Wedding Recap Part 1

I would like to reintroduce myself as Mrs. Marissa Elise Allen!! During the planning phase, it felt like the day would never come but Jeff and I finally tied the knot. Our wedding day was everything we had hoped for and more. Our photographer is still working on getting all the images to us but of the ones I have seen, I am impressed! When they say it goes by in a flash, it DOES. I took the wise advice of a few friends and just stopped in the middle of the dance floor and took a look around in an attempt to take it all in. All the love and support in the room was incomprehensible. Each hug, kiss, and well wish was incredibly sincere and we are so fortunate to have had so many people travel from far and wide to share our special day with us. Thank you again!

As promised, I wanted to detail my final impression of all my vendors. This might help the next Texas bride, so make sure to refer them to this post! I also kept note of all the Etsy shops I used for some of the more personal wedding touches. I will provide their links at the bottom of this post as well.

Last post, I introduced my Wedding photographer, Wedding Videographer, and DJ. We are still waiting on photos and the wedding highlight video but when it arrives I will be sure to share it. Our DJ Jake Hans of LeForce entertainment did an incredible job. He played mellow vibes for cocktail hour, R&B Jams our parents used to listen to for dinner, and pumped it up for the final portion of the evening. He was the reason the party kept going! All of our guest stayed the whole night and just raved about how much fun they had tearing it up on the dance floor. I would wholeheartedly recommend his services!

I also want to mention a few thing about our Wedding Venue, Piazza in the Village. My coordinator, Debbie Lovera was nothing short of a God Send. She kept things on time and organized and if it wasn’t a big deal, she didn’t let me find out about it. Her services were included with our package and I would definitely say she was the best value of the whole thing. The venue was pricey, but the convenience they offered was second to none. A professional day of coordinator, chapel and reception hall in one location, and an extensive dinner menu were just a few of the thing offered.

Now for the vendors I kept under wraps…

My mother, mother-in-law, and bridal party were all treated to a day of pampering by Nita at Glammed Up by Nita and Cee Rich from the Hairotic Love Studio. They made everyone feel glamorous and even helped keep my nerves at bay. The both travel and were on time!! I asked Cee for a simple side bun for my bridesmaids and gave her free reign on my do’. She outdid herself; the buns were sleek yet each girl had a unique touch. As far as my hair, she took one look at me, developed a vision and started pinning and pulling. Less than an hour later I emerged looking like a movie star.

Cee Rich operates her own hair studio in Plano, Texas. You can find more information on her website.

The makeup was just stunning. Nita merely enhanced everyone’s beauty. She kept things light as far as foundation but really had fun with the eye makeup. I had a hard time finding a makeup artist that was really comfortable working with darker skin tones but Nita came through!

Nita is a Professional Hair and Makeup artist in the Dallas area. She also lists more information on her website.

This post was pretty long, but I wish I had a guiding force like this when I was shopping for vendors and scouring Etsy for hours looking for the perfect Bridal Party Gifts.

If you aren’t familiar with Etsy, it is an online marketplace where people from all over the world can provide shoppers with unique, personalized, or handcrafted items. If you are looking for the less common, try Etsy.com.

Since we had so many guest coming from out of town, we thought it would be a nice gesture to provide them with a little gift bag when they arrived at their hotel. The custom label came for LabelsRus. His shop can be found here. He has hundreds of styles and also sells water bottle labels!

I wanted to give my hostesses a small token of appreciation and I found these darling bracelets. They came from Layered with Love and the exact links can be found here and here.

It was a little hard to find creative gifts for the groomsmen, but we found these awesome flask gift sets. The flasks were emblazoned with their first initial, and each came with four shot glasses. I found these at the Net Exchange Etsy store here. They were more reasonably priced than Things Remembered and came in a nice box within 3 days of me placing the order. Message him for a discount if you are buying a large quantity!

My Bridesmaid Gifts were my favorite!

I found these adorable totes and had each girls name monogrammed on the front.

I also love a good tumbler, so I had these made with the text in royal blue matching the bridesmaid dresses. My goal was to give them gifts they could use after the wedding!

For their last little surprise, I made hangers for their dresses with a heavy gauge wire and cheap hangers from Walmart. I need insert a special thank you here for my friend Stephanie, she actually finished up most of the hangers when it came down to the final hour before the wedding rehearsal. I got the DIY idea from Etsy and just looked for tutorials on YouTube. I don’t have a picture of those at the moment, sorry! If you don’t have time to make your own, here are a few shops that can make them for you. Try Bridal Bender, Passion And Love, or BudgetWeddingHangers.

One thing I would suggest would be to buy these gifts as early as you can so you don’t have to worry about if they will arrive in time (like I did…)

Lastly, I would like to send a warm Thank You to Stephanie, my parents, and grandparents. Without them, some of my favorite details of the wedding would have never came to fruition! Thanks for helping make the favors, stuff the welcome bags, and paint the photo booth props. Love Ya’ll!!!

In Wedding Recap 2, I will have tons of pictures from the wedding and maybe a highlight video! While we wait for those photos, I will post about the honeymoon and anything else I might have promised you a few months ago : /.