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Allie and Seth
Grand Old House Wedding
Wedding Planners: Valentina Satanassi | Mary Ann Mehigan | Celebrations Ltd.
Officiant: Pastor from home
Hair and Makeup: Rock Gorgeous Hair
Dress Designer: Bridal Boutique of Lewisville – dress designer is Pronovias
Grooms Suit: Jos. A Bank
Bridesmaids Dresses: Watter’s
Design and Decor: Celebrations Ltd.
Venue: Grand Old House
Shoes: Sam Edleman
This gorgeous Grand Old House (www.grandoldhouse.com) wedding in the Cayman Islands of Allie and Seth was just stunning, from the dress, the decor, the ceremony, the vows, the flowers….. I could just go on and on. Celebrations Ltd (https://www.celebrationsltd.com/) wedding team outdid themselves with the beautiful arch and huge clusters of natural garden flowers. The reception area was unbelievable with flowers literally dripping off the tables. WOW!
We were long distance (Houston and Dallas) for two years of dating. The long distance relationship began when Allie graduated and moved to Dallas, and Seth transferred to University of Houston and moved back to Houston. From July 2016 – July 2018, they had seen each other every weekend except for approximately 10 weekends total. Doing the math, that equates to about 48,000 miles total that they traveled to see each other in two years. (Seth definitely did 70%+ of that). To put that into perspective, the total distance around the world is 24,900 miles.
This is a funny story…Bridal Boutique of Lewisville was our very first stop for dress shopping. I walked in believing I only wanted a soft and romantic a-line dress with dramatic back details. I told our assistant I knew I did NOT want a mermaid dress. She wisely recommended I try on one dress of every style to verify my idea was truly what I wanted. Thank goodness she did or else I definitely would not have been wearing the dress I chose! My mom and sister were with me when I said yes to the dress.
Seth and Allie were neighbors their last year at Baylor University and crossed paths quite often. Allie was usually outside playing with her dog, Gracie, and Seth was typically throwing the football or playing a mean game of wiffle ball with his roommates and other neighbors. Seth will tell you Gracie was who initially caught his eye!
Tell us about your first date…
Our first official date was at Santa’s Wonderland outside of College Station on January 1, 2016. (We won’t count the time my entire family crashed our original first date to see the Houston Zoo Lights.) From then on, we were inseparable. If we were not in class, it’s nearly guaranteed we were hanging out together. 
He managed to convince both sides of our family to go out to my parent’s lake house the weekend before the 4th of July to celebrate and watch the fireworks show. What was told to me was that afternoon we were going to do patriotic family photos wearing red white and blue since the families were rarely all together.
After we had gone through all of the “family photos,” Seth held me back and asked me to marry him while both of our families watched from the patio of the house and were yelling and screaming with excitement. Seth went above and beyond and hired a professional photographer to sneak in during the “ask” and take pictures of the event. He even flew my childhood best friend from Boston to surprise me!
We all went down to the beach and Rebecca stood on the balcony of our condo and took some really fun aerial shots of us!
I let Seth pick it out himself! He had always wanted to wear a suit and tie for his wedding and I thought he looked very dapper.
We LOVE our fur babies, Gracie and Sadie and the only thing originally holding us back from getting married in Grand Cayman was that they could not be there with us. As a way of incorporating them into our wedding, we named our “his and hers” signature drinks after them and had an artist do a watercolor portrait of the two of them with the drink ingredients for our bar signage!
Colors of the sunset (dusty blue, navy, peach, blush) – a whimsical garden wedding
The ceremony altar!!!The custom made and GORGEOUS unity cross! Our tablescapes and head table
Celebrations Ltd – the floral inspiration was to look like they were freshly plucked from a garden – garden roses, peonies, hydrangeas, greenery
We were both so nervous before I walked down the aisle! But as soon as my dad and I rounded the corner and I saw Seth’s tears welling up, my nerves calmed and I was elated to walk to him.
Unbelievable! As an event planner, I had determined every little detail of the event. As the night went on, everything went according to plan if not better! Our team of vendors were unbeatable. I wish we could do it all over again!
Instead of doing a unity candle or sand, we went with a more nontraditional unity cross symbolizing the unity of Seth and I by the power of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was a really unique and touching moment for us. Immediately afterward, our parents came to the altar and prayed over us, which was a really special time too.
Saying “I Do”
The DELICIOUS food!
Dancing the night away overlooking the ocean -the florals 🙂
We invited our closest friends and family to our wedding. By the end of the week, we felt like everyone we invited was our family. We all bonded so much more and had the time of our lives!
SOAK IT IN!!! We did events Thursday, Friday and Saturday which allowed our friends and family to intermingle and get to know each other better. By the end of the wedding, everybody knew each other and it was one big party!
Any tips for hiring vendors
Hire vendors you can trust. It kind of seems like common knowledge, but when you’re doing a destination wedding and not really able to touch and feel everything until the day of, it’s crucial to have a team on the island who is super familiar with your vision and able to make it happen.
Our first dance was “you (wedding song)” by Jason Cassidy. It was a perfect depiction of our relationship!
Because we did not do a first look and wanted to get as many photos with our friends and family as possible, we held off on doing a ton of photos of just the two of us after the ceremony. What we did instead was get all done up again with hair and makeup and our wedding attire and did a separate 3-hour private photo shoot with Rebecca. It was such a blast and now we have double the photos we thought we would have!
Rebecca is such a joy to have as a photographer! She has such an incredibly bubbly and energetic spirit and truly is passionate about photography and the couples she shoots. We met with her once before the wedding and on the day of she was amazing. I could not have imagined my wedding without Rebecca and her fantastic team!
