One of these days I’ll print a wedding album. I’ll pull it out every year on our wedding anniversary, and make my children sit and look at it. But since 99% of these pictures still live on my computer (a tragedy, I know, my photographer is probably cringing), and my children can’t be bothered, I’ll make you guys endure my trip down memory lane instead.
It’s been 5 years (well, tomorrow, 5 years ago today I was losing my ever loving mind, having my first serious attack of Party Planning Psychosis), and while it seems just like yesterday, I know that some great amount of time has passed because I’m able to look back and simply remember the happy moments, like these:
It was a gorgeous day, not too hot.
We had donkeys. They carried bottles of beer in baskets on their back during cocktail hour.
They were happy donkeys. They normally did things like commercials, but they delivered beer like pros.
Old fashioned soda bar. Such a huge hit, and Scott and I still regret never getting a drink from it.
We had the most amazing Mariachis. The energy of the cocktail hour really set the tone for the rest of the night.
We had a pinata. As you may have figured out by now, we did not take ourselves or the wedding too seriously. Marriage? Yes. Wedding? No. We had fun. It was totally us. It was loud and colorful and lacked formality.
Our venue, Star Hill Ranch, was the most amazing location. It was made up of several different buildings. It’s like we got married in an abandoned town. This building served as our bar.
Where we lined up for shots of tequilla as the night came to an end.
Straight tequilla. I needed it by that point.
Seriously amazing.
It was a stressful day, I’m not going to lie, but I’m not going to rehash all the reasons why. I’ll say that 5 years later, I’m able to forget all the not-so-perfect moments and remember it just like the perfect pictures let it play out. The stress had more to do with me, my perfectionism and some family dynamics at the time than any logistics.
My wedding vendors were so phenomenal that many are now my friends. If you’re in Central TX and in the market for a wedding planner, photographer or wedding location, you should check out:
Jessica from Something To Celebrate
Tyler Schmitt from The Mill Photography
Not paid to say that or plug them, I just genuinely still love them for making our day so wonderful.
Anyway, thanks for indulging me as I look back. I can not believe it’s been 5 years already. Oh, and in case it’s not already clear, all these pictures were taken by Tyler Schmitt.
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36 comments
Congratulations on 5 years. 🙂
I still haven’t even looked through my photos. Maybe I’ll do that for this anniversary.
Your wedding was so.friggin.cool. I followed you on theknot (yeah, all stalker-like…kidding!) for awhile after seeing those pics. That soda bar got me addicted to all things personalized aaaaaand now I want to go look at my own wedding photos 🙂
Your wedding pictures have ALWAYS been favorites of mine, Mrs. Donkey 😉
🙂 I’ll always respond to that.
Holy gorgeous Batman!!
I LOOOOOVE to look at people’s wedding pictures & hearing the stories.
Happy (almost) anniversary!
Happy Anniversay, Jill! Your wedding was what made us pick Tyler for our wedding photographer too and now I second-shoot for him! Thanks for the match-making!
PS – You might ask Tyler if he’s already got an album of your wedding. I’m pretty sure I remember seeing one at his office that he uses to impress clients. =)
I love your wedding {you were a beautiful bride}! There’s a lot about mine I would change, it was so much fun, but I don’t think it was enough about “us”. Digging the donkeys!
I still don’t have a single print of my wedding either. My family ordered some prints, but we were too damn cheap. The ONLY thing I have are the proofs. Sad.
Your wedding looks like TONS of fun. It looks to my like you took the planning pretty darn serious! My shotgun wedding was as pretty as it could be for being thrown together in a few weeks. From the minute it started, I wanted a do-over. I was so stressed and sick and pregnant and cranky and MAD that I had to throw together a cheap wedding instead of getting the summer wedding we were planning before the Knock-Up. I was still hammering shit into the wall when the guests were arriving. Then my husband-to-be spent the day drinking with his friends and told the photographer to come find ME to deal with preparations. I told the photographer to tell my husband-to-be that if he didn’t deal with one fucking thing that day, there was NO WAY IN HELL I was showing up at the later. To this day, I want a do-over. Maybe if I ever get remarried 🙂 Just kidding.
That’s what vow renewals are for, my friend! 🙂 And I did take planning super seriously. It took a year to plan it all, and we had a huge team of people helping us at the time. But if I was pregnant or had a child at the time? Yeah, that wouldn’t have happened.
Yes, renewals. OR, I will take out all my disappointment on my children and force all of them to have $250,000 weddings. I have a bad feeling that I’m going to be the mother-in-law from hell. 🙂
That venue is perfectly gorgeous! And, right about now, Daddy is trying to figure out if he and Mommy can have a wedding do-over so they can have beer delivering donkeys. Love it.
Even though ya’ll married almost exactly a year after us, I remember all of your wedding planning (and of course, the donkys). Of course, this was pre-nest and bump, so I was still stalking the knot pages 🙂 Happy anniversary!
So jealous of your wedding – the venue and the donkeys and mariachis and pinatas??!! omg… i’m still not over the things that made my wedding super-stressful and that will be 9 years ago in two weeks (Oct does rule for a wedding month though huh?)
Heyyy.. your wedding picture is actually on the Star Hill Ranch Website.. CUTE!
OOH I knew I recognized that place! My boyfriend’s cousin got married there a couple of years ago. It is such a cute place! I loved all of the little buildings and the decor. Beautiful pictures!
GORGEOUS! A Pinterest-worthy affair, and you know that is the HIGHEST compliment. Love the donkeys and the whole sexy rustic theme. Perfection.
I semi-eloped and sometimes I’m so glad I missed all of the Psychosis, but other times I feel like I missed out on my chance to plan our perfect celebration. We would have had our wedding at the skate park, with a cherry blossom cake. 🙂
Beautiful pictures! I love FUN weddings. I’m sure your guests will remember the beer-serving donkeys forever. 🙂
I’m not going to lie, I totally cracked up over the asses you hired for your wedding. That’s pretty awesome.
Secondly, congrats on 5 years!! Your wedding looked amazing and makes me want to go back and re-do ours (my wedding was the 1st I ever attended…so I had no clue what I was doing planning it). I think more wedding should be like yours….FUN and not all gushy & serious 🙂
I’ve always loved your wedding photos! I can’t BELIEVE it’s been 5 years already. I mean REALLY!?! How fast did that fly by!?!
Happy Anniversary love! I hope you guys are celebrating!
What an amazing day! You looked stunning and I love the pinata! I WISH I could have been at your wedding because it looks like so much fun! Congrats on 5 yrs!
Wow, it sounds amazing. I love the donkeys. We also don’t have but maybe a few pictures printed.
Jessica was my coordinator, too. LOVE her! Your pics are beautiful!
🙂
Absolutely fantastic! I am so jealous of your wedding! Mine was a stressful mess and I wouldn’t do that day over if I was paid to!
Happy Anniversary! We share the same date!! Your pictures are much more fun! Love them!
Wait…….. is that your underage little brother at the end of the bar doing shots of tequila with you? Well I never!
That wedding looks picture perfect. Including you. Gorgeous.
Yours is the wedding I most remember from my time on the nest. I love everything you did that day and the pictures are amazing! You look beautiful, and it definitely looks like a day that no one who was there could ever forget.
Happy anniversary!!! Wow, 5 years. 🙂
SO awesome. We were married at a thoroughbred ranch in Buda (south of Austin) and had a similar vibe, if not all the awesomeness of different buildings and donkeys! We didn’t take it that seriously, either, and people still tell us it was one of the best weddings, ever. I bet people tell you that, too! Nicely done! Thanks for sharing.
So gorgeous. You know I found you on the knot years ago, Jill. Everyone was talking about the donkey and linking to your wedding photos. That’s how far we go back 😉
[…] I shared our wedding pictures last week, there was a picture of our soda bar. Scott and I never got to drink any of those sodas […]
Oh my gosh JILL that venue is AMAZING. I want it in my life. Ahhhh. Too bad I’m already married and farrrrrrrr away from Texas!
Love looking at wedding photos! And, we definitely had the same dress. Love!
Awww! Love that Maggie Sotero dress 🙂
[…] Our wedding was something you’d see in a magazine. Literally. It was in magazines and on wedding blogs. […]
[…] we got married 10 years ago, we threw one bad-ass party in Texas. We were living in the DC/VA area at the time, and we planned it from afar. To this day, there […]
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