Mrs. Armadillo, Houston, Texas
Age and Occupation: 23, Graduate Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Armed Security Officer
Engagement Date: September 28, 2011
Wedding Date: March 2013
Venue: First Presbyterian Church/Bay City Civic Center
About Me: I’m an oldies-loving, board game-playing, coffee addicted fine arts junkie from Southeast Texas in pursuit of her master’s degree in communication studies who met the goofy, strong, artistic, and unexpected love of her life in the beautiful piney woods of East Texas. Serendipity threw us together again and again (and again) on our college campus before we eventually stuck, but when we finally did submit to destiny, we hit the ground running and never looked back! We’re planning a religious, small town, budget-friendly, DIY-infused “winter becomes springtime” ceremony and reception to celebrate the beginning of our lives together with the people we love the most, and are pouring our hearts and souls into making sure our wedding represents us as a couple down to the nitty gritty details and balances tradition with the quirky individuality that is uniquely and unequivocally “us”!
Well, folks, I think I might as well just come right out and say it: Mr. A and I almost weren’t going to have a honeymoon of any kind after the wedding.
And to be honest, I was pretty OK with it. I mean, we’re both fresh out of college and trying to save up for a house in the next year, not to mention we’re both fairly new to the jobs we currently have and haven’t accrued much vacation time. I told Mr. A I’d be totally OK with just taking a fun trip on our first anniversary, especially after he told me he would most likely be called in for overtime the week after the wedding and there would be no way he could get out of it without using up most of his vacation time.
But then, as the weeks went by and we were both becoming increasingly more stressed about the wedding, there was nothing that sounded better than escaping for a few days after the reception to have some MUCH NEEDED R&R. So, what solution did we come up with? We’re mini-mooning for three days in the Lone Star State! Mr. A is using up about half of his vacation hours, and my boss has graciously given me a few days off after the wedding to go enjoy some time with my newly minted husband. I’m so excited! But where are we headed, you ask?
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
Once my mom was found it was finally time to put my beloved Casablanca dress on.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
I always love the detail shots of the smaller parts of a bride’s look, and anyone who has ever met me knows I believe shoes come first and the outfit comes second. (I bought my wedding shoes two months before I picked out my dress.) My wedding accessories also represented my something old, new, borrowed, and blue.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
While we spent half the day getting ready, the men showed up 30 minutes before picture time, took 15 minutes to unload and pack the ice chests, 10 minutes talking, and five minutes getting ready. Before Mr. Scepter got dressed, MOH/Lil Sis Dolphin delivered his super secret gift. We had agreed that our wedding and honeymoon was more than enough of a gift for each other, but I had something small I had been saving for a while that I wanted to give Mr. Scepter as a reminder of how far we had come.
When I was 14 I had a friend who saved her movie ticket stubs and made artwork with them. I’m not very crafty, but I thought the things she created were cool looking so I decided I wanted to save enough and create my own project. The next movie I happened to go to turned into my first date with Mr. Scepter. I kept the ticket stub from the movie we saw (and hundreds more in the years that followed), but I never knew what to do with it. So I stole an idea I saw in a crappy Ben Stiller movie, and turned it into Mr. Scepter’s wedding gift.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
Our arrival at the venue was met with a cloud, (that passed over as quickly, but caused me a tiny panic attack for about 20 minutes) and these lovely scenes:
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
When our wedding morning brunch was over, we had a few hours to kill before we needed to be at the salon for our hair appointments. I tried to take a nap, but I had too much on my mind to sleep. So, I spent two hours on the couch flipping channels and trying to calm the growing pit in the bottom of my stomach. Time was flying and, before I knew it, three hours had passed and it was time for me and my girls to get our hair done.
I let the girls pick any hair style they wanted, and all of them chose to go with up-dos.
MOH Dancer’s super long hair
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
Some brides say they have trouble sleeping the night before their wedding, but I passed out the moment we came home from the movie and slept until my alarm woke me up at 8:00 am. I am not a morning person (no matter what morning it happens to be), so MOH Dancer and Bridesmaid Fashionista started my morning with a “It’s Your Wedding Day” dance and song that they made up on the spot.
A few months before our wedding I was telling MOH Dancer that I wanted to find a way to spend as much time as possible with our friends and family that had come into town for our wedding. Since we were leaving at the crack of dawn for our honeymoon, the day after our wedding was not going to be an option for us. Luckily, MOH Dancer’s mom came to the rescue and offered to throw a wedding day brunch for all the women in town for the wedding so I could spend a little extra time with them. Brunch is my absolute favorite meal, so despite the fact that I was still clinging to my bad mood from the night before, I was trying to push my emotions aside and prep myself for the see of smiling faces and delicious food. Momma Dancer did an incredible job setting up the room and cooking the food.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
I apologize for my absence for the last month and a half. Life and work gets really busy for us (and the rest of the world) around the holidays. In the last month alone we have traveled about 2,000 miles and have attended three weddings! Going to so many weddings had me reminiscing about our own, so let the recaps recommence!
When I left off we had just ended our short rehearsal and it was time to say goodnight to all of the extended family. I scheduled our rehearsal dinner/rehearsal to end early (8:30) on purpose so I could spend some time with some of my good friends who had come in to town for our wedding. Amarillo doesn’t have a ton of night life, so we opted to go to a late movie.
Image from themoviedb.org
While the guys opted to see Ted the ladies took a different route and chose to watch Channing Tatum shirtless for two hours. I was so excited to be able to have some fun with my friends, but for whatever reason, my mood was starting to turn from relaxed and happy to sad/upset/somber. Something about being in the same place where Mr. Scepter and I had began our relationship, exactly 10 years earlier, made me super aware of what was going to happen the next day and all of the emotions I had been suppressing for three days bubbled to the top and began to cause an inward freakout.
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Mrs. Armadillo, Houston, Texas
Age and Occupation: 23, Graduate Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Armed Security Officer
Engagement Date: September 28, 2011
Wedding Date: March 2013
Venue: First Presbyterian Church/Bay City Civic Center
About Me: I’m an oldies-loving, board game-playing, coffee addicted fine arts junkie from Southeast Texas in pursuit of her master’s degree in communication studies who met the goofy, strong, artistic, and unexpected love of her life in the beautiful piney woods of East Texas. Serendipity threw us together again and again (and again) on our college campus before we eventually stuck, but when we finally did submit to destiny, we hit the ground running and never looked back! We’re planning a religious, small town, budget-friendly, DIY-infused “winter becomes springtime” ceremony and reception to celebrate the beginning of our lives together with the people we love the most, and are pouring our hearts and souls into making sure our wedding represents us as a couple down to the nitty gritty details and balances tradition with the quirky individuality that is uniquely and unequivocally “us”!
Remember when I posted about my experience in buying ruby slippers to wear for the wedding to pay homage to my childhood obsession with The Wizard of Oz? In case you need a refresher, here’s the short version: I bought some ruby slippers made from red sequins from a seller on Etsy, and they weren’t what I was expecting in terms of quality, particularly for the price. So, I sent them back.
OK! So, after sending the original shoes back, I started brainstorming on ways I could make them myself. My first inclination was to just glitter a pair of shoes with a mixture of fine red glitter and Mod Podge, but after thinking it over, I decided I wanted something with a stronger effect. After all, The Wizard of Oz and my obsession over wanting to be Dorothy as a kid is a HUGE part of who I am today (I collect Oz memorabilia, have all the books, etc.), so I wanted these shoes to be show stoppers. I traveled over to the DIY section of Weddingbee for inspiration, and there I found multiple ladies who had strassed their shoes using different sizes of rhinestones and industrial adhesive called E-6000:
DIY Peacock Bling Shoes from Weddingbee user miss_n_hope
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
We hadn’t planned on having a rehearsal, (our venue charges an extra $200 to have rehearsal the night before the wedding) but we wanted to do a very quick run through just to make sure everyone knew what order they were walking in/who they were walking with.
Once dinner had been cleared away, we rounded up everyone at the back of the room and Brother Scepter attempted to walk everyone through the order of the ceremony.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
We wanted the rehearsal dinner to be a small thank you to our bridal party, so we chose to give each of them their gifts between dinner and dessert.
My brother (our minister) and his friend, Tanner, (who played guitar during our processional) were leaving on a month long mission trip to Slovenia two days after our wedding, so we gave each of them a funny card with some cash inside for their trip.
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
I never got around to blogging about out rehearsal dinner, but we decided to have a medium sized rehearsal that included our bridal party, their dates, our immediate families, grandparents and any aunts and uncles that had made the trip to be there for our wedding day. In the end we had about 25 people at our dinner. We chose to hold our rehearsal dinner at our favorite Japanese Steak House, Sakura. Sakura is technically a hibachi style restaurant, but they also have a nice event room in the back of the restaurant that was the perfect size for our dinner.
We pre-chose three options for our guest to choose from and Mr. Scepter’s mom made cute menus to display the choices:
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
Thankfully, the day of our rehearsal dinner was super relaxing. The day before our wedding was mine and Mr. Scepter’s 10 year dating anniversary, and even though we had a lot to do that day Mr. Scepter brought me a croissant from my favorite local bakery. (These aren’t just any croissants, and if I hadn’t immediately stuffed my face with it I would have taken a picture to prove it.)
After Mr.Scepter left, Sherlock and I finished up some last minute wrapping of our bridal party gifts:
After gifts had been wrapped, and everyone rolled out of bed my mom, sister, bridesmaids and I headed off to the salon to get mani/pedis for all! (Unfortunately MOH Dancer had to work that morning, but we did hijack Groomsmen M’s wife so she could partake in our girly time.)
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
The Thursday before our wedding was the kick-start to our wedding weekend. I woke up feeling pretty relaxed, but it quickly evolved into a ridiculously stressful day. Our venue did not have an event the night before our wedding, so they graciously offered to let us set up on Thursday.
Before venue setup could begin I had a dentist appointment and I needed to pick up Bridesmaid Fashionista from the airport. As soon as Bridesmaid Fashionista had been picked up (and fed) the rest of our mini army showed up at my parents’ house to help us pack the cars. It took 11 people 15 minutes to load five cars. It was sheer madness, and as much as I love my mom (and her incredible amount of help) she was driving me a little crazy with the drill sergeant like way of ordering our friends around. The minute Mr. Scepter and I got in the car I promptly started crying my eyes out. I’m still not sure why, but I knew I needed a break from all the madness. Once all of the water bottles, coolers, candles, candle holders, chalkboard frames, buckets, program fans, and everything else we had spent a year making and/or buying was unloaded, a little weight started to lift off my chest.
It was a little crazy to watch the elements of our reception come together, but when it was finished I absolutely loved it. After the venue was set up, I grabbed Bridesmaid Fashionista and went to have the only “alone time” I could fit in, which consisted of the two of us running to the mall to pick up some last-minute gifts for my parents.
At the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted, so Bridesmaid Fashionista decided to cheer me up by giving Mr. Scepter and me our wedding gift. (Which for the record was one of my favorite gifts.) The first part of her awesome gift played into my love of board games:
Image via Amazon
The game alone would have been the perfect gift, but then Bridesmaid Fashionista solidified herself as best gift giver ever, by gifting us these amazing shirts:
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Mrs. Scepter, Dallas/Amarillo
Age and Occupation: 23, Social Media Director
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Doctoral Candidate
Engagement Date: July 18, 2011
Wedding Date: July 2012
Venue: Country Home Weddings
About Me: I am a born and raised Texan who bleeds burnt orange. (Hook 'em!) I moved to Dallas after college to be near my fiance while he works on his doctorate degree. In my free time I love eating, video chatting with friends, watching every trashy reality show I can find, and playing with our adorable basset hound, Sherlock. My fiance and I have been dating since we were 14 and we are so excited to plan our relaxed, hometown wedding. After a decade of dating, that included three city moves, and four years of long distance, we are ready to get this show on the road!
I don’t know that anyone would have guessed that 10 years (and one day, to be exact) after Mr. Scepter and I started dating we would end up here:
But luckily for us, after four years of long distance dating, moves to three different cities and two college degrees later, we ended up right where we were meant to be.
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