Details...

--Here is the itinerary for this weekend:

FRIDAY
7pm - The Bachelor & Bachelorette parties begin. The Bachelors are going to Dave & Busters at the Stonebriar Mall and the Bachelorettes will be staying at the hotel for a party in the hotel room. Call 469-734-7770 to RSVP or get more info.

10pm - NERF WARS! Its the bachelors against the bachelorettes! BYONG... BringYourOwnNerfGun... lol! Meet in the lobby of the Embassy Suites at 10pm.

SATURDAY
10am - The ladies are gathering for a day at the Botanica Spa located in the Embassy Suites and the guys are traveling out to Grapevine to spend the day at Extreme Paintball. Everyone will get back to the hotel by 5pm.

6:30pm - Rehearsal Time!! Meet in the Bush School conference room on the far side of the Embassy Suites Convention Center.

8:00pm - Departure for dinner... gather in the lobby to shuttle to the restaurant. we will enjoy Christmas lights along the way.

8:30pm - Rehearsal dinner at Mattito's in Frisco Square. Everyone is invited, but there is a $30 charge for everyone except the wedding party. The $30 covers all-you-can-eat beef & chicken fajitas and brisket tacos and two hours of unlimited margaritas, beer & wine.

Late night: The Embassy Suites has an indoor heated pool and hot tub... and it doesn't close until 1am!

SUNDAY
10:30am - Church services from 10:30am until 12noon at the Christ Community Church in The Colony

1pm - The bridal party needs to be back at the hotel to start getting ready. Hair and makeup crew will be there waiting on us. Everyone else is welcomed to explore the Frisco area for lunch. Let us know if you want any suggestions!

6pm - Wedding Ceremony in the Bush School Conference Room.

6:30pm - Cocktails in the lobby right outside the Frisco I Ballroom

7:15pm - Chimes will ring and the doors will open to the ballroom for the reception.

7:30pm - The wedding party arrives... Bride & Groom introduced and toasted. They will dance their first dance as husband and wife, then dinner is served.

8:15pm - Cutting of the cake, tossing the bouquet & garter, then the dancing begins.

Midnight - The ball is over... and they live Happily Ever After!

Meet our Flower Girls... Grace, Ella & Gracie

See why we have THREE flower girls!! They are all sooo adorable! These are the daughters of our cousins in Tennessee. Grace and Ella are the daughters of our cousin Nick and his wife, Mandy (who is expecting their third child...CONGRATS!). Gracie is the daughter of our cousin Brooke, who is also a bridesmaid. I used to babysit both Nick and Brooke when they were much younger... now their children are participating in my daughter's wedding! Boy! Do I feel old! LOL!

We bought these adorable flower girl dresses at David's Bridal. They were all white with white satin bows tucked in here and there in the skirts and a white organza sash. We changed them up a bit with these beautiful blue sashes that have a big bow in the back and replaced the white satin bows with a blue organza bow that I made with rhinestones in the center... nine bows for each dress... a total of 27 bows!



We really like the touch of color in the dresses. It also makes them one-of-a-kind. Our girls are going to look like fairy princesses!





Can you say, "CUTEE PIE"!

TN Bridal Shower Success

What a great trip we had! My cousin Kathy hosted Samantha's bridal shower and allowed us to invade her home for the whole weekend! She was truly a great southern hostess... we could not want for anything! We had a wonderful time at the shower too! Kathy had the cutest cake!



Sam was so cute in her shower veil and Bride-to-be sash. She wasn't so crazy about the veil, but was a good sport and played along. LOL!



Time to cut the cake!

Blue Lens Photo Shoot and FRINJ Salon & Spa

Last week, Samantha was one of two models asked to model for a photo shoot called "Take Your Best Shot" at the Blue Lens Studio in downtown Dallas. It's a friendly little competition among professional photographers. They meet once a month in different locations and see who can get the best shot. Since we had just gotten Samantha's wedding gown from alterations, we took it as one of the outfits to wear for the shoot. Sam won't let me post any of the pictures of her dress... but I can show you this one:



Did you say, "wow"? Because I did... I just love this shot. It has a very southern lady feel to it. Her hair was done by Jennifer and Nalani did her makeup... good huh? We haven't seen all the shots yet... there were 8 photographers there who are going to send us cds of their work. But this was another favorite so far:



Her hair was done earlier that day by Jennifer at Frinj in Plano, Texas. Jennifer has been doing Sam's hair since TCHS Homecoming 4 years ago. She and a few of her friends are the hairstylists that we hired to do the bridal party's hair on the day of the wedding.... we are so excited! If you are looking for someone good to do your hair, we highly recommmend Jennifer! She is located at FRINJ www.frinjsalonspa.com.

Frosted Art Wedding Cake!

We are sooo excited! Samantha, Angela and I went to a cake tasting at the Frosted Art Bakery... yum! It was so much fun!



Heather was our cake 'designer' and she did such a great job of listening to Samantha and what she wanted. If you look close enough you can actually see a sketch of the cake! It's gonna be beautiful! And tasty too!


They had many many cake flavors to choose from and we tasted 15... yes, 15 of them! Our favorites were the Lemon Lavendar... Orange Meringue... Double Fudge... White Chocolate and just for Cris... the Caramel Macchiato!

Afterwards, we met girlfriends Amy Teston and Judy Knight for some lunch and a little 'catching up' at the Spaghetti Warehouse in the West End District of Dallas.



MEET OUR "LADY IN WAITING"! Judy is going to be our "Lady in Waiting" for the day of the wedding! She will be responsible to keep everyone getting ready in the bridal room on schedule and will take care of any last minute emergencies requiring safety pins... chap stick or the hot glue gun! LOL! She's a seasoned wedding coordinator and is perfect for the job... thanks Judy!



Samantha and her Matron of Honor, Angela...


Amy Teston (i missed that gal!) and I...

Wedding Favors... pretty!

Edith (my mother-in-law) and I worked on these favors allll day on Saturday. Ten bags of sweettart doves and 5lbs of Samantha's favorite candy, Jelly Bellys, in the wedding color!







Nalani dropped by and helped ink some of the tags too... then we went out to dinner with Samantha and Marianne!



PEI WEI was our unanimous choice for dinner! It was delicious and the company was fun!






There we are... mother of the groom & mother of the bride. She's the MOG and I'm the MOB... hehehee!



The hero of the day though was Edith!! She worked her fingers off helping with those favors!! Thanks Mom!!

Meet one of the Groomsmen... Kamran

Meet Kamran Salim! He is a part of our family... has been since he and Patch were in band together during their freshman year of high school at The Colony High School! As one of Patch's best friends... he is like another big brother to Samantha... and Cris' trusts him to look after her in his absence. Kamran was an obvious choice for one of the groomsmen!



Here he is trying on his tuxedo for the wedding. We ended up buying all the tuxedos at JCPennys because they were on sale for Veteran's Day and we had an additional $15off coupon for each one! Woohoo! It was gonna cost $145 to rent everything at Men's Warehouse, so instead we spent $119 to BUY the tuxedo and we will rent the shirt/vest/tie set at Men's Warehouse for only $29! Danny, the best man, is wearing the tuxedo jacket from Men's Warehouse below... I actually like the one at JCPennys better (Kamran is wearing it in the photo above)!



We have ordered most of the vest sets and all but one groomsman has purchased their tuxedos... so we are doing really well!

Tennessee Bridal Shower

The 'Tennessee' Family is hosting a bridal shower for Samantha on Sunday, November 23rd at cousin Kathy's house in Millington, TN. I think it is at 2pm, but will check tomorrow and make sure. So far, Samantha has registered at JCPennys and Target. We will try to get some more registrations done this weekend and will let everyone know. We are so excited to travel to Tennessee next weekend! We will be bringing the flower girl dresses and the bridesmaid dresses for Jes and Brooke! You can RSVP for this shower here... just click on the comments below. Or just give Kathy, Aunt Mary or Aunt Callie a call. Questions? Email me at ladybugandco@yahoo.com!

Goodnight!

WEDDING RSVP

If you are viewing this blog, then you no doubt have received an invitation to the Skinner/Lisenby Wedding on Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 6pm in the evening. This is the section where you can RSVP for the wedding ceremony and the reception afterwards. The reception will include dinner and dancing and will take place in the Frisco I Ballroom of the Embassy Suites.



Please indicate the number AND names of those attending in your party and whether you will be attending both the ceremony and reception by leaving a comment here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me (Tammy) at 469-525-6293. Thanks!

Rehearsal Dinner

The wedding rehearsal is scheduled for 5:30pm on Saturday, December 20, 2008 at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas. Immediately following we will host the Rehearsal Dinner in the Cypress Grille Restaurant located inside the Embassy Suites.

Danny (Best Man), Samantha and I had lunch there and chose the menu for the evening. We kept it simple and selected 4 choices and they will also have a kid's menu for the little ones. It was truly yummy!

Chicken Pasta... it was delish!



We decided to also offer a Cheeseburger Plate... thinking that it would be a fall-back for those who don't like the other choices. Well, let me tell ya... this cheeseburger was awesome! The fries were great too... like shoestring fries with a light coating on them.



Everything was very tasty and we are very happy to be hosting the Rehearsal Dinner at the Cypress Grille. But, I have to say that my all-time favorite thing was the tropical iced tea! It was great! So great that we are going to also serve it at the Wedding Reception dinner!



All in all... the Cypress Grille got TWO THUMBS up from the bride and best man!

Meet the Best Man...

This is Danny... He is Cris' big brother... Texas Tech student... manager at CVS... the Best Man!



Danny has such a great sense of humor! He is already having fun just thinking about the plans for the Bachelor party. It is scheduled for the Friday before the wedding, December 19, 2008. Poor Cris will be exhausted from traveling all night from Alaska... but the guys will take good care of him. Right, Danny? LOL!





Yep... I think the whole weekend is gonna be fun! There will be some 'Nerf' wars scheduled... the gals are going to enjoy the hotel spa on Saturday, while the guys are off to play paintball. And there will be a group going to see the Ice exhibit at the Texan Gaylord too! All we ask is that nobody get hurt before the wedding!

Junior Bridesmaid... Calli

Let me introduce you to our Junior Bridesmaid... Calli!



Calli is the daughter of Tammy's bff and Samantha's Matron of Honor, Angela. Samantha has been babysitting Calli since she was 6yo (she's 10yo now), and she is pretty special. Sam thinks of her as the little sister she always begged for but never got (sad, huh... not!). Anyway, this was Calli trying on her Jr Bridesmaid dress at the David's Bridal in Lewisville, Texas. We all went out to our favorite restaurant (Red Lobster!) for dinner afterwards...yum!









When together... these two are attached at the hip!

The Dress...

by Tammy (Mother of the Bride)

After looking at numerous websites and dresses online... we embarked on a 'Girl's Day' of trying on dresses about a month ago. We started at LuLu's Boutique in downtown Dallas... went to Whatchamacallits in Dallas and ended up at David's Bridal in Frisco. Not only did we find the perfect wedding dress at David's Bridal, but we also got the flower girl dresses and bridal party dressess too! It was the 'Walmart' of wedding stores! Everything we needed under one roof! We can't show you the wedding dress because that would be bad luck... but we will show you Sam in the undies (lol!) that she will wear under the dress! Hehehee...



Isn't she the cutest ever?!

Our Fairytale Wedding...

The date is set (Sunday, December 21, 2008)... the place has been picked (Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas)... and the bridal party has been selected. We are so excited to announce the following family & friends who will be standing with us on our special day:

Bride: Samantha Skinner
Matron of Honor: Angela Hotelling (friend of bride)
Bridesmaid: Sara Skinner (bride's cousin)
Bridesmaid: Jestein Lamey (bride's cousin)
Bridesmaid: Brooke McDuffy (bride's cousin)
Bridesmaid: Wendy Tran (bride's friend)
Jr. Bridesmaid: Calli Hotelling (bride's friend)

Groom: Cristopher Lisenby
Best Man: Danny Lisenby (groom's brother)
Groomsman: Patrick Skinner (bride's brother)
Groomsman: Kamran Salim (friend of groom & bride)
Groomsman: Craig (friend of groom)
Groomsman: Josiah Johnson (groom's stepbrother)


Flower Girls: Ella Lamey (bride's cousin)
Grace Lamey (bride's cousin)
Grace McDuffy (bride's cousin)

Ringbearer: William Lisenby (groom's brother)