Heyyyyy! So happy you are here!
I can’t believe that Jake and I have been married a whole FIVE MONTHS. It’s crazy how some of the days in quarantine went so slow but overall time flew by pretty quickly. That is life I suppose! It’s also crazy because immediately after getting married all of the ‘Stay Home’ Orders started going into effect so we got to spend all kinds of QT together during our first 5 months of marriage. I think our marriage can handle anything now! *he he*
I wanted to share our engagement + wedding day story details with you to let you get to know Jake and I better and maybe to even inspire some details for your own wedding day! Or, if you are like me.. you just like seeing people’s wedding photos, design, etc! Grab some popcorn and a drink because this post became rather lengthy..
To give you guys a little back story on Jake & I + our engagement story, we met in 2013 through mutual friends, we were both in the ‘Find Yourself’/’YOLO’/’Do You’ stage of life but we remained friends for several years until we started dating officially on July 31st, 2017. Since we had already known each other quite a while and both knew what we wanted at this point we decided to finally make it official after all of those years of beating around the bush – ha! We moved in together a few months later and adopted our sweet pup, Tanner [things were getting serious ๐ ]. In October 2018 we took a sixteen day trip to Italy and Greece. It was my first time to Europe and truly a trip of a lifetime for the both of us! Our second stop of the trip was in Positano, Italy. We rented a room at a boutique hotel overlooking the ocean and it was breath taking. After settling in our room, we decided to take a stroll around town and on the beach. We had bought a tripod just for this trip so we decided to set it up on the beach to get a couple photos together. I remember it being EXTREMELY windy this day for some reason and right when I thought we were done “taking the photo” Jake got down on one knee and popped the question. He actually had the tripod set up to video the proposal but it blew down half way through. We were able to snag some photos from it tho. It wouldn’t be our proposal if it didn’t go like this – haha! I have never seen this guy SO nervous before. He was trembling and not sure how many words he actually got out but it was perfect – the perfect place, the perfect dude and the perfect ring. I’ll never forget this moment and how awkward we both felt walking off the beach after we noticed all of the spectators we had.
We (I) didn’t want to even talk about wedding planning for atleast 3 months following our engagement. I wanted to really enjoy being engaged and let it all soak in. In early 2019, we went back and forth between eloping or having an intimate destination wedding. With our families input aka my moms[all of you brides know how that goes], we decided on an intimate wedding of about 50 of our closest people in Alys Beach, Florida. Well, we invited around 90 people and 50 people attended. Here are the dets!
Since our guests were making quite the trek to Florida to celebrate our Big Day, we decided to host a Welcome Party vs. a more traditional Rehearsal Dinner. We wanted to have this night to socialize + welcome all of our guests to our wedding weekend! We held our Welcome Party at the Grayton Beer Company Taproom. We had live music, 10+ of Grayton’s beers on tap as well as a selection of wines. We also had Grayton Beer Company cater in heavy apps – it was fantastic! For balloon decor + light floral, we hired Mingle in 30A. We are so happy we did. The Tap Room is a brewery after all, so it’s pretty rustic. Mingle brought in the perfect balloon and floral displays to take this space to the next level for our welcome party and really make it look and feel like a celebration!
We did Welcome Bags for all of guests and Mingle also assisted in doing a display for the welcome bags at the entrance which incorporated balloons + wine barrels + our welcome sign that we had made. Inside the Welcome Bags we had a thank you card from Jake & I, assorted snacks including some of ‘His Favs’ & ‘Her Favs’, mini liquor bottles, mini champagne bottles, 2 custom coozies and tropical leaf tags with the guest’s name done by a local calligrapher that I hired here in Houston. Her name is Candace Steele and her business is called Steele Magnolia Calligraphy. She did a fabulous job on the tags and she also did our Oyster Shell seating chart that I will show a little farther down. We also had custom stickers/tags made for the snacks and champagne bottles to make it all a little more personalized to our day.
It was lovely and just what we had envisioned. We aren’t very ‘formal’ people and really didn’t want anything too stuffy so this worked out great for us and was the perfect way to welcome all of our guests into town!
I wore a simple/comfortable white jumpsuit from Dillards, pink Marc Fisher wedges and a custom ‘Mrs. Herrera’ purse from the cutest Etsy shop called Save The Date Designs. It was the perfect accessory for the wedding week festivities! I linked some similar jumpers and other all white bridal options below!
I was DETERMINED to have a beach ceremony & your girl makes things happen when she really wants them so that is what we did! If you’ve ever been to 30A in Florida you know how amazing it is & if you haven’t – I HIGHLY encourage you to make a trip there soon. We loved that it was a beautiful beach but still within driving distance for the majority of our guests coming from Texas. We chose to get married at the Gulf Green access point at Alys Beach. Something that separates Alys Beach from the other little towns along HWY 30A is the beautiful stark white architecture. When booking the ceremony, I envisioned all of the photos we’d have there following the ceremony and that was a big deciding factor for me with this location.
Since we chose the beach for the beauty that it had to offer, I didn’t want to try to compete with that with too much decor, etc. As far as our wedding “theme” we did heavy tropical greenery with some white orchids and gold/modern touches. Overall we kept it pretty simple at least for the Ceremony portion.
For the beach ceremony, we had an arch with heavy tropical greenery and some white orchids mixed in, ghost chairs and an acrylic welcome sign. That is all of the decor that we did for the ceremony because like I said, the beaches in 30A are just too pretty to compete with. After all, it is known as the ‘Emerald Coast’! The acrylic chairs were a great option on the beach because I feel like they almost just disappeared into the sand – so pretty! We also had a String Trio perform which was the perfect touch.
The ice breaker of the Ceremony was when my step-dad, Ben went to walk back to his seat after him and my brother walked me down the aisle and he got caught in my veil and it flew out and landed on top of him. He has always been a clumsy one so it was very fitting and definitely made everyone chuckle. My mom and Jake’s mom scurried to get my veil back in as quick as possible – ha! A moment I wont’ ever forget or let Ben forget….
Dress: Martina Liana – Brickhouse Bridal – The Woodlands, Texas
Footless Beach Ceremony shoes (not pictured) – Etsy shop: BareSandals
Reception shoes: Badgley Mishka jeweled flats
Jewelry + Hair Accessories: Etsy shops: iloniti & GlamourBrideUSA
Garters: Etsy shop: AnnaBridalBoutique
Bride Getting ready robe: Etsy Shop: BellaDonnaUa
Custom ‘Mrs. Herrera’ Hanger: Etsy shop: FoxblossomCo
I purchased my dress from Brickhouse Bridal in The Woodlands, TX. Several of my friends had purchased dresses from there through the years so I knew they had a great selection. One perk of being one of the last of your friends to get married is having all of the Do’s and Don’t’s for the wedding planning process – ha! I went in with an open mind and not much of an idea of what I even liked besides the Pinterest board I had been adding to for the last 10 years! Haha. I actually ended up buying the first dress I tried on. It was a brand new dress by Martina Liana and some of the employees at Brickhouse wanted to see it on me since they just got it in so I did. I honestly don’t know that I’d have picked it off the rack but I am glad I did. I recommend going in with an open mind because you never know what you may just LOVE once you put it on! I really loved that it had character but also just looked so classy and timeless with the lace, long sleeves and long train. Once I put on the long veil I was SOLD.
Custom Ring Box w/ an ‘H’: Etsy Shop: EverlyBox
For as far back as I can remember, I have always pictured myself with a simple solitaire diamond wedding ring. I’m honestly not a big jewelry person or don’t like too much BLING so I liked the thought of one diamond. I never imagined a rose gold band until a couple years back but I absolutely love the rose gold tapered wedding band and the 6 prong detail. As far as wedding bands, Jake got a rose gold simple band to match mine and I really didn’t want anything that would take away from my engagement ring so I got two different simple rose gold bands that I stack on my right hand. It wouldn’t be like me if I did something 100% traditional. ๐ The band pictured is one of the bands and this is the one we chose to use for the sake of the Ceremony.
My bouquet was filled with a variety of tropical greenery, white orchids, white mums, white ranunculus and a protea. I had a mini version made to be the ‘throw’ bouquet and it also served as decor during the reception.
My precious husband wore a custom mid blue Lazio suit from Suit Supply. I will link a similar suit sold at Nordstroms. It’s a different color blue and not custom but also a Suit Supply Lazio suit so very similar and a little more affordable.
Suit: Suit Supply (linked similar one below)
White Shirt: Nordstroms (linked below)
Shoes: Allen Edmonds (linked below)
Suspenders: Brooks Brothers
We chose to not have wedding parties, etc. We really wanted to keep it low key and relaxed but I did ask Kate to be my Maid of Honor. She didn’t stand up there with us but she played the part so well and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else wearing those shoes through the entire process.
Maid of Honor Dress: Macy’s
Maid of Honor Getting ready robe: Etsy Shop: ModParty
Kate’s Barefoot sandals for beach ceremony: Etsy Shop: MiaJewelryStudio
My biological father wasn’t able to attend so I had the honor of having my step-dad, Ben and my brother, Justin walk me down the aisle. Since we were getting married on the beach we decided to dress their outfits down some with a suit jacket and khaki pants. I think their outfits turned out perfect!
We didn’t want to see each other before the Ceremony so we did a first ‘touch’ outside of the house we rented in Alys Beach.
Custom acylic sign: Etsy Shop: Hawaii Caligraphy
Custom Neon Sign: Etsy Shop: NeonSignKingdom
Custom ‘Tanner’s Bar’ Signage + sketch: Miss Design Berry
Acrylic Table Numbers: Etsy Shop: withloveandletters
Custom Coozies: Etsy Shop: SipHipHooray
Custom Napkins: foryourparty.com
Custom Signage, menus, etc: Etsy Shops: hielizabethrose, ClementineWeddings, nancynikkodesign, 1801andco, SweetNCCollective, GeorgiaBlueDesignCo, WillowLanePaperie, AdornMarket
We held our Reception at The Meeting House which is in Carillon Beach. Carillon is another beach town about 5 minutes from Alys Beach where our Ceremony was held. We decided on this venue because it was the perfect size for our quaint wedding party and gave us the security of having an indoor venue in case of weather, etc. We decided to hold dinner on the lawn under the lit trees along with the bar being outside on the lawn. We held toasts and speeches inside The Meeting House with several lounge sections being both inside and out. It was honestly everything I could have wanted. I wasn’t fond of a large wedding and really wanted Jake and I to ENJOY ourselves and we 100% did.
We did a Jenga Guestbook and had all of our guests write their well wishes on a Jenga block. Jake’s Grandpa custom built a wooden box to hold them in which made it so special. Can’t wait to play Jenga with our kids one day and tell them about our Wedding day!
Since we couldn’t bring our pup with us, we had to have some Tanner touches worked in. The custom napkins and Tanner’s Bar were perfect!
My family has a beach house in Rockport, Texas so we got these oyster shells there, cleaned them up, hand painted them all gold and hired Candace with Steele Magnolia Calligraphy out of Houston to do the calligraphy to serve as our seating chart. I loved it and that the guests were able to take home their personalized shell!
We gave mini Limoncello bottles to our guests to signify our engagement in Positano. We celebrated the night of our engagement with some Limoncello and wanted our guests to celebrate our marriage with some too!
Event Planner: Avis Glenister, Peach & Pearl Events
Photographer: Asia Pimentel Photography (Dominican Republic based)
Florist + Event Rentals: Fisher’s Flowers
Ceremony: Alys Beach, FL
Ceremony String Trio: Top Hat Live
Officiant: Kim Cannon
Reception: The Meeting House at Carillon Beach
DJ: Shane with Rock The House!
Hair and Make-Up: Kendra with Gallant Glam
Reception Catering: Classic City Catering
Cake: Sweet For Sirten
Calligrapher: Candace Steele with Steele Magnolia Calligraphy (Houston based)
Transportation: Emerald Coast Luxury Transportation
Welcome Party Location + Catering: Grayton Beer Company Taproom
Welcome Party Ballon/Floral Decor: Mingle 30A
If you made it this far I am very impressed! I hope this was helpful and let me know if you have any wedding questions. I’d love to help in any way!
My top 3 pieces of advice:
- Do what makes YOU happy. That is it. Don’t sweat about other people and their opinions.
- Be PRESENT during the planning and the party. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and stressed and not thoroughly enjoy the process.
- If you have a budget, stick to it. Pick the top (x) amount of things that you really want and make those happen. At the end of the day, I doubt anyone will remember that gold silveware that I insisted on… haha!
ENJOY!
what do you think?