Not long after getting engaged we began setting the stage for our wedding planning journey. The first thing we decided was when we wanted to get married. With school and work we knew we had to make wise decisions while also considering that my parents had a pretty full year ahead of them of some great life events. The upcoming year would hold the graduation of my baby sister from high school and all the senior events which take place like senior prom, senior spring break, and all the graduation events, and there would be the fabulous family senior trip to celebrate her graduating; not to mention we found out shortly after returning home from Justin proposing that my brother and his wife would be having another baby in June of 2016. So like I said a lot of great life events taking place all in one year.
Mom and I knew we wanted to enlist the help of a good friend who happened to be the owner of Agape Special Events. Jessie has been a wedding planner and designer for over ten years and having her on board with us was something we wanted and needed. After meeting with our wedding planner, the next items on our list were to find the perfect venue location and finding “The Dress”. We considered many different venue locations and visited a few of them before we found our perfect venue location. Justin and I knew immediately while on tour at the venue that it was the one for us, so with my parents approval we booked the venue that same day. The Venue at Roseoak in Petal, MS was going to make an amazing setting for us to enter into covenant relationship with each other. Now it was time to say “Yes to a dress”. Jessie recommended a couple of bridal boutiques to go to. We decided we would try I Do Bridal and Formal in Mobile, AL first as it was one of the closest ones to us. Bonnie and her staff were wonderful to work with and the selection of dresses were amazing. I had an idea of what style dress I wanted, but I went with the mindset of letting the consultants help me think outside of my box. I tried on some incredible dresses that day, but there was one dress I thought could be the dress, but you never really know how something looks until you actually try it on. The consultant at I Do Bridal helped me into the dress and when I turned around to look in the mirror I knew. My mom and Nana went with me and had been sitting out in the show room waiting for me to come out in each dress. I will never forget the look on their faces as I knew they could read the look on mine. All I could see when I looked in the mirror was this was the dress I had dreamed about since I was a little girl and now I would soon be walking down the aisle in this very dress to say, “I Do”, to the man God created for me. I will never forget this moment in life, and getting to share it with my mom and Nana was truly a gift from God to me. God is so good and Faithful!!!!
*If you are in the process of looking for your perfect dress to say “I Do” in, I would like to offer this advice. Enjoy every moment of this experience. Don’t pick a dress just because someone else likes it on you or because you are tired of trying on dresses. Pick a dress that makes you look in the mirror and get lost in the moment of seeing yourself and thinking, “This is the dress I have dreamed about all my life, this is my dress!”
There was something about having our venue booked and my dress ordered that brought me so much comfort, but there was still so much planning yet to do; I knew I couldn’t get comfortable just yet. With the guidance of our wedding planner, Jessie, we started the process of building our design elements and choosing the vendors to help make this day truly the day of our dreams. Jessie scheduled us an appointment to meet with Tyner’s Catering in Mobile, AL. I had already had their food and seen their work while attending Jessie’s wedding so I already knew they were a strong contender. My parents nor Justin had ever had their food so it was amazing that Tyner’s provided a taste testing at the consultation, even though it was just me and mama attending the consultation. Rhonda made Momma and I feel totally at peace that our guests would be well taken care of concerning great food and service. Needless to say we left the consultation having booked our caterers. I was so excited!!! We also had scheduled later that day to meet with Admoni Photography. We meet them at a Panera Bread location and Jessie had described them to us so we kinda knew who we were looking for. Prior to meeting with them I had viewed some of their work online as well as some work of other photographers; as this was an important decision to make. The moment we began talking to Keegan and Robbie, I knew they were the perfect photographers for mine and Justin’s wedding. The fact they were a husband and wife team was the main reason that I knew they were the right photographers, but they were also very very sweet people and I absolutely loved talking to them. I had been told it was equally important that I liked the photographers as people as it was I liked their work. They would be all up in mine and Justin’s “business” on our wedding day capturing this priceless memory for us, so we needed to make sure we actually liked them. We not only like them but we love them and their work, and we can hardly wait to see our special day captured in a “picture” perfect story. Things were coming along so nicely.
Next we had the cake, flowers, and rentals. We met with a couple different vendors for our cakes and flowers, but we ultimately found the perfect vendors for us. We chose Home Bake & Candy Shoppe out of Hattiesburg as our baker and we are so excited about the fabulous cake. We also chose The Rose Bud Flowers and Gifts out of Chickasaw as our florist. Mrs. Shelia helped us create the most amazing floral design elements and I can hardly wait to see everything come to completion. It is going to be FABULOUS! Jessie, took us to Port City Rentals in Mobile, AL and the consultant there, Sara, helped Jessie create for us a visual of how our wedding rentals will look once all put together. This is when things really became real. Momma and I could actual begin to see all the pieces of the puzzle come together. It seemed that all the planning was beginning to take shape into an actual event. I am so excited. We still had several more items on the planning list to do, but everything was taking shape so amazingly. We have some incredible wedding vendors, some of which I have mentioned and others which you will have to wait and see. 🙂 The day I have dreamed about is now only weeks away and I can hardly wait to see ALL God has in store.
Mrs. Justin Brown sounds really nice; don’t you think? :))
Photography Provided By: Roseoak Photography and Jacquelyn Howell Brown