WEDDING PHOTOS

                                                      Getting the final touches, so nervous

The Guys are ready, ring bearer too



Flower girl is paitiently awaitng the bride.



                                                                                                            

         Bridal Party is coming down the isle.

Family and friends patiently awaitng my arrival, here come the ring bearer 

 Here comes the bride

My happiest moment when i see my husband awaiting me, it's time to say "i do"

My wedding party, April 14th 2012

Now on to the reception ..................

It's offical

The Cake was GREAT!

We opened our gifts, and got some really great stuff

Over all it was the perfect night with my loves

TIPS

So seeing that I did as much research as I could there are not that many sites that will tell you what to do, and what not to do. This is something that I had to ask fellow friends that had previously got married, and in my situation their advice did little good. Me and my husband paid for everything for our wedding, including some flights, and clothing for the people in our wedding. So I have complied some tips on what to do and what not to do in the hopes that it will help other soon to be brides.

1. Budget.
Throw it out the window. We set a budget and doubled it. Very very easily.
The main thing is to know that you can't have everything that you want, and that you do have to live after this day. I was one of those brides who wanted everything possible to make my wedding day everything that I ever dreamed of, but then quickly got sick (literally) when I began looking at everything that we bought/paid for/ or had a balance on. But in order of importance I am going to try and help you by listing the things that you have to pay for and just eat.

• The big three: Venue, Photographer and Food.
• Venue, this is important because this will be where everything happens. You have to choose a place it just won't happen if you don't. It doesn't have to be the most expensive place, but it has to be chosen.
• Photographer, I can not say enough about pictures, if you do not plan on hiring a videoagrapher than you must have a photographer who can tell the things that you don't see with pictures. (we didn't have one) and as the bride you won't see your fiance walk, you won't see no parents, grandparents, bridal party nothing, you are the absolute last person to walk, and miss out on everything. So having pictures of these people walking, and everything that happens before you walk is a must. Research photographers, look at the other photos that they have taken,  interview them even. This is a one time only deal, don't miss out because your trying to save a penny or two.
• Food, you have to eat, and no matter what you decide to eat it isn't going to be cheap, whenever someone says the word wedding you might as well add 1.5X the normal cost, and to be honest if you have a good caterer it is well worth the money. We used Shavers catering and had a 3 meet BBQ meal, that was anything but a typical BBQ. It was extremely elegant, and delicious. They provided us with great service, clean up, utensils, and everything. Great people to work with as well.

2. Attire.
Now this is huge, ladies this is your wedding dress, the men get off easy they can rent, and ladies let me say if you find a place that will rent you your dress go for it. I personally did, but my circumstances were different. I am a mother of two boys, and my mothers dress is too small. I went to every bridal boutique from Shreveport, LA to Monroe LA (100miles) and found the perfect dress and was able to rent it rather than shell out $1350 for a dress that will sit in my closet for ever more. I am short and small so selling it at my height and alterations would be hard. NOT impossible but hard, plus the cleaning, reservation, and potential shipping fee, and the fact that you will not get close to what you pay for it.

But if you have a daughter, or plan on having a girl in the future you may want to pay for and keep your dress in the hopes that you can pass it on.

As I mentioned we paid for our bridesmaids dresses ( which isn't typical, it's just that they paid for a round trip ticket to be here for me so I felt it was the least that I could do)

I got their wedding shoes at a little store in Shreveport, Jewelry Gallery off of Bert kouns. Great price and style options. I also go their accessories (necklace, bracelet, earring set) from there.

3. Linens
These are something that you have some options on, you can one, rent, or you can two buy. We bought, just cause one, buying them were half the cost of renting, and you are not shelling out all that money just to have nothing left. We bought and still have our linens, (if anyone is interested) it just felt smarter to pay less and still have something to show for it at the end of the day. If you are interested in where I purchased mine go to www.linentablecloth.com they have a great variety, and I caught a special that they were running on tuesdays. 20% off total purchase so we paid a little over $500 for all of our table clothes, and sashes for chairs. We were fortunate that our decorator had chair covers, which were only necessary cause of the ugly chairs that the El Karubah provides.

4. Decor
We also bought all of our centerpieces, flowers, and other decor that we needed, again it was cheaper than renting and the rental companies didn't have the look that I wanted anyway. So we bought all of our flowers, (bridesmaids, centerpieces, and my throw away bouquet) from www.afloral.com they offered great discounts, and a great variety. We purchased glass from www.dfwvases.com but I'm in Shreveport about 255 miles east and the shipping was very reasonable, plus they offer a pick up if in the area. The prices were competitive with what I found at Hobby Lobby and Micheals. I also stayed on ebay. Which offered some good deals and I got little things like the glass gems from. I also hit every dollar store as well. You never know what deals you can find.

5.Bridal Party
I highly suggest that you be very careful of who you choose to be in your bridal party. Mine was small only 12. 5 on his side and 5 on mine, and two children, 1 flower girl and ring bearer. My maid of honor, (which is also posted) was a hard decision between my cousin who was like a sister to me and my bff of 27 years. (i'm only 28) but I choose my cousin because we are family. I also choose my bff of 27 years, my two bffs from high school and a new friend in which i care for a lot. I choose people that I know will be in my life for a lifetime. My husband choose all family and one friend. He couldn't choose a best man between his cousins so his friend played that role. It was great, his (our niece) was the flower girl, and our youngest son (not quite 2) was the ring bearer, escorted by my sister in law down the isle. So everyone in our party was very near and dear to our heart.

Other than this there are so many little things that you don't think about, like your bouquet, garter, shoes, veil or hair clip, (I went with a flower, will post pics) reception dress, (I also opted for this cause my wedding dress had a long train and was heavy, my reception dress (which is posted) was light and easy to dance in. Favors, invitations, directions, your jewelry, hair style, makeup, undergarments, nails, boutonnieres, etc.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
 Some other great sites are www.etsy.com www.floraltrims.com www.fiargophotography.com

Wedding Day

So as I last post I had two months to go, I will say that I found the best wedding planner in the world. I mean this woman was a god sent. She helped me with absolutely everything. She was there at my wedding and made sure that my day was perfect. I am going to post about the baccalaureate fun in another post, my family and friends all flew from out of state (seeing that i'm from California) and were here for a week. So great times that was.

So anyway wedding day, I think I was more nervous than ever, and people that know me know that I am not the type to show emotion or be emotional over much of anything. But on this day I was so over whelmed with all the love of those that surrounded me I couldn't help but be in tears. My best friends for the past 27-13 years were with me and I was marrying the man of my dreams.

The guys were late to arrive and of course no wedding is perfect, I had guest sitting in areas that they were not suppose to, people trying to sneak in and see me in my dress (which no one other than my mother, the store and I had seen on me) I had the kids that were in my wedding playing and attempting to get dirty, and I had my pastor looking for a way to get down to the water. It was a mess.

The one thing that I learned through out this entire experience is that the day is not going to be perfect no matter what you do, no matter what amount of money you spend, no matter if angels from the lord are sent down. But the only thing that matters is you and your future mate.

So we planned on 6pm but didn't actually get started till about 6:35 but as I said that was partly due to the guys showing up late, my pastor needing instruction, people sitting in areas that they were not suppose to sit in, and the children running around.

We did rehearsal the day before and thankfully everyone did as they were suppose to do. I was standing at the top of the stairs and my oldest son (6yrs) walked me down the stairs. I could see the tears running down peoples faces. They were so amazed, (we keep it a secret as to who was walking me). I was so nervous that I had my eyes locked on my fiance. I couldn't hear, see, feel anything but him. He started to cry and so did I. I finally got to the end of the isle, and my son handed me off and sat with family.

We had a very traditional ceremony, we repeated after the pastor in which we didn't plan, but at that moment we would have both been mumbling due to nerves, so it was best to repeat. We kissed, and completely forgot to do our sand ceremony, (which really didn't matter after) and walked down the isle as husband and wife.

Our reception was right after pictures, and in the same place which made it so much easier on us and our guest. We had a small fruit cocktail  hour while we took pictures, something to snack on but not fill up, and that way our guest didn't just stand there waiting on us to take pictures.

Then to our reception.

The girls we announced to their own song, and so were the guys. (whom also almost got into a fist fight waiting to be announced, long story)

Once they all walked out me and my husband came in from separate doors and meet in the middle of the dance floor, and went straight into our first dance.

It was great, we felt lets get that out of the way so that I could eat, change and party.

The food was great, the people were great, the groomsmen paid for our open bar, (which wasn't much split between 4) and we partied the night away.

All in all there were many things that did not go as planned, and there were things that happened that we didn't plan, but at the end of the night I was a Mrs. and I was the happiest woman in the world.