Our Wedding

Call me narcissistic, but I’m really stinkin’ proud of our wedding!  Mostly because I threw the whole thing together ALMOST single-handedly from a thousand miles away.

I loved it.  I would plan weddings all the time if I could.  Too bad we can’t have one EVERY year (much to my parents’ pockets’ delight). 

As promised, deets are provided below, as well as some pics )
All photos are by Alex Labry. Ain’t he talented?

The ceremony took place at the gorgeous Cowboys Pavilion at The University of Texas Alumni Center.  We looked at several places but knew we wanted to wed in Austin where we met, and this venue made the most sense for an outdoor wedding and onsite reception.  The Texas Exes discount didn’t hurt, either!

I found my dress at a cute place in Gastonia, North Carolina, called Poffie Girls.  My bolero was fashioned in Ireland by a niece-aunt duo’s small business, Bonzie.

Here’s a better close-up of the corset.  The pearls I wore were given to me by my dad’s mother Audrey, who passed away in 2002.  They were my “something old.”  The flowered bobby pins however, were also an Etsy design, by Cultivar.  Custom-made and entitled “Rustic Autumn Bride”! 

Our selected wedding colors were chocolate and burnt orange.  It seemed only appropriate for our fall wedding, and on the Texas campus, no less! 

My bridal party wore chocolate satin dresses with organza overlay at the top – $50 a pop on clearance at David’s Bridal!  Yeah, they loved me.   The three other gohjuss ladies made up my house party, and had their own very special tasks in the wedding.

I selected orange orchids as the bridal flowers – don’t they look scrumptiously autumnal?

Here’s a shot of our pretty pretty programs, printed by Wedding Paper Divas, and the ribbons were lovingly attached by yours truly.  What a job!

We had four very special kiddos holding up our chuppah (wedding canopy) – a bad bad experience with Mancino Iron in Austin caused us to have to whip this up the day of the wedding, but it turned out even better!  The Cherry kids are the children of my mom’s best friend and the blonde Whitten boys are my dad’s best friend’s kids.  How neat!  The bridesmaids were takin’ their places.

We were married by Rabbi Hayon of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, who drove down to share the special day with us!  We will always be grateful, it meant so much to us.  Of course, we were cracking up throughout the ceremony.  Such is our nature.

Let’s take a look at the reception venue, the Connolly Ballroom inside the Exes’ Center.  Dance floor?  Check!  Nice pretty table runners and chair covers?  Check!  Ah-mazing centerpieces put together by my momma?  Check!  They are vases and burnt orange fabric from Michaels, with manzanita trees and stones.  Wanna know what’s holding the branches so nicely centered?  Rolls of toilet paper!  Not joking.

 

Ok, more to come!  So much to talk about, so little time!

Until then, enjoy our “love story”! It’s a video montage of the event, put together by our lovely videographer Ryan over at Altared Weddings.

Christa + Shane from Altared Weddings on Vimeo.