(All
photographs by Brett Butterstein Photography)
Tracy & Cody Willbanks
Married September 23, 2006
Durango, Colorado
It had rained, snowed in the mountains and was extremely cold the entire week leading up to the wedding day; I was so scared that the weather was going to be bad for our outdoor ceremony. The night before the wedding one of my bridesmaids even bought us all long johns/long underwear to wear underneath our dresses to keep us warm! Thankfully, Mother Nature cooperated, the weather was beautiful and I had the wedding of my dreams!
The Location
The wedding was held at my family’s orchard south of Durango, on the mesa.
The Planning
We took nine months to plan the wedding. Both Cody and I love autumn (we even started dating in the fall), we knew that we wanted to be married during our favorite time of the year when the colors were rich – that left us nine months to plan!
The Theme
Having a September wedding, fall was the main theme with a western flair. Everything we did was tied back to the autumn theme. The color scheme was red, orange and yellow.
The Decor
For centerpieces we had apple buckets stuffed with apples and pears from our family orchard. Instead of using flowers/rose petals to cover the aisle, we used leaves to go along with our theme. We staked straw bales on each side of our arch (which was handmade by my brother), it added a rich golden yellow to our backdrop. I tried to use wheat, leaves, apples and sunflowers everywhere I could. It turned out beautiful, exactly what I had imagined.
The Flowers
The flowers were very bold bouquets with a combination of Sunflowers, mini Gerber daises, roses, berries, leaves and wheat tied together with raffia.
The
Favors
Customized CDs of our favorite songs.
Special Touches
Our dog, Blu, was the ring bearer. When the reverend asked for the rings, Cody whistled and Blu ran down the aisle with the rings. I made him a vest to wear.
My eleven-month-old niece was our flower girl. Unable to walk, one of our ushers pushed her down the aisle in her toy car – she smiled the whole time she cruised down the aisle! It was precious. I also made her a dress out of the same material as Blu’s vest so they matched.
Instead of writing our own vows, our reverend, Raymond Dunton, called us a couple weeks before the wedding and had us tell him why we loved one another. (We had to keep what we said a secret from one another). He worked it into the ceremony during a part where he talked about soul mates, it was a great way to personalize our ceremony and it was amazing to hear what we both love about one another, plus it let our guests know a little bit more about our love.
We had a wish book along with the traditional guest book. I took a regular photo album that held photos and allowed room to write next to each photo. I had my cousin take pictures of all of the guests when they arrived and had them put a wedding wish for Cody and I in the wish book. After the wedding, I inserted the photos next to their wishes so we were sure to have photos of all of our guests that attended.
What would you do different?
Nothing, absolutely nothing, it was perfect, I couldn’t have asked for anything more!
The Rehearsal Dinner
We had a catered Chuck wagon Dinner at my parent’s house.
My Advice
Try to have everything completely done/in order (except for those last minute things obviously) the weekend before your wedding. We pretended that the wedding was the weekend before and made sure that we had everything done so we could have a stress free week and spend time with family and friends that were coming into town.
Don’t procrastinate, the less stress you have even the month before your wedding the better everything will go on your special day. It never hurts to be prepared.
Delegate, don’t feel like you have to do everything yourself. My mother, sister, sister-in-law, and friends were great help.
Don't try to make everyone happy. It's your day so make sure your wedding is everything YOU want it to be!
Most importantly, have fun. It is your wedding day. Be happy and if something does go wrong, calmly work through it. You don’t want to be remembered as one of those brides on one of the most important days of your life.
Honeymoon Location
Seven day western Caribbean on cruise.
RECOMMENDED WEDDING PROS Photographer: Brett Butterstein. Brett did an amazing job photographing the day and capturing the true essence of our wedding. He is brilliant. |
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All photographs Brett Butterstein Photography
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