Aggie Style Bridals

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.

Wedding Eve Bash

Henry and I opted for a less traditional Rehearsal Dinner.

Most rehearsal dinner's are for intimate family members and the wedding party.

We invited extended family who were already in town for our out-of-town wedding, wedding party members and their families, and friends in general. We held it at a local bar - the bar where Henry first saw me to be correct - Daisy Dukes. It was a country bar, so the natural decor and setting was perfect for our theme and required no extra decorations. They had a large screen and projector for a slideshow at no extra charge, bars to provide alcohol, djs to play music, and are owned by the same people who own La Bodega, our favorite restaurant, so catering was rolled into the package. It was simple and easy. 

We decided to hold toasts at the rehearsal instead of the day of the wedding due to social anxieties and knowing that our group likes to get rowdy and drink....which could result in a speech only few would understand anyway. It was a great idea I feel because it was more intimate and didn't waste time at the wedding. Although I am sure those at the wedding who weren't at the rehearsal were a little baffled on why we didn't hold an official toast. 

Uncle Billy and Uncle Warren

Uncle Mark and Cousin Matthew, Usher, girlfriend, Kaitlin

Aunt Shiela and Cousin Laura

Cousin's Shaye and Aimee, Niece Wheezy 

Fabulous friends, Lorenzo and Leslie! You will be seeing much more of them in the blogs to come.

Henry had taken the guys to a Rangers game earlier in the year for their groomsmen gifts, so the bridesmaid and flower girls opened their gifts at the rehearsal dinner. Each bridesmaid was gifted a different Coach wristlet. Each wristlet then had a mini-survival kit tucked inside: Disposable toothbrush, disposable floss/toothpick, nail file, tissues and compact hair brush/mirror.

All the girls reading their Thank You cards.

Sister/Maid of Honor, Stefanie, and Cousin, Megan

Longest friend, Airika

College Best Friends, Danni and Lauryn

All the girls from left to right: Airika, Megan, Audrey (sister-in-law), Danni, Lauryn, Stefanie

The flower girls received little fairytale princess dress-up packages. Each package had a veil with a tiara, a wand and a ring - so they could dress up with the bride-to-be. 

Baby cousin, Shaye 

Niece, Ariana, also known as "Wheezy"

My bridesmaid, Danni, put together a wonderful heartfelt slideshow compiled of numerous photos which she had broken down into "chapters" - Meet Heather, Meet Henry, Meet their friends and Family, Heather and Henry as a couple. It had almost everyone in tears and laughing. 

Lovely friend, Leslie

Hubby and myself laughing at photos on the slideshow

In-laws - I am suppose to state for the record they both were crying.

Kenny 

Fabulous, life-saving, in-law Aunt Terri!

Uncle Mark and Aunt Marilyn

Everyone enjoying the slideshow

The toasts were amazing. It was funny because as we mentioned time for speeches my sister and Casey kind of danced around each other trying to pick who would go first. Finally my sister said, "Fine, Ill go first!" and walks up to the front to claim the microphone. She then proceeds to whip out a long, pre-typed speech. I was cracking up! My favorite part was how she said she loved Henry for accepting us a package deal, he never tried to separate us as sisters, allowed her to tag along on outings and allowed her to help on the most important things, picking out my ring and the proposal - and made her feel loved on all occasions. I had never thought of that before, but it was true. Henry treated my sister like she was his sister too, and it made my heart smile hearing what wonderful things my sister had to say about my future hubby and how she adored him as a brother too. 

My sister, Stefanie, giving her speech.

This is where the great part of him accepting her as my sister came in - the water works are in full flow.

Love my little sister - and our 2nd cousin decides to jump in on the hugs. <3

Casey apparently was not aware we were giving a speech that night, so he had to wing it. LOL But he did a phenomenal job. I honestly did not expect such a well delivered speech. He had everyone bursting into laughter when he said He knew Henry and I were serious because Henry refused to bring me around any of them for the first few months.
 SO TRUE!
Henry said he was afraid his friends would scare me off - he was right. Had I not been so in love with Henry, his rowdy friends probably would have been too much to handle up front. I had never met so many guys who could party and drink so much! And I drank and partied a lot, I had just turned 21 when I met Henry, so the partying had just begun.
His friends were another breed. 

Someone recorded Casey's speech, I need to find them.

Good 'ole Casey steps up to the plate.

 
 

 

After it was all done, most people stayed out and partied. Henry went back to his friend Justin and Lacey's house, where I proceeded to my hotel room with my bridesmaids and about 10 bottles of wine.

Henry and his Niece, Alanna

All teary eyed with my Great Uncle Joe all the way from Cali and my Mom.

Greatest Father-in-law in the world!

Mom and Sister

Our fabulous photographer, Michelle, followed us to the hotel room to capture us goofing off and jumping on the bed. However our goofing off was cut short due to the room next door pounding at the wall every time we started laughing. Damn fun suckers! It was like 10 pm on a Friday! Sheesh.

 

It was a great Wedding Eve Bash before the Big Day!