When Rusty and I started planning our wedding (which was four months to the day of our ceremony) we each had a few things that were major requirements. One thing we both wholeheartedly agreed upon was the fact that we wanted to entertain guests and make sure they had a fun time. The other requirement for me was that I wanted to be married by water and have a reception under the stars and Rusty wanted to be able to wear Converse sneakers. With these things in mind my mom and I started researching locations. We quickly eliminated a few places because of costs, certain requirements for the location or we just didn't like it. Rusty grew up in northern Arkansas while I was from the south part so meeting in the middle also helped us when looking for the perfect spot.
I finally had the venue narrowed down to two locations. One was a new place in Hot Springs, AR that would be ready just in time for our wedding. It was between an older plantation home with a big patio or a golf resort located on Lake DeGray that had a large resort style hotel. After thinking things over for a LONG time, I felt confident in DeGray Lake Resort State Park. The lodge offered so many incentives plus Rusty and I saw that we could make our wedding into not just a day but a weekend. Some of the incentives included: pool, golf, yummy eats, the lake, hiking trails, the spa and all our loved ones together in one place. We also had a sweet lady help my mom and I with final details, menu planning and setup. They took such good care of us. Our ceremony was to be held on the lawn at the resort and the reception just a bit away at the golf course patio. The patio was to levels. The top level served as the food, dessert and dancing area while the bottom held all the tables and the bar. Here are the pre-wedding photos:
Once we had the location it was time to ask my ladies! I sent them all a personalized letter asking them to be apart of our wedding plus a cute shirt that we all wore on my bachelorette weekend + the day before the wedding and the day of. Since all of them lived across the U.S. I mailed them individually and eagerly awaited their phone calls! It was hard to talk to them and not spill the beans while I was waiting for them to get their package. Here are the shirts:
Friday morning we had my bridal luncheon at the resorts restaurant. They blocked off a section for us and my childhood best friend/maid of honor and her mother planned every detail. That was such a special way to kick start the wonderful weekend. It sets the mood with fun memories, sweet words and laughter. The place settings for each guest included an old photo of that guest and I. Most of my bridesmaids were childhood friends so the pictures were so fun! The one of my maid of honor and I is pictured below. It was from us dressing up and having a wedding when we were little girls.
After the bridal luncheon I passed out gifts for each bridesmaid. Each girl was gifted with a few bath fizzies, a koozie and a trip to be pampered. Each bridesmaid and wedding party attendant got to get a pedicure and manicure for the big day! It was so fun to take the girls to get their nails done. We had the whole nail salon to ourselves. It was so fun!
After getting our nails done we came back to the resort and started getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went great and then we had a casual BBQ dinner at a pavilion on the resort property. We had drinks, yummy eats, a slideshow and to top it off, Rusty's mom had recreated Deal or No Deal. Gena (mother-in-law) had each girl there line up with a cut out briefcase. We picked our favorite number and then worked our way through eliminating the others. The grand prize was $1,000. It came down to us either winning $1,000 or $1. We won the big bucks! I can't believe how involved everyone got in the game! It was so much fun! Here are a few more pictures of our rehearsal:
Thank you again for letting me celebrate my wedding with you all! Happy day :)
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