After much anticipation and work for their absolutely amazing wedding, Ashley & John Rausch are finally married! They were married in a breathtaking ceremony in front of 700+ guests on Saturday in Fort Smith, AR.
I've got some iphone pictures and guest photos to keep you tied over until the professional photos from
Benfield Photography are ready!
Ashley's wonderful family flew in from Oregon at the beginning of the week and immediately got to work. Her aunts and grandma Rose, who own a floral shop in Oregon, got started on the gorgeous flowers, and her uncles and cousins helped as we transformed the Fort Smith Convention Center into a stunning wedding venue.
left: Ashley's Grandma Rose working on the pomander centerpieces.
center: the beautiful bouquets.
right: Ashley's uncle Milt who helped us to install the drapery throughout the space.
The hard working bride helped with the flowers & drapery too in the days leading up to the wedding!
The ceremony space was truly breathtaking. I've heard it compared to scenes from movies and music videos in the past couple of days from guests and others who have seen photos. We knew early on that Ashley wanted a candle light ceremony, so I designed the ceremony space around a photo she showed me of a mantle adorned with flowers and candles. We designed the altar pieces first, which were custom built for Ashley to resemble fireplace mantles. These were adorned with candles and overflowing with gorgeous flowers. Then we worked our way down the aisle using candelabras to bring in that traditional elegance that Ashley wanted to be seen throughout the wedding. We alternated the candelabras with cylinders filled with candles, topped with pomanders and lined the custom aisle runner with rose petals to create a look of pure perfection! The custom lighting, by Steve at
Event Production Group in Fayetteville, AR was the perfect compliment to the decor and really gave the space that wow factor! The final piece was an 8 foot tall cross hung from the ceiling to transform the space from convention center to the perfect wedding ceremony space.
As the guests enjoyed string quartet music during the cocktail hour, we put the finishing touches on the dining room. We brought in ivory carpet to warm up the convention center space, and the room was surrounded by beautiful drapery to complete the transformation. The tables were topped with beautiful ivory marquis damask linens from
BBJ Linens, gold chargers, set with glasses, and finished with 3 bottles of wine and gold chiavari chairs.
The custom paper suite by Amy Hannon of
Sincerely Yours Paper, Inc. were truly the icing on the cake. They were the perfect extension of the wedding design and consisted of everything from water bottle labels, to chair signs for the bride & groom. There were stickers for the candy buffet, reserved signs for the family & bridal party, and much much more. She did an incredible job!
The post family owns
Mount Bethel Winery in Altus, AR, so of course guests were served wine from the family vineyard with custom labels for Ashley & John.
The gorgeous cakes by
Shelby Lynn's were incredible! The bridal cake stood 4.5 feet tall and was exactly what Ashley wanted. The groom's cake was designed to replicate John's plane and was absolutely perfect!
The beautiful lounge was filled with furniture from
Eventures Party Rentals and lightly draped to separate it slightly from the rest of the reception and give guests a space to rest their feet after dancing the night away to the music of
The Rockets!
The wedding was absolutely incredible. We've heard innumerable compliments from family members and guests and are so thrilled that everyone is happy! Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Rausch!! Have a wonderful honeymoon in Turks & Caicos!
Keep checking back from the amazing photos from
Benfield Photography. I should have them soon!
{click photo to enlarge}
Thank you Susan for your sweet words! I cannot tell you how much it meant to me. And for all the brides to be out there, you can't find a better resource for inspiration than The Knot!
This 10-page "weekend guide" is my absolute favorite part of this welcome box! Of course it's customized to a T with the couple's monogram and text to match the rest of their fabulous paper suite. It's bound together with a metal brad, so guests can easily flip from page to page. It includes one page of wedding details (rehearsal dinner, brunch, ceremony, reception, etc.), one page of things to do, one page of places to eat, etc. This is a wonderful way to give your out-of-town guests a great overview of the area and let them know what they shouldn't miss while visiting. And to do it in style like this couple is the perfect way to welcome your guests to your wedding weekend!!
Bridal bouquet by Finishing Touch: blush garden roses, pink standard roses, and light pink Ester roses with a hypericum berry wreath and crystal embellishments.
While guests enjoyed a fantastic dinner from Catering Creations they were entertained by Belly Dancing! It was absolutely fantastic.
One of the Assyrian traditions was guests throwing money at the bride and groom as they danced. The groom's sister put the bills together to make sashes for Michelle and George that they happily wore at the end of the night! 
{click on all photos to enlarge}
My favorite part: they wrote letters to each other several weeks earlier and the priest read these aloud during the Catholic portion of the ceremony.
The walls were draped. From the ceiling we hung a gorgeous gold chandelier and ceiling treatment and we even brought in ivory carpet to make the entire space feel much warmer and more inviting.
Who knew you could do fireworks indoors?! It was a show-stopping entrance thanks to Riverside Fireworks! One I hope to see again in the future.
The lighting is perfection and look at that dress! Stunning.
Breathtaking isn't it?! Be sure you head on over to Benfield's blog to see more of these stunning portraits. There are some killer ones with the 1952 Bentley that was their get-away car!
This was by far the largest wedding I've coordinated yet! All 700 gold chiavari chairs were filled with 20 or so guests standing in the back! A true testament to how incredibly loyal Ashley and John are and how much their friends and family love them.
We worked tirelessly to design an incredible ceremony space that truly transformed the Fort Smith Convention Center into a stunning wedding venue. Ashley wanted a candle lit ceremony, so we used hundreds of candles to make the aisle and altar glow with a little accent lighting to highlight the altar for their vows!
Thousands of petals cascaded from the ceiling over the dance floor, and in the center was a stunning crystal chandelier.
The beautiful dining room was a gorgeous sight! Under a draped ceiling, guests enjoyed a delicious dinner and wine from the Post family's vineyard in Altus, AR. The bride's incredible family came from all over the world (literally! One of her cousins flew in from Israel the day before the wedding to surprise everyone) and they worked for days creating the stunning centerpieces and other floral arrangements and were a joy to work with!
The beautiful lounge (all furniture provided by Eventures) and Lucite bars complete with monograms by Amy Hannon of Sincerely Yours Paper, Inc crafted in vinyl by Megan Stewart of Fort Smith, AR. This stunning lounge was used all night for guests to rest their feet after dancing for hours to the Rockets!
I adore laughing pictures! Who doesn't love a bride who looks this happy?!
And this one may be my favorite, although it's hard to choose. I love the lighting, the back of her gown, and the artistic composition. It's absolutely gorgeous!
And check out that black dance floor!
Ashley's wonderful family flew in from Oregon at the beginning of the week and immediately got to work. Her aunts and grandma Rose, who own a floral shop in Oregon, got started on the gorgeous flowers, and her uncles and cousins helped as we transformed the Fort Smith Convention Center into a stunning wedding venue.
left: Ashley's Grandma Rose working on the pomander centerpieces. 
The hard working bride helped with the flowers & drapery too in the days leading up to the wedding!
As the guests enjoyed string quartet music during the cocktail hour, we put the finishing touches on the dining room. We brought in ivory carpet to warm up the convention center space, and the room was surrounded by beautiful drapery to complete the transformation. The tables were topped with beautiful ivory marquis damask linens from BBJ Linens, gold chargers, set with glasses, and finished with 3 bottles of wine and gold chiavari chairs. 
The custom paper suite by Amy Hannon of Sincerely Yours Paper, Inc. were truly the icing on the cake. They were the perfect extension of the wedding design and consisted of everything from water bottle labels, to chair signs for the bride & groom. There were stickers for the candy buffet, reserved signs for the family & bridal party, and much much more. She did an incredible job!
The post family owns Mount Bethel Winery in Altus, AR, so of course guests were served wine from the family vineyard with custom labels for Ashley & John.
The gorgeous cakes by Shelby Lynn's were incredible! The bridal cake stood 4.5 feet tall and was exactly what Ashley wanted. The groom's cake was designed to replicate John's plane and was absolutely perfect!
The beautiful lounge was filled with furniture from Eventures Party Rentals and lightly draped to separate it slightly from the rest of the reception and give guests a space to rest their feet after dancing the night away to the music of The Rockets!
