Location: Austin, Texas. Currently living in Australia
Age: 22
About our wedding:
mrsjohnny
BEST
VIEWED ON A FULL SCREEN
After
11 months of planning, Johnny and I were married on March 17, 2006! The
week leading up to it was not without its mishaps - through delayed
flights, lost bagage, a mild case of food poisoning and the threat of
bad weather. However, our wedding day was absolutely amazing! It came
and went so fast that my memory of it is just a blur, and I can't wait
to get the DVD from the videographer.
Here is the link to our sample
video
I love it! Our Videographer used the music from our reception band
(that's why you can hear a bit of background noise).
Because my planning bio got too big, I decided to make a 'wedding bio'
with all of the professional pictures. If you would like to use any of
these pictures could you please ask me first: amberlina1st@hotmail.com
and credit my photographer Heather with
Eclectic
Images.
I
was starting to get
a little nervious, especially when people kept knocking on the door.
My
'something old' was my late
Grandmother's rings and my 'something borrowed' was a four leaf clover
from one of my bridesmaids - I did get married on St. Patrick's Day
after all.
I had a mini portrait
session
before the ceremony.
Going to get married ...
The Boys
Reservoir
Dogs.
I
love this picture of Johnny with his father and brother (BM).
The Ceremony
I was trying not to cry
the
whole time.
I made a mistake with one of my lines. I couldn't remember if I had
already said it - I guess I practiced too much : )
A nice
breeze.
Towards the end of the ceremony, my MOH had to put her foot on my veil
to stop from being blown away.
Right after we walked
down
the aisle the wind blew my veil right off.
Portraits
Both of our immediate families.
My SIL, niece, big bro, dad, mum, me, DH, MIL, FIL, BIL.
The Reception
Mr. and Mrs. Johnny
I was trying not to cry the whole time during all
of the speeches.
Our First Dance.
The Father-Daughter Dance.
We displayed pictures of Johnny and I growing up, our parents and
grandparents wedding pictures as well as some of our engagement
pictures.
We had a wish bowl and a signature mat for our guest book. We are going
to wait until our first year anniversary to read what people wrote. I
cant wait to read them - apparently by the end of the night everyone
just started writing random drunken thoughts.
Each table was named after a city in the world that we have visited and
included a picture from our trip and a few short anecdotes.
The Band - Blind Date. They were amazing!
My Dad with my niece (FG) and my big bro and SIL.
She is the cutest little girl!
One of my best friends and BMs cought the bouquet. As you can see, she
was very excited.
My BIL (the BM) cought the garter left-handed.
Johnny's cousin's 3-year-old son gave us each a rock from the garden
and said "congratulations". It was so cute.
I gave my real bouquet to my MIL for all of her help during the
planning process. We planned the whole wedding from overseas so she was
our only real connect in the US to help us.
The
gardens
looked beautiful!
It was the perfect time of the year to get married. We had so many
compliments about how beautiful and unique the venue was. The ballroom
looked amazing at night with the full glass walls. The food was
beautiful and the cakes were to die for. We had an Italian pecan cream
cake with a lemon cream cheese filling for the bride's cake and a
chocolate mocha torte with a mocha French butter cream for the Groom's
cake.
I have no regrets using Barr Mansion by any means - however if I could
do it again I would have hired my own 'day of' coordinator' rather than
using the person from Barr Mansion. We had quite a few problems with
him - very unresponsive to emails, not thorough with details or our
requests. I'm not going to say anything more but if you have any
questions feel free to email me.
Minister:
Rev. Michael Boles - A
Rev.
Michael was great. He suited our needs perfectly - a non-denominational
minister. We invited him to both the rehearsal dinner and the reception
and I think that he felt genuinly honoured to be involved in our
wedding. He was friendly, interesting and funny and got along well with
all of our guests. He was very professional and smoothed over
a
few mishaps that happened during the ceremony - like me stuffing up one
of my lines : )
Heather
was incredible! Both
Heather and her assistant were amazing to work with. They were there to
capture every moment but remained unintrusive. She photographed all of
the portriats we wanted - I had sent her a list with pictures that we
wanted and she crossed them off as we went along. I am so glad that we
spent the money to get an amzing photographer. I would highly recommend
her to anyone.
Album Layout
Engagement Pictures: Vanessa
Escobedo Barba: Photography
by Vanessa - A++
If you would like to use any of these pictures please credit our
photographer.
Vanessa was amazing to work with! Although we have booked Heather with
Eclectic Images for our wedding day photographer, I love Vanessa's
style. She was really able to capture the urban look we wanted and has
a keen eye for detail. I would highly recommend her to anyone. A+
We
hadly noticed Bob the whole
day, which was great. Although we haven't seen the full length video -
what we have seen of the short clip was amazing. Leading up to the
wedding he was very responsive to all of our emails.
Everything
was perfect. Tina was
able to replicate all of my ideas and helped us achieve our overall
style and mood we wanted for our wedding. Tina was quick to respond to
our emails and helped me to work through my different ideas and worked
well within our budget. She also did a few extra things with no charge,
which was extremely kind.
I
hadly remember hearing
the string quartet. I missed most of what they played during the
ceremony and then again during the cocktail hour because we were having
pictures taken. However from the parts I do remember they sounded
amazing. They were very professional and added that extra element of
elegance.
They
were perfect in everyway. I
am so glad that we hired them. They looked and sounded very
professional. We had so many compliments about this band. Natalie (one
of the singers) was very responsive to our emails and requests. We
asked them if they could play 'Fields of Gold' for our first dance and
they said that they would learn it for us!
I
bought my dress at the Julian Gold store in San Antonio however I had
the alterations done in Austin. We flew into Austin from overseas a
week before the wedding and I had still had to have the dress altered.
I was so
nervious having alterations done that close to the wedding. Barbie (the
lady from the SA store) drove up to Austin to make sure I was taken
care of. All the ladies at the store were so sweet and
accomodating.
I loved my veil! The lace matched my dress perfectly. I bought it from JJ
Kelly Bridal
in Oklahoma City. I had originally tried on my dress at this store
however bought it from Julian Gold because they were having a trunk
sale with 10% off the dress.
I
love this vendor. I was able
to email the designer directly and get advice about the various styles.
Alough the dress cost more than I wanted, the quality of the material
and the design was well worth the money. The website was very
informative and allows you to even custom design the dresses - adding
and subtracting items. Lynn was so kind and sent fabric
samples
to me while I was in Australia with no charge. She also had them made 4
weeks earlier with no extra charge. We also ordered a sash for the
flower girl and extra material - my SIL fell pregnant after we ordered
the dresses. The color is pistachio and the fabric is dupioni silk.
I
had searched everywhere for a
flower girl dress made from dupioni silk however I couldn't find them
for less than $200. Then I stumbled across the Briar Patch -
$49! 100% dupioni silk, fully lined with a petticoat. My niece
loved this dress!
There
were a few mix-ups with
the color of my father's bowtie, which we had to pay to be changed.
Everything was organised via the phone so I guess we should be lucky
that there weren't any more problems.
I
loved how my hair turned out.
The knot at the back looked perfect and mirrored the picture of what I
wanted. However, I found the hair stylist unfriendly! The atmosphere of
the salon and the presentation of the stylists was unimpressive, sloppy
and overall disappointing. The
stylist looked like she had just rolled out of bed.
They have an amzing website and for the prices they charge I expected
more. The stylist made it seem like it was an effort to have a
conversation with me. I left the salon feeling so aggravated.
Make-up: Vanessa with M.A.C - A++
Vanessa
was a star! I had a free
trial with her at the MAC counter in Dillards at the Barton Creek Mall.
She was very friencly and professional. During my trial I had mentioned
that I had had some problems with finding a salon to do my BM's hair.
She not only recommended a great place but also called them and
arranged the whole thing. On the day of she went to the salon to do the
girls make-up after they had each had their hair done and then she did
my make-up back at the hotel. Everyone's make-up looked incredible and
she worked well with everyone's facial features. She doesn't have a
website but her email address is:
vjane888@sbcglobal.net
I
would highly-recommend this
spa - it has a relaxing atmosphere, friendly staff and high quality
treatments. I had a manicure and pedicure and they looked perfect.
I loved the car! It was
a
beautiful touch to the
end of our night. The driver arrived on time and was very
accommodating. We hired it for the minimum for 2 hours however only
used it for an hour. They were very difficult to get a hold of. We
called them 3 or 4 times before we spoke to a person and this was after
emailing them and asking them what their office hours were.
They
were great! Great
selections, great prices and great service. They had a very
international selection and helped us with all of our quantities. I
highly recommend them.
Our
room was amazing! We had a
view over looking 6th street from a corner balcony, which was wild as
it was during SxSW. All of the staff were friendly. My only compliant
is that it was quite expensive.
Free
cooked to order breakfast,
free happy hour drinks and free wireless Internet - what more could you
want? The rooms were clean and comfortable. They also give a great
group discount.
The
food was great! The members
of the wait staff were very friendly and Joanna was very responsive to
our emails and answered all of our requests. The one complaint I have
is that we ran out of food and had to pay extra.
