Our Wedding Day

As everyone of you know, a little over two months ago, I married my high school sweetheart, my college buddy, my best friend, my person I turn to in moments of anger, sadness, excitement and joy, my rock, the love of my life, the future father of my children...my Russellbear. After nine years, and one day we finally became husband and wife. People ask if it's different now or if things have changed. My answer is yes and no. We are the same people we were on February 26th as we were when we woke up on February 28th. However, the fact that I get to call him my husband makes things even more exciting. It's a similar feeling to after we got engaged, just excited all of the time. I just love it!

Tyler Schmitt, our photographer with The Mill Photography Studio, sent me the Drop Box of all of our wedding photos yesterday. This post will be just pictures of my husband (ahhhhhh!!) and me. I'll post the rest to Facebook later. The pictures are absolutely amazing! I would recommend him to anyone! From the first look, to the first dance, to the first day of the rest of my life.

 

 

Photo Cred: all photos posted in this blog were taken by Tyler Schmitt of The Mill Photography Studio.

--Mrs. Russell B. Bisbey

Wedding Update: Part 2

Okay, so in the last post, I updated yall on the first half of this list! Now, on to the second half. If I think of anything else as I post this, I'll just add it! :) 

1.  Photography
2. Catering
3. Cake
4. Officiant
5. Alcohol
6. Whataburger
7. Groom's Cake
8. Rings
9. Tuxedos
10. Alterations
11. Make-up
12. Hair
13. Bridesmaids/groomsmen presents
14. Marriage license
15. Wedding insurance

8. Rings- Russell and I went on quite the adventure last week, and the only things good that came out it were these rings and QT together! What was supposed to be a quick trip to Barton Creek Mall to set up our tuxedos account turned into sitting in traffic, getting rear ended, Al's Formal Wear being closed, and flushing a Kendra Scott earring down at the toilet at CPK. If it weren't for finding this rings and having the most amazing experience with Daniel, the salesman at Kay Jewelers, I probably would've had a complete meltdown! :) We chose the following bands. :) My engagement ring is the most perfect ring imaginable as it was Russell's great-grandma's, so I decided to go with a small diamond band. Russell decided on a comfort fit white gold band! 

9. Tuxedos- The next day, we drove back to the mall to go to Al's Formal Wear. I am obsessed with our tuxedo choice! :) 

Love. Love. Love.

10. Alterations- After spending a large sum of money on one garment, who you allow to cut and sew and make changes to it, is a very BIG decision. I ended up going with a lady that Signature Bridal in Bee Cave recommended. Her name is Barbara Jacobs and I love her. :) She was so helpful and honest about what she thought did/didn't need to be done. I can't wait for my next two fittings! :) 

11. Make-up- My sweet friend/bridesmaid, Brooke, told me about Houston Puryear Ward. She is a wedding make up artist in Austin who did make up for her friend Callie's wedding, and they looked flawless!! :) Houston is actually going to be on maternity leave during my wedding, but she sent Angie Hibbs my way! 

The only thing that will be different on my wedding day is my lips won't be as dark, everything else is perfectttt! :) 

12. Hair- Ever since I moved to central Texas, Devin Ayanna has been doing my hair and I LOVE HER. I have followed her to three different salons! :) She will be doing my hair for the wedding! I've already had one trial, but I wasn't prepared AT ALL lol, so I'm going to have another one soon! :) 

13, 14, 15 will come soon! 13 is a surprise and 14 and 15 we haven't done yet, so I'll keep you posted!

It's all coming together!

-Amanda

Wedding Update

I can't believe I haven't posted since November 30th! Needless to say, life has been crazy! :) With teaching, wedding planning, and trying to be a good family member, friend and fiance, the blog has definitely been on the back burner! This post will bring you up to date!! :) 

So, in my last post I said that the following decisions were my only big decisions left! HA. HA. So I thought! I covered Wedding coordinator, flowers and linens! I've already posted about invitations as well! :) So, on to the other stuff! 

1.  Wedding coordinator
2. Cake 
3. Catering
4. Photography 
5. Invitations 
6. Flowers
7. Linens

My new list would include: 

1.  Photography
2. Catering
3. Cake
4. Officiant
5. Alcohol
6. Whataburger
7. Groom's Cake
8. Rings
9. Tuxedos
10. Alterations
11. Make-up
12. Hair
13. Bridesmaids/groomsmen presents
14. Marriage license
15. Wedding insurance

So much for thinking I was almost done with big decisions! :) I'm going to do half of the list on this post and do another post with the rest of it! :) 

1. Photography- Tracy, our wedding coordinator, recommended Tyler Schmitt from The Mill Photography Studio! He photographed her wedding which was pretty similar to what we were going for and I LOVED her pictures! When I contacted Tyler, he made it very simple for us to fall in love with his work! He sent us links to several weddings he had done, and most importantly let us view a wedding he had done at Ma Maison! After meeting him, we were sold! Check him out:  http://www.millphotostudio.com/

2. Catering- Catering was almost the death of me. As this wedding planning process keeps going along, everything is labeled with dollar signs! I knew that catering was a huge chunk of our budget, but I still wanted to be responsible! :) We looked into Dagar's, Austin Catering, Crave, Trudy's and Mopsie's to name a few! We ended up going with Trudy's! Coco Johnson is the Catering Manager there and she has been amazingly helpful through this process! Russell and I had a tasting last week just for good measure and we're super excited! Bring on the queso! http://www.trudysfourstar.com/events-catering.php

3. Cake- We chose to use Classic Cakes by Lori in Dripping Springs! I mostly communicated with Jeremy via email and he was more helpful than you could imagine! :) I sent him five cakes from Pinterest and he literally broke down each cake and told me how much it would cost for them to make them! :) I'm not going to tell you which one I picked! You can guess! http://www.classiccakesbylori.com/

 

4. Officiant- Karen at Ma Maison recommended Scott, The Knot Tyer! :) We met him today for the first time and love him! He's very personable and detail oriented which I LOVE. He sent me an email with 43 attachments. It was probably the most helpful e-mail I've received during this process! http://www.theknottyer.com/

5. Alcohol- Karen also recommended we use Gabriel's in San Marcos. If you buy bottles, what you don't use they buy back, which is amazing! :) I drove down one day and spoke with Nathan Crandall, the manager, and he was so helpful and gave great advice on cheap, but good options. We're doing wine and beer only, so we decided to do a few kegs, a red, a white, and then bottled beer once the kegs are floated. We chose to do bar tending through Trudy's, but bring our own alcohol to save money! http://www.gabrielsliquor.com/

6. Whataburger- I've already told so many people about this, but Russell and I decided to do Whataburger as our end of the night favors! In high school, Russell and I used to sneak out of our houses and go to Whataburger together, so it holds a special place in our hearts, plus it's delishhh! I contacted Whataburger through their website and within a few days, the manager in Dripping Springs contacted me! They're even going to deliver it!

7. Groom's Cake- One of my sweet friends from high school, Kailey (Jones) Johnson, started Cakes By Kailey a little over a year ago in Jasper. She's going to do our groom's cake and we're going to have a friend from Jasper pick it up and bring it! We're so excited about it! That was supposed to be a surprise for Russell, but I couldn't keep it from him! lol https://www.facebook.com/kaileyscakes

I've been a decision making bride-to-be! :) Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way! 

Be right back! ;) 

-Amanda

Coordinator, Linens and Flowers

Back in October I had a meeting with my room mom to discuss the different parties and events for the year. Somehow, my wedding came up and we began talking about what I had already decided on. She was so sweet, but definitely increased my sense of urgency about planning as she used to work in the wedding industry, and I was planning as slow as molasses. 

So, by the middle of the month, I decided Russell and I needed to go out to Ma Maison and talk to Karen and Racheal about our wedding. We discussed the big things left in no particular order.

1. Wedding coordinator

2. Cake 

3. Catering

4. Photography 

5. Invitations 

6. Flowers

7. Linens

(This post will cover coordinator, flowers and linens.)

They put my mind at ease, but definitely helped by giving me a timeline. Karen advised that I should have all major decisions decided by October 31st and all details finished by January, so that the month of my wedding I had nothing to worry about!

They told me who they recommended for everything which was extra helpful starting with wedding coordinator. 

They recommended Tracy Collins with Events by Decisions. That next week, Russell and I set up a meeting with Tracy and decided by the end of it that she was the one, and I am so grateful for her already. :) Ma Maison requires a wedding coordinator, which at first I thought was an optional add-on, but boy was I wrong. 

With Tracy's help, we have linens and flowers decided and she's helped us with invitations, cake and catering! What is the most helpful, is that Tracy gives me her honest opinion. I'm content with most things that a pretty--Tracy helped me put all of the pretty thoughts in my head into a design that makes sense! Thank goodness, because who knows what I would've ended up doing! 

Tracy and I let Russell sit the linens meeting out, which I know he was grateful for! We went to Marquee in North Austin. They have a sale every year where linens are half off! They'll take a deposit on the full price, and then you can pay during the half off sale, which usually ends up being about the price of the deposit. 

After lots of mixing and matching, we decided on the above linens! I'm obsessed with them! 

So, it was the end of October and I had decided on a wedding coordinator and linens, but it's okay-our list of "big decisions" has decreased a lot! 

Flowers came a little later (almost a month), Tracy and I went to Flora Fetish in North Austin. I emailed Carrie (the owner) some flowers that I liked and then we pulled up my Pinterest, so they could see what I was thinking! Going into it, I knew that flowers are expensive, so I was bracing myself for that fact. Here's a little sneak peek of what we're thinking! 

It's starting to feel even more real! 

At the end of the day, even with all of the wedding decisions, I'm the most excited about marrying my best friend.

Next few posts will be on photography, catering and cake! Two of the three have been decided on! Miracle I know. ;)

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Amanda