Texas Twosome: I Become a Bride!

It was finally time for my beautiful bridesmaids to put on their dresses and for me to become a bride! This part of the day is definitely told better by pictures, so here we go! (This is a super heavy picture post)

I grabbed my dress,


gathered all my girls' gorgeous blue dresses


and collected all my accessories.

My vintage-inspired blue topaz necklace and earrings to match my engagement ring,


my gorgeous veil and my "something borrowed" garter,


my awesome shoes (notice something different?),


and my handmade bouquet (with my "something old" Grandma's engagement ring for the 1950s attached)!


My mom helped me in to my dress.


Then she fastened my necklace around my neck


and I put my earrings on.


Then I attached my veil,


slid my garter up my leg,


and sprayed some perfume.


Now came my difficult decision of the day. I had to decide which shoes I wanted to wear. If you remember, I originally bought some Steve Madden shoes, but then decided they were too tall for the dress. So then I bought some new ones and glitterized them. But on the day of the wedding I still couldn't decide which shoes I wanted to wear so I brought them both with me to the venue. I figured I decide once I got my outfit on.

Hmmm...which shoe should I wear?


Steve Madden's it is!


And now off see my almost-husband!

*All photos taken by the fabulous Nathan Russell

Up next, our first look!

Miss something?

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Day Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Girls Get Their Hair Done!
Texas Twosome: We Set Up!
Texas Twosome: The Men Get All Handsome!

Texas Twosome: The Men Get All Handsome!

After we finished setting up, it was time to head inside to get dressed. The venue had separate rooms for the girls and guys to get ready in.

Nathan Russell Photography

Nathan Russell Photography

Nathan Russell Photography

Nathan Russell Photography

I love that all the guys helped each other with their ties and boutonnieres. I don't think it took very long for the men to get ready, so they had plenty of time to make use of the TV in the room by watching the UT game that day.

Nathan Russell Photography

Thankfully we had two photographers so one was able to capture some great shots in the men's room while the other photographer hung with the ladies. It's so nice to see the guys all dressed up because they're usual dress is t-shirt and jeans.

Up next: The ladies get all fancified!

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Day Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Girls Get Their Hair Done!
Texas Twosome: We Set Up!

Texas Twosome: We Set Up!

We opted not to have a wedding planner or even a day-of coordinator from the beginning. We knew we'd be able to do it ourselves, with the help of family and friends, and didn't want to spare the money.

Setting up was a bit of a challenge since it was still pretty windy outside and we weren't completely sure it was done raining for the day. But everyone quickly banded together and got things done.

Table centerpieces were set out,


the cake table was set up to wait for the cake that would come later,


the seating arrangement lollipop trees were displayed,


and the sweetheart table was adorned with decorations.


My fabulous friends also decorated the arbor, set out our guestbook tree, flip flop basket, program basket and hung the twine for our pictures and well-wish papers. I am so thankful for our generous family and friends. We finished setting up in a little under an hour and then it was finally time to get dressed!

Miss something?

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Day Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Girls Get Their Hair Done!

Texas Twosome: The Girls Get Their Hair Done!

The morning of the wedding I woke feeling at peace with the world. I know most brides wake up excited or wake up nervous. I felt neither of those emotions – just peaceful. I don’t know if it really sunk in yet that I was getting married that day. This is where the day starts to become a blur.

I hopped in the shower and then my sister and I finished organizing everything that needed to be moved to the venue. We waited for the rest of the girls to arrive so we could head to the salon to get our hair and make-up done.

My awesome Co-MOH, Leesa, offered to pick up breakfast tacos (yep that’s right, two days in a row!) for everyone and she brought the fixing’s for mimosas too!

As we all relaxed in the super cute lounge area of the salon, we were called one by one to start the make-up and hair stuff. We were there for about three hours and had about 5 or 6 different girls working on us.

I look a little Frankenstein-ish in this photo...trust me, the end result was much better!

Next, we’re off to the venue to set up and get ready!


I think I was starting to get a bit more excited so I decided to have a little sing-a-long in the car with my mom on the way to the venue.

Miss something?

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Day Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Day Before We Got Hitched!

We were only one day away for the big one now. What better way to start they day off than with some delicious breakfast tacos!


My mom, step-dad, sister, uncle, Mr. P and I headed to our favorite taco place, Amigos BBQ, for fuel before we started on our busy day.

I spent the rest of the morning buying booze for the wedding and rehearsal dinner and putting the finishing touches on the cakes.

Then it was off to the nail salon for mani/pedis. (I actually had a friend offer to do my fingernails for free so I took her up on the offer the night before.)


This was my very first pedicure and it was definitely a success. I am super duper ticklish, especially on my feet, so I feared that I would kick the lady in the face or something. Thankfully that did not happen. Note to self (and others): It is a bad idea to wear skinny jeans to get a pedicure. What was I thinking?

After our nails were all finished we headed home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. Mr. P's dad offered to host it at his house so we had everyone meet at our house so we could caravan out there. It was about an hour away and we didn't want anyone getting lost.

Mr. P's dad and his wife really out did themselves with the party. They had a western theme going with red and white checkered table clothes, horse saddles, boots with flowers and even and ranch sign with Mr. P's and my initials. And they served delicious BBQ. Yuummmm!




We had some late arrivals so decided to chow down before we practiced and it was delicious!

Once everyone arrived it was time to line up and get to the rehearsing. Our wonderful officiant, Guy ran the show for the rest of the night. (Just a small side note: we don't normally all dress like cowboys, we just thought it would be fun to ask everyone to get into the Western theme for the night.)



We really enjoyed having the rehearsal dinner because it gave our families an opportunity to meet and mingle. It was a gorgeous evening (although majorly windy) and at the end of the night Mr P. and I went our separate ways. We wouldn't see each other again until our first look the next day!

*All photos are personal photos taken by friends and family

Miss Something?

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Got Hitched!

Texas Twosome: The Week Before We Get Hitched!

Hi everyone....it's time for recaps!

The week leading up to the wedding was actually pretty relaxing. I had it in my head that I'd have all the last minute details already taken care of by the time my mom arrived the Saturday before the wedding (except for the cake, of course). I'm here to tell you that is not how it worked at all. Yes, I had most things taken care of, but the inevitable small things popped up. Still, all was handled or delegated and everything was finished.

The day my mom arrived, my sister/Co-MOH, Sarah, my mom and I even had time to squeeze in a visit to Scare for a Cure's Zombie Wasteland. Seriously, guys if you're ever in Austin around Halloween you have to check this out!

Source

My awesome sister came to my house after work to help us complete the programs too. I know I haven't talked about my programs yet, but I plan to share them in full detail soon. They were definitely one of my favorite projects. Here's a preview though:

The rest of the week was taken up by meeting up with my dad when he got to town, buying the booze for the wedding, buying and wrapping the remainder of our attendant and parent gifts,

These are not complete in this picture, but I'll show you Mr. P's handy work in a later post.

packing up our wedding stuff to move to the venue,

an impromptu dance party,

I believe we were Cha Cha Sliding it in this picture!

and of course the cakes!

I'm glad I did take care of as much as possibly early on so that I could spend more time with my family and husband-to-be the week before the wedding.

Next up...rehearsal time!

*All pictures taken by Mama Plaid unless otherwise noted.

I Heart Nathan Russell!

Simply put, I heart my photographer big time. I know I've shown y'all some of his amazing work with our engagement shoot and my boudoir shoot, but I swear, he just keeps getting better and better. Mrs. Penguin asked me to wait to post this until after I got my wedding pictures back. I've got them (which means recaps are a comin') and they are fabulous!

Nathan, with his adorable wife/assistant Amy

Let me start at the beginning though. Let's start with how I found the fabulous Nathan Russell. One day I was perusing Weddingbee and I was searching the local Austin board when I came across a thread about an awesome deal on a photographer. I just happened to be in the market for a photographer so I clicked on the link.

It lead to Nathan Russell's website. Basically he is in the process of growing his wedding portfolio, so he was offering five lucky brides one hell of a deal! The deal included an engagement shoot, a bridal session (or in my case, a boudoir) and an entire day of wedding photography. (Oh yeah, and he threw in a second shooter plus his wife/assistant on our actual wedding day!) All for the small price of five hundred buckaroos! And to top it all off, after the wedding he gave us a $500 gift certificate to use on his site to order an album or prints.

Now, if you don't think he's totally awesome yet, let me share a little more. A bridal session was included in his original package. I, however, wasn't interested in lots of photos of me in my dress taken on a separate day from my wedding day, so I asked Nathan is there was any way we could do a boudoir session instead. He enthusiastically agreed! My boudoir session was his first and because it was so successful, he has decided to offer the option to all his future clients! How awesome is that?!

Oh, and a few months before the wedding he informed me that he'd like to throw in a photo booth set-up, complete with background and props, for no additional charge. I think he must have been psychic because two days before I received his email I had decided to scrap the whole photo booth plan because I just couldn't figure out how to do it and decided it wasn't that important. Instead I got to have an awesome photo booth and I did't even have to worry about it!

Here's a preview of my kick-ass photo booth!

Do you have a crush on your photographer? Where did you find yours?

*I'm not getting paid to say any of these nice things about Nathan. He's just awesome and everyone should know it!
**Please excuse my excessive use of the work "awesome". There is clearly no better word to describe Nathan's work.

I'm Such a Follower

I chopped my hair all off. I followed bees and hive members of the past by participating the Post Wedding Chop.

If you recall, I did consider cutting my hair off before I even got to my wedding day. But wedding day 'do indecisiveness changed my mind at the time. However, as soon as we returned from our honeymoon, I was off to the salon to get a new 'do.

I absolutely love it. You see, I'm a serial hair cutter. Every year I grow my hair long (usually to about the middle of the my back) and then cut it up to my chin. I've been doing this ever since middle school. Problem is, usually I hate my hair cut (and miss my long hair) for the first week or so afterward. That was not the case this time. I sprung for a slightly more expensive salon and voila! Cute hair!


Have y'all been itching to ditch your locks? Were you able to wait until after the wedding or did you do it beforehand as I originally had planned?