Armosa Studios - Our Photographers!

Its official… we signed the contract, sent in the deposit, and we now have photographers - photographers that are out-of-this-world!!! Sure we are from Memphis and getting married in New Orleans, yet we hired photographers from FLORENCE, ALABAMA! It may not make sense… UNTIL you see the work these people do. Then, it’s quite obvious why we chose these guys to take our pictures… they are amazingly talented and so worth getting from all the way in AL! An additional plus is they are married and seem to be just as awesome of a couple as they are photographers, so we are stoked!

I told Tres as soon as we started wedding planning that photography was ranked #1 on my wedding priority list, so we set out looking for the best, and I think we found them! I had actually seen these guys’ work before Tres and I even got engaged, and I was convinced that when Tres and I got married, we would have to consider them. Their "Vogue/GQ/Vanity Fair" photography style has us so excited to be models for a day… haha! We can’t wait to meet and work with them!

They are Armosa Studios! Check out their work on their website: http://armosastudio.com/index2.php?v=v1

Happy -1 Year Anniversary!

Last Saturday was a very special day… a day we will celebrate for the rest of our lives! The morning of October 17, 2009, Tres and I woke up and begin celebrating our negative one year anniversary!

When we officially booked our date with Southern Oaks in September, they congratulated us with a bottle of “Southern Oaks” personalized champagne! It was adorable, and when we got it, we decided we would drink it on day when we had exactly a year until our wedding. That morning, we popped open the bubbly and mixed it with orange juice for Mimosas! I cooked French Toast and we had a great brunch, while watching the movie “Sideways.”

It was a lazy, casual day. After our movie over brunch, we took naps. That night, we went to a Grizzlies game and did a little bar hopping after that. It was a perfect -1 year anniversary. And now that it’s over it means… WE ARE OFFICIALLY GETTING MARRIED IN LESS THAN A YEAR!!!!

Budget and Beaches!

Money, money, money, monaaayyyy!!!! This past Sunday, Tres and I sat down and had “the talk…” The BUDGET talk that is! :) We spent literally the entire afternoon staring at a spreadsheet and mapping out our budget – what to spend on what, where to save, where not to save, etc. We were lucky enough to be given a great sum of money from my mom and dad to go towards the wedding, so we have been very grateful for that! But we have also learned that no matter what kind of budget you set, you will more than likely ALWAYS go over it. We have definitely gone over it, but we are not stressing about it… I love that saying, “Go big… you only get married once!” haha. And this is true, since we only get to do this one time in our lives, we are planning on not going overboard but having everything we really, really want!
It grows on trees... duh!

Sunday afternoon’s budget talk became Sunday night’s honeymoon talk! Now THIS was much more exciting than the budget talk! We love to travel together, and we do it a lot (I have a Travel Blog too)! So, I had been anxious to have this talk because I just know our honeymoon will be to die for! We discussed what we wanted and didn’t want out of a honeymoon. Here are our bottom lines:
Bermuda: There's nothing more unique than a PINK beach!

• Nothing “touristy”! At first, I kind of imagined us doing a place in Europe neither of us had been before, but the places we want to go in Europe are very touristy. The last thing I want to do is to be running around five different cities in a week’s time, trying to see 100 different attractions, with 10 different maps and tour guides in our hands, and so tired at the end of the day that I don’t even want to curl my hair or dress cute for dinner! No thanks! I am dying to go to Italy, but maybe we will save it for our one year anniversary!
• A relaxing place! Hence, nothing touristy! We will be off work for about a week for this, so I want my feet up and to not move a bone in my body the entire time. I want to be able to enjoy the days with naps in between and enjoy the nights without be tired (and also feel like curling my hair for dinner each night)!
• Not a long flight! This is Tres’ bottom line, and he has a good point. We are already having somewhat of a vacation wedding with it being in New Orleans. We will already be taking off some the week before to get down there and get settled, so we don’t need to go on a honeymoon where we are flying across the entire globe. A 20-hour plane ride will take a full day of vacation away from us on the way there and on the way back… No thank you to that too!
• Finally, a nice hotel room and good food! Just feed me good food, and I’m happy. Just put Tres in an awesome hotel room, and he’s happy... fair game!
The Turks and Caicos... tiny little islands

So, with all of this in mind, there is really only a few options, and they are all in the Caribbean! We, of course, have consulted with our good friends Trevor and Lori on this since they lived in the Virgin Islands for several years. This is what we are leaning towards (and this could completely change on any given day…): Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Barbados - with Turks and Caicos and Bermuda being the favorites. We like the idea of Turks because it’s different and the development is very new over there. Plus, I have read that it’s where a lot of celebrities go for their “moon”! And we like Bermuda because of the pink sand, the good reputation, and it’s not really in the Caribbean… it’s more north than all the other islands and it’s all by itself! We are going to discuss this further. TO BE CONTINUED…

Our visit to Southern Oaks (September 21, 2009)

What you see online is what you get with this place. No, actually it’s way better in person. We had some friends get married in Destin, Florida a week after we booked Southern Oaks, so we decided on the way home from Destin to take the 4 hour drive over to New Orleans and go ahead and knock out actually seeing the venue we put A LOT of money down for!

We had one of the wedding coordinators show us around the place and answer all of our questions. After looking at the place and seeing how much more charming and beautiful it is in person, we sat down with the coordinator and signed contracts. She gave us a “Southern Oaks” folder that included all the information we needed to know, what forms to mail in, and where to be when – it was all very organized and simple – just how we like things. Of course, Tres, being the business-minded man he is, commented on their business structure and how they presented everything very well. He said, “They know what they’re doing.” :) If Tres approves on their business, I APPROVE!
Here’s why we LOVE Southern Oaks:

1) It’s all-inclusive. The ceremony and reception are both held there with the reception including a 75-item entrée and h’ordeuvres menu as well as a full-open bar with beer, wine, champagne, liquor, daiquiris, and Specialty drinks. Not to mention, the food and drinks are served throughout the entire reception.

2) It’s so Southern! It looks like Tara straight out of Gone with the Wind. It will be the perfect backdrop for a lady and gentleman!

3) VIP treatment. Right after the ceremony, as guests head into the ballroom for food, drinks, and dancing, the wedding party heads into the “wedding party room.” This room is roped off for just the wedding party, and we have our own bar to toast, chat for a minute, etc. After a toast, the wedding party leaves the bride and groom and we have a “private dinner,” where food is brought out to us to enjoy before we head out for all the hugs and congratulations from the guests. I, personally, have heard of many brides and grooms not even getting to eat the food at their own reception, so I like that we get a little moment of our own before being introduced and having our first dance.

4) The night ceremonies are TOO DIE FOR. And, we have decided on a night ceremony. They light up the plantation home with candles and spotlights – it’s gorgeous!

5) The food. I have read several reviews on the food served here and have heard it’s some of the best anyone has ever had at a wedding. I also spoke with some local New Orleans friends we have, and they said the same thing!

6) The service – We will have a full-wait staff for our wedding. This includes food servers for each section of the ballroom, cake servers, bartenders, chefs, and a wedding coordinator. And the best part? Tres will have his own personal attendant, I will have my own attendant, and our parents will have their own, so if we need anything at all throughout the night – they will be there for us!

Why Sunday?

We initially started thinking Sunday because we were going to try to get married on 10/10/10. Unfortunately, that date was already taken, but we still thought it would be good to have a Sunday wedding. I have worried a little bit about having our wedding on Sunday, but there are GREAT reasons why we have picked this day of the week. Here is our list of explanations for having a Sunday wedding:

- #1 reason: Our wedding party will have to take a day off of work regardless. If we had a Saturday wedding, they would have to take off Friday for the wedding festivities. So we figured, they can keep their Friday at work, festivities will be held Saturday, the wedding will be Sunday, and Monday will have to be taken off to travel home. Either way, it’s just one day missed of work!

- It’s a destination wedding, so for the people planning to come, they would have to take a day off of work anyway – no matter where the wedding is held.

- It’s the fall season, which means its FOOTBALL season, Tres says he would feel better knowing that there were no college games him and the guys would miss. So, the Saturday before while my girls and I are at the Bridal Luncheon, the boys can go watch football somewhere!

- We went to a Sunday wedding once, and LOVED IT!!! (SUNDAY FUN-DAY!!!!)

We have to lock down a date!

Sure, we hadn’t even seen the place in person, but we were pretty certain Southern Oaks was it for us. I immediately contacted them, got available dates from Sept-Nov, and sat down with Tres to decide on a date. Here was the bottom line when choosing a date: 1) try to also avoid hurricane season. 2) TENNESSEE VOLS football schedule as well as other important college football games in 2010.

The first thing Tres did was take out the Vols football schedule and got to work! He marked off the weekends with the biggest games and started searching for a possible “off” weekend. He found one the weekend of Oct. 16-17 was an off weekend, so we decided then and there that was our weekend, with October 17 being the date! We also looked at the LSU schedule as well, and so far, it’s an off weekend for them too – perfect!

Even though we had plenty of time to think about it, we didn’t want to take our chances - we really wanted to get a date locked down so no one could take it from us! Without hesitation, Tres called Southern Oaks and booked our date. That week, we mailed in our deposit and just hoped we actually liked the place in person. I never in a million years thought I could be so sure of a place without seeing it in person, but there was something about this place I knew was OURS!

Southern Oaks Plantation = the perfect venue for us!

After only a week of being engaged, I had already put a tremendous amount of thought into our wedding. To explain, I am pretty much obsessed with party and event planning and love to do it in my spare time – it’s really one of the only hobbies I have, so for a girl like me to get to plan an event as big as a wedding, this is like a dream come true. I promised Tres I wouldn’t drive him crazy, and he said he wants to be involved in the planning as much as possible, so I am grateful for that!

The idea/theme I have in mind is something like Southern-Vintage with a modern splash. Since Tres and I are both from the South, and we are having a New Orleans wedding, I thought a “southern” focus would be a great one, so when I ran across Southern Oaks Plantation online, I knew that was where we had to get married. It is the epitome of Southern – a huge Antebellum home with green grass and flowers surrounding it, a fountain it front of it, and a horse and carriage!

I tried my hardest after seeing this place to look at ALL of our New Orleans venue options, and while I picked out a few “maybes,” I knew if Tres liked Southern Oaks, that would be where we had to get married. Sure enough, I sent him a list of options, and Southern Oaks was IT for him. He loved how the ceremony and reception are all in one place, as well as the all-inclusive catering and full open bar Southern Oaks has to offer! After we fell in love with the place, we got to planning!