Interview with our stunning bride, Valerie:
HOW DID YOU MEET? Our paths had almost crossed for many years prior. Michael is a home builder and my father and him had talked about Michael’s company building homes in his real estate development about 10 years ago. I was just entering the real estate world as an agent but did not know Michael’s company or Michael at this time. A few years later, my parents bought a custom home. During the due diligence process, we found out that Precision Builders was the builder. I had many conversations about the home as my parents decided if they wanted to move forward with their purchase, but never with Michael, only Keith from the company. So my parents bought the home and lived in one of Michael’s homes he had built. This is a pretty amazing fact given that he only builds about 6-10 large scale luxury products a year and the Dallas/Ft Worth area is quite large with many homes to choose from. About 3 years ago, our paths finally crossed through work. Over time, we built a solid foundation of friendship which quickly blossomed into a deeper heart connection. A few months later we were hardly inseparable.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU THE MOST TO YOUR HUSBAND? Overall there are so many things. Most importantly, he has a true heart for the Lord. He is a wonderful and loving father to his girls. He has a kind and gentle spirit. He is very generous both with his finances and his time. He has a servant’s heart and always gives so much to everyone around him. He is incredibly handsome! He is incredibly witty and super funny, always making us laugh! He is very patient. He wakes up every day with a true passion for what he does in his career. We get along very well. There is a lot of peace and joy when we are together. I miss him every second we are apart.
HOW DID HE PROPOSE? On New Year’s Eve we had a get together at the house and towards the end of the evening he asked if he could speak to me alone. I hesitated because I did not want to leave our guests, but he said it would only take a minute. We walked off and he brought up that earlier in the day, we had witnessed a wedding for 2 of our dear friends that we had helped introduce together and he said that during the ceremony, he kept thinking about how it didn’t feel right anymore to call me his girlfriend. He just couldn’t spend another day without me as his wife. He wanted to wait for the perfect moment to propose but it was just burning inside him that he couldn’t wait any longer to ask me to be his wife. Of course I said yes… and we walked back to the party and everyone already knew he was going to ask me and they all started clapping and hollering and hugging. It was so wonderful to celebrate with everyone near and dear to our hearts. It especially meant so much to us because we could share it with his girls who were with us that evening as well. (Side note, he plays the guitar and had learned to play Marry Me by Train and wanted to play that for me when he asked me, but he had broken his hand while we were snowboarding in Colorado and he later when on to tell me that he couldn’t wait for it to heal to ask me. We ended up playing it at our wedding as this song had very special meaning to us now.)
WHAT INSPIRED YOUR VISION FOR YOUR WEDDING? We really wanted an intimate and romantic beach wedding. We wanted our guests to relax, enjoy and take in the gorgeous South Seas Island Resort surroundings! I had no idea if the navy blue, purple, fuchsia and white colors would all coordinate together for our decor, but it looked AMAZING!
TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR VENUE: We originally wanted to get married in West Palm Beach area of Florida. As we thought about it, we really imagined taking sunset photos on the beach after our ceremony, which you just can’t do being on the east coast of Florida, so that made us start to look at west coast options. We researched wedding photographers on the west coast and looked at their photos and came across AMAZING beach sunset wedding photos at South Seas Island Resort. As we researched it more, we knew this was the place that we had to get married. It was meant to be because many of the resorts we had called were booked and we wanted a Friday wedding date so we could relax with our guests on the Saturday evening before we left to go home on Sunday. South Seas had all of the wedding venues open on our Friday date.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST PLANNING CHALLENGE? We planned the entire wedding in about 1.5 months. Even though we only had an intimate wedding of 25 guests, we still had a full wedding to plan with flowers, band, video, photos, cake, etc. In the end, Brittiny at South Seas was so wonderful to work with. She ensured that everything was planned perfectly and it all came together. It was absolutely perfect in every way. The weather, the venue, the flow of the day, the number of guests, having our dinner outside on the lawn overlooking the ocean, it was just perfect.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE DESIGN ELEMENT OF YOUR WEDDING? It is a hard toss question because we loved everything so much but the table décor turned out so beautifully. The dark navy blue provided a perfectly contrasting backdrop for the bright purple and fuchsia flowers. Also all of the white candles, white chairs, white plate chargers and white sea coral sharply contrasted against the dark navy linens. Overall providing the perfect balance of colors.
DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY DETAILS? Our youngest Claireabell helped make the wedding programs with me. They turned out really nice. They doubled as a fan because we weren’t sure how hot it would be at the ceremony. Everyone loved them! Meant so much more to us because she helped make them. She is an expert on glue techniques by the way! We also made the favor boxes at the wedding. Ordered the purple boxes and Jana from Floral Artistry glued the fuchsia orchids on to the top of each box. Both girls, Claire and Kylie, helped my sister to make some Just Married signs, too. They were super cute and we loved them so much because they were made by the ones we love.
WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF YOUR WEDDING DAY? It absolutely was when we stepped off the trolley and I saw Michael standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me. I had been waiting all day to see him and that moment was so special and a moment we had been waiting for expectantly for a couple of years. We knew very early on that we wanted to be together and the moment had finally arrived and pure joy was in my heart as I walked down the aisle to him.
DESCRIBE YOUR CAKE: Most men probably do not get too involved with the wedding cake design. Not so with Michael. Coming with a creative background from home building, he really wanted to have a square shaped cake and not so much of round tiers. He did not want a frilly and over decorated cake, but really a more simple and modern design. With those ideas in mind from him, I worked with Kakes by Karen to design the perfect cake! It turned out so beautifully!
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER? The photographers were wonderful! They were early on the day of the wedding and were waiting on us when we arrived. That started things off on the right foot and was a huge stress relief because being from out of state, you always wonder what if your photographers didn’t show up for some reason. Jason and Sara always returned our communications promptly leading up to the wedding so we had a really good feeling going in. They were always present for the important events of the day, but they never felt overly intrusive. They were a joy to work with!
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND AS A COUPLE? We are looking forward to beginning and enjoying our new life as a family together. We are also looking forward to our honeymoon! (we didn’t go on one right after the wedding, we are planning a big trip together at the end of this year!)
CAN YOU PLEASE LIST YOUR VENDORS:
Venue: South Seas Island Resort
Cake: Kakes by Karen
Florist: Jana from Floral Artistry
Band: John McLane
Wedding Coordinator: Brittiny Washam
MakeUp: Holly Evans from Kay Casperson Lifestyle Spa
Hair: Lyne Norris from Coppell, TX
Videographers: Luxe Video
Gown and Veil: Circle Park Bridal in Addison, TX
Hairpieces: Lewisville Bridal in Lewisville TX
Bridesmaids Gowns: Cache
Groom’ Suit: Men’s Warehouse
Photography: Concept Photography