Steel Magnolias and Gents

It has been a long time coming, but we finally have a wedding party! We have officially asked all of our bridesmaids and groomsmen to be in the wedding. We both decided to do a formal invite – me mailing my bridesmaids one of my “crafts” and Tres asking his groomsmen with a bottle of wine from one of the wineries we went to in Napa Valley (Tres still has to give two of his groomsmen their gifts, but I couldn’t wait to post the blog)!

Paper Dolls with all hair just like my girls' hair! hehe!
The Invite (above)
The Reply Card (above)

Without further ado… here is our wedding party:

The Steel Magnolias
Stephanie Porter – Matron of Honor (childhood/high school friend of the bride)
Ginger Stewart – Matron of Honor (sorority sister of the bride)
Melissa Stokes – Maid of Honor (cousin of the bride)
Erin Hendricks (high school friend of the bride)
Sara Leach (sorority sister of the bride)
Amy Claire Smith (sorority sister of the bride)
Tracy Scott (sorority sister of the bride)
Lori Piety (adulthood friend of the bride and friend of the groom)
Renee Haralson (sister of the groom)

The Gents
JG Ketchen – Best Man (long-time friend of the groom)
Trevor Piety (long-time friend of the groom)
Mike Martinez (long-time friend of the groom)
Brandon Mize (long-time friend of the groom)
Joey Kaegi (college friend of the groom)
Steve Hines (college friend of the groom)
John Patrick (college friend of the groom)
Craig Hodges (college friend of the groom)
Randy Tatum (brother of the bride)

We wanted to do something special for our bridesmaids and groomsmen, so as you see in the pictures, we both made something special for each and every one of them! For my invite, I thought the paper dolls were a good idea because each of my girls would not only get invited to be in the wedding party via mail, but they could also immediately know who else I invited! The paper dolls took forever but the invite and reply card were pretty simple. For the invite, I wrote a personalized poem for each of my girls that referred to our friendship past, present, and future. The last line on the card in pink was on all my girls' cards. It says: "A Steel Magnolia is a southern woman who is strong and independent; yet very feminine. You are one of my Steel Magnolias." I thought of the Reply card idea because I needed my girls’ sizes and I wanted them to give me their take on Bachelorette party ideas and ideas for the wedding!

Bottles of wine with old pictures tied to them
The question card

The FRANK wine! haha!

Tres’ invite was all his idea… the only thing I helped with was the crafts part of it! After going to Napa Valley and visiting a winery that we loved, Frank Family Winery, Tres decided he would give all of his groomsmen a bottle of wine from there (his nickname is Frank, so that made the wine bottle even funnier). He got copies made of old pictures with his buddies, and attached a “Will you be my Groomsman?” card to it! We are so excited to announce our 18-member wedding party and can’t wait for all the festivities to begin with them!