Officiant – Peter Andrews of Andrews Wedding Ceremonies A+
http://www.dfwgetmarried.com/
Mr. Andrews was wonderful (I also love his South African accent). With only 3 days notice, he booked us over the phone while he was trapped by a blizzard in New York. He responded within hours to any email I sent. We opted for a private backyard ceremony but due to time we couldn’t pull this off where we wanted. He then offered a backyard ceremony at his home. He has performed several in his beautiful, wooden gazebo and after browsing through photos on his website, we went for it. He had beautiful music playing when we arrived and accommodated our early arriving guests. The ceremony was beautiful and personal. Unless you knew it was put together so quickly, you would have thought he’d known us for years. I highly recommend him!!
Cake – Texas Star Bakery A+
http://www.texasstarbakery.com/
We have used Texas Star several times before for birthday celebrations so I never thought to call anyone else as we always have a wonderful experience. Once again, on short notice, they provided a beautiful cake that was delicious! I received so many compliments on how great it tasted. I ordered it over the phone and gave them free range as long as they stuck with something simple and white. It was absolutely beautiful.
Reception - Hoffbrau Steakhouse, Arlington Highlands A+
http://hoffbrausteaks.com/
We reserved their private room upstairs for a small, lunch reception. It can hold up to 40 people and would also work well for a rehearsal dinner. Since we only had around 20, there was plenty of room for our cake table and guest quilt to be set up. Our server, Justin, was great and the food was wonderful.
Inn on the River: A
http://www.innontheriver.com/Home.aspx
I have stayed at this B&B for work retreats a few times and it's always lovely. Located in Glen Rose, along the Paluxy River, it's quiet and peaceful. The only complaint I have is the heater. There wasn't a happy medium, so every 30 minutes during the night one of us would wake up to turn it off or on, as it would get extremely hot or cold in the room. I have stayed in the larger rooms before and never had this problem, so maybe it was because of the size of the room. Food was great too!
Photography – Ken and Alex of Rawlinson Photography (formerly Creative Eyes Photography)
http://creativeeyesphotography.squarespace.com/
I can’t really give them a rating because I’m bias and there’s not enough room for the amount of plus signs I’d give here. Ken (Chris’s brother) and Alex (Ken’s wife) knew how much it meant to me to have amazing photos of our day and I can’t wait to see how they turned out. Originally, we were going to have them shoot our engagements and TTD, then book Dakota Photography for the day of because Ken and Alex were going to be in the bridal party. But when we decided to skip the large wedding and go after what we really wanted, they took it upon themselves to capture our day and it really touched my heart. I’ll share photos as soon as we get some back. But in the meantime, you can check out their blog or site to see some awesome photos of other weddings and adorable babies.
I have to say, I’m glad we went ahead and did it this way. Since we were getting re-married it made more sense to me to keep it intimate. I wouldn’t recommend planning anything in three days because I was a stressed mess getting details together but it turned out to be an amazing day full of love shared with those closest to us.