Clarification

After my post about our wedding venue a friend asked me..."so your ceremony will be in front of the big green wall?" At the Courtyard there is indeed a very large wall fully covered in green ivy. However, I will NOT be getting married in front of said green wall. I absolutely hate it! Now keep in mind this is my opinion and mine only, truth be told the "green wall" is the most popular ceremony site of the two that they have at the venue. It is great and I can see why brides love it. Most people chose to get married there over the balcony/courtyard area. In fact I had trouble finding pictures of weddings at "my site". However the look just isn't for me. Also, some of it has to do with the ballroom, each site is tied to a different ballroom and I preferred the larger of the two, which meant the green wall was out for me. Just thought I'd clear that up ;)




To all those "big green wall" brides out there, sorry if i offended you, the site is beautiful...just not my taste...I'm always a little bit of a rebel ;)

Baby on board

Here is a picture of my sweet girl...look at those CHEEKS! Pinch-able!

So this morning I am blogging with a baby on my lap :) Samantha to be exact. She seems to prefer sleeping in my arms/on my lap rather than in her bassinet...OK who am I kidding? I prefer her to sleep in my arms, ahhhh baby love :) Today is Mommy's first official day back to work, which means that this is also my first official day back at work. Ive been part time for a few months now which has been great, but I am soooo ready to get into a full routine with the cutest 2 1/2 month old I know ;)

In other news we have officially decided on and "reserved" tuxes for the wedding! I know this may not sound like a huge deal, but for anyone who has ever planned a wedding, you know that anytime you can put a big X through something on your checklist it has been a GREAT day! We picked a two button black Calvin Klein tux with a black vest and black tie for the guys. For Matt it's the same tux with a white vest and white tie. The tie has wide stripes which is my fave part. At first Matt was hesitant to go with white but after showing him a million pictures of his options he was "swayed" lol


This is the tux (without the vest)


This is the guy's vest, but the tie will be striped, the website wouldn't let me change the tie, ugh
Matt's is the same...only white.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! I'm off to get ready for our 1o Am feeding, bound and determined to get cheeks on a schedule!

Wedding Venue

When I started planning our wedding the first thing I decided to do was pick a venue. I didn't even pick a date until be booked the venue (in case they didn't have availability). First I made a list of about 20 venues, I'm sorry to those of you received those first few emails...they were LONG. I only had a few requirements: I wanted to be able to have the ceremony and reception at the same place, I wanted to be married outside and I didn't want to have to do alot of decorating to make the space beautiful. That short list quickly ruled out about 7 or 8 places, next my parents and I did "drive bys", which actually proved to be extremely helpful. There were quite a few places that I crossed off the list just by driving by, once place was beautiful online, and Im sure inside as well but it was right off an ugly part of Westheimer, behind a whataburger?!

The first place we actually toured was The Gallery, it was amazingly beautiful, with sort of a Tuscan feel. I loved the ceremony site, outdoors of course on a patio with stone everywhere and a cute little fountain in the middle. The reception room was amazing, 2 stories with a large wooden bar at the top and stone everywhere. I immediately fell in love and wanted to book asap, but there was just one problem....everything, and I mean everything was "al la carte" so to speak. We were told that nothing was included, we would have to find a caterer, linens, bar, table and chair rentals in addition to the normal cake baker, band, string quartet, photographer. See I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it. I never pictured my self with an all inclusive venue but I at least expected tables and chairs! lol So I basically held on to this dream for a week or do, did some research in to caterers and such and decided that it was just way to much work and money.

Luckily the next place was even more perfect :) My parents had driven by The Courtyard On St James Place without me, and my Mom "just knew" I would love it.Man that woman knows me well because after one visit I was sold and ready to sign on the spot. It is tucked away in a seclude spot in the middle of the Galleria area. They have a beautiful outdoor courtyard with flowers and twinkle lights everywhere, a huge ballroom that needs no decoration on my part to look amazing, big chandeliers, a stage for the band, huge dance floor etc. Most importantly they included food (which is amazing btw), linens and bar...THANK GOD. Since Matt was already in Dallas I uploaded some pictures for him to see and spent about an hour telling him how much I loved it, 2 days later my Mom and I went back to write a large check (we still haven't told Daddy just how large it was). We picked March 12th which is a Friday because can you believe it all of the Saturdays were taken already! It was between a Friday night or Sunday night, we figured either way people would most likely have to take a day off work. Matt made the final decision, he chose Friday night because he didn't want anyone to leave early, which of course they would do on a Sunday night...What can i say? We like to party ;)

Up top are a few pictures of our FABULOUS wedding venue!

Just not feeling it

I'm having such a hard time getting into this whole blogging thing. I LOVE reading other people's adorable posts but I myself can't seem to get into a blogging rhythm. I'll try harder...promise ;)

I'm in Houston this week trying to get some wedding stuff done. I know it seems super early to be crossing things off my list but I don't think I'll have much time after October. Shannon (my new boss) is going back to work November 5th so I will be full time then and that won't leave me time to do much else. Speaking of WEDDING...Lindsey over at "Longhorn In Houston" had the cutest idea: She has been posting a series of blogs about her wedding, one on proposal, then attendants, etc. It is such a great idea that I think I'm going to steal it, just a tad ;) I already have a wedding website with my proposal story, a bit about my attendants and more. However, it is extremely hard to update so I haven't made any changes to it since I created it a few months ago. People have been asking for more information and more stuff to look at so I'm going to try to start giving wedding updates and some fun insight into my planning. I haven't learned much about how to work this crazy blogger stuff yet so bare with me...I'm gonna give it a go! My next post will be wedding related, and I won't wait a whole month to post again, PROMISE! :)