Real Weddings: Sweet and Rustic Texas Wedding

Today's post is the fourth installment of our "real wedding series". This week's wedding features a beautiful rustic style wedding from Texas.

Not only is this wedding unbelievably adorable, but a large chunk of the items in the wedding were handmade by the bride!! As if planning a wedding wasn't hard enough, this amazing bride tackled so much of the decor herself with help from loving friends and family.

Check out some of the photos below and click "read more" to see the interview to read all about their big day!

Click "read more" to see the interview to read all about their big day!

Interview with the Bride

Courtney and Jarrel Brooks

Wedding Date: 06.07.14

1. Describe the vibe and personality of your wedding. What kind of wedding was it? Vintage? Chic? Glam? Silly?

I would classify our wedding as “sweet and rustic,” if I had to put words to it.

2. What was your favorite part about the big day?

I had two favorite moments. When thinking “the big day” as Our Marriage:  Of course my favorite part was walking down the aisle to my husband!  The smile on his face was priceless and amongst all the chaos we had put up with in the last several weeks to make this day perfect, walking down the aisle was the simplest, purest moment of my life.  We had been together just over 6 years the day we got married. That’s a long time. You get really used to each other and comfortable with each other. I’m not going to say that I was “so excited to finally be spending the rest of my life with him!” Yeah, that’s true… but I had that feeling like 2 years before we got married.  Walking down the aisle, to me, meant making the ultimate promise to my best friend. I think that’s why it felt so easy and right, and I was not nervous really at all.

Extra - At one point I put my head down, because I did tear up a bit. My dad patted my hand and said, “No, stay locked in to him. You want to remember this forever.” Tear! I know, right!! It was perfect.

When considering the whole wedding reception/party: Our photographers took us up to the second floor of the office building in which we had our reception. The building is 6 floors and hexagonal shaped, with the center open to all 6 floors. So we did some shots in the elevator with the party behind us and up on the 6^th floor with the skylights as the background. When we were up there, I got a chance to see the whole party, everyone dancing, talking, and enjoying themselves.  It didn’t last long up there, and of course we were eager to get back downstairs… but it was cool to see “my vision” from above in real life!

3. Share a little bit about the planning process. Did you get a planner or do it on your own? Any planning tips you want to share?

Back to #1 with the “sweet and rustic” classification… If you were to ask me that when I began planning, I would probably say something different, if I could choose anything at all.  When I began planning the wedding, I had a really hard time making choices on things.  I didn’t want anything to be too matchy-matchy, and I didn’t want to assign colors to the wedding.  I wanted people to think, “Wow! That’s unique.” but also “that represents Courtney and Jarrel so well.” I wanted a little bit of traditional style, elegance, and class… but with a little bit of a rustic twist – because that’s us! I wanted to honor our families as much as possible and still throw an awesome party for our friends! So, I felt like I had a lot of bases to cover during the planning process.

I am too much of a control freak to have handed my whole wedding over to someone else. A lot of people do, and that’s awesome! But for me, I wanted my mom and I to do the majority of the planning. After all, I had probably 100 pins on Pinterest before we even got engaged! So we had a planner for “the weekend of.” She helped out with some vendors and was in contact with them the week before the wedding and she was at the rehearsal of course.  So, about 2 weeks before I basically just handed her everything I had been working on – literally handed it to her in a notebook. Her job was to make sure every vendor showed up with what they were supposed to have, when they were supposed to. She was in charge of making sure nothing went wrong and, if it did, making sure neither my mom nor I knew about it. She also put me in contact with another lady that did the exact same for my ceremony, since they were at separate venues.

4. Talk a little bit about the dress. Who is it by? Is it vintage? Where did you get it?

I found my dress at a store in Midland. I’m not going to even call it a boutique or dress shop, because it wasn’t, haha! It was great, don’t get me wrong. Super easy to deal with and the people were really nice. It was a Maggie Sottero by Sottero and Midgley. It was a very simple dress in my opinion, but I loved it. I had it altered to add a little bit of the fit-n-flare thing that is popular, but it was practically an A-line dress.  Lots of lace, and no bling – the exact opposite of what most of my family friends thought I would do!  I initially tried it on with a belt, but the belt put a break in the solid flow of lace from chest to floor. I also really loved the big veils with lace around the outside – but it was just a bit too much and took away from the dress, so I went with a simpler veil.

5. Tell us a little bit about the groom. What’s he like? How did you meet? How did he propose?

Jarrel and I met right before I graduated high school. He was out with his friends, I was out with mine, and we ran into each other. We kind of hit it off that night, but I really didn’t think it would extend past that. I was about to go off to Tech and wasn’t looking to be in a relationship when I did so. But, he ended up calling a few days later and we went on a date!  That date sucked! Haha! It was so awkward, I already had plans with friends so we went to like a 6:00 movie and that was it. He dropped me off at my friend’s house when it was still light outside. So, safe to say I really didn’t think it was going to go anywhere after that. But… again, he called a few days later and ended up taking me out again. That date was MUCH better, and here we are!

Jarrel is the most genuine person I’ve ever known. He is not going to pretend to be something he’s not for any reason. He loves me with all his heart and he shows it daily whether it be through little chores, to hugs, to text messages in the middle of the day. He is stinking hilarious and quite random – and I love it. I love him with all my heart and could not imagine my life without him. As cliché as that may sound, it is so true. Being together for so long already, I think we truly, really do know each other. We didn’t jump into marriage because it was the cool thing to do. We want to spend our lives with each other, for each other. And to be on the same page about that, so that we can talk about literally anything, is the best feeling in the world!

6. Did you do any DIYs for the wedding? If so, what?

Ohhh practically everything except the center pieces! I made pretty much all the signs and decorations. We had family and family friends contribute to a sweets table (which was awesome!) I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one, there was so much DIY in this wedding!

7. What advice can you share with brides who are getting ready for the big day?

It really is just a party. Don’t get too wrapped up in the little things. Although those are the easiest things to want to spend time on (thanks Pinterest!), the only way most people remember them is through pictures they see after the fact. That is probably the most common advice people give on weddings, but it’s good advice to heed! Don’t be so concerned with the details of that day that you can’t focus on what really matters – marrying your husband. Focus on his smile, the touch of his hands and tremble in his voice during your vows, the tears down your mom’s cheek, the way your family and your *new* family squeeze you just a little more on that day… that’s the important stuff!

Also, get a good photographer and videographer! Because there are a ton of things that will happen that you miss. And, let’s be honest, no amount of advice anyone gives you is going to help you to reallllly take it ALL in that day. So get some helped

Also, also… give yourself plenty of time for everything that day! Like, way more time than you think you need for every little bit from breakfast to the get away at the end of the night!

8. Describe your wedding in 3 words.

Best. Day. Ever!

Vendor Information:

Photographer: Aric + Casey Photography // Videographer: Contract Cre8tive 
Ceremony Venue: Greenwood Baptist Church // Reception Venue: ClayDesta Atrium
Reception Coordinator: Designs by Imagine If 
 Dress: Maggie Sottero //  Florist: Stanton Weddings and Floral

For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Board for chic weddings, classic weddings, and vintage weddings.  

Check out my Etsy Store, The Trendy Sparrow, for wedding paper goods and chic art prints.

Thanks for reading, dolls! Come back for more!