Wedding Cake!

Everything is coming together so fast! This time, we got our cake :)

We chose Erika with Confections in Cake to do our wedding cakes.
If you are looking for a great baker in the dfw, I would ABSOLUTELY give her a call
She's been picked 4 years in a row as The Knot Best of Weddings and eventually picked to be in The Knot Hall of Fame and also won Brides Choice Awards 4 years in a row on Wedding Wire.

With all those accolades, you'd think her prices would've been steep, but her prices are about the same as everyone else.

She brought some samples for us to choose from and they were all so yummy :) It wasn't overly sweet and they were all nice and light. I'm not a big fan of too too sweet cakes that are really dense and her cakes were just perfect.

Working with Erika will definitely make things a lot easier. If you're want a lot of flowers [of course I will] on your cake, she will put all the flowers on the cake for you, while most bakers do not. The baker and the florist usually never see each other. One will get there before the other and sometimes aren't on the same page when it comes to decorating the cake.

Both Danny and I have our own cakes. Mine of course is the "traditional" cake, as Danny's is more fun.

Here's the ideas we had

Catering: A Sophisticated Affair

Our biggest dilemma was finding a caterer, and we finally found them! There was a wedding show at our venue and A Sophisticated Affair was the suggested caterer. We got to try a lot of their hors d'oeuvres and I'll get to try a lot more at another tasting on November 8th.

We set an appointment with them and they set out a feast for us to try all different kinds of food.
I had my 2 sisters, my brother and Dan's mom come with us to make sure we picked out something everyone would like. We all decided that it's going to be served Family Style to save money and time. Family style is when they serve enough food for each table instead of going for a full on seated dinner, which takes a lot more time to serve.

As of right now, this is what we're having :

We're having a cocktail hour with drinks and 3 passed hors d'oeuvres:

• Beef Empanadas with Avocado Cream
• Seafood Purses w/ Soy Glaze or Stromboli Pockets w/ Marinara Dip 
• Mac n Cheese Bites

Salad: Romaine Salad with Grape Tomatoes, Croutons, Parmesan Cheese with either Southwest Ranch or Italian Dressing

Bread: Rosemary Foccacia Bread and Garlic Toast 

2 different meats:

• Roasted Beef Loin with Cilantro Lime and Jalapeno Compound Butter
• Mahi Mahi with Seafood Cream Sauce

3 Sides: 

• Rice Pilaf
• Spice Roasted Potatoes
• Bourbon Glazed Carrots

I'm getting hungry just blogging about it haha 

What I liked about A Sophisticated Affair was that not only does it come with all the normal things like plates, water goblets, silver ware, but it comes with with the Drink Stations with Tea, Water, Lemonade & Coffee that they keep there for as long as the wedding is live (another caterer we met with said they leave as soon as the service is done and we're pretty much on our own after everyone is done eating) Also, they'll make a to-go package for Me, Dan and our parents. They will also provide menu cards at each place setting, which helps me out a lot! 

Let's Catch Up :)

So much has been going on since the last time I posted!

Danny and I finished our engagement pictures and we will be sending out our save the dates sometime next week!

We found our caterer! We did a consultation with them and had a mini feast with Me, Danny, his mom Debbie, my 2 sisters Tran & Lisa and my brother Thomas. I believe we've picked out everything, but on November 8th, they are having an open Hors d'oeuvre tasting, so we can try out more!  I'll get more in depth in another post.

We picked out the suits that Danny and the groomsmen will be wearing. They will be wearing Vera Wang and I'm so excited because they all look so handsome.









The bridesmaids dresses have been picked out and the girls are starting to order them! They are light and fun and mint green 

We also picked out our honeymoon location - we're going to the Dominican Republic!

There's still so much to do but only 137 days left!

Engagement Pictures Part 1!

We took the first part of our engagements a couple weeks ago and our photographer just sent us the link to the pictures!


We are taking another engagement session because these are REALLY important to me but the world decided take a dump on those plans. haha Dan and I had originally scheduled sunrise pictures because we thought the lighting would be perfect, it wouldn't be too hot so my makeup wouldn't sweat off and then we'd go eat cracker barrel after. Perfect Sunday. Well... we hadn't gone to bed until about 2:30AM making sure I didn't forget anything for our 6:30AM shoot. I wipe the crusties out of my eyes, get all dolled up and the second we walk out the door, it starts raining. And not Texas 'oh I'm going to pour for 5 minutes and then 10 minutes later the streets are dry' kind of rain. It was a freakin tsunami the whole day.

So we rescheduled for Tuesday sunset pictures. Same beautiful lighting, just coming from the west now. I would just have to get ready at work and go straight there. WELL. If you didn't know already, Lily's Florist always comes first. and we got hit with the biggest funeral all summer that day. I couldn't leave early (as in I couldn't leave on time) because my sister had my car... with my dress, my save the date sign, etc.  I barely had time to curl my hair, my makeup was half done (I did the rest in the car as I raced across town)
...it had been sunny and beautiful all day. but, Dan and I got lost in the park trying to find Ashley and by the time we found her... the clouds came rolling in. We had to cut our session short because it was just getting too dark.


but enough of the negatives... despite my constant bad luck, Ashley pulled out a miracle and got some really great pictures!! & We are finishing our session this Sunday, at 11 so no rush, just take my time and really enjoy everything :)


Click Here to see our pictures
You can use your email address and the password is " mansfield " 

If I didn't tell you guys already, I HIGHLY recommend Ashley Rutland Photography
Her website is www.ashleyrutlandphotography.com
You can also find her on Facebook
She's fun and extremely talented. I love working with her and I'm excited for our next session!

Ashley Rutland Photography

A video of our photographer Ashley Rutland working on the future Mr. & Mrs. Esquivel!



She's a great photographer and you should check her out at www.ashleyrutlandphotography.com !

I'm so glad we chose her and I'm excited to see the pictures!

Wedding Invitations: Samples

I was SO excited to get these bad boys in!

Most, if not all, online wedding invitation websites will give out free samples. I didn't want to go too overboard, so I picked out Wedding Paper Divas, Invitations by Dawn, and [my favorite] Minted.

With all of the samples, each place gave us a packet of different colors and fonts that we could choose from. It helps so much to see it person. Who knew textures made such a big deal!

Summer Lovin'... and Plannin'

It's been a summer full of wedding festivities from being in Mary's wedding, and our friend Aaron and Marisol getting married next month and really starting to plan our little shindig! 

We met with our wedding photographer and really like her. We'll finally (I say finally like we're so behind...) be taking our engagement pictures August 17th. 

One thing we talked about is about doing a "First Look", [a photo-op when the Bride and Groom see each other before the ceremony]. The good thing about the "First Look" is you get to take more pics of course! and the pictures are in my top 2 priority ... number one is getting married of course. After the ceremony, you have to take pictures with family and friends, and then juggling all the guests... it's hard to get all the pictures you want. On the other hand... you ruin that moment of seeing him for the first time down the aisle... and the bad luck...

I asked on facebook, and EVERYONE said No. Mary, my MOH, made the executive decision that it's not going to happen. 

Now, we have to decide where we want to take our engagement pictures. We might redo some of our pictures from prom! 

We're going to a wedding show at our venue, Noah's Event Center, at the end of the month. Super excited about it. 

Also... I bought my wedding dress today! I tried on all different styles and fabrics and went to 3 different places. I kept an open mind to every dress, but my Pinterest instincts are right! I pinned this dress 5 different times without even thinking about it and when I saw it... I just felt something. It wasn't one of those emotional, crying moments you see on TV or anything. It was a fistpump moment. I just felt accomplished. It's just perfect. haha I wish I could post it... but y'all will see it soon enough.