happy go lucky wedding

• City: Dallas, TX
• Venue(s): Marie Gabrielle
• Budget: $35K
• Wedding Date: April 17, 2010

• Bridal Gown Designer(s): Casablanca 1900
• Florist: Haute Events and Floral Design, Allen, TX
• Photographer: Modern Life Studios , Allen, TX (no longer taking clients)
• Videographer: Vanessa McKellar, Tyler, TX
• Officiant: Ken Byrd from Love Notes Weddings, Dallas, TX
• Music: DoubleTake Productions, Dallas, TX
• Invitations: Letterpress invitations by Curious and Company, Philadelphia, PA
• Cake:  Audrey Ross, Mckinney, TX
• Catering: Venue catered (Marie Gabrielle)
• Coordination: Venue coordinated (Marie Gabrielle)
• Hair and Makeup: Hair: Amy Doty, Haute Facade Dallas, TX
• Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Selected by Bridesmaids stores included J Crew, Banana Republic, Jessica McClintock and Lulu’s
• Spouse’s attire: Kenneth Cole
• Menswear:  Selected by Groomsmen
• Honeymoon: Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico
• Favors: Photobooth pictures provided by Party Booths

Ahh… I’m so sad to write this post!!  I’ve been putting it off, but really, I’ve spent over a year blogging on Weddingbee, and I think it’s time for me to step down and let some of the newer bees take over. 

This community is unlike any other one I’ve ever been a part of.  The girls are just truly amazing.  You listened to me vent, helped me find items I needed for my wedding, and helped me plan all my wedding outfits.  But, above all that, you were an incredibly supportive community.   When I applied to be a bee, I never anticipated I would make such wonderful friends, but that’s exactly what happened.  I can’t thank you guys enough for your sweet comments and great advice. 

I will miss you all a lot, but if you’re interested in hearing what else is going on in the Fro Yo household, you can find me over at Minted Life. 

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite moments of the wedding day.  Mr. Fro Yo and I had just finished our ceremony and we were surrounded by our bridal party.  Everyone was hugging and offering their congratulations.  There is really nothing better than standing next to the person you love just after you say “I do.”  Sigh.  Here is a snippet from our full length feature by Vanessa McKellar where Mr. Fro Yo and I tell you what it feels like to be married:

Kelsey & Sean’s Post-Ceremony from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.

Thank you again! 

Love,

Mrs. Fro Yo

So, though it felt like the party had just started, I got the word from our coordinator, Lisa, that it was almost time for our last dance.  Boo!  The day seriously flew!

Well, Mr. Fro Yo is not a big dancer, but I pulled him out onto the dance floor for this last moment.  We danced to “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. 

We started things off as happy newlyweds:

But, shortly after, we had someone cut in:

My sister’s boyfriend couldn’t let the night go by without stealing a dance with Mr. Fro Yo.  And, not to leave me out, my sister took her place as my partner:

Shortly after, we returned to our original partners:

And, all our friends joined us:

After the song was over, everyone thanked us for a wonderful time and grabbed their ribbon wands to see us out.

And, after we had our private last dance, we joined them to say goodbye:

Our videographer, Vanessa McKellar, captured these last moments perfectly.  And, she even caught us doing a little Jersey Shore style fist-pumping.  Here’s a sneak peek from our full length video:

Kelsey & Sean’s Last Dance from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.

Up next?  Fro Yo says goodbye. 😦

So, we got all the big things out of the way– we had our first dance, cut the cake and played in the photobooth, now we were ready for people to hit the dance floor. 

The girls started things off:

Then, slowly the boys started showing up to0:

Then, these guys showed up and it got a little bit crazier:

But, I’m not sure that pictures do all of this justice.  Perhaps a little video will help.  Here’s a clip from our full length feature by Vanessa McKellar.  Oh, and in the clip, I use our handfasting ceremony cord as a lasso.  Yep, keeping it classy:

Kelsey & Sean’s Dancing from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.

So, are you looking forward to the dance party at your wedding?

I know, I know.  I bet you think I’ve lost it.  I already talked about first look and I showed you all the wonderful photos.  But, I didn’t think it was enough.  The photos did a great job capturing the emotion we felt at that exact moment, but you don’t get a real visual of how all the emotions unfolded.  Well, surprise surprise.  I have a clip from our full-length video to share with you.  Oh, and here’s a little secret, my big strapping sweet husband that never cries, cried.  Here’s a piece of our video from Vanessa McKellar:

Kelsey & Sean’s First Look from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.

Sigh.  I could watch that over and over.  It was definitely one of my favorite moments of the day.  We didn’t talk all day, so the build up was huge.  I was anxiously awaiting the moment I was going to get to see him in his suit, and that he would finally be able to see my dress and me!

For those of you not married yet, what moment are you looking forward to most?  And for the married girls, what moment was your favorite?

The photobooth was a lot of fun, and it was busy most of the night.  Our photobooth guy even stayed an extra hour because things were still bumping.  Thanks, Party Booths!  I already showed you some of my favorite pictures from the booth (I especially love the one man YMCA), but there was so much more than just that. I ncluding video from our videographer, Vanessa Mckellar.  For instance, don’t you want to see what someone’s face looks like when they find out their boyfriend has herpes?  Here’s an excerpt from our full-length video showing just that…

Kelsey & Sean’s Photobooth from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.

And, here are a few of my favorites from outside the booth.

My shoes were cute, but they were KILLING me, so I had to switch.  Too bad because I think the picture would have been really cute with them:

The kids really loved it too, especially the props:

And, the props weren’t just a hit with the kids:

But, of course going prop-less was popular too:

Maybe that’s because the props were making their way onto the dance floor via all my bridesmaids.

So are you going to do a photobooth?  Will you have props?

Our first dance went well and we spent a little time on the dance floor.  Shortly after, our wedding coordinator told us it was time for the cake cutting and toasts.  Yay!!

I’m not sure how many times the kids had asked me when the cake cutting would happen, but at least I knew that I wasn’t the only one super excited about digging in.  But, before the kids (and I) could have some cake, Mr. Fro Yo’s brother and my sister had a few words for us.

Mr. Fro Yo’s brother started it off.  He lived with us right before our wedding, and also shortly after, so I wasn’t really sure what he was going to say, but his speech was super sweet.

Now, here’s the thing, Mr. Fro Yo doesn’t like alcoholic drinks of any kind, including champagne (I know, I don’t get it either),but dammit it was our wedding and he was going to take a celebratory sip of champagne even if he did not want to.  Check out my glance over at him to make sure he was indeed taking a sip:

I know he’s faking his sip, you can totally tell, but I let it slide.

After my peer pressure to get Mr. Fro Yo to drink, my sister followed with another sentimental toast.

And, it made us smile.

Lastly, it was our turn to thank our guests for celebrating with us.

Then it was really time for some cake!!

We had our knives from Z Gallerie:

I was nervous that I was going to do it all wrong,  but we started to cut anyway:

And you can see that I was nervous.

But, Mr. Fro Yo had a reassuring hand on my back:

And, we did it:

We gave one another a piece in a nice and sweet (no cake smash in my face) way:

And a little kiss:

We also had a groom’s cake, but I completely forgot about it, so we didn’t cut that one.

Our guests got some though (and no, we don’t work at the radio station, though I can understand why you might think that.  Mr. Fro Yo LOVES this sports station, like is totally obsessed with it, and so…he got the cake.  Somehow the station got wind of it, and they talked about our wedding on Monday.)

So, are you going the cake smash or non-cake smash route?

After our ceremony, we took a few family photos (I know those aren’t the favs on the hive, so I’m skipping them), we were eager to get to the reception!  Even though everything had gone smoothly at the ceremony, my stomach was still in no mood to eat.  Which was so disappointing because the food looked delicious!  Mr. Fro Yo and I shared our signature drink, a mojito, before being introduced.  We both needed a little liquid courage. 

In the beginning I didn’t want to be introduced, but 5 minutes before we were going to head into the reception, I changed my mind.  I’m really glad I did, and now I see how silly I was being about the whole thing.

We were greeted by glorious food, and our wedding coordinator made a plate for both of us.  Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of everything we had there, including the cocktail hour food, but here’s a sampling:

Shrimp:

Crab cakes:

Salmon:

Roast beef:

Cheese and fruit:

We also had 2 kinds of pasta, roasted vegetables, chicken skewers, spring rolls, and mushroom phyllo. Yum.

And what party would be complete without a little booze?

After everyone had a chance to eat a little something, Mr. Fro Yo and I had our first dance.  We danced to the song “She’s Got a Way” by Billy Joel.  Only, ours was sung by one of my college friends.

Look, no tattoo!

After our dance, we quickly transitioned from this:

To this:

Stay tuned. 🙂

One of the most important part of the wedding for me was the details.  Whenever I looked at inspiration photos, the smallest things w0uld jump out at me, and I think they make weddings unique and special.  It also meant there were some crazy times before the wedding, but looking back at the photos, it was all worth it to me.

One of my favorite details was the ampersand between our chairs:

I saw this late in the planning process, and made a special trip to Anthropologie to pick one up.  I was concerned that it was a frivolous purchase, but I can tell you now that it sits on a shelf in our living room and I smile when I look at it.

Oh, and for our guest book, I fell in love with the idea of a wish tree.  Thankfully, our florist, Haute Floral, said she could create it for us!  I think I cried when I saw it because it was just so beautiful.  We also incorporated some pictures from our parent’s wedding around the wish tree.

I made the signs and used frames I found at Goodwill.  The tags were bought from Etsy seller, Paper Perfect

Mr. Fro Yo and I also collected wood from our neighborhood and cut about 120 little placecard holders.  The birch logs were purchased from Etsy seller, The Cherry Grove

And our programs were designed by the lovely Mrs. Gloss through her Etsy shop, Fourth and Folded and I cut out all the burlap and hole punched it.

And of course we had a kid’s table!  It was one of my favorite parts.  I found a lot of the stuff from Michaels and the dollar store, and I made their coloring books.  I made sure that there were both fairy wands and swords so that all the kids would be happy.

The photobooth props were also a huge hit! I found them at the dollar store.

And, I also loved our ring bearer bowls from Paloma’s Nest.  Unfortunately the boys didn’t remember to carry them down the aisle, but now Mr. Fro Yo and I each have one on our nightstands. We put our rings in them every night.

I also collected animal figurines from Goodwill during the year to use as part of our centerpieces, and I used those birch logs again.

And, one of my favorite things was the barber straws, purchased from Etsy seller Hey Yo Yo.  I even used them to drink wine because I loved them so much. 🙂

What are your favorite wedding details?

You may have noticed that it’s been a little while since my last recap.  I did have a busy week at work, but that’s only partially the reason.  The other part is that I’m sad about our ceremony.  The words were perfect, no one fell, and our handfasting ceremony was carried out without a glitch, so what the hell is my problem?  Well, it’s the location.  I envisioned a beautiful outdoor garden ceremony for over a year, and the weather just didn’t want to cooperate.  I even stayed away from the hive for a while after the wedding because I had major wedding jealousy.  I’m talking to you Mrs. Turtle!  That’s so lame of me especially when this community was so supportive during my whole planning process.  But, it just made me sad that our wedding ceremony wasn’t as I hoped.

I’ve had the hardest time getting over this part because everything else was scheduled to be indoor/outdoor, so it wasn’t a big deal if we were inside for dancing, it’s pretty much how I pictured it.  But the ceremony….ugh.  The one saving grace is that we did a first look outside, and all our bridal party picture outside.  During that time, my wedding coordinator, Lisa, came over to break the news to me that we were indeed going to move the ceremony in.  Her exact words were, “We’re not going to have a Bachelor moment here.”  She was so right.   I was just really sad.  So I cried.

And my niece hugged me.

But, then I was reminded that all that mattered was that we were getting married.  And, everyone was right.  So, I moved on, and the ceremony started.

The parents started it off.  First Mr. Fro Yo’s parents, then my mom and one of our ushers:

And then the groomsmen and the bridesmaids:

And the flower girls and ring bearers:

Then it was just my brother and me left

He walked me down the aisle and gave me away on behalf of my family:

We gazed at each other and said our vows:

And exchanged rings:

And got tied together:

And had our first kiss and hug as husband and wife!

We hugged and chatted with our bridal party:

And spent our first few minutes together as a newly married couple:

Up next, the party gets started!!