• Real Weddings

Katie and Justin both grew up working around classic cars, so it was only fitting that their first date was fixing Justin's rear differential on his ’66 Ford truck. A few baseball games and ZZ Top concerts later they were officially an item.
Based on their history we are not surprised that their wedding was filled with old fashion details, many of which were family heirlooms and special pieces of the past. Including one very special blue truck. Be sure to read on to hear more from Katie, and so many more photos from this old fashion Texas wedding. All captured by George Street Photo & Video in full gallery here.

The ’58 Blue Ford truck in all the photos belonged to Katie's great-grandfather. He bought it brand new in 1958, and has been passed down through her family. It belonged to her father until he passed away in 2009, and is now Katie's. In order to have it up and running before the wedding, Justin worked nearly every weekend on it. Of course he got it up and running, and by arriving in blue, it was the closest experience she could have to being “given away” by her father. How special is that?

The Dyed Hankie Back Drop:The doilies that served as the background for the ceremony were dyed with food coloring and stiffened with a sugar mixture so that they would hang easily on the wall. It took several days, a few fans and every flat surface in my mother’s house to get them soaked and dried in time for the wedding. Beyond that- Etsy, Ebay and Estate Sales were the source of nearly all of our décor!

On the Decor:Our personal histories and families were also a huge part of the inspiration. It was very
important that our wedding not just be about us- but about those who made us who we are. We snuck little bits and pieces everywhere. The various salt and pepper shakers were from collections from my grandparents and the jars are to represent his grandparents with whom it’s a family affair to get together and make salsa and jams from home-grown fruits. My mom had a glass insulator collection when she was a kid; we didn’t use the exact insulators- but the same type as decoration for the chapel.

Wishbone Wedding Favors:When it came to the favors, I wanted to send our guests off with the hope that their wishes could come true as ours did in each other- so we got the artificial wishbones from an online site that sells them in bulk. I had originally been worried that folks would be a little weirded out by fake turkey bones, but our guests know me and Justin well enough to not be surprised by much.

On The Thermoses:Justin and I are both huge fans of the movie The Jerk and in the movie Steve Martin sings a love song he wrote about “picking out a Thermos” just before he proposes to Bernadette Peters. It’s a silly thing we sing to each other on occasion.On Their Guest Book:It was never appealing to me to have a simple sign-in sheet as a guestbook, so we found interactive pages for our guests to give us a piece of themselves and also to have something to do during picture time. The drawings and advice we received from our loved ones served as valuable entertainment once we got home!

Sadly, there are many things I'd like to do differently. I'll give you a few and let you choose the most blog-friendly.

1. I wish I'd spent more time exploring my own wedding. Once we came in and made the rounds greeting people I never took the time to go and see the different elements that I'd worked so hard on for over a year. I never got to see the s'mores setup, where the catering was and I still don't know what the restrooms looked like (that sounds insane and trivial- but it was important to us that the guests were comfortable and I still worry that the outdoor restrooms might have been like Girl Scout camp all daddy longleggy and dusty).

2. I would have been MORE aggressive. The second you become engaged, if you sneeze too loud you'll be accused of being a Bridezilla. I was so overly-conscious about trying to be an "easy breezy bride" that I think I ended up letting some things fall through the cracks- that I've since lost sleep about!

There were some vendors (not listed) that were slow to call back or resistant to my wants and needs and I compromised in areas that, in hindsight, I really shouldn't have. One vendor [the photobooth- which was number one on my "wants" list] in particular was IMPOSSIBLE to get a hold of and when I wasn't able to reach them shortly before the wedding to confirm things I managed to convince myself that, "they do this all the time...it's fine...they'll be there." Then, sure enough, my wedding day came and the vendor didn't show up. They were scheduled to arrive at 4:30 to set up during our ceremony so that the guests could have something fun to do while the wedding party took pictures- and I was absolutely crushed. The guests wouldn't have known any different except for those I'd talked to about the service [photobooth] beforehand- but when we came in for the introduction and it wasn't in the room it made my first impression of the reception a pretty heartbreaking and disappointing one. They showed up at 7:30pm when the wedding was scheduled to end less than an hour later and I assure you- my oversensitivity to being a Bridezilla disappeared very quickly.

And as far as the budget, we didn't actually sit down and make an initial hard-line budget. This is partially because a lot of what we used were family owned items, but also because setting out initially I didn't have any clue what we were really facing and what a wedding entails. Plus he and I only very recently got a joint bank account so based on our incomes and preferences we would purchase things as we went along. When we found something we decided that we wanted, checked around and went with either the best price for that particular item/service or we went with what we thought suited us. To this day I don't know much we ended up spending on the wedding- but I'd prefer it that way. I was very happy with what we had and I'd hate to find out it was "too much" money and have a sense of regret that we spent to much- and I'd hate to find out it was significantly less money than we think it was and then feel regret that we might have passed something over we shouldn't have.

• Cinematography: George Street Photo & Video
• Flowers: Make Believe'N
• Guestbook Pages: Creative Cardstock
• Hair & Makeup: Thalio Beckham Makeup Artistry
• Venue & Caterer: George Ranch Historical Park