Embellished Weddings

I think I am going to start doing some posts called “Real Life” because let’s be honest, as much as I love weddings and the glamorous element of them, I am also a mommy to three beautiful children (two years old and under ) and my life is plain messy at home. I would love to show you a bit of my life outside of planning weddings.

So, let’s begin by stating the reason why you have not seen a blog post in several weeks. It is because this little man entered our lives on January 11th. His name is Caden and here he is at just a few hours old:

Loved having some sweet, dear friends get to meet Caden at the hospital. You might know them as Holli B. Photography and Taylor Jill Designs:

We have loved playing at home, going to the Science Museum, going to Chick-Fila to play and eat lunch, etc. One of the very best decisions I made was to turn off my work e-mail on my phone. I have thoroughly enjoyed it not beeping and giving my kids 100% attention. It has made the maternity leave feel more like a break from work. With my other kids, I feel like I was always on my phone checking e-mails during middle of the night feedings, etc. Not this time around. I am still answering e-mails from my laptop after the kids are in bed, or when they are at Mother’s Day Out.

Here is a “real life” picture. No editing. No pointing the camera in the direction of the clean part of the house. Colton is only wearing a diaper. Addie is wearing a shirt only. Caden is crying. They have dumped every toy they own all over the house and in their rooms and are loving playing with everything. THIS IS JOY! Embrace the mess. Embrace the imperfections. Embrace real life.

I will be really honest and say that I have very easy deliveries, and very easy recoveries from having babies. I don’t know if it is a genetic thing, or the fact that I stayed active and at the gym during all 40 weeks of pregnancy, or what, but I feel GREAT after having a baby. With that being said, we have known for months about my husband’s work conference in Florida for Young Life. Our hotel and airfare has been booked since October. We were just going to see how I was feeling and how Caden was and make the decision to go or not.

Well, we both were great and healthy, so we dropped off the two older kids at grandma and grandpa’s house for the week of January 23-29 (you could only bring nursing babies 18 months and under to the conference). Then my husband, Caden and I packed up our bags and headed to Florida to meet 4,000 international Young Life staff members for a celebration. We had meetings, worship time, rest time, etc. They shut down Sea World one night just for Young Life to come and enjoy it. We also went to Disney World. We had an amazing time!

It was kind of hard to be at Disney World without my little Addie girl, because she LOVES all things princess right now. I knew she would love seeing them. So I spent some time at the park getting all of the princess autographs and taking a picture with them to fill up an autograph book for Addie.

Caden is just over 2 weeks old. He has had a busy first couple of weeks of life. He has done so great and been such an easy, laid back baby. It was very nice to have a week with Caden as the “only child.” We would have never gotten that if we didn’t take this trip to Florida. We would just be living the crazy life at home with 3 kids!

Now, I need to go answer 57 e-mails while the kids are at MDO.

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a great holiday break! I know we had a great time with our families! My goal was to get all of the 2011 weddings blogged by the end of December, but I decided to take some much needed time off and unplug from everything and focus on my husband and kids! And it was WELL WORTH IT! Love my family so much!

So, now I am back to blogging the 2011 weddings. I am very happy to start the new year with this wedding from last June. Extravagant. Elegant. Romantic. Those are just a few words to describe Shelby and Cody’s big day!

Their day was truly spectacular. There were so many amazing details that made it “just them.” Here are a few of the vendors that made their day amazing:

Florist: Flowers by Ramon (in Lawton, where the bride and groom are from). Lori and Ramon and their staff did ONE INCREDIBLE JOB! The centerpieces were huge and unbelievable!

Photographer: Kevin Paul Photography

Ceremony: First Presbyterian Church in Guthrie, Oklahoma

Reception: Sand Plum Event Center

Lighting: IES

Cakes: Amy Cakes

Specialty Coffee Bar: Cafe Evoke

Vintage Car: Kings

One more thing! We definitely cannot blog about Shelby’s big day without sharing the behind the scenes story of how she got her wedding dress! Talk about a dream come true and a true fairy tale. Click here to read her AMAZING wedding dress story!!

We loved being a part of your big day Shelby and Cody! We are so excited for all that is to come in your life! Congratulations!

Here’s to hoping I can blog all the 2011 weddings by the end of the year. Or at least, most of them.

We loved working with Jenny and Eric throughout their planning process. Alex did the majority of the behind the scenes work and helped design a stunning ceremony and reception at The Skirvin. It was gorgeous!

A few of the highlights from this wedding: The flowers were done by Tony Foss and were of course- over the top amazing. The bouquets, the centerpieces, the flowers for the cake–all stunning. Jenny designed custom koozies as favors for her guests which were a hit. And probably, one of the most fun parts of the night was one Pistol Pete made an appearance. Jenny surprised her dad and it was such a fun moment. The guests went crazy and it was a very enjoyable part of the night.

And a behind the scenes story to share to help keep things real and to show that we take care of any last minute things that come up, good or bad. On the night before the wedding, we were getting ready to start the rehearsal at The Skirvin. Everyone was there, but the minister. The minister was no where to be found. After many phone calls, it was confirmed that he lost track of time and was not going to make it in time to the rehearsal. Without skipping a beat, I welcomed the guests and lead the entire rehearsal and informed them of how the ceremony would take place the next day. It went great! And the next day, the ceremony was flawless and you would have never known that the minister was not there the night before.

We loved helping Jenny and Eric with all of their wedding plans. Thank you for letting us be a part of it. Happy 6 month anniversary (as of yesterday)!

(Thank you to Tara Lokey for the pictures to use for this blog post).

Well, friends, it is almost here. The winter wonderland wedding that we have been planning for one year is this weekend! We cannot believe it. We have worked very hard behind the scenes making sure the design is flawless and that every detail is not just taken care of, but is beyond perfect for the bride and groom. Krystle and Travis are getting married this weekend and we are so happy for them! Here are just a few pictures that the bride sent me right when she got engaged. These pictures are the inspiration behind the design that we came up with.

Cannot wait to work with a stellar team this weekend to create the winter wonderland wedding the bride has dreamed of! Krystle and Travis, we are so excited for you. Do not worry about the details. We will take care of everything. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy each other. We are so happy for you!

(I am so sorry to say, that I do not have the original source for these images as the bride simply e-mailed them to me. I will try to update with links as I find them.)

You have no idea how much we adored (and still do!) Jenny and Ben and every detail that was involved at their wedding. It was extremely personal and perfectly reflected the bride and her style.

Alex was their wedding planner as I (Amanda) had another wedding that I was planning on that day. Remember, this is the same day that we had 2 outdoor receptions with a 90% chance of rain. (Side note: I cannot brag on Alex enough. Alex worked with Embellished Weddings the majority of 2011 and was AMAZING and incredible, and brides loved her and she did a fabulous job planning weddings. Jenny’s wedding was perfect because of all the hard work Alex did behind the scenes. Oh, and thanks to Kaitlin too as she was one of our summer interns that worked on this wedding as well).

Okay, back to Jenny and Ben’s wedding. It was very special, unique, and lots of homemade, DIY details were all over the place. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures:

Some of the important details:

Wedding Ceremony: Crown Heights Christian Church

Reception: In the bride’s stunning backyard!

Rentals (Tables, Chairs, linens, burlap runners, and more: Marianne‘s

Florist: Tony Foss

Photographer: friend of the bride and groom’s from Arizona: Chris Ward

Bridesmaids Dresses: JCrew

Centerpieces, Vintage Doors, Wood Sign, Photo booth, Mason Jars, Frames, Suitcases: All provided and made by the bride

Lighting: IES (I so wish I had a picture of how incredible the lighting was. Bistro lighting surrounded the perimeter of her backyard, and hundreds of mason jars of all different sizes with votives in them were hanging from multiple trees in her backyard. STUNNING!

Wasn’t her wedding just spectacular? I loved getting to help Alex with some of the details, and get to know Jenny and Ben better. They are one of the sweetest couples we know! Too bad they live in Arizona and I don’t get to see them much after the wedding!

Congratulations and Happy (almost) 6 Month Anniversary Jenny and Ben! We are still so happy for you!

There is a lot that happens behind the scenes on any given wedding day. Most of it is simply executing details and making sure everything gets done. Every once in a while, there will be a glitch in the set up and we are professionally making last minute decisions to make sure everything gets taken care of properly and smoothly.

On June 11th, 2011, we encountered one of our most stressful days regarding weddings and weather thus far. We had two weddings on June 11, 2011. And both of the receptions were outside. That all sounds great until you wake up at 6:00am on the day of wedding and see a forecast that looks similar to this:

Sunny all morning. Rainy in the afternoon. To make a long story short, I woke up to the most beautiful, gorgeous outdoor wedding weather a bride could dream of. However, the forecast was saying that it was going to storm around 3:00. We had to decide that morning, while the sun was shining perfectly, if we were going to move it inside or not. Because wherever it is set up at 10:00am, is where the reception will be. We took the chance, that perhaps it may not rain, or only sprinkle, and we set everything up outside at both outdoor receptions.

Set-up was going perfectly. 10:00am-2:30pm was absolutely gorgeous, stunning weather. Then 2:45 hits, and there are some really dark clouds rolling in. It definitely looks like it is going to pour down rain very soon.

Thankfully, that morning, we were prepared and the groom, which conveniently worked at Lowes, brought us 25 large plastic drop cloths to cover each guest table individually, the lounge areas, the food table, cake table, etc, in case it were to rain.

These came in very handy and we used every last one of them. My staff and I were running around the outdoor reception making sure every linen was covered, every chiavari chair was covered, that every last item was perfectly protected in case it were to start pouring down rain.

Sure enough, 10 minutes later, it starts POURING. The entire outdoor reception is being rained on. And, my staff and I, stood back, in perfect peace, because nothing was being ruined. We were just praying the rain would stop so our evening ceremony would take place.

And sure enough, it did. The rain stopped about an hour later. My staff and I took off every drop cloth and adjusted centerpieces and took care of final, last minute details, and 30 minutes later, guests began arriving for an outdoor ceremony and reception that took place in the sun. Not one guest had a clue what went on behind the scenes. They simply thought they were a guest at a gorgeous, outdoor ceremony and reception.

All the while, Alex, the wedding coordinator for the other June 11th wedding, was taking care of all of the details at her outdoor reception to make sure everything went smoothly and that nothing was ruined.

It was a bit of a stressful day behind the scenes, but we try to remain calm at all times and simply take care of what needs to get done. We are very happy to say that two gorgeous, outdoor receptions took place on a day with 90% of chance of rain, and nothing was ruined and everything went great!

Well, there you have it. The honest truth about what went on behind the scenes. Just another reason we recommend all brides have a wedding coordinator, so you are not the one that has to worry about those details. We take care of everything, professionally and perfectly.

Remember that one time, when I wrote in this post, that you might be seeing summer weddings being blogged about in November. Well, here they are. We had such a fun and busy summer and it is nice to remember all the amazing details that took place months ago to make these weddings extra special. Sadly, I do not think I will get them all blogged in two days, so you will probably see summer weddings being blogged about in December too. No big deal, right?

Meet Melissa and Matt:

Melissa and Matt are an incredible couple! They went through a lot during the planning process including a new job for Melissa, and Matt was in a car accident just weeks before the wedding. They love each other so much and are very supportive of each other. It is so nice and refreshing to see. And I cannot blog about Melissa and Matt without mentioning Melissa’s daughter, Emma. She is a doll and I loved having her join us for a few of the wedding appointments. We talked all about Tangled, her being the flower girl, and what kind of items we should offer at the kids table at the wedding!

Their wedding was nothing short of amazing! It was on June 11, 2011 and took place outside at the Gaylord-Pickens Heritage Museum. The wedding was on the front steps of the museum, and the reception was back in their garden area. It was gorgeous!

Some of my favorite details:

Photographer: Aaron Snow

Cakes: Sugar

Soda Bar: Pops

Florist: The Flower Girls

Personalized M&M Favors: 42nd Street Candy Company provided the M&M’s (for Melissa & Matt)

Bride and Groom Tom’s

Their wedding was very special and included a lot of personal elements, which is one of my favorite things. I was very honored they chose and trusted Embellished Weddings to make sure every detail was taken care of. Congratulations to Matt and Melissa. Happy (almost) 6 month anniversary!

Thank you to Aaron Snow for providing all of the amazing images.

Its Whitney Wednesday again!! This time I’m back with some creative favor ideas for you to use! Its always fun for guests to get to leave your wedding and get to take something with them so here are some ideas on what to give…..

Smore kits

Candy Bars (with your weddings colors)

Mason Jars

popcorn bags

(All photos via pinterest)

Welcome to Whitney Wednesday! I am going to share with you some of my “favorite’s of the week” of creative ideas/things to implement into your wedding! I thought, what better way to start this than with one of my very favorite things to use in my home, in weddings, etc and that is the use of MONOGRAMS. I love anything that is personalized and unique, so here are a few ways to use them on your wedding day!

personalized cake with your monogram

adorable monogram shirts for your bridesmaids

Monogram on burlap (as wedding decor or reception)

(all pictures found from pinterest.com)

The summer is an incredible busy season for anyone in the wedding industry. I focus so much on every detail of each of my wedding’s that the blog sort of becomes a quiet place in the summer. Then, when the season becomes a little slower, I am busy resting to gear up for the the busy fall season. Due to either the busyness of weddings, or just taking a moment to rest and enjoy the downtime, I have neglected the blog and neglected to share a lot of fun and exciting news, weddings, engagements, and even a couple of photo shoots that took place this summer! Don’t be surprised if you see some posts coming in November that are showcasing the incredible weddings that took place this summer!

In the midst of the insane wedding season, I decided to take on being the designer behind an editorial photo shoot. Thankfully, I had two amazing interns and one amazing employee that helped me pull it all off! I worked with Amy Rae Photography who took every image with film, and not a digital camera. The pictures are absolutely stunning!

The photo shoot was published on Southern Weddings blog in August. They did an amazing job showing off some of the great southern elements that we incorporated.

A lot of hard work goes in behind the scenes to make sure every single detail is taken care of. There were so many details involved within one design element. And several different vendors to pull it all off. I am so thankful for everyone that was involved:

Lighting: Innovative Event Solutions // Catering: Abbey Rd. Catering // Paper: Paper and Thread and Love Byrd // Furniture: Mood Party Rentals // Trunk, pillows chargers: Pottery Barn // Flowers: The Flower Girls // Rentals: Mariannes Rentals // Cake Stand and Cake: Amy Cakes // Plates and Glasses: BC Clark // Milkglass Containers: Rebecca’s Silver Rose // Details and Decor: Thumbprint tree, large doily ball, banner, peaches, mason jars provided by Embellished Weddings, hanging doily balls from My Haley Girl // Barn: 4T Farms // Bride’s Dress, Veil, and Hairpiece: Bella Rose // Bridesmaids Dress and Jewelry: J. Crew // Hair: Jamy Green Makeup: Jennifer McLaughlin // Groom’s Suit: Tuxedo Junction // Bow Tie: Forage // Clutch: ila handbags

We love when our bride’s hire Oklahoma Photo Booth or OKC Finest Photo Booth, but lately, we have a lot of bride’s that are getting creative and making their own photo booth for their wedding.

One thing to think about if you are making your own photo booth is if you want to incorporate props or not: boas, hates, wigs, and more. One new and popular photo booth prop is photo chalkboard props to write your own saying:

(you can purchase from this Etsy seller)

Also, mustache props, bow ties props, and more are always popular:

(image found here)

We can’t wait to see all of the different photo booth’s our different brides are making. Lots of fun 2012 weddings are being worked on behind the scenes!

I am sure you have heard me say this before: Oklahoma has some amazing wedding vendors. There is a lot of talent in our great state and today, I want to brag on one of the amazing cake designers Oklahoma has to offer: Amy Cakes.

Amy Cullifer is the owner of Amy Cakes and is beyond talented. She has a great team of people behind the scenes helping her make sure every detail is perfect.

Amy Cakes provides bride’s cakes that are amazing and perfect in every way. They taste good. They look good. Amy goes above and beyond to make sure she is creating exactly what the bride wants. Her groom’s cakes are phenomennel and she is one of the best cake designers to make “outside-of-the-box cakes” like sushi, cigars, stadiums, etc.

She has many different cake flavors, fillings, and icing flavors to choose from. You can schedule a tasting and choose any 4 combinations that you want to!

She can also make cupcakes, bridal shower cakes, and more!

I highly recommend Amy Cakes to all of my brides and I know you will not be disappointed by hiring her!

When I decided that it was time for Embellished Weddings to get a new look, I did not think that it was going to be as hard as it has been. I have come across a lot of hurdles that have made this extremely difficult. But, we are almost done and everything should be fully loaded and transferred and look amazing in no time!

We got a new logo, new website, new blog and more! You will notice that the majority of the pictures are not showing up on the blog and that is due to me transferring website hosting companies. The old company has not been as diligent as the new company in making sure everything transferred properly. Please forgive me as I am doing everything in my power to get the images back on the blog soon! I hope by next week, every image is transferred and I can begin adding new blog posts with images!

Thank you for your patience during this time of transfer! Hope to everything fully done soon!

Okay, so I’m not sure about how some of you might feel about the words “trash” and “dress” going together when it comes to your wedding gown… but If you’re anything like me, I think it just might seem a little bit scary. But.. after coming across some really awesome “trash the dress” photo shoots.. and hearing more and more about the trend, I think it’s a pretty neat idea! If you are on the fence trying to decide if you like the idea or not, maybe some of these pictures will help you decide… I thought they were pretty inspiring!

We recently did an outdoor wedding where our bride incorporated some old vintage doors as part of her wedding decor and we thought it was the neatest thing! She had these doors at the front entrance/walkway of her outdoor reception and used them to hang a few pictures on…

I recently came across this picture from Style Me Pretty of vintage doors as a backdrop and thought it was so neat! I love this look- and who would have thought that old doors could be used as such awesome wedding decor!?

Choosing your menu can be a very big part of your wedding planning! There are so many options and kinds of foods to choose from, that it can be difficult. There are definitely certain kinds of foods and drinks that are better for a summer wedding. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Refreshing drinks:

Lemonade or ice tea bars are a great idea! You can pick out different flavors and colors to go with your theme for your wedding. Ex: If your colors are green and peach.. you could do a mint mojito, cucumber lemonade, peach tea etc. Adding fruit into the drinks is also a great and refreshing idea!

(Image found here)

2. Cool appetizers

Shrimp cocktail on ice, fruit and veggie bar, or anything served on a cup or stick that guest can grab and carry around while mingling!

(image found here)

3. Entree selections

Think more of “barbecue” style foods than heavier meats. Any kind of fish is perfect for a summer wedding, as well as chicken and pork, especially with a lime or fruity seasoning.

4. Desserts

Think beyond just cake! Sweets seem to be the most popular part of wedding food for guest.. they always look forward to what will be offered. Colorful candy bars, dessert gardens, dessert bars, are all great ideas and provide no limitations- especially for colorful summer weddings!

A follow up on some gifts for your awesome bridesmaids…last time I left you with some cute clutches that could be fit for any occasion.

Come back for more gift ideas soon!

There are tons and tons of awesome wedding websites and inspiration blogs out there.. we could spend hours and hours at our computers just looking through all the websites. If you are looking to find more wedding inspirations and love to find, collect, and share you ideas- Wedding Gawker is a great place to do that! It is a website that provides a photo gallery and allows you to visually search and discover all kinds of ideas to help you become inspired and plan your wedding. Finding other wedding images of dresses, decor, details, etc., is a great way to get ideas for your own wedding..and this website is very helpful in doing that.

The photos are uploaded by photographers, brides, and other bloggers, and the Wedding Gawker team picks out the best ones. If you like one of the images, you click on it to see more. I think it’s such a great idea to help you pick out your style with out overwhelming  you with too much at once. So, if you are looking for a great website to help with your wedding inspiration and planning, check out this one, and good luck gawking!

A great photographer is one of the top priorities for a brides to do list when it comes to planning her big day. They want someone that will capture all of her big moments and who will produce pictures that will last her a lifetime. There are definitely plenty of fabulous photographers in the OKC area but however great they are, they just cannot be everywhere at once. There is a simple solution to this pesky problem! Place a few disposable cameras at each guest table with a note explaining that it is the guests’ duty to take pictures of each other at their tables, on the dance floor and just goofin’ around at the party. When they are done with the cameras, they are to leave them at the table for the bride and groom to collect so they not only have all the pictures of them two that they want (courtesy of the paid photographer) they now have pictures of all their guests! This is a great way for the bride and groom to reminisce on their special day and also to see how their guests enjoyed it! It is inexpensive and innovative that will add a great detail to your reception!

We know that weddings can become a huge expense.. and we really love to help out brides try to save as much money/stress as possible by helping them budget and providing some ways to help them cut back on budget. We want to see our bride and grooms enjoy a very beautiful day, with out having to worry about how much money they are having to spend!

Here are just a few basic tips that we have come up with that may help you save some money for the big day:

1. Venues

Part of our job is helping brides find the best possible venue for their budget.. and it’s important to pick a venue that is in your budget! Some venues provide more than others (food, tables, chairs, linens etc.) so we always want to do our research and know what you will be getting for your money.

2. Vintage Wedding

I love that the vintage/retro/eclectic trend is so popular right now. Such a great way to cut back on spending money for centerpieces and other decor by using old vintage items that you have, borrow, or get from family or friends. This can also be something really special and meaningful at your wedding.. we enjoy seeing brides using items that were their grandmother’s or have been passed down from other generations.

3. Non traditional flowers

Brooch bouquets, fabric bouquets, and tissue bouquets are all very cost effective alternatives to real flowers.. current trends, and cute ideas!

(image found here)

4. Simple food and alcohol

Instead of doing a full bar- offer just beer and wine/cash bar or other possible options. It seems like the cake is always getting bigger and more elaborate.. but the options are also increasing! Doing cupcakes and other desserts is always a great option and can be displayed in cute ways so that you and your guest can get more bang for your buck! Also choosing more basic foods that most guest would enjoy is a much better choice than picking out elaborate foods that only a handful of guest may like!

5. DIY Projects

This can be anything from doing your own save the dates to making your own decorations for your wedding day. There are always so many great DIY projects that are simple, easy, fun, and cheap! We love checking out the new trends and helping out brides stay up to date on all of the DIY projects that are popular!

One of our brides made this handmade sign for her vintage summer wedding a few weeks ago..