October 2nd, 2015 was, hands down, the best day of my life. Thanks to the most supportive and loving parents in the world, Mr. Meet Your Beef and I were able to have the wedding of our dreams. As my intro back into the world of blogging, following my wedding-planning hiatus, I figured I’d share some fun aspects of our wedding that reflect who we are and what our heritage looks like all wrapped up into a wedding. The vision for this day was a more formal event that somehow subtly told our story.
Since we both come from multi-generational ranching backgrounds, it was important to incorporate our roots and our dreams. One of the first things we did after getting engaged was discuss what kind of brand we were going to register with the state of CA. We landed on a 7 (representing my grandfather’s brand and where it all began for me) and a connected H (Mr. Meet Your Beef’s last name starts with an H). Because that brand was already taken, we had to add a symbol over the top. The final verdict: reverse lazy S over 7 connected H, as seen below.
Since my tastes don’t represent any kind of easy or generic DIY project, we decided to use the (cattle) brands of our family and friends who attended the wedding as table numbers. This was an especially fun and personal touch. Our guests were excited to see their own brands and recognized those of others present. HUGE thanks to the MOB (mom of the bride) for the hours she spent with the dremmel in her hand making these lovelies out of some barnwood from the ranch.
It seems that the most difficult task I found was determining the wedding favors. I must have searched every corner of google for the perfect favor. Somehow, said google search always lead me to Oriental Trading Co. And that was DEFINITELY not the vibe we were going for. We wanted something that everyone would really enjoy but didn’t break the bank. It just so happens that working in the animal health industry has some pretty cool perks if you’re a little creative and know the right people. With some major help from my friends at Allflex (I’m looking at you, Scott Holt!) these (cattle) ear tags doubled as luggage tags by having names and addresses printed on them. We hung them on what was once the original stall barn door off our ranch barn built in the 1930’s. These tags were also a part of our seating chart. On the back of each tag was the brand of the table that the guest was to be seated at.
I’d enter a couple pictures of the tags on the barn door here but I doubt our guests would appreciate their addresses being publicized via this blog post. Here’s a peak when it was a work in progress.
I guess Mr. MYB and I like to unintentionally make things complicated (it’s probably just me but I’m going to take the liberty of dragging him into this if I’m the one who has to go to social security office AND the DMV in order to change my name). So, we opted out of a wedding cake. Neither of us really enjoy cake. After the local bakery quoted us between $700-800 for a cake large enough to serve our guests, we got an ice cream truck instead! Jay’s Specialty Ice Cream to be exact. We also got to pick eight flavors to serve. Determining these flavors was by far the best wedding “meeting” we had throughout the whole process. Can we do that again, please?
As amazing as the ice cream was, not having a cake presented us with a problem. There was now no cake to cut. Luckily we have genius friends (Brandon & Anna) who also share the same passions on cattle as we do and allowed us to steal their idea of branding a steak.
Remember Mitch Behling in this post? He’s also a master at making branding irons. Not an easy task but he nailed it with this tiny iron! And so, we branded a steak instead of cutting a cake.
The easiest decision we made during the whole process was the menu. Bet you would have never guessed it was a steak dinner?! My mouth waters just thinking about it. We were lucky enough to have Cowboy Flavor cater our wedding. You should see the resume Billy and Sue have. Seriously, check out who they have cooked for on their website. I’m not trying to brag here, they are just that good and Mr. MYB and I are so grateful they were able to cater for us!
After the months of planning, sleepless nights, meetings with vendors, budgeting, tastings, and decision after decision, the most important thing was that I found my soul mate. My best friend. Someone who shares the same passions for agriculture that I do. The one who goes along with all my wild and crazy dreams. And the one who makes me do this stupid, awkward, laugh thing that looks terrible in photographs but makes my heart SO. DAMN. HAPPY.
We would like to give a special mention to the vendors not tagged above who were just as important in making this wedding so special to us. It took an army to pull this event off and these people handled it flawlessly. Please check them out, they come with my highest recommendation!
Photography: Katie Nisbett Photography
Most of the photos shown in this post were taken by this lovely lady. There were so many wonderful moments she captured. I don’t know where to begin with picking favorites.
Wedding Planning: Jade Magnolia
Natalie has recently moved to Texas but is taking her business with her. To all our Texas friends who need an event coordinator, this is your girl!
Videography: Agape Creative Studios
I have a special bond with this team of people. Ashley, one of our videographers, happens to be the girl behind the building of this website. Web design is also one of her many, many talents.
Flowers: Brown Bunny Flowers
Amy is simply the best. She was SO great to work with and turned my floral dreams into reality.