I adore this wedding because of the food. Tori and Tim picked the King Estate Winery because of the food- Its that delicious!

Today’s vineyard wedding was submitted by Tara Francis Photography and I can’t thank her enough for making our mouths water today with this submission.

Photography: Tara Francis Photography

Venue: King Estate Winery

Hair Stylist: Lotus Hair Design

Music: Don Latarski

Wedding Gown: Exclusively Bridal

Bakery: Sweet Life Patisserie

Grooms Attire: Men’s Warehouse

I came across this video from Dylan List member Brent Foster Photography and had to share.

This piece focuses on Erica and Mike’s love for one another, their personalities, their thoughts about each other, and their upcoming wedding.

Its very sweet and a great way to be inspired by love this weekend.

TGIF!

Erica and Mike | Engagement Cinematography | Wedding Cinematography from Brent Foster on Vimeo.

Michael and I met in October 2009 at a tailgate party prior to the Texas Tech vs Kansas football game. Michael and some of his buddies were hosting and I was attending with a friend.

Michael’s dad struck up a conversation with me, and after a while, Michael came over to “rescue” me. We hit it off right away and later that evening, he told me that he was going to marry me!

I carried a European style hand tied bouquet of white tulips, white/green parrot tulips, white rananculus, white medium size roses, green viburnum, and lemon leaves.

My bridesmaids carried European style hand tied bouquets of roses, tulips, ranunculis, and baronia heather in vibrant shades of orange, yellow, red, and purple.

All of the bouquets were tied with turquoise ribbon to match my shoes and the turquoise stones in the bridesmaid’s necklaces.

On the Wednesday before our Friday wedding, God sent a massive snowstorm that blanketed most of West Texas and pretty much all of New Mexico. When we selected Santa Fe as our destination wedding location, I had hoped for some snow on the ground on our wedding day, but knew that with the wedding being in February, the chances were slim.

God answered my prayer for snow in a BIG way!

Travel was slow, and some of our guests nearly didn’t make it, but by the day of our wedding, the weather had warmed some and there was still a beautiful, clean, white layer of snow on everything around us. God’s last minute detail made the entire weekend all the more magical!

Michael proposed on June 18, 2010. He had been acting strangely the week leading up to his proposal and had told me early-on that week not to make any plans for Friday night because he had committed us to go to a fundraiser that evening with some of his friends. He took me out shopping for a new dress to wear and kept reminding me every chance he could not to plan anything for that Friday night. Once Friday night rolled around, I had begun to suspect that something other than a fundraiser was on his agenda! He took me to dinner at the Double Nickel, a very nice restaurant here in Lubbock, TX and said we would meet up with the rest of the group afterwards. As dinner was drawing to a close, Michael excused himself, saying that he had left his wallet in the car and needed to go get it. After a few minutes, our waitress approached me with an envelope. It was addressed to me. I opened it and inside found a card that read:

“A beautiful girl, in a stunning dress,
What’s coming next, she can only guess.
Get up from the table and walk outside,
Someone is waiting to take you on a short drive.”

I made my way outside and found a limo waiting for me. As I got in, the driver handed me another
envelope. The card inside read:

“I’m sure at this point you’re wondering,
“Where has he gone?”
The answer is coming, it won’t be too long.
Sit back, relax, and soon you will see
What will be next in our love story.”

The limo drove me to the Lubbock Memorial Arboretum, where I was met by Michael’s friend Jeff who helped me out of the limo and escorted me down the garden path. As we rounded a bend, I saw Michael standing under an archway that was lit up with tiny twinkle lights. Jeff excused himself and I made my way to Michael. He looked so handsome…..and so nervous! When I reached him, he told me how happy I made him and that he couldn’t imagine his future without me in it, then got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! Of course I said yes! After we left the Arboretum, the limo took us to the Overton Hotel where Michael had arranged a surprise engagement party. I couldn’t have imagined a more thoughtful, romantic, beautiful proposal. Finding my family and friends all waiting to celebrate with us afterwards was the perfect finishing touch to a fairytale evening!

Michael’s daughter, Bragen, turned three a couple of weeks before the wedding. We wanted to include her in some aspect of the ceremony, but knew that she was still too small to be comfortable standing with us in front of all our guests. At the beginning of the ceremony, Michael escorted her in with his mom and seated them together.

When it was time for the “giving of the bride,” our pastor called both sets of our parents up to the alter, asking my parents if they would accept Michael in to their family and asking Michael’s parents if they would accept me in to their family. Bragen also stood with us during this time.

At the end of the ceremony, after we had been pronounced husband and wife, Bragen joined us and we walked out of the chapel as a family. All of this allowed her to feel part of the ceremony without being scared or intimidated by the crowd. She was very proud of the part she played in our special day and still talks about “our wedding” and “when we got married in Santa Fe.”

We had a three-tiered, round; white fondant finished wedding cake with hand painted decorations on the sides in ivory.

The top of the cake featured a composition of ivory and white fondant faux roses. The top and bottom tiers were almond vanilla cake with vanilla bean butter cream frosting. The middle tier was chocolate cake with raspberry preserve filling. It was delicious!

Photographer: Cristy Cross Photography

Chapel: The Loretto Chapel

Reception/Catering: La Posada De Santa Fe

Ceremony/Reception Music: Absolute Entertainment

Florist: Marisa’s Flowers

Cake: Maggie’s Cakes, maggiescakes@macdialup.com

Save the Dates/Invitations/Programs: Hodgepodge Design

From the photographer:

It was New Year’s Eve night and everyone was in on Jimmy’s plan…except for Laura. He had the custom-made ring burning a hole through his pocket as he thought and looked for the most opportune moment to follow through. As everyone gathered around anticipating the fireworks, Jimmy found the ideal spot for the occasion.

Their friends and those closest to Laura and Jimmy looked ahead but out of the corner of their eyes they were also waiting. In fact, everyone was waiting but Laura. She settled into Jimmy looking ahead as the fireworks began to fill the sky with light and color.

It was in that moment that  he turned to her and kneeled to propose; Laura was speechless…until she let out a “Whaatt?!!” And then, a ‘YES!’

Spending the day with Laura and Jimmy was perfect; they are SO laid back. With the weather being less than ideal, we made a plan to start at an indoor location, the well-known Ralph’s across from City Park and we would play it by ear. We made it through the clouds and rain, dried off, and shoot a bit inside before we made the decision to shoot the rest of the session outdoors…in the rain. It was such a fun afternoon and really showed me the specialness of these two.

As I photographed them the word ‘comfortable’ kept coming into my head. Because they are such a perfect representation of finding that one…the person that you can completely be yourself with.

Catherine Guidry is based in Louisiana. You can check out more of her work by visiting her website and blog.

Melissa: After undergrad, I moved back to my parents’ house and worked for a year before getting accepted into medical school.

In August, an old high school friend found out that I was back home and invited me over to her house for a Bible study. That’s where I met David.

David: When Melissa walked into the house of my weekly bible study, I remember thinking, “I need to make sure this girl comes back next week!” I tried hard to make sure her first visit was an enjoyable one so that she would keep coming back. And that she did!

Every Friday night, I would look forward to getting to know Melissa more and more. After many bible study conversations, many wacky board games with friends, and many great conversations about music, snuggies, and snowglobes, I finally found the courage to ask Melissa out on a date. The rest, as they say, is history.

Describe the proposal.

I (David) came to visit Melissa in the Caribbean over her semester break from medical school. We spent the day with Melissa’s parents enjoying the island. We rented a hobie-cat with her parents and sailed around the bay of the beautiful Caribbean Sea and explored an old military fort. In the evening, wanting to watch the sunset, we headed for the beach.

We sat on the dock together hand in hand looking out at the sunset. However, the amount of clouds made this particular sunset very hazy. A short while later I pulled an iPod and a portable speaker out of my pocket and suggested slow dancing on the dock. Being the music junkie that I am, Melissa didn’t think this was anything out of the ordinary. But just as we started to dance, the waves started to become more violent and drench us with water! After we quickly ran back to shore, I started to think, “This is not going as planned! Maybe I should try again tomorrow night and hopefully the sunset will be better.”

Nevertheless, I thought, “Let’s see if she wants to take a walk down the beach and maybe things will start going better. If it feels right, I’ll still ask her tonight.” As we set out down the shoreline, Melissa decided to take a picture of our footprints in the sand. As she was taking a picture of the footprints, the high tide came and washed one of my brand new sandals towards the Sea. Spotting this right away, Melissa dashed for it and pegged it with her foot, right before the rocky waves crashed into her poor feet. So now, as we continued to walk down the beach with Melissa limping a bit from the bruise on her foot, I thought to myself, “Wow. First the lame sunset and now this. This is REALLY not going as planned.”

But just as the thought of proposing that night started to become an afterthought, Melissa exclaimed, “Handsome! We have the beach all to ourselves!” So I suggested that we try dancing again. And as the night grew dark and the full moon crept out from behind the clouds, we slow danced to a few of our favorite slow songs in the white Caribbean sand. All of sudden, as I realized how much fun we were having, I knew I had to find the right moment to get on one knee. But knowing how much Melissa loves surprises, I needed a distraction.

Just then, Melissa asked me, “Hey, I am having lots of fun dancing with you, but do you mind if I try to get a picture of the lights of the city across the bay? It looks gorgeous right now!” “Not at all,” I said smiling, as she turned to snap a picture. So I prayed in my head to God, “Now?” I instantly heard, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” So I got down on one knee and opened the box. Immediately, the ring fell out of the box into the sand! After fishing the ring out of the sand, I frantically brushed the sand off the diamond ring while Melissa was still busy trying to get a better shot – oblivious of what was going on behind her. Much to her surprise when she turned around, I was kneeling in the sand with the diamond ring outstretched in hand. After a few mushy phrases about how much I loved her, I asked her to marry me. She said, “YES!”

As we expressed our excitement to each other, we both noticed the clear, starry skies above. It turned out to be a beautiful night after all! And after an amazing mahi-mahi dinner on the beach with Melissa’s parents as she gushed over the ring, we found a swimming pool all to ourselves under the bright starry sky! I could not have imagined such a perfect night!

My younger sister and best friend are very artsy. I knew I wanted to make custom thank-you letters for our wedding, so I asked them to help me design and make letters from foam core to spell “T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U.” Kate took pictures of the wedding party holding these glittery letters between the ceremony and reception.

I printed the thank-you pictures and attached them to blank cards with photo corners. (I bought the blank white cards in bulk packs of 50 from Michaels.) It cost me around 23₵ a piece – much cheaper than any of the photo cards you can buy pre-made.

And the best part is that you can easily remove the picture from the card if you only want to keep the picture. I got many compliments for my thank-you cards, and it was super easy!

I often looked through the wedding blogs for ideas. One day I saw someone who had hung up old black and white family photos somewhere in their reception hall.

That inspired me to collect wedding photos from all of our closest relatives – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings – to display on the tables at the reception. We spent about a year collecting and printing these pictures, but it was well worth it.

Later I found heavy stickers to put on all the frames we’d gotten so the pictures could double as table numbers. I wrote a note to accompany each seat to let everyone know how much we appreciate our families and the wonderful example these marriages have been to us. We let each couple take home the photo as a keepsake from our wedding.

Photography: Kate Miller Photography

Wedding Gown & Veil: Wolsfelt’s Victorian Bridal

Shoes: Romantic Soles, Geneva Style from Zappos.com

Jewelry: Mayfly Designs

Hair: Reflections Metro Salon & Spa

Tuxes: Men’s Wearhouse

Flowers: Flowers in the Country

Catering: H2O Catering

Reception: Paramount Theatre

Wedding Cake: a friend of the family

Flower girl’s dress, garter, & ringbearer pillow made from David’s late mother’s wedding dress

Frames for wedding pictures: Walmart

How did the two of you meet? I was looking to purchase a car for my daughter. Gary had one listed I was interested in.

We chatted via phone and although I didn’t end up buying the car, he continued to call me every few weeks to ask if I had found anything. After a few months of that, he finally asked me out!

My sister designed our logo, invites, programs, place cards and save the dates. We wanted an elegant but inviting theme that could be carried throughout the event.

I especially liked my bouquet of cream calla lilies with dark purple centers. My flower girl’s posy bouquet was just the right size for her and our boutonnieres and corsages were tied with patterned ribbon over the stems.

It was a nice new element many had never seen before!

Describe the proposal. Our first date was at Houlihan’s so he decided to return to the place where it all started. He made a lovely, sincere proposal before dinner.

The funny part is, he had actually had the ring for over a year and had attempted to propose on two separate occasions but weather made him rethink it!

Between the two of us we have 8 children ranging from 12 years to 26. We had every one of them in the wedding, including our granddaughter and it was a wonderful way to ensure they all felt included and part of the fun.

I have to say that one of the most memorable moments was Isabella, our granddaughter and 2 year old flower girl, stealing the show when she walked up and started shooting pictures during the wedding ceremony.

She even had the wedding party say ‘Cheese!”. She was just enough distraction to not be intrusive, but kept the guests attention on the ceremony!

My Mom, sister, daughter and two nieces overtook the Wedding Shoppe on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. I had a general idea of what I was looking for but because this was a second marriage was not sure how formal I should go.

We decided that since we were going all out on the rest of the wedding, I had to do the dress too. I only needed to try on about 5 dresses to know that the very first one I had tried on was THE ONE.

For our flowers we wanted a ‘just picked’ garden feel so we used various purples, greens and creams to create a nice fresh look. All were hand tied which was gorgeous.

In general, we both loved the way all of our customized items turned out. If we had to pick a favorite though, I loved our wedding favor boxes- milk chocolate rectangles imprinted with our logo, wrapped in lavender foil, then a green paisley box with a silver thank you charm. They were so cute!

I also liked the gum drop we used for place card holders. It added the casualness and fun that we love. I think our guests’ favorite element was the photo booth! It was in use all night!

We also went overboard on wedding favors because we wanted our guests to be spoiled.

We had wedding favors with chocolates, take home treats from the dessert buffet and the photo booth pictures they were all able to take home.

We actually decided to forego a wedding cake in light of the dessert buffet!

We had dessert shooters, mini cupcakes, cake pops, brownie bites, cookies with our logo, mini whoopee pies, logoed bags with popcorn to take home.

It was a huge hit!

Our favorite details of the day was the dessert buffet and how we carried our logo throughout the entire day.

We are most thrilled to finally be married, but we loved every part of our wedding day.

We had all of the people who were important to us there to share our special day and there is not one thing I would have done differently!

Photography: Paige Winn Photography

Venue: Cedarhurst Mansion

Florist: I Do Flowers

Desserts: Shauna Younge Desserts

Wedding Coordinator: Fab-You-Lous Events (Kirsten Fisher)

DJ: Silver Sounds DJ

Photo Booth: VIP Photo Booths

Music: Il Dolce String Trio

Officiant: Rev. Derek Kiewatt