Kacey and Chad were very busy the day they got married.  Here’s a little look…

First the ladies arrived at KRS Express Aviation, Kacey’s dad’s place (where the reception would be taking place at) to catch the white limo for the day.

Next, they were off to Chad’s dad’s house for pampering…

Then Chad arrived to meet his guys.  That’s wonder woman Mary Hollis of Todd Events in the Todd signature orange driving and making sure the guy’s gift bags don’t go flying.  As any one would expect, the Todd crew is incredible but who knew Mary could also wield safety pins and needle & thread to create designer gowns of ill-fitting bridesmaid’s dresses.  If there was wedding planner competition on tv where coordinators juggle everything, Mary would win!

Note the guy’s gift bags are actually monogrammed coolers stocked with items the guys could use for a hot game of golf – very nice!
After convening, the guys head off for a round of golf.

Back with Kacey, the first bottle of signature champagne is shared by all.

Chad shows off his new toy – his wedding gift from Kacey.  Looks like he may be ready for some off roading.

Nice swing Chad.

Kacey ran to have her hair done with Hung at Stella T’s in Longview while the rest of the ladies where having their hair and make-up done at Chad’s dad house.
 

America’s Next Top Model seriously needs to go to Longview, Texas! All of the girls are wearing their get ready dresses that Kacey included in their personalized gift totes.

Rayven Williams of Beauty And The Blush blog did make-up hence helping all of Kacey’s girls reach model status!

The ladies head to the church.

Around the corner, the guys shower and start getting ready… 

They cleaned up very nicely.

Chad is the first to board the limo, time to head to the church!

The morning of Lauren and Conor’s wedding, Lauren was honored with a tea at Maudee’s Cafe on Lovers Lane. This gave her a better chance to visit with all of her girlfriends, aunts, cousins and future female family.

Of course, as the bride’s left hand person and Man of Honor, Bear was there for a part of the luncheon.

It was a great beginning of a wonderful day to get married.

The Carpe Vita Photo Booth was a raving success thanks to the super speedy response from the LiveWire Special Event people (that’s their ultra cool curved couch/love seat). We hear they have amazing things for rent to really separate your event from the norm. So contact Ashley Holder at 214.774.0912 to set an appointment see what all they can offer you. The breath-taking bouquet was prepared by The Garden Gate floral gurus specifically for us – we told Maria and Junior our color preference and they did the rest. As noted directly above, your photo booth can be simple or make as big of a party statement as you like – let’s get together and talk about your ideas.

Paula Fenner of The Adolphus is a miracle-worker. Not only is she responsible for another amazing bridal show but she is so totally supportive of all the wedding professionals involved. Paula, we love you to death and thank you for hooking us up with LiveWire.

What you see above is our postcard for the booth that got stuck in California last week due to the fires. If you didn’t get to experience the booth first hand, the card explains things a little bit better. But seeing the booth in action is always much more fun than reading about it. So here are some pics and a little slide show (you know we love those) of the more entertaining participants for your viewing enjoyment.

Stacey Murdock with The Wildflower and Shari Johns with As You Wish… test out the booth. Great smiles ladies!

Randal Stout of Randal Stout Events helped us promote our new Just Married Sessions . Please notice the Randal Stout branding on the box of nuts sitting on the seat beside him.

I think Luana Stoutmeyer of Encore Entertainment and Events is making the moves on Steve. Luana, we love you dearly and love working with your incredible talent.

Here are the beauties from the booth on the other side of us – Sarah Briggs of Sarah Briggs Jewelry and Jamie O’Banion of Jamie O Skincare. Sarah’s jewelry is spectacular and Jamie’s products can make a world of difference in how a bride looks on her wedding day. They say you should really start concentrating on your wedding skin care at least 6 months in advance. Check them out online.

Here’s the booth in action with the ladies from Shemara Couture having a little fun.

Here Steve shows the ladies a bound book of proofs from another Carpe Vita Photo Booth. As referenced on the postcard above (white and red side) each photo booth rental from Carpe Vita Photography comes with the client’s choice of either a bound book of all the photos from the booth or individual prints of each photo taken.

Here’s the slide show:

All of the photos above and in the slide show are available for download at www.CarpeVitaPhotography.com/HauteWeddings07 . You can preview the thumbnails (there are a lot that we didn’t include in the slide show) and then click on them to view a bigger image. The large photo can be downloaded to your computer by right-clicking on it. The downloadable photos do give credit to the sponsors involved but the biggest contributors (who unfortunately aren’t listed) were the amazing hosts of the show – The Adolphus Hotel and D Weddings We were running out of room on the photo and figured you knew all about their greatness.  If you want a photo without the logos, use the email button on the site or give us a call at 817.410.9975.

Another bridal shower is under our belts. And after just a few hours on our feet at Haute Weddings – A Bridal Affair, we were reminded once again why this is the only bridal fair Carpe Vita participates in each year. We had a great time but we were pretty pooped after the fact.

We met some great brides. It sounds like 2008 and beyond will have some amazing celebrations. We hope to be there documenting and photographing lots of them.

Here are a few highlights from the show:

The entrance to the Grand Ballroom at The Adolphus Hotel, annual host of Haute Weddings.

The Adolphus Booth with florals from The Garden Gate.

Pam Meyers’ Bridal Blooms & Creations booth was red hot!

Some of the florals in The Garden Gate booth and yes, those are real fish in those vases! As seen at the Hotel ZaZa party photographed the beginning of October, fish are in. (Junior, we have got to get a website for you so that we can link to you in our blogs!)

This is a fun linen from BBJ Linen. In fact, as soon as we can get it on the blog, you will see photos from Todd Event’s beautiful use of this unique linen at the Dallas Symphony Gala held at the Mort Meyerson Symphony Center earlier this month. The florals here are from A Stylish Soiree – don’t you love the use of the kiwi fruit! I think they used kiwi in each of their floral displays.

It is always a joy to see what Bella Flora has to offer. The placement by the mirrors made this display even more stunning.

We had to include the newly married Jaime Chavez of Ambiance Entertainment - he got married just last week in Barcelona, Spain and flew back in time to do the show.

And our neighbor to the left of our booth was Randal Stout of Randal Stout Events.  Randal’s wife had their second son today (Monday, the 29th) so hugs to them. Randal was giving out the amazing candy coated nuts. We saw that Stacey Murdock with The Wildflower and Shari Johns with As You Wish… pitched in to make Randal’s booth a cool place to be.

Here’s a slide show of the vendors (Dallas’ finest wedding professionals) and the guests enjoying their afternoon. Hopefully the slide show might remind you of something you saw at the show that you wanted to see again! And for those of you who didn’t get to attend, here’s a little peek.

The order of appearance is as if you were attending the show and ventured into the Grand Ballroom before heading over to the Century Ballroom. Our apologies to the vendors that we didn’t catch in their booths as we came through with the camera. Here is a list of all the vendors involved in this year’s Haute Weddings.

P.S. This slide show does have music.

Carpe Vita Weddings is participating in the D Weddings’ Haute Wedding Show taking place today at The Hotel Adolphus in Dallas.  The show is 12-5 and Steve will be participating in a panel discussion about current wedding trends with other Dallas wedding professionals from noon to one.

We are having an out of the ordinary photo booth (because we are nothing ordinary, right) so stop by, see us and photograph yourself for a fun keepsake from the day!  We’ll be posting the photos to download at www.CarpeVitaPhotography.com/HauteWeddings07 .  Check back for the photos if they are not there yet.   

Here’s a photo from an out of the ordinary photo booth we had earlier this year at a wedding reception at the Hotel ZaZa. That’s the groom James with the remote powering the camera surrounded by his pals. One of the guys in the photo sent us this great quote: “What a bash! Your bed (photo booth) thing was definitely a hit… there was a waiting line for the bed. It really kicked the reception into high gear.”

Gretchen and here bridesmaids got into the action too!

Here are Steve and I testing the equipment – have to have a photo for our scrapbook too!