Wedding Highlight: Cake and Food

The Bride's cake was simple and turned out beautiful and delicious. 

Vanilla cake, three teared, with flowers matching my bouquet and the rest of the wedding party. Who doesn't love a good wedding cake?? We saved the top layer to freeze. We were home in Texas for Christmas and not knowing when we would get to return again, we had a few bites and it was yummy! We also fed a piece to one another again,

 that time shoving it in each others faces :) 

Eric wanted the Groom's cake "manly" and in the shape of Texas. He was very pleased!

The cakes were a hit thanks to Eric's cousin! I am so grateful she agreed to do them. 

When it came to planning food this intimidated me. Food is expensive! For our wedding a caterer was out of question because it did not fit in our budget. How much food should you plan? How much are you willing to spend? What will be served? I would say our reception was designed to be for people to drop by to visit, celebrate, party with us and we wanted to provide some light food for them to snack on. I was making it a lot harder than it had to be! It ended up being simple, yet pretty. For food we served tasty mini sandwiches from Costco (that place is amazing all the time, but especially for weddings) and lots of finger foods. Including carrots, grapes, strawberries and cucumbers with dip provided. There was a wonderful group of ladies who volunteered to help in the kitchen! They made sure there was always enough food out on the tables! My bridesmaid put "to-go" boxes together for Eric and I to take with us after the reception back to the hotel. We didn't get a chance to eat anything at the reception (we were still full from our luncheon thank goodness). We did have food left over- but hey, it was healthy veggies and fruit that could be snacked on in the days to come and not a complete waste! 

Photography by Melissa Fullmer Photography

Wedding Highlight: Invites

Well in honor of the day celebrating our one year anniversary nearing, 

I thought I should crank out these last few wedding posts for my memory! Ha

I loved the way our wedding invites turned out. 
It's a great deal when your engagement photographers can also design it and print! 
Kimbry Studios took our photos and
their other company Anthology designed the invites.
You can view more of our engagement photos here.

We did our invites in colors that complimented the outfits we wore. We pulled in a shades of purples, blues, and reds. 

The Front

An engaged couple may find themselves in similar circumstances that we were in. We were flying 1,500 miles from Idaho to Texas to be married, flying to our honeymoon and then back to Idaho. We weren't quite sure how to handle gifts from friends and family. We couldn't bring it all on the plane with us and it would be silly to ship it all back to our home. 

We decided it would be appropriate to include some instructions on our invite saying

 "Due to travel limitations, letter-sized gifts are appreciated." 

It worked out great! When we moved into our new apartment we spend probably two weekends shopping. We were able to shop for everything we absolutely needed and personally pick it out. 

One gift we received from Eric's parents in Texas was our dyson vacuum cleaner. I went without it for 3.5 months until Eric's parents made a trip to Idaho for my college graduation and brought it. We desperately needed to stop borrowing our neighbors vacuums and needed it haha. I secretly love vacuuming and would do it everyday if I could....

The Back

We included two insertions in our wedding invites, 

one to our temple sealing and the second to a luncheon being held after the sealing. 

My Dream Wedding Dress

Woooo another wedding post! I mainly document this for myself :) This sounds cliche, but I loved my wedding dress. I was ecstatic when I found it in Idaho. I shipped it home to Texas and missed it SO much. It was actually super comfy, which is a + because I was in it for over half the day. I only looked at three different stores and liked 3 different dresses. But the first one I tried on out of the 3 I knew I loved and was the one! And let's be honest, I still can't get over my wedding pictures!

The best tip I can give while you are wedding dress shopping, stay within your budget. I fought hard to stay within the budget I wanted and I'm so happy I did. I got my dream dress! It's funny, some girls don't know what they want when they start shopping and others know exactly. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until I started looking. So many different options! This ended up being my dream dress, long train and everything! 

Photography by Melissa Fullmer Photography

Hair and Makeup by Johnnie Smith

Location LDS Dallas Temple

Recipes for a Happy Marriage

I believe most people, including me, let there crafty side come out when they start planning and decorating for a wedding. When I started planning my wedding back in January I had so many ideas flying left and right. 

I knew I wanted to do something a little bit more than just having our reception guest sign a "guestbook". I wanted a place for people to leave date ideas, advice and jokes. 

That's when I thought of "Recipes for a Happy Marriage". I ordered this plain, wooden brown recipe box from etsy. I went to the local craft store and I bought some white sharpie paint pens. I first sketched, very lightly, with a pencil of a design. Then traced back over the pencil with the white sharpie pen! 

For someone who isn't very crafty, I love how this box turned out! It took a lot of patience, ha, but so worth it! Some wise people let us in on the recipes to a Happy Marriage and some Secrets of being Happy. The box now sits in my kitchen, holding the advice and love everyone at our wedding reception shared with us + my cooking recipes! 

I will soon be sharing one of my favorite cooking recipes from my recipe box: 

Baked Creamy Chicken Burritos! 

Thanks for reading! 

The Start of my Wedding Day

There has been a huge flow of wedding pictures coming in. Talk about overwhelming! I love each one and I could sit and click through them all day long. (which I've almost done today, oops.) I have no idea where to start when it comes to sharing them with you! I think it would be best if I start with the beginning of my day. 

On April 12th, I woke up bright and early for my hair and makeup to be done. Johnnie goes to church with me and is an amazing woman! She's a terrific makeup and hair artist! I've been going to her for years now. I basically had no idea what I wanted to do with my hair. The night before I was still looking online at pictures with my bridesmaids! Johnnie easily talked me into having my hair all up. And am I glad I did! I had no idea how the weather would be that day and it was so windy! My hair stayed up and pinned and un-moved all day long. For my makeup, I went with a natural look. Word of advice, go with the fake eyelashes. They make all the difference in photos! 

Photography: Melissa Fullmer Photography 

Make up and hair: Johnnie Smith

There are a ton more where these came from! And I am so excited to document our wedding day. :)

A moment to always remember

The first look. This was such a fun and relaxed day! Eric and I flew home to Texas a few days before the wedding, but on separate flights. It took him all day to get home when my flight was quick. The next time we got to see each other was when we were all dressed up to meet one another for a surprise look. Why we chose to do this? It took so much stress off of the wedding day! We were sealed in the Dallas Texas Temple and we focused on the sealing and our family there with us for our special day. We also took a ton of fun photos at the Temple, I'm dying to get those pictures back! Enjoy! :) 

annnnnnnnnd, my favorite photo capturing a moment to always remember.

Photography: Mae Rachelle Photography

Texas Bluebonnets

As my plane landed in Texas and I began to drive across the different towns admiring beautiful Texas and the fact that I was back home (and home to get married!) I realized Texas was already covered in bluebonnets. If you didn't know, it is our state flower and at the beginning of spring they bloom everywhere! You can drive up and down highways and they are covering the sides. I was so excited to be home at this time of year and when I realized we would have the opportunity to take some wedding photos in the bluebonnets. These photos are from our Groomals. Get it? Bridals+the handsome groom was with me! I am going nuts over pictures. So many to love and post! Enjoy the Texas bluebonnets! 

Photography: Mae Rachelle Photography

Johnson Forever

We were married 4.12.14
And it was one of the happiest days.
The first day of starting our lives together!
It was all amazing, more than I could of imagined.
I've been going through lots of emotions
and thinking of different words of how to express the day.
I will have to be back soon to break it all down, but for now
I love being married to this man!
It's true, and might sounds a little cliche, when people say marriage is the best!

It's the Wedding Week!

It's here! The week leading up to the day we've been counting down to, dreaming of, planning for what seems like forever, and so excited for.. our Wedding!

I think this week is a little more hectic for us than any other couples week leading up to their wedding. We ended this past weekend watching general conference and getting our individual apartments packed up and in storage. I should probably point out that up to us leaving Rexburg, Eric is working night shifts. He's awesome.

Monday: We can't forget that it's finals week. Thankfully I've already taken 2 finals, just studying for the hardest last 2/finishing classes! 

Tuesday: Study + take a final... what else?

Wednesday: Eric and I each take our LAST final. Finish packing the rest of apartment/moving stuff into storage/clean the apartment/check out of complex annnnnnnd drive to Utah! (all a lot easier said than done)

Thursday: Catch flight to TEXAS. Ya know, wedding stuff and maybe find a moment to breath.

Friday: We are taking first look pictures! I'm always surprised by the number of people who have never heard of this. I believe it is more popular with LDS weddings. We'll have our first reveal with Eric in his Tux and I in my dress captured through film. Also, Friday night I will be going through the temple to receive my endowments with my loved ones.
Added bonus: all my bridesmaids fly in this day! 

Saturday: Sealed for time and all eternity at eleven o' clock in the morning in the Dallas Texas Temple. See everyone at the reception that evening!!

Starting April

Here we are, April 1st

If you would of asked me 6 months ago what this month would mean to me, it wouldn't of been so significant.
But so much has changed. I can't believe this month is finally here. Now it means so much to me!
This month... I begin eternity with my best friend.
I enter the House of the Lord, with my sweetheart.
We will start many adventures together.
And move into our first apartment together this month.
Sounds cheesy? Maybe :)
But I seriously could not be more excited!

9 more days of crazy classes and finals, 10 more days until we are in Texas with family and friends,
11 days until we are married!

Bridesmaid Invites

I am so blessed to have these amazing women in my life! My sister, friends since high school, roommates who turn into best friends. Each one has a special place in my heart and has been there for me, especially in the past year!

Love these girls and I'm so excited to have them as my bridesmaids! 

I really wanted to personally make each bridesmaid an invitation to be in my wedding. I went to the craft store, dragging Eric with me (he's such a trooper), and bought all of these crafty papers, cutouts, flowers etc. I had a lot of fun making them and actually feeling crafty! 

One of the hardest decisions was choosing what the bridesmaids would wear! I had the look in my mind and we went to search for it. I don't know how many dresses/skirts we looked at. There were probably 15 potential good ones and it was a tough decision. But, with 5 weeks left, we chose one! 

Now to tackle the next dilemma.. flower arrangements! Who knew I would have trouble with flowers!? I can't decide! 

Capturing Moments

Capturing Some Moments

Right after we called the LDS Temple to schedule a time to be sealed for eternity.

(We met up in-between classes on campus and found an empty study room to call together. haha)

Right after we put a contract in for an apartment together! 

The apartment we wanted and got! 

We got a little creative after we had an appointment with our engagement photographers.

We love our engagement photos. You can find some of them documented here.

Dress shopping for the first time!

4 different stores, probably 15-20 different dresses and I found one! 

Registering for wedding gifts... way too much fun! 

It has been such happy and exciting times! I am so blessed to be marrying this man. He has continually taught me so much, especially during our engagement. I learn more about myself and he helps me learn the kind of better person I want to be each day. I'm so excited to start our lives together and to continue to learn more about one another and capture all the moments in our lives! 

Engagement Pictures

Our pictures were taken by the talented Kimbry Studios located in Rexburg, Idaho

http://www.kimbryblog.com/

They are available for travel and do beautiful wedding photography. 

We love our engagement photos. These are the first professional/posing pictures we've ever taken together. It's good practice for the wedding day! When we set our date for April 12th, I realized our engagements would have to be taken in Idaho. Where there is lots of snow and it is very cold, especially from January-April. At first, I hated this idea. Since I was at least 12 years old, planning a "dream wedding", I had always pictured engagements taken in beautiful weather, with green grass and blooming flowers. I soon got over and moved past those ideas. This was my REAL wedding, happening NOW! So it was out into the bitter cold and snow of Idaho. I started to get really excited after looking on pinterest a ton and thought "hey snow pictures could be really fun"! And they turned out great!

By the end we were frozen. It took about 30 minutes to thaw out my feet and have feeling come back. That scared me a little haha. But we didn't realize how cold we were until we were done! Completely worth it and fun!