March 19, 2004
It seemed that preparing and planning our wedding started the day Shannon said 'Yes'. Shannon became a 'Jill-of-all-trades' as she took on the roles of Wedding Planner, Decorator, Florist and purchasing agent. Ebay became an invaluable resource for many of the necessities for the wedding. We were able to purchase the Invitations, a big variety of decorations, wine and champlane glasses, Tuxes for Rusty, Pete and Micah, Shannon's Wedding dress, Megan and Hannah's dresses, Shiree's dress and the unity candles. All in all the experience of using eBay proved to be fantastic although the one special cake topper we selected was lost in the mail which was the only mis-hap as for as eBay purchases. All through out our 10 month engagement, Shannon was collecting items to be used in the wedding. We manange to spread the cost out over time which made things significationly easier. It did require our bedroom closet to become quite cluttered as we accumulated so many items. As we were preparing for our wedding we were also preparing for our life together by selling Rusty's home, purchasing new furiniture to accomodate our combined families as well as the daily grind of every day life.
We looked at serveral locations for the wedding, but due to the high cost of using a church and reception hall, we decided to have it at the KC Hall in Spring. The hall is nicely situated and was large enough to accomodate us. Bob Binkle, who is the caretaker of the hall, was also selected to cater the event. Ike Smith, a local DJ, was selected to provide the sound system and music. Lindy's Country Cakes was selected as our baker. Balloons were purchased from Garden Ridge and would have been an execellent choice for the price had they not used plain purple balloons and ribbons instead of the irridecent ones that we had asked for. For our adult guest we supplied Mr. Binkle with Tequila, Triple Sec and Margarita mix and he in turn supplied the frozen Margarita machine. He was even so kind as to fire it up the day before the wedding as we were decorating and rehearsing. For our out of town guest we acquired a group rate at the La Quinta Suites just down the road at I45. The limo was rented from Gulf Coast limo as they were the most reasonably priced and provided the most services for the money.
As the big day approached, Shannon was hardly ever seen with out her planning book, which turn out to need a small cloth bag to carry everything around. It seemed she was constantly thinking and adding to her already growing 'to do list'. A few weeks prior to the wedding, Shannon began to design and create the decorations. There were chair back covers to be made, alter decorations, table center pieces, boquets, flower girl baskets, flower girl head bands and many other items to numerous to mention. The front room became the 'work room' as she sorted and counted and designed and created.
The day prior to the wedding we rented the hall so that we could do all the decorating and setup and it was a good thing we did. We started on the hall around 10am and had reservations at Wunchie Bros' at 8pm for the rehearsal Dinner. We barely had time to get it all done! First we setup the tables for dinner and the risers we were going to use for the alter. Then we set up the ceremony chairs and then we started placing table decorations. Shannon's sister who had flown in the night before and she was given the task of decorating the archway at the entrance. Everyone was amazed at how great it looked! Bob Binkle set about preparing the food and setting all the dinner places and silverware which really help reduce the confusion when it came time for dinner to be served. At 3pm, Rusty, Micah and Pop went to Garden Ridge to get the balloons and stopped by the florist the get the coursages and bootineers (and the flower arrangement Rusty had ordered for the Rehearsal dinner). The hall was finally completed around 6pm as much as we could do prior to the actual wedding day. By 7pm all the participants in the wedding had arrived for the rehearsal. Rusty's sister Debbie was kind enough to play the organ for us and she got a lot of assistance from other family members on what to play and how to play it. As the rehearsal began there was some confusion as Rusty attempted to orchastrate the wedding and finnaly his Aunt Kitty stepped in, took over and got things rolling. Everything went smoothly and we finished with enough time left to drive Wunchie Brothers for dinner.
Arriving at the restruant, Rusty brought Shannon in first and to her surprise found the floral arrangement he had purchased earlier sitting on the table where we had our first date. She as very pleased to say the least! Dinner was great all there had a wonderful time. The two families were introduced and got along great. We ate, laughed, joked and throughly enjoyed the evening. After dinner, Rusty and Micah left for the La Quinta while Shannon, Shiree, Lydia, Megan and Hannah went back to the house. The next morning, Trinity arrived to go with Shannon to a Spa where they had their 'make overs' and from what I've been told a few glasses of wine. Rusty and Micah went to Conroe in the morning to find him a cowboy hat that would match Rusty and Pete's. Around 3pm, Rusty arrived at the KC Hall and placed the finishing touches on the decorations. The wedding cakes arrived on time as did the DJ. Everything was set and Shannon arrived about an hour prior to the start time of 6pm. The ladies finished dressing and the ceremony began right on time with everything we had planned out and hoped for accomlished.
