify on paper (or computer rather)

•  I always wanted a destination wedding but I know that realistically we would not be able to have our friends and family come to Florida or Mexico (especially with the drug cartel in Mexico right now) and I figured the Fort Worth area is about as far as I could go and have the people that we want to be there be able to come.
• Strangely enough, it is actually cheaper in the Fort Worth area. Any wedding venues up here cost a fortune because the venues are limited and very few of the venues have reception space as well. The churches here cost a ton of money too if you are not a member of their church.  The venue we got in Granbury was the cheapest place around period and it just happened to be beautiful the only downside really is the space limitations for the ceremony if we have it in the foyer.
• Although a massive wedding sounds very romantic, I would rather have a small intimate wedding with the people that mean the most to me. By having it in Granbury I know that the people who really truly want to be there will come and those who don't will come to the reception at home. And that's okay because I don't want people that don't really want to come just to come becauese it is in Fort Smith and they feel obligated. I want my wedding to be the best wedding for everyone there, not just me and David.
• It also saves me and David money because we are flying to Jamaica for our honeymoon from DFW with a departure flight at 6am. By having it in the Fort Worth area it saves us a lot of money from either having to fly from the Fort Smith airport to DFW or driving to Dallas directly after the reception getting a hotel then flying out of DFW at 6am.
• Also now that I have chosen Granbury I am very glad because I know that if I had the wedding around here, Lacy, my childhood best friend, like my sister.... would not be able to come because her grandmother cannot be left alone (their grandmother lives with them) for any period of time. 

 So that's why the wedding is in Texas :-) I hope you all had a great weekend. My mom finished tying the ribbons on the invitations and RSVP cards, I need to make more RSVP cards though. And I went to War Eagle with mom and Aunt Naomi. Then spent 12 hours doing homework on Sunday. I am still looking for 50 wedding chair rental (white garden chair), 59 satin banquet chair covers (white), and 59 satin sashes (black) in the Granbury or Fort Worth area. If anyone has any free time to help me find some places and get some quotes that would be great. I hope you all have a great week!

Update

Just a real quick update here. Lacy got her bridesmaid dress ordered this weekend, yay! I wanna say thank you to my mom for doing all the ribbon-tying on the invitations! Also I want to say that I am proud of my bridesmaid Lillie for running the race for the cure this weekend after she just got over a staph infection. Good job!

I love my florist!

As most of you know by now, flowers have been my biggest struggle in the wedding planning (largely because I don't know a whole lot about them and was is cost effective). After one of the five main florists in Granbury I was communicating with via email called me and told me she could meet my budget with my requests, I friended her on facebook. Facebook has a live chat that you can instant message with your friends and she wanted to ask me a few questions. She saw that I plan to wear my cowboy boots for the wedding and she is going to try to incorporate some leather into the vases, rather than ribbon. She also looked through my pictures and the wedding blog and had asked me if the white pomanders (big round ball of flowers) that I had been wanting was a sentiment of our engagement in the snow. Although, it wasn't I thought that was a neat idea. She is going to try to incorporate a few of those in our flower plan as well. The wooden boxes that you can see in the post below is being made by her father-in-law. I thought that was really neat of her to have someone make those. She was asking how sentimental I was and I told her very sentimental. In  fact I told her that when my grandparents took out there old 70's greenish yellow nasty looking carpet a few years ago, I had them save me a square because that was the carpet I always remembered as part of their house. It was really strange when she replied, "...my Granny had 70's greenish carpet and I did the same thing...weird..." haha. I am really excited to have her as my florist and see what she can do for us. It is such a relief to have a florist I like that is willing to do the flowers I like within my budget. Here is there facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Granbury-TX/Earth-Art-Florist-Fan-Page/329174169002

This will be what David is wearing.

YAY FLOWERS!

I have spent the past couple of weeks trying to decide on flowers and reworking everything I want. Yesterday afternoon I emailed the three main florists I had been working with my new "flower plan" hoping I could get within my budget. This morning Rebecca from Earth Art Florist called me with some good news! She can do everything I want within my budget! So not only do I have my flower options decided up on but now I have my florist chosen as well! I am so excited and relieved to have the flower situation out of the way!! Here is what I decided:

These will go at the altar, waist high with pink added.

These will go down the aisle as pictured then moved to the reception tables

This is the color scheme I have chosen for chair cover/sashes and table cloths/napkins etc.

Update- decision on shoes and David's Bridal is having a free-shipping sale!

Lillie's dress came in yesterday and she called and asked what we had said about shoes, then I realized we had never really decided. We talked about it and decided just wear black shoes of anykind, I don't care if they all match or not- just whatever you like best and are comfortable wearing. Also, for the bridesmaids who have not ordered their dress yet, David's Bridal is having a sale on Columbus Day that all orders made online receive free shipping. They also have a special right now that you get free shipping on all orders above $100 from now until October 11th. I have also started getting all my doctors appointments in before I no longer have insurance, at least any that's worth anything. :-). I think Lacy is going to start making the veil pretty soon. I have most everything done for the wedding except making a decision on flowers, chosing the florist (although I have both of those things narrowed down), deciding how I want to set up the ceremony, tying the bows on the invitations and booking a rental place for chair covers and sashes. Other than that, I think most things are pretty much done. I have a busy next week and a half. My anatomy class is quite a doozie so I spend most all my spare time studying and wedding planning. I have test next Friday over all the bones of the body and we just had a test last week so it only gives me two weeks to study for this one! I hope you all have a wonderful week and weekend and enjoy the weather! <3

Hilton Garden Inn- Granbury Texas

Thinking about the Ceremony .

Boardwalk- foyer is inside the doors to the right.

Okay, I think I have decided that if we just need to hope for good weather because I want to have the ceremony here. The foyer that you can see in all the facebook pics, has a door that leads outside which you can see to the right in this picture. We would prop the doors open and have everyone enter the "Ceremony" from the foyer doors that go outside. If we have it outside our decorations are not limited by space or how we align the bridal party. I also went ahead and told the photographers today that we are going with Jenny A. Here is her portfolio if you didn't get to look at it before and would like to: http://www.modernimagestudios.info/portfolios/jennya/index.html

Foyer- the door the left leads to the boardwalk

Update

Well we have officially booked the family/friends reception for Fort Smith. It will be on April 2nd (two weeks after the wedding). I know my two cousins Lyndi and Lori are helping with that, if you would like to help you can as well.

Lillie ordered her bridesmaid dress this weekend in Tulsa! I will let you know how long it takes for her to get it so you can kind of judge that. But just remember you might need to have time for alteration arrangements if you don't like the way your dress fits. Asa has her dress as well but she needs alterations done on hers. I know Davids Bridal has some specials going on right now but I'm not sure what they are. Don't forget you also get $20 off your dress if you tell them you are in my bridal party.

If anyone has some spare time on their hands and wants to do something I would love to see your ideas for flowers. I have found a couple of florists who can accomodate my budget but now I have to decide specifaclly want I want. There will be 7 round tables for the reception and 1 1/2 square table set up (made of long rectangle tables) for the head table. I would like to have different size arrangements to kind of give the room some dimension. There will be white garden chairs for the ceremony. The sign in table. The altar. The aisle. The punch/wedding mints table. The brides bouquet and the bridesmaid bouquets. I don't really care for roses but I love lillies, orchids, hydrangeas and realy about anything else. If you have some time I would love to see what you can come up with for a flower proposal. If you do one you can just save it in a Word document and email it to me.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Florist

I might have found a florist! I got an email from one this morning that will do exactly what I am wanting for a very reasonable price that fits within your budget.  To view their previous weddings go to: http://www.facebook.com/TownandCountryFloralGallery?ref=mf  . Here are some of the things they have done too:

Photographer

I booked my photographing company a while back. I contacted them today and they have sent me a list of a few photographers including their portfolio's. If you want, take a look at these links and tell me which one you think is the best!!   You should be able to vote on your left if you are visiting the actual blog website.

Jenny: http://www.modernimagestudios.info/portfolios/jennya/index.html

Michelle: http://www.modernimagestudios.info/portfolios/michellep/index.html

Linda: http://www.modernimagestudios.info/portfolios/lindas/index.html

Starting back up on the planning

Well now that I am settled in to my new place and have started classes I am going to try to start back on the wedding planning.  Hopefully this second pick up of it all will be more successful than the last drag of my planning . :-)  I have been contacting some florists again. I also made contact with a rental place for chair covers, sashes, table overlays, etc. Hopefully I will get some estimates back soon. I also need to tie the ribbons on my wedding invitations, make my flower decisions final, make contact with the photographer, finalize details with the venue, purchase the bra/corset thing that goes under my dress, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting! Asa has her bridesmaid dress now. For the rest of the bridesmaids, don't forget to enter Davids Bridal monthly bridesmaid dress giveaway!! Maybe we can win https://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/WinAGownRegistrationView?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&krypto=YHGoZjmMQhFd%2FuRaeAvzhomgArs7owowqhzfHRdCj2Q7xs9NcEcEekx9bwXzS6UrL%2F%2Bx7KCJhwZc%0Az21n2s7kNaBKI6tTZXvQ2EwtjwIG76I%3D&ddkey=http:WinAGownRegistrationView    Also, David Bridal currently has a free shipping with no minimum purchase special right now. Just enter the code: SHIPFREE when you purchase them online (this special ends September 14) . They also have clearance shoes starting at $25 too! Hope you all are doing well!