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2023 Wedding Trends I’m excited for!

Here’s a list of the 2023 wedding trends I’m excited for.

Color! Even as a child, I’ve been obsessed with color. I memorized the order of the rainbow before I was in elementary school. I’m also flabbergasted when adults don’t know the order (or what primary colors mixed together make what secondary colors). Color in weddings is making a big & bold statement. It’s in bouquets, in bridesmaids gowns and in the decorations. Be bold with your color choices. Consult a color wheel to help you pick the perfect harmonic balance.

Colorful wedding dress: I have always loved a wedding dress that stands out from the norm. Some of my ALL-TIME favorite weddings dresses either had a pop of color, like a floral pattern, or were a solid color instead of white. Be fun and bold… who cares what your stuck-in-the-mud relatives think. It’s your wedding, own it!

Custom Dance floor: This year, couples are opting to deck out their dance floors. Maybe you have an awesome marquee lighting your space or you have a flower bedecked disco ball hanging from the ceiling. If the dance floor is a place you want to be and you want your guests to join you, make it fun, flirty & memorable.

Private Last Dance: Still holding strong from last year. The private last dance is one of my favorite things to shoot. I love that the couple gets one last moment enjoying their wedding night in a quiet space with only their DJ & Photographers for company. One of my favorite things to do during private last dances is to move through the back of the room framing the couple with their dark & empty tables.

Sustainability: I’ve always been a tree-huger and can see how weddings can become wasteful. Some of my favorite things couples have done include seeds and living plants as wedding favors. Some things you can do to have an Eco-friendly wedding — use Eco-friendly invitations & decor, encouraging guests and wedding party to carpool or use a bus to transport guests, use biodegradable confetti for your grand exit, don’t use single use dinnerware and glassware

Capes! Seriously, capes are in this year. I LOVE this for us! I’ve seen brides pin muslin to their gown with gorgeous brioches to make a cape. I’ve also seen some awesome capes with groom’s attire. There’s a very fine line from elegant to gimmicky with capes, however. Be careful & use an editorial eye.

Embroidered veils: This is such a neat idea. I’ve had a couple of brides do this and it really added to the entire look. Make sure to include colors and flowers you intend on having at your wedding to really pull the whole look together.

Comfy & cute shoes: Who says fashion has to be pain? Wear those converse at your wedding. You can really spruce up your sneakers by embroidering them, bedazzling them or personalizing them in any way. Do you have a really comfortable pair of boots? Wear those! As cute as the shoes are, if you’re ditching them halfway through the night, were they worth it?

 

What are your thoughts? What trends are you really excited for and what trends are you ready to disappear?

Arnold & Maritza’s The Springs in Angleton Wedding

Arnold & Maritza’s wedding at The Springs Event Venue in Angleton, TX.

Just before Thanksgiving, Arnold & Maritza gathered all of their friends and family to witness their marriage. The theme for the wedding was Fall & Thanksgiving! The couple chose a beautiful rust orange & sage green color pallet & offered their guests traditional Thanksgiving pie!

Arnold & Maritza chose to have a first touch before their ceremony. We found a quiet place where they could hold hands and talk quietly to each other. After the first touch, Arnold lined up with his groomsmen and Maritza shared a first look with her father.

The couple and their guests danced well into the night!

Vendors:

 

Consider a Photo Dash

 Have you ever heard of a “Photo Dash”? I hadn’t until this year.

What is a “Photo Dash”?

Photo Dash

A Photo Dash is where you and your spouse run to each table at your reception and take a quick group photo before the song you have playing ends. Each table gets a couple of seconds of your time. Tables will decide what pose they want to do as you and your photographer are running around the reception. It’s a lot of fun.

Why should you do a “Photo Dash”? The why is really simple. Time.

Even though you’ve really only spend 10 seconds with each table, your guests feel like you have spend some quality time with them. Also, you get fun photos of you and your guests before the night runs away with you. It feels like after a couple does a Photo Dash, they get more time to quietly eat their dinner without all of their guests coming up talking and asking for a photo. Photo Dashes are also a lot of fun!

How do to a “Photo Dash”?Photo Dash

Talk with your DJ, wedding coordinator and your photographer. Make sure the song you choose it both fun and gives you enough time to get across your reception. Make a plan where you are starting and where you are ending. It’s best to start at one end of your reception and work your way to the other end, ending with the head table so you can easily sit for dinner right after.

What are your thoughts? Would you have a Photo Dash at your wedding?

Photo Dash

Blayton & Ryleigh’s Addison Woods Wedding

In early November I photographed a wedding for one of the sweetest couples. Blayton and Ryleigh, more than high school sweethearts, said “I do” in front of friends and family in the gorgeous chapel at Addison Woods.

I first met the couple for their engagement portraits at Addison Woods. They were coming down from College Station and would have a nice date night after their engagement portraits.

The day of the wedding was gorgeous. The sun was shining bright through the crops of trees on the Addison Woods property. We took a couple of quick photos of the bride with her friends in their adorable silk pajamas before having a little fun with some champagne. Ryleigh wanted to have a first look with her father and grandfather as well as her bridesmaids. The reactions to Ryleigh all dressed up brings tears to my eyes just thinking about them.

As the wedding night progressed, I had the opportunity to chat with Ryleigh’s Papa, who not only married the happy couple, but now shares a wedding anniversary with them. He told me that when Blayton was in elementary school, he told Papa that he was “going to marry that girl.” When They were 12, Blayton asked if he could date Ryleigh. Her parents asked him to wait, and wait he did. When they were in High School, they started dating, unknowingly on the same day as Ryleigh’s Papa & Nanna’s wedding anniversary. As the years progressed, the couple started celebrating their anniversary together. It’s only fitting that they will now have an even stronger bond.

Many phones, and a TV in the Grooms suit were playing the Astros 6th game in the World Series that evening. As the night was wrapping up and guests were getting into their car, I heard cheering. The Astros managed to get out from their 0-1 rut and got a couple of runs.

 

Vendors:

Wedding Photography at Addison Woods Wedding Venue

So you’re engaged, what’s next (part 2)

The step-by-step guide (and worksheet) to your first few steps in your wedding planning process.

By now, you’ve hopefully completed the first eight steps from my previous post. If you haven’t, go check it out first. Here’s the link — So you’re engaged, what’s next (part 1). The next steps should be done between 12-10 months before your wedding.

Houston wedding photo black and white

For the next few steps you will be working on hiring wedding vendors. It’s important to be conscious of two things, #1 is the importance of the particular type of vendor at your wedding and #2 is the amount of time the vendor will need to be there.

The rule of thumb is the more time the vendor needs to be at your wedding, the more likely you will need to hire that person earlier than others. If the person can’t work multiple weddings on the same day (ie wedding planners, photographers, entertainment…) they are a higher booking priority.

#9 Research! Now’s the time (if you haven’t already) to start your spreadsheet full of potential wedding planners or coordinators, wedding photographers & videographers. You can use one tab for each vendor to keep them in one place.

  • Ask important questions like: Are you available, what’s your average cost, what do you provide, how long have you been in the wedding business?
    • It’s important to note, while the average cost is important, it shouldn’t be a deciding factor. Yes, you should try to stay within budget, but if your heart is telling you to pick someone outside your budget, maybe there’s a reason for that. See if there is anything they can do to work with you before you count them out.

#10 Whittle down your list to the top 2-4 from each category. Schedule meetings with them. Make sure you either talk on the phone, meet in person or over a zoom-like chat.

  • This is important because it’s much easier to get a feel for a company/person to see if they’ll be compatible with you and your wants and needs in person or over the phone. You don’t want to just hire someone because they are cheap or because they were the vendor for your cousin’s wedding. What works for others may not work for you.

#11 Hire your wedding planner/coordinator. You can provide your whittled down list of photographers and videographers and see if they have any insight on them. There are so many wedding vendors in the Houston area, thought, that there’s a high chance that the planner hasn’t worked with them (yet). Don’t count vendors out just because they haven’t worked with your planner.

Houston Wedding Detail Photo

#12 Hire your wedding photographer and videograper. Not everyone hires a videographer, but if you are wanting one, now’s the time to hire.

#13 Since you have a location, date and most likely time for your weddings. It’s time to work on your save-the-dates and your invitations. There are loads of options for both. You can make magnets, interesting trinkets with the dates inscribed. There are large online companies that do invitations and small individuals. You can get invitations designed and printed from an online shop or go into a store and pick some out. You can even make them yourselves. Below are some ideas of where to start your invitation hunt.

  • Vistaprint.com
  • Etsy
  • Google “wedding invitations”
  • Check Instagram #WeddingInvitationDesign

#14 Now that you’ve got some of the bigger vendors out of the way, it’s time to think about food. What kind of food do you want to have at your wedding? What kind of food do you want at your rehearsal? Make sure to talk with your parents & in-laws to be if they will be helping you throw either your wedding or rehearsal. Once you’ve come up. Research your catering options and whittle the list down to a couple. If you want, this is a part you can delegate to someone else.

#15 Pat yourself on the back! You deserve a big break or a special date night. Go out & have some fun. Don’t think about wedding planning at all.

Download the worksheet. Click on this link — So you’re engaged, what’s next–10-12.pdf

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Stuart & Laura’s Bridal Oaks Wedding

Stuart and Laura’s wedding photography at Bridal Oaks in Cypress, TX.

It was a bright and beautiful day in April when Stuart and Laura were getting ready for their wedding day. Laura had not one but three first looks!! She had the first look with her father in the bridal suite, then she headed outside to have a first look with Stuart. After her soon to be husband had a few moments alone with her, Laura had one final first look with her bridesmaids.

The ceremony was short and sweet. The wedding party made their way down the stairs to the outdoor alter where a plethora of gorgeous blooms lined the rows and seats and two breath taking arrangements punctuated the aisle.

While we were taking family portraits and wedding party portraits, the guests inside were getting a quick dance lesson. Stuart and Laura, avid dancers, wanted to make sure that all of their guests felt comfortable on the dance floor and would help to keep the party hopping. It also helped that a decent chunk of their guests were all avid dancers (west coast swing) as well.

One of the funniest things we did while we were taking wedding party photos was the mad dash to the beer. I got a Crawford Bock from the bar and told the wedding party the first person to get to the beer got to keep it. I was pleasantly surprised with the competitiveness of the party. The women were all taking off their shoes (good choice, I wouldn’t want anyone to twist an ankle before the evening even got started).

Some unique things that Stuart and Laura did for their wedding were to have tables of games out for their guests who were more into playing games with friends than dancing on the dance floor. They also had a fingerprint guestbook where guests put their fingerprint down like a leaf on a drawn tree branch. Bonus, now they have everyone’s fingerprint & name if they need it in the future 😉.

At the end of the night, after everyone had danced until their feet were barking, the guests lined the exit with streamers in hand while Stuart and Laura had one final private dance. After their dance, they exited through their guests (in an avalanche of streamers that they were practically swimming through) to their getaway vehicle.

 

Vendors

Venue: Bridal Oaks

Wedding Planner & Flowers: KNZ Weddings & Events

Wedding Cake: Bavarian Cakery

DJ: Re-spin Entertainment

Makeup: Cintya Velderrain Beauty

Nick & Rachel’s Sunset Coffee Building Wedding

On a gorgeous spring day, Nick and Rachel exchanged vows atop the Sunset Coffee building looking over Downtown Houston.

Weeks before their wedding, Nick and Rachel decided to take some couple portraits around the Hermann park area. We started in the Cochlear Butterfly museum and ended in the Japanese garden.

On their wedding day, guests arrived to the Sunset Coffee Building by the busload. Guests milled about and found their seats overlooking the Buffalo Bayou as they waited for the wedding to start. Nick and Rachel made their way up the side stairs together and walked down the isle hand in hand. They chose not to have a wedding party, however include several of their friends and family in reading passages from poems and other pieces of literature that spoke to them and their lives together.

After the wedding, the guests made their way down to the second floor where the cocktail hour. Guests cooled off and wandered around the level taking in the sights of downtown or taking photos in front of the gorgeous floral sculpture that SOMEONE made.

Dinner was served on the ground level (which is actually below street level) under tents with glowing lights. An amazing collection of flowers littered the three long tables. After dinner, guests were welcomed to join Nick and Rachel back on the second floor for dancing and cupcakes.

The couple choreographed a first dance that included all of their closest friends. TO WHAT SONG? After the first dance, the DJ did a reverse anniversary dance. He started with couples married the longest and worked his way to couples married for less than 5 hours. I loved how they actively worked to get people onto the dance floor. The last thing the DJ asked was for everyone to come to the dance floor to take a series of photos. One photo of everyone looking at me and smiling. One photo of Nick & Rachel kissing and everyone going “eew” and the last photo of everyone with their hands in the air. As soon as the DJ counted to 3 (for the photo) he started a song to get the party started. This was such a clever way to break the ice and get everyone on the dance floor dancing.

Congratulations to Nick & Rachel! May they have years and years and years of happiness.

See the wedding photos.

 

Vendors:

Venue: Sunset Coffee Building

Coordinator: Lriliece Events and Decor

Floral’s: Babe City Blooms

Decor: Art Attack

Tent: Houston Tents & Events

Catering: Dhaniyas

Dress: Lafayette Couture

Konner & Kirstin’s Shirley Acres Celestial Wedding

Konner & Kirstin had an out-of-this-world wedding at Shirley Acres filled with stars, galactic hues and lightsabers.

As a life-long scifi and Star Wars nerd, I was so excited to take photos with everyone and their lightsabers.

The day started out beautifully. The sun was shining, despite the Weather Channel’s prediction of an overcast or rainy day. Kirstin was getting ready in the bridal suite. Her man-of-honor was in charge of hair and makeup, and unbeknownst to him, the veil too. I started the day off snapping shots of details and both Kirstin and Konner getting ready. Since the guys always get ready faster than the ladies, I took Konner and his Grooms Men outside for a few photos of them posed and goofing off.

Once Kirstin was ready, we arranged her father for a first look. We positioned him in the bridal suite with his face to the wall as Kirstin entered. The joyful tears immediately started flowing. After her father’s first look, we positioned Konner in a similar place for the couple to have a first touch. Kirstin didn’t want to see Konner at all before the ceremony, so we had Konner face the wall, and Kirstin closed her eyes as she was escorted to her Husband-to-be. They were placed back to back and were able to hold hands and have a quiet moment together before the ceremony started.

The ceremony was beautiful. The sun was starting to set just behind the alter as the ceremony started. A special place was saved up front for family members who were no longer with us. Just before Kirstin and her father walked down the aisle, her enthusiastic flower-man covered the path with petals.

The sun had nearly fully set by the time the ceremony was over. We had just enough time to capture a few quick sunset photos with the wedding party and Konner & Kirstin before switching to night/lightsaber photos. This was the moment I had been anticipating. We had so much fun positioning and playing with slow exposure, that time just flew by. Soon it was time for Konner & Kirstin to make their grand entrance.

Throughout the night, there were games, dancing and lots of support and advice.

Congratulations to the happy couple!!

 

Vendors

Venue, cake, flowers & coordinator: Shirley Acres  (all-inclusive)

Brad & Jenny’s little white chapel wedding

Brad & Jenny’s Wedding at the little white chapel in Katy, Texas and reception at Brennan’s of Houston.

On a windy, but quite beautiful, day Brad and Jenny married in front of an intimate gathering of friends and family. The historic, wooden church sits behind the Church on the Rocks in Katy, TX. An interesting fact is that this wasn’t the original location of this church. It was moved here after buildings started encroaching around it.

Brad and Jenny chose to have a first look inside the church before their guests arrived. I know first-looks aren’t for everyone, but I absolutely love shooting them. Even though Brad saw Jenny in her dress before the ceremony, he still had the sweetest glimmer in his eye as she walked down the aisle toward him.

During the ceremony, Brad, Jenny & Jenny’s daughter pored colored glass into a jar as a symbol of the family’s union. Some time later, they will have the glass turned into a piece of blown glass art. I hope I get to see a picture of it. I’m so excited for this!

After the wedding, the intimate wedding party departed to Brennan’s downtown for a romantic reception in the wine room. After an amazing, and one of the most elegant dinner’s I’ve ever had, the couple wowed their guests by helping to make Banana’s foster. The pyro in me was most excited for this moment.

Check out the amazing photos below.

 

Wedding Vendors

Venue: Little White Chapel

Reception Venue: Brennan’s of Houston

Wedding Dress: Torid

Flowers: The Classic Blooms

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX
kelly@kellyurbanphotography.comKelly Urban Photography

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX
kelly@kellyurbanphotography.comKelly Urban Photography

A Houston wedding photographer