Making it Official

Lon and I met with our officiant for lunch last week. His grandmother and family have been mentioning how great she was for the past 9 months, so we finally made it happen.

Lane Louis grew up in a neighborhood just north of where we live, and went to elementary school there, along with her husband and close friends. She's the quintessential Austinite; educated at UT, down to earth, quarky and positively gregarious - someone you want to spend Sunday afternoons chatting with. Top that off with a familial connection (she's Lon's father's cousin), and we're sold!

Her story on getting into officiating is really interesting and founded on the many requests she's received over the years to marry friends and relatives. As I've only heard it once, and know she'll tell it best, I'm going to leave the rest to her. I will say that she said she only does weddings for family and close friends, so we feel very lucky to have her.

We're not at a hyper religious point in our lives, so we agreed on a ceremony focused on the tenants of marriage, with a reading on love from a friend, and finally a blessing to close. I hope for a spiritual event focused on love and tradition. Jane seems to be on that same plane. She even mentioned that instead of my dad "giving me away," he and my mother could "celebrate" the union, or "present" me or something. Anything moving away from ownership makes me happy!

All in all, I am beyond excited by having Jane officiate the wedding and trust that it will be fantastic in her care.

I cant wait for you all to meet her and see for yourself how charming she really is!

Rustic Romance

This weekend, while at dinner at aunt Pat and uncle Steve's house, we chatted with his cousins (also getting married - Congrats Maggie and David!), and started tossing around themes. I hadn't considered the importance of one before, but according to Juliette, it was a necessity. After debating a few I came up with ours - Rustic Romance. It seems like the perfect descriptor of our location, mood and personal style. Here are a few flowers from Saipua found via Weddingbee. I absolutely love her earthy, free style approach. Sadly, Lon nixed having her flown out to do our wedding....
Another pretty bouquet from Weddingbee.

This is it!

This is what I had in mind for our cupcake display! Sadly this company is located in New Jersey, but I think I may be able to use this design for inspiration and DIY it! *Minus the butterflies and hearts! Something more like this:

Family Time

I had to post all of these shots from the reunion in Galveston, event though they are all so similar. I love the slight variation in each, and how they so clearly show Lon's family's dynamics. Though it is funny to note that Lon and Ross look pretty much the same in all of the pics - clearly kids of a photographer.

Note Lon's outfit, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately, the patterns aren't as prominent as in person.