What was the name of your venue(s)?

My ceremony was in the wedding chapel of West Houston Church of Christ and the reception was the Downtown Aquarium, in the ballroom.

Did you rent decorative items? What rental company did you use?

All of the decor (bouquets, flowers and centerpieces) were done by Let It Fly. They do decor for weddings, banquets (like for the Houston Rockets) and several big corporate companies. I found them at the bridal extravaganza in July of 2008.

Who was your photographer?

My photographer was Clayton Wallace, who I also met at the Bridal Extravaganza. I liked that he did a lot of the more artsy, candid pictures, not quite to formal. Also, my husband hates having his picture taken and one of Clayton’s “model bride’s” that was at the extravaganza told me her favorite part was that she never even knew he was there… and it is SO true! I never even saw him during the whole ceremony and he got some amazing close ups!

Who provided the music for your ceremony and reception?

For the ceremony, I had my old youth minister, Tquan Moore, play acoustic guitar and my sister-in-law, Breanna Newbill and a family friend, Ethan Spell, sang. The songs were “So Are You to Me”, by Eastmountainsouth, “Nothing Fancy” by Dave Barnes, and “Feels Like Home” by Chantal Kreviak. During the reception we played a lot of acoustic music while we ate played by our DJ, Andy Spell (a family friend). Tim and I danced our first dance to a song he recorded that he sang to me the night he proposed called “Between You and Me” (you can find it on myspace, its REALLY good!). Then my dad and I danced to Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman and Tim and his mom danced to “What a Wonderful World.” After the first dances, we had several group dances (The cha-cha slide, the cupid shuffle, the cotton-eyed joe) that the whole wedding party and several guests participated in. During the remainder of today’s “hits” (if you will, lol). Then for the bouquet toss, I had “All my Single Ladies” by Beyonce and “Macho Man” for the garter throw.

What was your favor?

We didn’t really give out favors, we decided to donate money to the child Tim and I sponsor in India.

How did you choose your color scheme?

I have always known I was going to have pink as my main color for my wedding, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted lighter or darker, so I decided to use four different shades and have it start with my maid of honor in the lightest and fade out to a darker pink. Then when I found my dress I ended up picking an ivory one, so I decided to use gold as the accent color instead of silver like I had originally thought I would use.

What part of the planning process was the most fun?

The most fun to plan was probably either my dress or my reception sight. It was SO much fun spending the weekend with my mom just going around and doing wedding craziness. I loved trying on all the different dresses and then imagining my wedding in all of the beautiful venues we looked at. Oh ya, and testing cakes was really enjoyable too. I know that was Tim’s favorite part.

What was the most difficult part of the planning process?

The most difficult was probably deciding who and what to use for my florals. I knew I didn’t want big, gody, floral arrangments on the stage because I like a simpler setting when it comes to that, but there were not many people who understood what I was trying to explain to them. Let It Fly, on the other hand, actually listened and they pulled pictures for me until we got exactly the right arrangement. Lauren, my consultant, was AMAZING. And they didn’t charge extra to set up and take down, which was a huge plus.

What was your “Something Blue”?

My “something blue” was the words “bride to be” that were on a pair of underwear I wore that I got from my lingerie shower.