When Wedding Bloggers Wed - Katie and Jeff

Bride: Katie
Groom: Jeff
Location: Houston, Texas

"I'm a twenty-something newlywed, blogging about my wedding, my life as a law student, my cooking adventures, and whatever else strikes my fancy!"

This month I chose to feature Spirals and Spatulas because Katie is a truly authentic, DIY, "Will Do" kind of gal! My favorite photo of her is with her power drill. I've always said every woman should have her own power drill, or at the very least should know how to use one. Katie has a wonderful approach to life, tackling the fun stuff with a smile and challenging projects with a positive attitude. Along the way she invites readers to participate with her through her blog.

She carefully documented her wedding planning process, sharing all kinds of photos from the early wedding planning stages, her wedding day and from her honeymoon. Post-wedding she has continued blogging transforming her wedding blog into a nesting blog. Spirals and Spatulas is a great resource for any bride or newlywed!

The Ceremony

Katie tackles everything from budgeting, planning a Catholic wedding ceremony in a Catholic Church, and made many of her wedding design elements herself including her Table Numbers, Bridesmaid gifts, her place card display, cake cutting knife embellishments, beaded pearl stems on her toasting glasses, embellishing her unity candle decorations and more!

Spirals and Spatulas is full of fun ideas, links and tutorials Katie used to personalize her own wedding. Here's the thing, DIY can be a blessing or a curse: A blessing if you have the skills and time to pull off your projects well, on schedule and as close to stress free as possible. But I've seen too many brides, including myself, try to do too much all by themselves. So I really loved this post "To the micro managers, perfectionists, and do-it-ALL-yourself types.." Which helps to keep things in perspective. Katie said she had undertaken exactly the right amount of DIY projects and wouldn't have done any more or less than she did.

DIY Bridesmaid Bouquet Idea:
"Look What I Made!" - Bouquet Charm Edition

When I asked Katie if there were any specific things, with hindsight, she had worried too much about she replied:

I made this really detailed Bridal Party information packet for the wedding weekend. I spent a TON of time on it. It was like 20 pages of timelines and maps and instructions. We gave it to everyone who had a specific role in the wedding. Looking back, I'm surprised the bridesmaids and groomsmen didn't just burst out laughing at me when they saw it. I mean seriously - did I think they were going to sit down and read through 20 pages of stuff? I shouldn't have worried so much about making sure everyone knew EXACTLY what to do and how to do it and when to do it. But then again - my photographer said we were the only wedding she's ever done with a ceremony that started RIGHT on time!

The Timeline

The table assignments were also something she poured too much time into that she now realizes wasn't necessary:

I redid our table assignments about fifteen times until I felt like they were perfect! Now that it's all said and done, I honestly think all of our guests would have been happy sitting at any of the tables I had assigned them to, and it didn't really matter anyway because everyone left their tables to start dancing as soon as dinner was over!

Waiting for the Ceremony

She said there was only one thing that slipped through the cracks that she should have spent more time planning for:

There was one thing that I totally didn't plan for - being bored on our wedding day! I had blocked off a large chunk of time for my bridesmaids and me to get our hair and makeup done, and then some more time for putting on dresses and stuff. We finished the hair and makeup ahead of schedule, and it only ended up taking five minutes or so for everyone to get dressed. So we just sat on my parents' couch and talked and took pictures for what seemed like forever!

Every two minutes I was checking the clock ("35 more minutes until we can leave for the church! 33 more minutes until we can leave for the church!"). It was the most impatient I've ever been in my life! I wish we would have had a movie to watch or something!

Katie's favorite DIY project turned out to be the his and her table numbers with a picture of her on one side and a picture of Jeff on the other side from when they were kids. She said in her blog the guests loved them and everyone walked around from table to table to see all of them.

The Cake Cutting

I loved their cake cutting pictures. It's a very fun series of shots. Especially when someone decided to smash just a little bit of cake into someone else's face.

This is Katie's "FAVORITE" picture from the wedding!

At the end of the day, what mattered most on her wedding day? Katie's reply was sweet and reflected why I wanted to feature her wedding here:

I loved all the DIY details, the food, the decor, and the music, but what mattered most were the people we shared our day with. It meant so much to my husband and me to be able to celebrate with so many of our closest family members and friends.

Success!

At one point during our reception I sat down at a table and just looked around the ballroom for a minute or two, and I felt so overwhelmingly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. The feelings of love and support were just so huge and amazing. Everyone there was someone who means a lot to us, and it was so special to see them all celebrating and being so genuinely happy for my husband and me. Absolutely amazing!

After the wedding her blog recapped the honeymoon:
"Ya Mon!" - Our Jamaica Honeymoon

And she continues to blog with great nesting tips like:
Ordering, Donating, Painting, and Drilling!

A newlywed's dilemma: Whether or not it's time for a new home?
The Tale of the House That Remains Unsold

Katie named her blog "Spirals and Spatulas" because as a law student her life is filled with spiral bound notebooks and as a home chef, she pours through recipes. There are lots of recipes on her blog with photo tutorials. Here is just a peek...

Dinner: Catfish Cakes

Dessert: Will-Do Winter: Apple Pie

Cookie Cheesecake

And More Dessert: My First Cheesecake!

To read more about Katie and Jeff's wedding and to keep up on her recipes and nesting visit her Spirals and Spatulas Blog by Clicking Here.

If you want to start with the proposal CLICK HERE and then click "Newer Post" in the lower left of each post to view Katie's wedding planning journey in chronological order or use the archives links on her side bar.

Thank you to Katie for allowing me to feature your wedding here on The Flirty Guide and a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to both you and Jeff!

Photos by Kelli Nicole Photography

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