Bride, in detail: Celebration {DIY, Dallas Boudoir, tuxes, marriage counseling}

I finished my DIY project that will be used to inform our family of a specific request after our wedding ceremony. They will also be used as seating place cards at the rehearsal dinner (two birds one stone!). As fore mentioned, I chose to use a custom stamp (ordered from Etsy) and cards instead of spreading the word via text simply because I'm in love with those teeny tiny pretty little details ;) Now that we have the name cards ready, we just need to work on all the other teeny tiny details for the rehearsal dinner! So on the 66 days-to-go mark, Matt and I had lunch with his dad, Wayne, and his step-mom, Laura, at Wayne's favorite place, Celebration. (The name of the restaurant was quite appropriate for the topic of our discussion!) We discussed the details of our rehearsal dinner venue, menu ideas, seating charts, decor, etc. It was so nice to catch up with my future in-laws(!) and share what's going on behind the scenes of all this wedding planning. The four of us tentatively have a food tasting scheduled with the chef early in March that we're all looking forward to!

Front

Back.

I finally received my Boudoir photos from Nadia (June Bug Company). I had to wait two months for her to complete the editing process; and it was definitely worth the wait! Her work is absolutely incredible! She's creative, artsy, edgy and just a brilliant and very talented photographer. The photos turned out just as I had hoped they would. I highly recommend Nadia to do your Boudoir shoot or any other photo shoot for that matter! I also highly recommend Courtney from Chi Ro Makeup, who did my makeup for this shoot (as well as our engagement shoot). Here's a few from the shoot, but Matt won't get to see them until the night before the wedding(!):

Picking out tuxes have been on our to do list for several weeks now. Matt and I finally made it over to Men's Warehouse. I'm sure most of you saw the photo that I posted to Facebook (of Matt rolling his eyes). He may have looked extremely bored, but when we were done, he stated matter-of-factly how painless it was. See, wedding planning isn't so bad! I fell in love with the Vera Wang tux as soon as Matt came out of the dressing room. The inaugural collection, BLACK by Vera Wang, tux is exclusive to Men's Warehouse and the rental fee reflects it's modern sophisticated debut. So after much deliberation, we agreed that Matt would wear (splurge rather) Vera Wang and his groomsmen would wear Calvin Klein. After we agreed on the tuxes, we selected vests and ties that I'm really excited about. And we are both even more excited that Matt's ensemble will be a little different than his groomsmen!

Matt and I had a great marriage counseling session with our officiant, Roy, and his wife, Casey. We love sitting down with them because they are real, relatable and reliable! Our session was over the pieces of love, which included tenderness, esteem, romance, support, leadership (there were several more but I'll spare ya). Our officiant and his wife described the meaning of each "piece" and ways to improve in areas of weakness. After we wrapped up the session, Roy asked if I had any special requests for him. Casey and I discussed this at church prior to our session and we agreed that Roy must dance at the reception! How fun would it be to see your officiant and marriage mentor getting down on the dance floor?! Don't let us down, Roy! ;)

Matt and I always feel refreshed when we leave and as we drive back to Dallas we continue chatting about topics that stood out to us most and how thankful we are for Roy and Casey. I hope every engaged couple is as blessed as we are to have such neat Godly people preparing them for marriage.

When my mom came into town last (to help with a few wedding projects of course), she brought a pretty little package just for me. Before I opened it she explained that she bought it 15 years ago for me to have for my wedding one day. Emotions filled my heart as I pictured her standing in a store long ago dreaming of my wedding day; I pictured myself, 12 years old playing with makeup; and I imagined an 11 year old Matt practicing his free throws. How special this gift was then, at that very moment in the store, in front of the mirror, at the free throw line. And how special it is now, 15 years later and just two months before my wedding day is finally here. Thank you, mom, for having faith in me and having faith in God's timing.

Hm, is it coincidence that there are 15 roses on this frame?