Working with Ashleigh and Tony was a true blessing. I met Ashleigh and Tony back in November at our consultation and knew that I would love to work with them for their wedding day. Getting to know these two is just another reason I truly love my job. They both met in Las Vegas while working on the same project. The rest of this story was presented as their love story just before we introduced them into the reception hall for their first dance, which was “Faithfully” by Journey.
The wedding was held at Reflections on Spring Creek on May 29th, 2010. Ashleigh and Tony had their ceremony in the chapel and the reception in the hall just next door. Ashleigh and Tony had a great time and did a neat little twist on the traditional money dance by making it their own. Below is a short video from their event.
So after the late night with Danielle & Herb I am off early (9am) to help a friend of mine setup all the decor, lighting, and audio visual systems at the Texas Discover Gardens in Fair Park. If you have never visted the Discovery Gardens you really need to take the time and go out there. The butterfly exhibit is awesome!!! I mention the butterfly exhibit because, one I love them, and two the ballroom there is attached to the terrarium that houses the butterflies. This ballroom is a great blank canvas, which you will see in the video below, to turn into some amazing setups. Having such a space can really be beneficial if you have some great ideas on mood and settings, just about anything is possible. The ceremony and cocktail hours took place on the lawn outside in a tented area and then the reception hall was opened to allow guests inside to begin the party. Please watch the little video and enjoy.
This weekend is going to be a busy weekend. It all starts with dropping off some equipment to FIG (Fashion Industry Gallery) for a benefit. I’ll be helping out a fellow planner with some needs that her AV person didn’t cover….shame on them. After doing that I head over to a private residence to setup for a small intimate wedding reception. the only problem is the rain has started and will not be over for nearly 48 hours. That doesn’t stop us from having a good time, so I’ll just post a little video I shot…besure to check out Danielle (the Bride) jumping into the swimming pool in her wedding dress!!
IT was a pleasure to work with Tanya and Danny, though their wedding planning was very different than most. See Danny is Irish and had to return to Ireland before the wedding, and I don’t blame Tanya for wanting to go with him. So, we did almost all of our planning over the phone and e-mail over a thousand miles apart… not to mention like 7 time zones.
The Ashton Depot Courtyard setup for wedding ceremony
Tanya and Danny had selected the Ashton Depot to serve as the host venue for not only their wedding ceremony but for their wedding reception as well. For brides that may be considering a wedding at the Ashton Depot you will need to take a few things into consideration. First, the venue is adjacent to the largest rail switching station west of the Mississippi so be aware of the train schedules. Do a little homework with Amtrak and try and avoid the times when passenger trains will be stopping at the new station 2 blocks away. While we did do this for Tanya and Danny’s wedding we had a train park for 5 hours on the rails waiting for a freight train to make it through, and unfortunately for us it was late and didn’t make it through the rail yard until an hour after the ceremony. Now a few things you can have as a backup plan for this ceremony site is first to incorporate the use of a sound system on the back patio area. This will allow music to be played at volumes loud enough to at least take away the distraction of a 3000 hp diesel engine idling at 100 feet from you. but secondly, with the use of proper microphones you guests will still be able to hear your vows and special readings. That is why they came to witness your ceremony right? We did take these precautions so the train didn’t bother us too much, other that us holding off starting the ceremony for 15 minutes hoping the train would move one as reported from the Amtrak call center…can’t win them all.
After the ceremony, Leslie Wandel of Studio W Photography & Artistic Image Weddings, took the wedding party and family to Bass Hall where they spent 30 minutes taking pictures in one of the most beautiful facilities in Fort Worth. As they were taking pictures their guests were treated to the string quartet by Serenata Strings which is one of my favorite string quartet companies. They are super versatile with song selections and can even arrange your favorite song to strings. Once the string quartet finished playing I began to play some classic jazz selection from greats like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. When Tanya & Danny and the wedding party arrived back from Bass Hall they entered into the bridal suite where we went through some quick instructions on where to go and stand for the introductions. I really loved Danny’s Grooms Cake, very cool. Tanya and Danny were so cute together, again a wonderful reminder of the reasons why I love my job!
As the sun went down the party really turned up and the true decor of the building could come out. Ashton Depot was a glow in pink, the Bride’s favorite color. I provided the uplighting for the venue and Ashton Depot really takes well for the effect. Tanya wanted to wash the walls in pink so thats exactly what we did. The Ashton Depot really takes well to lighting so if you’re thinking about it go for it, it looks great! We wrapped up most of our activities by 9:00pm which is the time at which the videography company had to leave, which is unfortunate because the night was just warming up! At one point I was pulled out from the DJ booth and then tossed in the air by the groomsmen. It was amazing. So from 9:00pm to 2:00am we continued dancing. I had a blast with this crowd because I got to play some Irish tunes and even got to witness a 5 minute go of River Dancing, which apparently everyone from Ireland can do, it’s like their Cupid Shuffle…lol I did make a little video log from the event so here that is.
I really enjoyed working with Carrie and Brian and the fun they had on their wedding day was fantastic. Carrie and Brian met with me over a year ago while in my shared office space with Simply Elegant Weddings. At first I was only hired to entertain their wedding guests, but as a few months went by I was asked to help with planning some of the details. Now Carrie is and was like most Bride’s today, she was very organized with everything that she had got together,but she was a hard-working professional with little time to invest in getting information together and circulate all the details of her big day with all the vendors involved in making that day so special. I could tell how much stress was removed once she hired me to help with the plans, and that’s always a good thing!
Now Carrie and Brian didn’t want a huge wedding, and at first Carrie didn’t want to have a ceremony; however, her mother insisted that they have just a simple family ceremony. I think this was the point at which Carrie decided that she no longer had time to manage the details, which thankfully was a lot sooner in the whole process than most.
Carrie and Brian decided to have their wedding at the YWCA in downtown Fort Worth, which is a beautiful facility for wedding ceremonies and receptions. The YWCA has a pleasant staff that was always eager to help and as a vendor with special parking needs it was awesome to be able to park on site without trying to find a garage with enough height that I could get into with the trailer. I am a huge fan of the rustic old style decor of the YWCA and the ballroom reminds me of the majestic glamour of the 1920’s. Just a beautiful canvas on which to build a beautiful ballroom.
We staged the ceremony downstairs and used the oversized fireplace as our backdrop. With the solo Cellist, Louanne Greer playing classical pieces along with specially arranged selections such from the Beatles and “Stand By Me” the ceremony setting was magical. Christie Greer of Simply Elegant (no relation to Louanne) provided the gorgeous flowers and centerpieces which consisted of tulips, callalillies, and other branches arranged in tall glass vases. They were the perfect touch to the decor and really highlighted the elegant sophistication of the venue. The Grand Ballroom was decorated with chocolate linens and a light cocoa table runner. The Ceremony was very intimate with only 60 of Carrie and Brian’s family and friends; however, the reception was nearly overflowing with 220 people ready to celebrate with this happy couple.
Now Carrie’s big thing was the cake which was baked by Creme De La Creme in Fort Worth. Each layer of her cake was a completely different flavor, each balanced in sweetness and flavor. And, like usual, Creme De La Creme did an amazing job…I love their cakes.
After the ceremony, we began cocktail hour while the photographers had family pictures downstairs and while the additional guests arrived for the reception. Since the ceremony started at 4pm, we had a family cocktail hour from 4:30pm to 5:30pm and started receiving guests after that. The reception didn’t start until 6:30pm so we had a lot of free time leading into the actual reception, nonetheless, we kept a light-hearted atmosphere and a very family oriented cocktail hour. As the reception began I introduced Carrie and Brian to a very unique version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by a group called Lick The Tins. I would call it a Celtic twist on a great original…which matched these two perfectly. Their first dance was to one of my favorite songs “I could Fall In Love” by Selena.
There wasn’t a large agenda for the night as Carrie and Brian opted to keep it very simple The toasts where fantastic as long time friends gave their stories from years past and Carrie’s father was introduced to the microphone with thunderous applause. He was a man of few words but with a huge heart.
Once we began dancing it never really ended as we mixed across a fun span of time as Carrie and Brian were huge fan’s of 80’s pop. It was really fun to mix from 80’s to Latin Reggaeton to a little Motown and funk. At the end of the night guests were having so much fun they didn’t even realize that Carrie and Brian snuck out the back door early to prepare for their long morning flight.
If you choke a Smurf what color does it turn? 11 years ago
I have 20/20 vision in one eye and 0/0 in the other said the pirate. 11 years ago
Preston Bailey will now be offering a new certification coarse with the Wedding Planning Institute. I will be the first instructor to offer! 12 years ago
Wow what a weekend. Still need to catch up on sleep. Final exam tonight for the CSEP course at UTA good luck students! 12 years ago
Chad Alan Events 
