Picture Perfect

A few weeks ago my husband and I took my father-in-law to the Dallas Arboretum, www.dallasarboretum.org  and saw the spring blooms. It was a perfect day. The weather was perfect, the temperature was perfect and all the spring blooms were just fantastic! I have been there a few times, but this was the best! It's a great place to take pictures and there were plenty of people doing just that. We saw three brides and two girls in their Quinceanera dresses...we took pictures ourselves of course. Enjoy the pictures below.

Everywhere we looked we saw people taking pictures and why not? It was so beautiful there.

There were so many Japanese Maple trees. I think we will eventually plant one in our yard, we liked them so much.

This is a Columbine, Origami Rose

 

We love tulips!

A bride waiting to go in to get her picture taken. A wonderful place for brides to get their portraits done. It would be a great place to take engagement pictures too!

We had to get our picture taken too!!



A Wedding for a Buck or two!

Ok...well maybe a little more than a few bucks, but since that is this couples last name, I thought it was a cute title. :-)
Last weekend I coordinated a wedding at the Lone Oak Ranch. It was supposed to be outdoors, but the weather turned cold and rainy and we had to move it inside the little chapel. The couple was laid back and even though they really wanted it outside, they conceeded and were fine with it. In planning outside weddings you have to understand that there always has to be a plan B...actually in any wedding there has to be a plan B...but anyway...if you try and fight against it, the wedding will become more stressful. This wedding was one of the most laidback easy weddings that I have done. That doens't mean that nothing went wrong, it means that you adjust and move on and know that in the end they are married and that's the most important thing.

A view of the chapel from the ballroom where the reception is held. It was a bit dreary, but the rain stopped before the wedding.

 

Rustic Rides at www.rusticrides.net is the vendor for this beautiful carriage ride for the brides arrival. There is a sign on the back of the carriage that says "Just Married" the bride and groom are escorted to the reception after the wedding. It provides great pictures on the big day.

 

 

Burlap is really big this year. Many brides decorate with it on the tables at the reception and other places. Here is a runner that was rolled out before the wedding party with the couples initials. It adds a nice country flair for a country wedding.

 

 

They kept the chapel really simple. Their only decoration was the burlap runner and they became the decor. It was nice and simple.

 

 

On to the reception...here is a rather dark picture of the cakes and the screen behind the cakes with the bride and grooms initial. The screen is from Flickerstage. Following will be pictures of the photobooth by Flickerstage. During the reception as the guests take picture in the photobooth, they are then shown on this screen. During the cake cutting, the background shows the initials of the couple. Flickerstage is great! More about that below.

 

 

This was a pretty cake. Too much cake for 130 people, but it was really good. The bottom three layers did not get cut

 

 

The grooms cake...everyones favorite. Surprisingly enough the kids loved the strawberries best. They were gone very quickly.

 

 

Not a close picture but you can see the table decorations were really simple. A burlap runner, two candles on a doiley and one sprig of a hydrangia flower.

 

 

 The photobooth from Flickerstage was really fun check out www.flickerstage.com and if you would like to see pictures from this wedding, type in the event code "loneoak" and you can see all the crazy pictures from the wedding. This was a plain background, but Damien who owns Flickerstage, is willing to work with you. He has several backgrounds to choose from.

 

 

Here are a few pictures of the Lone Oak staff from the wedding. Lone Oak has a great staff and we even had fun!!

 

Allyson, Jordon, me and Chance

 

Here is the lady that cought that boquet and Jill, the bride. Jill had a pretty dress. I wish I got a picture of it before it was bussled, it really flowed . Jill is a nurse and works in the ICU, there were quite a few nurses that came to the wedding. They certainly know how to dance and had a great time.

 

 

Jill and Chris Buck...the happy couple!!

 

 

 

This wedding had a laid back but fun feel. The ceremony was personal, funny and meaningful. The photobooth gave the guests something fun to do and the kids of course loved it!! I know the adult kids loved it as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

121 Community Church Ladies Retreat & the Dallas Stars Game

121 Community Church Ladies Retreat

Last weekend was an event at Lone Oak Ranch. I coordinated a ladies retreat from a church called 121 Community Church for the ranch. The ladies were so organized and it was a great weekend.

 

 

 

Their theme was All Things New. They had a vintage decorating theme. They had some old doors on the stage along with some fun decorating touches.  They got to the ranch on Friday night, registered, got their rooms and then had an opening session. They had a band and a female singer who did their praise and worship.

After the session, they had a late night party in the barn. It was really cleaned out and it was a fun space for a party.

 

There were two propane heaters which provided enough heat for a rather chilly February Texas night.

 

They included a candy bar for that night. What better way to stay up than by eating sugar! :-)

I didn't stay long, but there was Karaoke, a little line dancing and games.

I thought it was a great idea to put tables and chairs in the stalls. They could play games in there. There were 8 stalls cleaned out with tables and chairs for games. Two stables were cleared out for a photo booth. They were set up with a saddle to sit on and hats and fun things to put on to take pictures.

The next day they had another session and then break-out sessions. Such as...

Archery

BBGuns

 

Horseback Riding

 

Fondant and Cupcake Class

All things Burlap...making crafts with Burlap

 

There was also a Clothing Swap room. This was such a great idea. Everyone was asked to bring clothes that they do not wear for a clothing swap/exchange. There were times when the ladies could go "shop" for free.

  

Willie, the chef at the ranch, makes great food. They had a banquet type meal on Saturday night and then another session.

 

The weather was great for this retreat and the ladies seemed to really love having the whole ranch to themselves, and had a great time.



The Dallas Stars Game

It's been a while since we have been to the Dallas Stars game in the American Airlines Center. We sat pretty far up, but had fun with our friends Jeff and Stephanie. We lost the game but we won a free taco since the Stars scored in the 3rd period.

 

Jeff and Stephanie!!

 

 

Legend Bank Event and the Texas Legends

Legend Bank Event

I had a corporate event at the Lone Oak Ranch this past weekend. They had a team building, interractive drumming segment lead by a company called Drum Cafe. Everyone is supposed to learn to work in harmony. Everyone is given a drum. In this room, it was quite live and loud. Everyone seemed to love it.

The decorating theme was Saffari and everyone got a mini drum.

After dinner there were a few events, one event was caricature drawings and they had two guys. This is Benjamin Vincent. He did such an amazing job! Here is his blog: http://www.benvincent.com. Everyone just loved it and waited in line to get their picture done. This would be a fun thing to do at any event.

This guy used to work for Hana Barbara. He did an amazing job as well!

The had casino games with fake money. I've never gambled and I have no idea how to play any of these games, but it was interesting to watch.

Texas Legends Basketball Game

Frisco has a lot of fun things to do. One thing we have not done yet until last night was go to a Texas Legends game. Since they are in Frisco, this was a nice local thing to do on a weeknight. The Texas Legends are a D League team associated with the Dallas Maverick professional basketball team. I think this might be better since it gives you more of a small town feel and wasn't overcrowded. My husband is not the biggest sports fan and he really liked it. I received free tickets and we got to go to the club house and get free food and watch some interviews with some famous people who we don't know.

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This is Nancy Liberman who was the first female head coach to lead an NBA of NBA D-League team in 2010. She played in the WNBA. The guy to the left of her is corporate in the NBA and the guy to the left of him is is Del Harris, who was a head basketball coach of the Lakers and some other teams.  Like I said famous people that I don't know. They were supporting the Texas Legends team and also advertising a sports trailer that hold AV equipment used for broadcasting this game.

The dancers

The noisemakers

It was a really fun time...even though they lost. :)