All You Need is Love: Vendor Reviews

Catch up on all the recaps by clicking "Our Wedding" at the top.

So now between the wedding and honeymoon recaps, I figured now would be a good time to do vendor reviews and final thoughts of the wedding. This post has the vendor reviews, and then tomorrow I'll post the final thoughts of the whole wedding experience!

First-- I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been reading these recaps and all your sweet comments! It has been great for Matt & I to relive the day, too. I just wanted you to know that it meant a lot to me to read your comments!

Vendor Reviews
I absolutely loved all of our vendors, from the photographer, to the reception venue, to the florist, to the baker. I would recommend them all to anyone getting married in the Houston area. You can get their contact information from their websites I have linked to.

Photography- Kasey Lynn Photography: Kasey did an amazing job, as did her second shooter. Throughout the whole wedding-planning process, Kasey was very prompt with responding to my emails and silly questions and was very easy to work with. We are so happy with her pictures and seriously could not have asked for anything more.

Reception venue- Amerigo's Grille: This restaurant is gorgeous, the food is amazing, and the service is outstanding. However, I wish we could have had a longer reception. I felt rushed during the whole thing and I just hope my guests didn't feel the same way. But since they are a restaurant, I completely understand why we had to clear out at the time we did. I didn't want to push the ceremony any earlier because we had several out of town guests, etc. In the end it all worked out and we got to talk to everyone, but if I could change one thing, that would be it.

Floral- LZ Floral: Lara is very easy to work with and as you may know from reading my past posts, I had a lot of floral changes just because I was indecisive. She was very flexible but also made sure we stuck to our budget.

Bakery- Kiss the Cook Cakes: The cake was amazing, both the decorating and taste, and we couldn't have asked for a better value! What more can you ask for?

All You Need is Love: Arriving & Reception Details

Catch up by scrolling up to the top and clicking "Our Wedding!"
All pictures by Kasey Lynn Photography.

After all the portraits were taken, the bridesmaids help me bustle my gown (in record time, I might add!), then we were off in the limo to the reception!

Things one should think about when thinking of transportation:
-How big is your dress?
-Does it require its own seat?

It was fine in the limo, really, I just think my poor husband was squashed by the dress ever-so-slightly. It was a fun ride though, with the wedding party and gearing up for the reception!


After the limo pulled up to Amerigo's, Matt helped me out of the limo and in we went!

Checking out the wedding cake and the Groom's pies

I realize now that I failed to blog about the wedding cake design. Well, no better chance than now, yes? Anyway, as you can read about here, we used Kiss the Cook Cakes for our wedding cake. Here is our mock-up design:

The Bible verse we gave them was 1 John 4:19- "We love because He first loved us." At the very beginning of our wedding planning, I knew I could quickly become so wrapped up in all the details of the wedding I might lose sight of what was really important- our God-focused marriage. So for me, this was just a very tangible way of reminding myself of that through the planning and on the wedding day.

Now, instead of doing the traditional Groom's cake, Matt opted instead for apple pie. And these apple pies aren't just any pies. His grandmother baked all of those pies and then had them shipped to Houston 10 hours away. Words cannot express how grateful we were/are she was able to do that for us, especially since that set of grandparents couldn't come due to health reasons. It was really special, especially for Matt, as those homemade apple pies are his favorite food.

The spread (that I'm told was delicious)

Guest book table

Floral centerpieces

Up next... more details and the reception gets started!

All You Need is Love: The Flowers

If you have been following this blog for a while, you may remember I had trouble when it came to actually picking out the flowers. I chose something, then changed my mind. Then changed my mind again. Read about that here:
Part one
Part two
Part three

For anyone getting married in the north Houston area, I highly recommend my florist-Lara with LZ Floral Design. As you will see, she did an AMAZING job and put up with all my changes quite patiently. And all of these pictures, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Kasey of Kasey Lynn Photography [another vendor I would highly recommend].

So, without further ado, here are the flowers. I absolutely loved how they came out!

The guys' bouts [photo credit- my dad]

Reception centerpiece and toss bouquet

Pew arrangements [credit- dad]

Centerpieces at the Reception [photo credit to Karen W]

The church floral arrangements [Photo credit- my dad]

My gorgeous bouquet

And again :)

The bridesmaids' bouquets :) [photo credit- my dad]

We also had a memorial candle for my grandparents

Photo credit- my dad

[Sorry they're in a weird order, I can't seem to get a grip on just what blogger is doing to the picture upload stuff...]

So- what did you think? I couldn't have been happier with them, though I will say I did NOT notice the floral centerpieces at the church or the reception. Thank goodness people got pictures of them haha!

Finalized Flowers!

If you've been following my wedding planning for a bit, you know that I have had a hard time selecting my flowers. Want a review? Here are the posts:

Post 1
Post 2
Post 3
Well, on Monday of spring break I got to meet with my florist. And within 5-10 minutes, it was DONE! Hooray! I had several inspiration pictures, but I knew which one was my favorite. She saw it and we discussed how to make it work for the bridesmaids bouquets, boutonnieres, etc. It's all done.


So now, without further ado, here are the beautiful flowers that will be in our wedding.


Inspiration picture for my bouquet:

Source

So, minus the weird wooden things sticking out of it & the way it is wrapped, that will be my bouquet! It will be made up of lavender roses, deep purple dahlias, and staphanotis. I love the bright color of the dahlias and that they give off a fresh, spring look. It really fits the feel of our wedding!


For the bridesmaids bouquets, the florist suggested lavender roses, cool water roses, and deep purple dahlias. The cool water roses look like this: 

Source

They're a bit pinker than the lavender roses, so it will bring more color to the flowers. I also think the bright colors of everything will go nicely with the bridesmaids' dresses (click here). 


So, those are the 'exciting' flowers, at least to me. Here are the selections for the rest of the wedding:


Groom's bout: 

White freesia; Source

Groomsmen bouts:

Purple freesia; Source

The purple freesia will also be used for the ushers', fathers', and grandfathers' bouts. The moms will have white roses and purple freesia. All the other floral will have a combination of these flowers as well. 


So, floral is done. I have learned my lesson: After picking something out, do NOT go back and look at more ideas. It will confuse you and lead to unnecessary time and sometimes money wasted. 


There's my lesson for the day!

I promise I'm alive

Hey everyone!

Sorry, I know I've been missing for a while. I came home for spring break last Thursday and have been really busy since!

Here is a brief review, not necessarily in order:

-Met with my florist, again, and finalized the flowers, again. For good this time. I promise! A post will be coming on that shortly...

-Played with two adorable dogs, even when I have been wanting to be productive...

I have a constant entourage of a little puppy and a standard poodle. Life's been fun

-Getting ready to go to Las Vegas. I need to practice my presentation more, actually... But we leave bright and early tomorrow morning!! Besides presenting Thursday morning and going to see Beatles LOVE that night, not really sure what else is going to happen. But I'll definitely let you know!


-Went to see the Houston Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty with my mother. It was absolutely beautiful and I really enjoyed it! The dancers were of course amazing, but the set and the costumes were also very well done.

Source

-Ate an amazing meal at America's in celebration of my acceptance to grad school. Soooo good! It was great getting to spend that time with my parents, just wish my brother was there.


-Met with the organist/pianist for the ceremony/reception to discuss music, so that's done! I'll have a post on that at some point...

-Met with my amazing photographer, Kasey, and approved our photo guest book. Then we discussed the timeline for the wedding day as well as shoot lists. We're going to be doing my bridal portraits soon and I'm so excited about that!


-Shopping for miscellaneous wedding details, like the programs and my 'something blue.' 


So yeah, it's been busy. Unfortunately I don't know if it's going to slow down for a while, so let's hope once spring break finishes I can get in a better posting schedule!

A Quick Update...

Last week was the first week of classes, and it will definitely be a busy semester!  Since I like to post here at least once a week, I figured I could give you a quick update.

Wedding Front:
-I have to meet with the florist over spring break to finalize flowers, again. Apparently I'm indecisive when it comes to that topic. Catch up on my past floral adventures here. I have decided I really don't like the rose+gerber combo for my bouquet, but my florist don't just want me having ivory gerbers in my bouquet. Not enough color or something. So, she wants to meet with me to see my facial expressions when she shows me samples. 

Gerbers + Roses; Source

Just Gerbers; Source

-And, not that I'm not already busy enough on spring break as it is (read about that here), I will also be meeting with someone for make-up for the Bridals + Wedding Day. Not that I mind, of course, just not always fun adding things to the To Do list.

-Matt & I have dropped the ball on the wedding website, but this weekend we are going to spend a couple of hours on that. Any other info should go on there besides hotels, registry, things to do in the city, and where the ceremony and reception venues are?

School Front:
-Speaking of the Vegas conference, I have to have my thesis DONE by March 1st. That means in the next 5 weeks, I have to write 3 chapters of my thesis, edit it, get all the citations right, etc. Everyone assures me I'll be fine, but it is still intimidating. At least when the thesis is due to the A&M people in late March, that won't be a big deal. 

-Classes will be intense, unlike last semester. I'm taking a graduate level course which will be interesting, but it took me all weekend to do the readings for it. My other classes won't be a breeze either, but I am taking yoga, and I think I'll need it.

So any advice on the flower front?? Why is it so tricky for me to just pick something and move on???

MIA + Flower Mania

Sorry I've been MIA lately...I can't even blame it on school. For the first time ever since I've been in college, my finals are not even a concern. I know, I'm lucky! They aren't cumulative. The format is multiple choice/matching on each and I think one of them has an essay. I barely have to pass either of them to get an 'A' in the class. Yup, I know I got off easy. 

If it's any consolation, next semester won't be like this. At All.

Anyway, so in my non-busyness of school, I have managed to do several other things, like find a rehearsal dinner dress (originally $40, got for $8!), watch Burlesque (really good, BTW), and work some extra hours. I have also made some changes to my floral. 

Being a typical Type A, over-planner, perfectionist bride-to-be, I have spent HOURS looking at various wedding websites, blogs, etc. And I have recently fallen in love with the amazing and beautiful Gerber Daisy:

Source

My original floral plan involved roses, calla lilies, freesia, etc. It was going to be really pretty, no doubt. Here was my original bouquet inspiration:

Source

So yes, it is pretty, but I love the look of the Gerber Daisy. To personify a flower, it is happy, lighthearted, and informal. Pretty much the vibe we want for the wedding. I emailed our florist to ask her about the cost difference, and it's gonna be cheaper! Even better :)


Right now we're trying to figure out if we're going to combine it with anything, but here is what I've found and really liked thus far:

Source

So obviously the bigger of these bouquets is for the bride and the smaller for the BMs, but I think I like the smaller ones better, the one with no roses. So maybe do that for me and this for the BMs [obviously not in these colors]

Source

I didn't know if maybe I didn't like the gerbers+roses because of the color contrast, though. My florist suggested having the gerbers and roses being in the same color group. It's just hard for me to envision the flower things being all put together.

Anyway, what do you think? What do you like better for each the bride's bouquet and the BMs' bouquets? Any other advice/suggestions?

Registry + 2 days, 5 vendors- Part 2

Before I continue with this, in somewhat exciting news, Matt and I got to register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond yesterday. Some of the pickins' were pretty slim, especially being the one located in a large college town, so we'll be finishing it up tomorrow in Houston. But, we did get a lot of items and random cool, things. Here are some pictures to prove that we, too, can work a scan-gun thing.

Don't worry, we did NOT register for pink towels. That would be cruel.

And moving on...

Where were we? Oh yes, we had just finished our first tasting at Kiss the Cook Cakes and admired there amazing pastry skills. OK, so then we went to lunch, numero uno mistake. So not hungry. I think I ate a third of my salad at McAlisters, though my family and Matt somehow ate most of their lunch. Not sure why or how, because shortly thereafter, we had tasting two at Bakery B, mistake numero dos, which I'll explain later.


So we arrive at this bakery, are seated at a table, and then taste a chocolate, almond, vanilla, and amaretto flavors. They were definitely good, though not as good as the first one in all of our opinions. Also, her estimate was a decent bit cheaper than our Bakery A, and the quality of her gallery showed it. In addition, when I wanted suggestions as to the design of the cake, she said that we didn't need to decide on that today, though I had LOVED that Bakery A had taken the time to do that. However, I really liked her, though, as a person. She was very sweet and I was not looking forward to sending her the rejection email, but I guess that's part of the deal.

Following being stuffed with excessive sugar [we couldn't even finish all the samples!], we left and went to meet with Florist B, LZ Floral. Florist B was unfamiliar with the church we're getting married at, so we met her at the church. AND I was able to take sanctuary pictures for y'all:

Ahh, the beautiful windows that look out into the trees. So pretty...

I really liked Florist B. We actually sat down and talked about the flowers we wanted, and she had a lot of examples of her previous work. Florist A had already 'decided' on flowers, though I'm sure we could have changed it. I just did not know what Florist A's flowers would look like all put together, so it was a lot harder for me to imagine than with Florist B. Also, Florist B really got along well with my family, especially when my brother and Matt started brainstorming crazy ideas for the wedding, such as kilts and zip-off skirts. What's better is that Florist B was able to get us a quote a couple of hours after we left, so yay for quick service! In addition, her quote was competitive with Florist A, which is something we were worried about.

And so that finishes the meeting with 5 vendors. I think you could guess, but the choices we went with were Florist B, LZ Floral, and then Bakery A, Kiss the Cook. I'm so excited to see what they do with the flowers and cake, respectively. It makes it so much more real, being able to envision all of those components of the wedding, in addition to really liking the photographer.

But here are some suggestions from me to any prospective bride that's reading this:
1) Do NOT schedule cake tasting back to back. I would suggest giving yourself SEVERAL hours between each, if you have to do them on the same day. Otherwise you're still full from the last one, and you cannot really enjoy the cake fully.

2) I really liked only having 2 bakeries to choose from. I could not imagine having more than that to pick from, because I would think the tastings would run together. "Wait, chocolate A, B, C, or D?" It just would get mixed up...

3) Come with ideas for both. I brought some swatches of my bridesmaids' dresses, along with pictures of bouquets, centerpieces, and cakes that I/we had liked. But also be open to going a different direction, in case your flower of choice is not available in the month of the wedding, for instance.

2 days, 5 vendors- Part 1

So this past Monday, Matt and I drove from College Station down to Houston to, along with my parents, meet with the photographer, Kasey.

Back story: way back in June, right after we got engaged, and I was in my rush to book everything possible because I'm type-A and wanted to get things done, as well as not be left with poor choices, I booked another photographer. However, as time went on, and I stalked more wedding photogs' sites as well as other brides' blogs, I was really uncomfortable with the photographer we had booked. I just didn't feel excited about the pictures in their gallery. And besides the marriage, what's left after the wedding? Pictures! So for me, it was a very important aspect.

Being on a budget of course made it difficult to find one I really liked but could afford, until a friend of mine that is getting married in the same area suggested Kasey. I checked her website out, and really got excited about it. I contacted her, canceled the booked photog, booked her, and the rest is history.

Ok, so we met with her Monday. Then all day Tuesday, we had 4 appointments- 2 florists, 2 bakeries. First we went to Florist A, who my parents had already contacted and received a quote from. After a consultation, we were able to get our price down (yay!) and were pretty happy with her. Moving on...

After a brief stop at Starbucks and Men's Wearhouse (my brother needed to pick up a suit)...

Side note- I failed to mention that along with us on this wedding planning extravaganza, we had: Matt and me, my brother, and both my parents. Quite a packed Rav-4, and I hope we didn't overwhelm the vendors, but we had fun.

So, as I was saying, after the brief stops where we might have annoyed the employees and Men's Wearhouse, we headed off to Bakery A, Kiss the Cook Cakes.

We checked out the beautiful cakes on display...

All credit goes to Kiss the Cook cakes

And then the fun part, the tasting!!!!!

Wow, was that cake good! We tasted chocolate with chocolate ganache, butter cream, lemon, and butter cream with raspberry filling. And of course, while we're eating this delicious cake, I'm being asked about the cake, what I wanted, etc. What I really liked about this baker is she took the time to listen to you and really offered a lot of input to the design. While some brides may not like that, since I had quite an amorphous view in my head, I was wanting some guidance, and we created a gorgeous cake that I think will look so beautiful!!!!

And now I gotsta go, but I will hopefully post the subsequent parts later today or tomorrow!

And more progress!

I think the last few days I'll split into several posts because several things happened:
-Met with the photographer and signed a contract
-Met with two florists
-Met with two bakeries and did two tastings (so... much... cake... too... much...sugar!)

So, as to not overwhelm you guys with one looooong post, they'll be in installments, plus pictures!

But, to leave you in some suspense, I will leave you with these topics: kilts, zip-off wedding gowns, and a commandeered ambulance