The Ultimate Wedding Week ~ The Details

Hey everyone!  Welcome to the last day of our Ultimate Wedding Week Link Party!  I have had so much fun sharing our wedding pictures with you all, and I love that so many of you have participated!  It's been so fun seeing all of your weddings!  I want to say a BIG thank you to the other brides who participated with me in this.  A few months ago, when I began blogging, I had an idea for this wedding week.  I have to say, I wasn't sure that many people would be interested since I was so new to blogging...but these ladies were so kind and jumped right on the bandwagon!  I am so glad they did, and I am SO glad that you all have been a part of this too!  So, without further rambling...let me share with you "The Details" of our day!

I wanted to share our invitations with you guys...created by the fabulous Amy Owens of Amo-Ink.  The script was foil stamped onto the paper and they were so so pretty!  Below you can see the different pages, but we used a rhinestone brad in the upper right corner to assemble all of the pages together.  The page with the double chandeliers was the first page of the invite. It was a cool look, and they really set the tone for the whole wedding.  Your invitations are a great way to give your guests an idea of what to expect!  

I found the perfect shoes at Nordstrom by Enzo Angiolini.  So sparkly and beautiful!

My dress was a Maggie Sottero gown, and the style was "Catarina".  Before I even began looking at dresses, I knew that I wanted a one-shoulder gown.  I saw this online, and instantly knew it was the one...choosing my dress was honestly one of the easiest decisions of the whole wedding. 

As for my hair, I wanted it big and pulled to the side.  I had Angie of AW Wedding Hair pin this rhinestone brooch to add some sparkle.  It was an inexpensive piece of costume jewelry, and I love how it looked.  I also knew I wanted bold lips for my special day.  If you live in Dallas, Angie is the girl to hire - she is amazing!

I love flowers, so the flowers were one of my favorite parts of the wedding.  Timeless Fiori in Dallas created all of the flowers and centerpieces for our wedding.  Owner Kim Kinney is also an event planner and owner of Timeless Elegance Weddings.  She helped with our wedding design and did our day-of coordination...She and she is fabulous!

I shared on Monday that we took most of our pictures before the ceremony.  I would highly recommend doing this, and make sure you plan for enough time.  We had a special "First Look", so it was still very special for both of us.   Kortnee Kate Photography did an amazing job capturing our day!  This is one of my favorites :)

Our wedding programs were double sided...The front was the wedding ceremony program and that back is shown below with the wedding party and special thanks at the bottom.

"Four Weddings" ...Whoop Whoop!

Our theme was an extension of the architecture in the chapel where we were married.  I fell in love with the crystal chandeliers the moment we walked into the chapel.  That, in combination with my love of all things glamorous and girly, were what created the design of our wedding.  But, I can't take credit for the design...my sister Dora of Viva Bella Events and Kim of Timeless Elegance Weddings were the brains behind this day.  They took my input and ideas...and created something truly wonderful that I will never forget.

We only added some simple greenery to the candles in the chapel.  It was so beautiful, that we felt like it didn't need much at all.  We used most of our floral budget for the reception flowers instead.  

I would highly recommend a champagne toast after the ceremony...love this picture!

Welcome to cocktail hour!  I had the twinkle lights hung to create a romantic feel.  We also added the chandeliers in the arches.  The pops of pink were a fun way to add some separation of the cocktail hour from the reception.  We had wine and hors d'oeuvres waiting for our guests in this area while we were inside the chapel taking family pictures after the ceremony.

 We transformed the groom's suite into a "Kid's Room" during the reception, and it was a hit!  We had these fun goodie bags waiting for them.  They loved it because they got to play X-box, watch movies, and eat dinner.  We had our caterers serve them chicken fingers, french fries, and fruit.  We also hired two teenage girls to babysit for the reception.  I would highly recommend something like this!  It's fun for the kids, the parents loved it, you're not wasting money on food, and you save seating if you are limited on space!

When our guests walked into the reception lobby, they saw this!  Amo-Ink created these seating cards and my sister Dora embellished them all with rhinestones.  I had my grandfather build a pyramid display, and I spray painted it silver.  We filled each tier with crystals and my florist filled the top with flowers. We put the remaining cards on the table around the display.  This was a fun and simple DIY project that had a big impact! 

Also in the lobby were these shelves that we filled with some of our favorite pictures.  Amo-Ink created these 5x7 cards that had "fun facts" about the bride and groom.  They were framed here, at the bar, and on the cake table.

More fabulous designs by Amo-Ink...our Mr. & Mrs. signs for our chairs!  Loved these!

We had a head table with seating on all sides for the wedding party.  This table was the most extravagant and was the focal point of the reception.  We had tall vases filled with crystals and silver branches.  The branches had hanging crystals, candles, and orchids.  

I shared about our cakes and cinn-a-rolls on Wednesday...I loved this neat display!  We chose to serve our favorite desserts instead of traditional wedding cake...it was delish!

 Here are some more pictures of all the centerpieces and linens.  We used 4 different linens in varying textures and shades of blue and silver.  This was a cool design element that kept things interesting.

We had these menu cards and "party" schedule at each place setting so our guests could know what to expect for the night.

Lighting was a huge element that created the mood for the reception.  Beyond lighting in Dallas really transformed this room.  If it's in your budget, I would recommend hiring a great lighting company...it was well worth it!

For dinner we served caesar salad in martini glasses, filet mignon, asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes.  At around 11pm, we had french fries and chocolate milk shakes in shot glasses as a late night snack.  Unfortunately we have no pictures of them...so bummed!  Our venue, The Piazza, catered the wedding...and it was delicious!

My grandmother, RoRo, baked 250 pans of cinnamon rolls for our guests to take home as wedding favors.  This was before we launched our business of RoRo's Cinn-A-Rolls...so she was making all of these in her little kitchen at home in small batches.  She would freeze them immediately, and worked so hard until she had them all done for our wedding day.  Isn't that amazing?!?

Amo-Ink created these adorable labels that said "Sweet Dreams" for the favors.  This was one of my favorite personal touches of our wedding.

Here is sweet RoRo!

This is my grandfather, Ken, next to the display he built for us.  Our wedding was truly a labor of love!

Twinkle lights at night!

And off we go...the end to a wonderful wedding!

Thank you all SO much for following along these last two weeks!  I have had a blast with this link up, and I am so glad I joined such a sweet community of bloggers! 

My best wedding planning advice was given by my wedding sister, Dora...and that was to pick an overall theme for your wedding, and let that theme play out through all the details.  But, most of all, make sure your wedding day reflects who you are as a couple.  Make it personal and unique to you and your style.  For me that involved chandeliers, crystals, and lots of bling.  But the things I will remember the most are the unique personal touches that reflected us as a couple.

I hope you enjoyed our special day!  I sure enjoyed sharing it with you!

Tune in on Monday ~ I will be sharing about my experience being on TLC's Four Weddings with you guys!

Please link up below and share all the fun details of your wedding day with us!