You will probably hear me rave about our wonderful photographer and friend, Michelle Peyronet Jones, for the rest of my life. She is the one who captured our beautiful engagements, rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception. She also went above and beyond for my bridals.
Henry and I met while attending Texas A&M together, so to say Aggieland is dear to my heart is an understatement.
Aggieland is where I began my first true adventure away from home, met some of the greatest friends a girl could dream for, received a wonderful education, learned what true camaraderie meant, and of course, met my Aggie Sweetheart.
Did I mention I also have an A&M tattoo? Yea, that school is a pretty big deal to me.
When Michelle said she was willing to do a day trip to College Station for the Bridals I was ecstatic! I of course had to bring along bridesmaids Megan (Henry's cousin) and Stefanie (sister) to help with toting my dress and fixing things here and there while Michelle took the photos.
We began by hair and make-up. My make-up was a bit too bold at first, let's just say border line black-eye-ish with how much purple there was, so luckily Michelle was able to talk to the make-up artist and get her to tone it down more to my liking.
Then it was off to Kyle Field!
We had to park illegally and I knew A&M was notorious for parking tickets, so Michelle wrote a quick note to let the parking attendant know we were hurrying to take bridals and would be right back. I don't know if it worked or if he never saw, but there was no ticket. Whoop!
Apparently the gates had just closed! Michelle found a sweet old man and sweetly talked him into un-locking the gates for us so we could take some quick shots on the field. Michelle worked at lightening speed to capture some beautiful shots. That day was the mans wedding anniversary, and had nothing but kind words to say as he walked us out and locked everything back up.
Next was the famous Century Tree. When I toured the A&M campus this tree was one of the main reasons I said yes to A&M instead of Baylor. Yes a tree. There were fresh red rose petals all under the tree from a recent proposal and the professor showing me the campus explained the importance of this gorgeous tree. After Henry proposed, we trekked across campus to walk under this tree and make our engagement "official". When I went to show Michelle the location (prior to the wedding dress being on) numerous students stopped to warn us not to walk under the tree alone, for fear we would be doomed to a life of loneliness. They were truly concerned. lol
Thanks to the wonderful summer heat and my layers upon layers of tulle I nearly passed out and we decided it would be best to move to our next location indoors....The Dixie Chicken!
I had a friend who had stunning photos taken here, so of course I was a copy-cat. hehe
Also, Henry proposed to me right behind the Dixie Chicken where we officially met for the first time.
Since it was Michelle's first time to the Dixie Chicken she was able to come up with some GREAT shots that ended up being some of my favorites!!
Thanks to the long lasting sun in Texas, after moving around to all these locations we still had plenty of time to make it to the Aggie Barn on the edge of town in time for the magical sunset sky. The barn photos were beautiful, however all the crickets climbing between my layers of tulle were not. HAHA
After the photos I sat down in the car to feel something jumping around in my dress. I jumped out like a mad woman and nearly stripped down to nothing right next to the road trying to get the mysterious critter out of my dress and far away from me!
A few months later I had scheduled boudoir photos with Michelle as my Hubby-to-be's wedding gift. On top of the boudoir photos, I received a second set of Bridals (WHOOP!) as a kind of trade-for-print deal with a new wedding venue in Arlington, Howell Family Farms, and a new Aggie-owned-and-operated Vintage Furniture rental company, Gold Dust Vintage Rentals. The vintage furniture was GORGEOUS, and had this venue existed when we had been looking, it would have been a top contender on our list.
