Our precious friend, Kara Stout photographed our whole party! 

When they say a first birthday party is for the parents and not so much for the child, it is entirely true. I enjoyed every single bit of planning for this day, maybe my most favorite event yet and even though Liem may not remember, it filled my heart with so much joy to celebrate his first year of life with our family.

There are so many ideas for children's parties, we had a lot of fun brainstorming. But we knew we had to go with The "Little Dumpling" theme since it had some special meaning behind it. Liem is half Vietnamese, so we call him our little dumpling and when I found a graphic with a dumpling sitting in a soup spoon (one of his first favorite toys), we knew that was it. 

Aren't these invites created by Pink Paper Champagne so adorable?!

Liem is obsessed with balloons. He loves to point them out and is just so enamored by them. He saw them for the first time at a life celebration and couldn't forget them, so on his birthday morning, I filled his room with balloons! He woke up so starstruck; that morning was exploding with cuteness! When the balloons lost their helium, I created this fun install on our fireplace. He loved that too! And the banner is made of the monthly photos I took of Liem, which started out so fun styling a flat lay with seasonal greens... but then he became mobile and it became a battle! Twelve month photo is still pending as I type this...

The desserts have to be my favorite part of this whole party. My friend from Layered Bake Shop created this ridiculously adorable cake, complete with no grains or sugar. How is that even a cake, you ask? She used arrowroot flour and maple syrup as substitutes, it was delicious! Then one of my best friends who loves to bake made hands down the coolest panda macarons and cookies. Not only were they super tasty, but seriously, panda macarons- all the heart eye emojis! I took a stab at baking myself and made some cake ball dumplings, let's just say baking is not profession but they are pretty cute right? :)

You can't have a dumpling party without a full spread of food and of course, dumplings! 

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Liem loved the spotlight. He also loved his own special smash cake (also sugar-free). He had never had "frosting" before so it was quite a treat! After we sang, our sweet pastor gave a beautiful dedication pledging our family and friends to helps us raise Liem in God's everlasting love. It was so special. 

We couldn't have raised this guy this far without Liem's village. They have been there with us since his day one loving on him, praying for him, and supporting us when times can get tough. I printed out pictures of each our guests holding Liem when they met him the first time to take home. I loved going back through those photos! 

We then played a traditional Vietnamese game for first birthday parties. We bring out a tray filled with items to represent different professions and the guests take guesses on what the child will choose. Liem chose a thermometer so I guess he'll be a doctor :)

Liem is one lucky boy to receive all of the fun and thoughtful gifts he did! That ball tracker, was and still is a hit! 

In the first year, there are so many "firsts" so I can see how this celebration can be important to a parent. Time seems to stop and fly by at the same time, it's hard to keep up! I am certain that having children is by far one of the most exhilarating joys I could ever experience. When I reflect back on the year, I can definitely say there are moments I have forgotten just out of pure exhaustion, but so many precious memories that will be etched on my heart forever. I am so thankful God has put me in this little dumpling's life to be his Mommy! 

To all of the friends and family that came to celebrate with us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are grateful everyday that we get to call you all family. A special thank you to my amazing industry friends that contributed, it is such a sweet perk to have you all in our village! 

David and Johanna have to be one of my most favorite couples I've ever had the pleasure of serving. They are kind, generous, fun to be around, and their love for Christ shines through their relationship. I loved getting to know them over the time we were planning their wedding. I had just found out our family was growing, and it turned out that Jo was also a midwife, it couldn't have been more meant to be! When our sweet Liem was born, Jo and David were even gracious enough to let him tag along to the wedding so I could nurse him- seriously, I get to work with the best and most gracious couples! 

Johanna came to me wanting a romantic spring color palette, with a few rustic yet modern touches. Their wedding was the beautiful historic Rustic Grace Estate where there are open fields, darling longhorn, and a charming white chapel. 

Dyan Kethley Photography | Megan B Beauty | POSH Couture Rentals | Quality Music DJ | Jar Cakery | G Texas Catering | Alli K Design

For Jo's bridal bouquet, I had the best selection of spring flowers. We went with lilac, poppies, peonies, hellebore, campanula, garden roses, sweet pea, and frill tulips. Let's just say it smelled DIVINE!

Her color palette was so dreamy. The delicate blue, lavender, and grey looked so beautiful in the white chapel. I loved the draping chiffon on each pew. It was a such a nice detail and refreshing change other than the standard pew arrangements. 

We round out this series about my business and back story with the service that started this whole venture. I mentioned in my previous posts about how much I loved wedding planning in its entirety and that is how I started. As the years have gone by, my business has evolved and a few things have changed. My focus has shifted more to florals, but designing, consulting, and planning is still a large part of my business. 

I am a very detailed-oriented person and love seeing every element of an event come together. With that said, it is not always perfectly-laid linens and pretty calligraphy. There are so many moving parts. Let me repeat: so many moving parts to any kind of event, but especially one of such emotional reverence as a wedding. From finding the venue, picking out a dress for you and your maids, designing the entire wedding scheme, to making sure every element comes together on the Big Day is well, a big task. Sometimes we get rolled into more personal or emotional aspects of the planning and I just find that to be part of it. I truly invest my whole self in these clients because they are trusting me with the most important day of their life and I don't take that lightly. By the time the wedding comes around, I typically end up spending so much time with the bride that I almost qualify to be in the wedding party! :) 

We get to plan fun surprises like this for our couples! 

One particular moment I will always remember is my couple from 2016- Johanna and David. They were truly lovely to work with. When she booked me, she knew I was expecting my first bundle of joy and was so kind and accommodating with my needs as a new mother. Liem was about five weeks old when their Big Day came to fruition and I was still committed to exclusively breastfeeding, so we had to be a little more creative with the logistics. My husband actually brought him to the wedding and stayed in the office of the venue so I could come and nurse during down times. It was slightly crazy, but it worked and that is with huge thanks to a sweet couple and supportive team. I share this story to explain more of how much involvement we get with our full-service brides, even when it gets tricky. We just love them! 

Since I did share that crazy story, what does it look like to book a full planning service? Well, we now only take one full-service planning couple per year because of how demanding it can be and we want that bride to be fully loved on. That also gives me opportunity to really develop the details and execute a unique event. We do have an opening for 2018 and would love to book our special bride for the year! 

From being a bridesmaid to the time you get engaged yourself, you can see the fun aspects (maybe even not so fun parts) that are involved in wedding planning. You see the new and creative ideas out there and start thinking about what your Big Day will be like. I would say the majority of brides enjoy planning their wedding or at least having some part in it. Why not? It's the biggest day of your life with probably the biggest party to celebrate. When I talked about how my business started here, I shared about how I loved event planning because planning my own wedding was a dream come true. 

After all the fun of creating a color palette, choosing bridesmaids dresses, tasting cake, and knocking everything off the wedding to-do list is said and done, the reality is you cannot execute it all on the wedding day. There are so many moving parts and your own timeline to stick to, it is simply impossible to coordinate your own wedding and get to enjoy it. That is where we come in. You get to hand over all of the carefully thought out details to us and we bring it to life. Vendors have a point of contact to reach out to for questions on wedding day, your wedding party knows when and where to be at all times, and your day is set up how you imagined without you lifting a finger. And this is the best part of it all in my opinion: someone packs everything up and loads it all for you at the end of the night. 

There are also moments you do not think of that can happen and will need someone to take care of it. On a big event like a wedding, it is helpful to have someone that has some experience. Wedding coordinators are like swiss army knives. We have so many tricks up our sleeves, we are truly a Jane of all trades. In my career, I have sewn bridal sashes, fixed melting/leaning wedding cakes, babysat, become bartenders, air conditioning experts- you name it! Hopefully your wedding would go on without a hitch, but even if anything happened such as these, you wouldn't even know it! 

Create the relaxing and calming wedding experience you have always imagined. As they say- you only get married once, and you will want to enjoy it instead of stressing. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing more about my business- exactly how we serve our clients, the different facets we have, and basically the heart behind why we do what we do. Wedfully Yours, interesting name choice, huh? If you've wondered how I came up with this kitschy name, check out this post for the story. When this business started, I had the vision for this to be a full service wedding design company where I would plan everything wedding from A-Z. As I would be creating the design board and laying out the place settings, I began to notice how much I loved to play with the flowers. I noticed that it was the natural element of these blooms that made the entire look of any event. Then my curiosity for flowers began to blossom. See what I did there? 

So, let's talk flowers. Whether you like to grow them, receive them, or just simply look at them, there is no denying they have a poetic beauty to them. From the array of colors they come in to the intricate details of a single petal, I started to really love arranging and designing floral art. I'll be honest and tell you where my beginning training came from: an online course called "Nicole's Classes." It was inexpensive and low-risk in case I decided this was not for me. When I finished the course, I will not say I was a pro by any means, but I knew I had way too much fun and I had to offer this to my list of services. I was selective at first, only offering this service to my existing brides because I was not sure yet if this was an avenue I could even explore. After a few weddings and really learning my floral craft, I am genuinely happy this has become such a large part of Wedfully Yours. We offer full-service florals to any bride inquiring. I LOVE working with other planners! It is so delightful to bring out someone else's design to life. 

My design style is loose, organic and free-flowing. I like to say that I prefer to let the flowers dance and shine as they please :) For every event, I create a recipe to order your flowers and one of the things I love to incorporate most is texture. I like to try to keep it interesting to create more depth in the arrangements. Of course color is a big element, and my favorite part of creating florals because this can really tell your design story. Finding the right blooms to compliment each other can be challenging, yet fun. When you find an unexpected color combination that looks stunning, that is a florist win! 

I'm so excited to be welcoming more couples to our 2017 calendar! Wedfully Yours has a few spring wedding dates still available, and we're currently booking for fall weddings. Click the button below to check if your wedding date is still available!