I went to the Dallas Bridal Show to help jump start some ideas, and really what it did was help me decide what NOT to do. If you want a very basic, maybe somewhat cheesy wedding come to this Bridal Show. Don't get me wrong, I like classic weddings, but when they are done right. I'm a very untraditional bride however, and I wanted everything to be unique and ordinary just like my husband and my styles. I mean, after all it is your wedding, and hopefully your only one. Why not make it unique and stand out so you remember and your family/friends.

You pretty much get the David's Bridal and The Alfred Angelo's of dresses, ice sculptures and your flowerily tiered cakes. AND they make you give your contact information to try to convince you that you will win a free honeymoon, and i still have not stopped getting spam mall from 2007. UGH!

My recommendation, ditch the Bridal Show and ask your fiends and family for advice on what they did. Not to mention, it's your wedding. Do what YOU want.

If you are creative on software programs, like Photoshop, I highly recommend this printing store for any of your printing needs, whether it is for business cards to wedding invitations. We created our entire save the dates, formal invitations, response cards, rehearsal dinner invites, thank you cards, etc and took them to this store for printing. Not only did they help us with design some things and helped layouts/measuring accurately so it would print nicely on the card, but it was DIRT cheap. I took the same items to Kinko's and was horrified at their printing prices in comparison.

I was going to buy invitations at an online store, but then my husband and I got really creative and took some pictures of us and turned them into save a dates, invitations, the whole nine yards basically. I realized that I could create and personalize my own invites and have been less expensive than online invitation stores. And they meant so much more because we personalized them. Not to mention, spending $500 on plain invitations for someone to throw away just seemed sickening, we felt a little better knowing that some guests might actually keep theirs because they were so neat and creative.

I chose to have untraditional attire for my flower girls. I was already having a small theme to my wedding, and instead of just having the girls look exactly like the bridesmaids I thought it would be fun to do something spicy for the little ones. My sister gets ChasingFireflies.com catalogs all the time, and I'm always shifting at the fun, unique pages of clothes they offer for kids. Maybe somewhat wishing I could have wore such cool clothes when I was that age. They have a section of costumes and dress up attire, and I found the coolest little fairy outfits, basically tutu’s and fairy wings. So away we went, and bought the outfits instead of dresses and spent nearly the same amount as traditional flower girl dresses. But instead of just hanging up the dress and growing out of it in a month or two, the girls got to play dress up several times afterwards. It was smashing hit at the wedding.

I was a little skeptical at first to go to this old Bridal dress shop. It has been around for about 20 years, after-all my sister had bought her dress for her wedding almost 12 years earlier.
After going to the houttie touttie boutiques, and the discount stores, I decided to give it a chance. Sure enough this boutique had just about every price range in mind. The location is small and a tad crowded, but I really enjoyed the service I was provided by all of the ladies that worked there. The owner, Carolyn, was very nice and always helpful. And of course I found the dress I had been waiting for!

Our ceremony and reception was held at the Tribute Golf Club in The Colony, TX.
Great place for the all in own package, and very convenient not only for the bridal party, but all your guests. They don't have to travel between sites, and it keeps everyone in the party available at your finger tips. Not to mention they have hotel rooms onsite, so not only did we get to stay in the honeymoon suite that night, so did all of our bridal party! It was SO MUCH FUN!

One of the best things that we liked about the Tribute, besides the amazing view and layout, was the All-Star Service. The wedding coordinator was so on top of everything. We asked about a million questions and she always answered in a timely fashion and gave suggestions too. After all this was our first time, and she had helped prepare more weddings than us. She kept things in perspective, especially when things started getting stressful.

I would recommend anyone who is getting married to at least give this place a look.