I started this blog shortly after I got engaged and realized I haven't posted any official updates on how wedding plans are going. Sure I've posted here and there about wedding related things, but not a full blown out post. So if you're interested, stick around. With only 72 days to go, we've gotten quiet a bit of things done.
hallelujah
When is the wedding?
April 20th.
We've been engaged a little over a year and one month. I seriously can't believe how fast the time has flown by! Each new day closer to becoming Mrs. Hamilton.
The great thing about this engagement is that it has been, relatively speaking, stress-free! I only say this because we booked probably 80% of our venders in the first 1-2 months of being engaged. Only now have things started to pick up.
We picked our wedding
venue first, just as every wedding guide says to do.We went with Green Pastures, an Austin original. It's a beautiful Victorian house that sits on five acres of land tucked away in a neighborhood off of South First Street. It's well known for their
delicious cuisine, beautiful and historic estate, and the peacocks! This
place really is a gem! I couldn't be more
happy to be getting married here.
Photographer: Allen Doberenz, hands down, was our first option for our photographer. Since it was over a year out, we were able to book him and we are so glad we did! He's easy to work with, reasonably priced for his amazing work, and he's personable and makes you feel comfortable. We had no idea how our engagement pictures would turn out, because heck, it's a little awkward having someone take pictures of you for three hours. But he's magical or something because they turned out awesome! I posted a few pictures from our engagement session
here. I recommend
Doberenz Photography for any of you Austin brides. He's the bomb!
Ceremony & Reception: we’re having both our ceremony and reception
at Green Pastures. They offer multiple locations for the ceremony. We wanted it to be outside because we are both pretty "outdoorsy" so we went with a great big area underneath oak trees. The reception is inside their great room.
Colors: soft pink and navy blue. Originally, I want just soft pink, but my MoH talked me into throwing a splash of navy blue in the mix. I am loving this combo too
! I've actually seen these colors a lot lately, but someone is always going to have your color combo, no matter what it is, so you just have to deal with it.
Flowers: I had the HARDEST time finding my florist and finally hit gold with
Exuisite Petals. For some reason, every florist I called never wanted to contact me back. I guess they didn't want my money? Oh well, it all worked out in the end. This is an example of what I like. Lots of spray roses, garden roses, and peonies! Love the lambs ear too.
Caterer/Cake: these are both included in your reservation with Green Pastures. Have you ever eaten there? If you have, then you would know that you wouldn't want any other caterer than GP. And holy jackpot, they make both the bride and grooms cakes!! Whoop! I love the simplicity of this cake. I'm hoping they can recreate it for my wedding :) I'm not sure what I want the grooms cake to look like yet, but they have a lot of options to pick from at GP.
Rehearsal dinner: we’re having our rehearsal dinner
at Z'Tejas down on 6th Street. There is a separate house next to the restaurant that they rent out for parties, which is perfect for this occasion. I plan on making a picture slide show to play during the dinner. The Hamilton's are hosting. :)
Save the Dates:We used
Wedding Paper Divas for all of our stationary so far, including our save the dates! We went with the postcard style, which saved us from stuffing envelopes and a little bit on postage, score!
Invitations: I finally get to show you what our invitations look like! We sent them out at the end of January, so it's safe to show everyone here :) At the beginning of planning, I found these invitations(on wedding paper divas) and they've been stuck in my head ever since. When it was time to pick them out, we came across a few contenders, but I still loved the first ones the most, so we went with them.
Wedding bands: we have yet to actually purchase mine, but we already picked it out. There is a matching set to my engagement ring, which makes things much easier. We plan on getting it later this month. As for Scott, he will be wearing his grandfathers wedding band. When he tried it on this past summer, it fit perfectly. On the inside it is engraved with his grandparents names and wedding date which is so SO special. I love that it's a family ring. It's a plain white gold band, which is what he was going to pick out anyways. Plain perfection :)
Wedding dress: there's not much I can share about this, but I will say that it's a Tara Keely dress, I got it at Blush bridal, and it's white :). I also posted about it
here. I have purchased a lot of other accessories to go with my dress so far too, which include: veil, hair comb, earrings, shoes, and garters.
Wedding party: we wanted a fairly small wedding party and that's just what we got! We each have 2 bridesmaids/groomsmen and my maid of honor and his best man. We are also including our friends Thane and Amy as members of our wedding party because Thane so graciously agreed to marry us. He is on the ball and already got certified to be our officiant. We couldn't be happier. It's definitely more our style. Oh, the bridesmaids will be wearing this
dress, and the groomsmen will be wearing khaki colored suits.
Honeymoon: we’re going to Roatan, Honduras!!! This is actually the first time I'm announcing this to the public! I know you're probably like "what, Honduras?" BUT omg it's beautiful there. I said from the beginning that I wanted a beachy honeymoon with adventure in the mix. Honduras will provide both of those things and more! I want to expand on this topic in a separate post, so be on the look out for that!
A rather lengthy post, but I hope that helps some of you future brides in planning. I have enjoyed checking all of these things off our growing list of things to do. Some of these topics I will be expanding on after the wedding ;)
