Sad, but true.

Got a call from a bride who had talked to me about 6 months ago.  We hit it off so well.  She loved my work, she thought my prices were fair, I could see myself at her wedding and delivering a product she and I would be proud of.

Then I never heard from her again. Until today.  She called me in tears.  I took a deep breath.  I knew it was not going to be a good story.

She had hired another photographer.  Based on price alone.  That and a bit of pressure from a bridesmaid who insisted she use “her” photographer.  And then the sadness and the tears.

Her photographer was not aware of the lighting at the Thorncrown, had not worked at a Crescent Hotel wedding, and the result was disastrous.  Safe to say the photographer was overwhelmed with the rhythm that a Eureka Springs wedding demands.  As the tears fell she went over point by point of all the mistakes she had made that day in planning her photography.  After listening to her “list” I was keenly aware that nothing I said would be of comfort to her.

Your wedding memories are one of the most important pieces of your big day.  I forget sometimes how much I guide people on timing, lighting, fellow vendors, traffic, where to eat, what works well here and what doesn’t.  I’ve worked with some of the top vendors here and we are not only professional associates, many are my friends.  It’s that relationship that provides me with a knowledge and an insight that out-of-town photographers are not able to offer.  Sure there are photographers who work in the corridor, and service this area.  I think the largest difference between myself and others is the volume of work and the knowledge I have of my hometown.  That separates us apart greatly.

My sweet Bride will never recall her day in a beautiful way.  Not in photography, nor in memories.  My heart just broke.

We will be shooting bridal portraits and taking them on a photo safari next month…fun times ahead.  I hope to help heal her experience.

Wedding Follows Reunion for Carthage Couple

Wedding Follows Reunion for Carthage Couple

by Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

Twenty-five years after they dated the first time around, Karen Lieberman and Chuck Davis were married on Saturday, May 28, 2011.  The “East Lawn” at the Crescent Hotel was the location for the 2:00 p.m. wedding.  Though it had been raining frequently, the skies cleared and the weather was gorgeous.

Rewind 25 years:  “He was my first boyfriend.  I was 15 and he was 22, which is why it didn’t work after he left for college,” Karen says.  So how did they reunite?  Last June, after Karen went through a divorce, she thought of Chuck.  “I went on Craig’s List to look for him, and the next day I had a friend request from him,” she says.  “We went to dinner and started seeing each other again.”

Karen lived in Seneca, Missouri at the time, about 40 minutes away from Carthage where they both grew up.  Chuck had returned to Carthage just three years earlier.  He works as a controls engineer, building and repairing computers for power plants.  Karen had worked on the neurology floor at St. John’s and for a neurosurgeon in private practice.  She is currently in school, studying radiology technology at Missouri Southern State University.

The pair had seven weeks to prepare from proposal to wedding day.  “We wanted a small wedding.  We knew if we did it at home in our church, it would be huge,” Karen says.  They searched for locations online and found the Crescent Hotel.  “We went to see it and fell in love with it,” Karen says.

On their wedding day, the Crescent Hotel gardens “were really pretty,” Karen says.  “You can see in our pictures, the sky was the exact same cornflower blue as the girls’ dresses,” Karen describes.

Her three bridesmaids were Jennifer Lucian, Karen’s best friend; Sharon Jones, her twin; and Kim Wilson, another friend.  Chuck’s best friend, Randy Muranski, served as best man.  His nephew, Aaron Harris, and Justin Davis, Karen’s 12-year-old son, were groomsmen.

“My younger son, Payton, who is 10, was our ring bearer and my 4-year-old niece Addyson Jones, was flower girl,” Karen says.  Skyler Jones, Karen’s twenty-year-old nephew, with whom she is very close, walked her down the aisle.

Karen wore a white, strapless chiffon dress, floor-length with a two-foot sweep train.  She carried blue hydrangeas and white roses, while her attendants held matching blue hydrangeas.  She met with Michelle Burks, owner of Eureka Flowers, once, “and she knew exactly what I wanted,” Karen says.  Her attendants wore strapless, knee-length dresses of cornflower blue that did indeed match the sky that day.

 Their attire was complemented by the black five-button Ralph Lauren tuxedos worn by Chuck’s groomsmen.  The groom a white necktie, as did Payton. Skyler, Karen’s escort, wore a black tie and the groomsmen’s ties were silver.

Performing the ceremony was Karen and Chuck’s friend from their church, Brother Garver, who was also Chuck’s minister in childhood.  Approximately 50 guests attended the wedding and the following reception, was also on the lawn of the hotel and in a tent set up for that purpose.

The Crescent Hotel supplied the white on white three-tiered wedding cake, but Karen herself decorated it the morning of the ceremony.  She used blue ribbons, along with white roses and blue hydrangeas that matched those festooning the reception area.  Karen also made the butter mints before leaving home.  Other reception fare included light hors d’oeuvres, finger sandwiches and fruit, vegetables and chips, all with accompanying dips.  Though punch, tea, coffee or water were served to their guests, the couple did toast each other with champagne.  A local violinist provided by the hotel played for a half hour prior to the ceremony, then segued into the wedding march at the appropriate time.  He also played during the reception.

And there through it all, there was Melodye Purdy from Purdy Art Co., who had been recommended by the Crescent Hotel staff.  “We called her and fell in love with her,” Karen says.  “Melodye made everything run so smoothly.  We couldn’t have asked for a better photographer.”

Karen and their boys stayed at the Crescent Hotel the night before.  Justin and Payton now have Davis as their last names, too.  “Their dad died in November 2010 and Chuck has stepped in for them,” Karen says.  The couple ate at Local Flavor with both boys Friday evening before the wedding, then took the Ghost Tour at the Crescent Hotel.  “I wanted to take the boys and my sister’s family went with us.  Payton thought it was the neatest thing he had ever done,” Karen adds.

Apparently the ghosts were on duty the next day.  “Melodye took photos while we were getting ready on Saturday in our suite on the second floor.  My niece was sitting with me while my makeup was being applied.  In one of the pictures, there is a white shadow floating my head and you can see a face in it,” Karen says.

Chuck and Karen spent Saturday night at the Crescent Hotel following the ceremony, then drove to Joplin to fly out to Las Vegas.  “We were trying to get to the airport in Joplin, but that was the day the President was there to see tornado damage,”Karen says.    “After we finally made it to the airport, we were delayed again waiting for Air Force One to take off.  We made our connection in Dallas just in time.”  They spent five days in Las Vegas, taking a brief honeymoon since they plan to go to Hawaii in December with Justin and Payton.

Thinking back to their May wedding, Karen says “I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect day.  This was meant to be.  God has truly blessed us.”

Groom Gives His Wife Wedding She Deserves

Groom Gives His Wife Wedding She Deserves

By Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

“When we first married, I was a poor man to tell you the truth,” Brian Gesner says.  He and Kristie were married August 9, 2008, in the open atrium at Old Town Springs near their home in Spring, Texas.  “There wasn’t a lot to take pictures of there,” he explains.

“For the past year I wanted to make it up to her, give her the wedding she deserved.  In February 2011, I had a dream about a place we visited when I was 10, about a glass chapel,” Bryan says.  “When I woke up I knew that’s where we needed to go, so I looked it up and got our daughters involved.  They loved it.”

“We planned a vacation to Eureka Springs and to Branson, recreating my childhood vacation.  I planned the ceremony for dusk, like the time I was there as a child,” Brian says.  The date was Sunday, May 29, 2011 and the place was from Brian’s dream, Thorncrown Chapel.  “It was just us, our three kids, my mother and stepfather.”  Harry Hoffman, a minister affiliated with Thorncrown Chapel, guided Kristie and Brian through the renewal of their vows.  His wife, Cheryl Hoffman, played organ for the service.

Kristie wore a white, formal full-length wedding dress with train, and sequins and beads decorating the strapless bodice.  A veil and tiara were both set off by her dark hair.  The girls, Jocelyn, 10, and Celleste, nine, wore lavender dresses and purple hydrangeas in their hair.

Brian wore a black tuxedo with a lavender necktie and their son, Brice, 12, wore a black tux with black bow tie.  Their boutonnières included some of the same flowers as Kristie’s bouquet, which featured purple hydrangeas, blue carnations and daisies.  Brian’s mother, who used to be a florist, put together all the flowers for them.

 “We wanted a beautiful place and extremely beautiful pictures,” Brian says.  After researching photographers for two weeks, they picked Melodye Purdy of Purdy Art Co.  “She stood out as the one for us.  I saw smiles on the faces of people in her photographs.  She thinks outside the box.

“Melodye brought it to life for us,” Brian says.  “She completely delivered.  She picked up on us.  She had me pose like a big studly guy.  That’s an image I try to project,” Brian laughs.  “It was cicada mating season while we were there.  One got stuck on the back of Kristie’s dress and our daughter swatted it.  Melodye caught that in a photo,” Brian says.

“After the ceremony, we all went to dinner at Local Flavor.  It was such good food that, well, I was in a tuxedo a little smaller than I needed and I had to undo a few buttons,” Brian says.  “We were all in our wedding attire at dinner and we got some looks.”

The vow renewal in Eureka Springs was also a vacation trip for the blended family.  “We were both single parents.  Both our exes walked out on us,” Brian says.  The couple met on the internet.  “She actually lived about two minutes from my house,” Brian says.  “On our first date, she professed to me she wasn’t going to marry any one.  After one month of dating she said ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we got married?’.”

They traveled to Eureka Springs three days before their ceremony.  “We’re big winery buffs and we stopped at several on the way.  Keels Creek Winery in Eureka Springs was our very favorite one in all of Arkansas,” he says.

The family stayed at Cherokee Mountain Log Cabins Resort in a cabin overlooking a big hill, Brian recalls.  “It was beautiful,” he says.  They went to Catfish Cabin for a meal because it was close to their lodging.  “I’m a catfish lover, but we didn’t have high expectations.  But it was great.

“And we ate at Gaskins Cabin Steakhouse.  I’m still telling people about that,” Brian says.  They also shopped in downtown Eureka Springs.  “I spent way too much money in the Tommy Bahama store (The Emerald Forest),” Brian admits.  “ We tried hot sauces at Silly Chile and I kept coming back for more of their lemonade,” he says.  They also enjoyed the art at the Morrison-Woodward Gallery.

The day of the ceremony the family ate breakfast at the Crescent Hotel.  “Then while the girls had their hair and makeup done at the New Moon Spa, Brice and I went to see St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church.  We liked the statues,” Brian says.

After their time in Eureka Springs, the family continued their vacation in Branson, Missouri before returning home, where Kristie works with Brian in his company Prestige Heating & Air Conditioning.

Crescent Hotel Boardwalk is Venue Chosen by Couple

Crescent Hotel Boardwalk is Venue Chosen by Couple

by Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

“I always wanted an outdoor wedding and always had Eureka Springs in the back of my mind because it is so pretty there,” says Lindsay Daniel.  “We visited some places, but when we walked around the Crescent Hotel, we knew this is where it needs to be.”

And so it was, that on Sunday, May 22, 2011, at 1:00 p.m., Lindsay (then Ragan) and Adam Daniel were married on the boardwalk at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, with the reception following in the hotel’s Conservatory.  “The weather held off for us that day,” Lindsay says.  It didn’t rain again until that night.

Bill Ott performed the ceremony in front of approximately 60 guests.  “He was great.  We met him the day before and did a quick run-through,” Lindsay says.  Later she saw Ott at a University of Central Arkansas (U.C.A.) graduation, and was pleased to know they were graduates of the same school.

In college at U.C.A. is where she and Adam met during their freshman year.  “Adam’s parents moved from Ohio to Conway (Arkansas) his junior year of high school.  I came to U.C.A. for school from Van Buren (Arkansas),” Lindsay explains.  “We hung out for about a month and then were dating ‘officially’.”  The couple dated for five years prior to their year-long engagement.

“We had been talking about getting married, but on May 5 last year, I think it was a Wednesday, he surprised me,” Lindsay says.  She was “nicely shocked”, she recalls.

The couple booked a wedding package at the Crescent Hotel that included a two-night stay.  Lindsay and her cousin stayed the night before the wedding, as did Adam and his brother.  The second night was Adam and Lindsay’s first night of their honeymoon.

The rehearsal dinner was at Local Flavor on Saturday night.  “We always had lunch there when we visited.  We figured dinner there must be good, too,” Lindsay said.  They offered their guests a choice of entrees:  pork tenderloin, chicken Parmesan or tilapia.

Lindsay chose Michelle Burks from Eureka Florist and talked to her on the phone and e-mailed her about the details.  “We came up and visited once and saw her again on the day before the wedding.  She helped me a ton with types of flowers and did an awesome job from my ideas,” Lindsay says.

They chose Melodye Purdy from Purdy Art Co. for their photographer.  “The first time we visited the hotel, she was there doing a wedding,” Lindsay says.  “So we looked online and liked the variety and quality of her pictures.  She ran the show a little bit, kept us organized for the reception, garter toss and cake cutting.  Melodye was so easy and natural with us that most of the time I didn’t even know I was getting my picture taken.”

Lindsay found what she knew was THE dress after looking in only one store.  “I bought it nine months before our wedding,” she says.  The diamond white dress called “Destiny” by Maggie Sottero barely touched the ground, and came with a modest train.  It had a sweetheart neckline and asymmetrical beading, and it laced up the back.  She wore two-inch heels from Allure, also diamond white, with ruffles up the foot and open toes.

“Adam bought me simple pearl earrings and a necklace with crystal beading,” Lindsay says, and she wore those along with a headband with crystal pearls, a flower and feathers that “I had to have – it was too cute”.

Adam wore a light gray Calvin Kline tuxedo with an ivory shirt, tie and vest.  His boutonnière was a dark purple tulip, echoing those in the brides bouquet of tulips blooms, white roses and white hydrangeas.  Best man Ryan Daniel, Adam’s brother, and his three good friends who were groomsmen wore the same style of light gray tuxes with vests and ties of deep plum.

Fred Mayer, the violinist furnished with the hotel’s package, played “Canon in D” for the Lindsay’s walk down the aisle.  “I LOVE that song,” Lindsay says.  She picked a very different song for the couple’s first dance — “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” sung by Elvis Presley.  “My Dad loves Elvis,” Lindsay says.

Besides dancing the reception included light hors d’oeuvres and punch, with a champagne toast.  The three-tier vanilla wedding cake was iced in white and bedecked with purple flowers.  “Adam is into the gym and working out, so he found dumbbells and a bench press in silhouettes for his groom’s cake,” Lindsay describes.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel are back home in Conway.  She just finished graduate school and works as a speech language pathologist in a skilled nursing facility in Heber Springs.  Adam is project coordinator for BCI Management, supervising jobs and equipment for loading docks for Wal-Mart stores.

Couple Choose Simple Weekday Wedding

Couple Choose Simple Weekday Wedding

by Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

“We wanted an intimate, simple wedding for us and our children.  We didn’t want a lot of stress and pointless spending,” Melisia Weiss says.  “We were going to Joplin and saw an ad on TV for Arkansas.  It reminded me of seeing Thorncrown Chapel 18 years before.

“It’s not that difficult to book Thorncrown Chapel during the week.  On May 31, we drove up to Eureka Springs, spent four nights and got married,” Melisia recalls.  “It was all pretty easy, nothing extravagant.”

Melisia is a dental hygienist in Arp, Texas, and has known Gregg, who is her patient, for several years.  “He’s also the superintendent at school and I needed help with a school problem.  When we talked about it, he asked me how my husband felt.  I told him it was my ex-husband and I would be making the decision,” Melisia says.

Soon Gregg called her at work to ask for her phone number.  “I had been married for 17 years before and I was not ready to date.  It was too soon,” Melisia says.  “We talked on the phone for about six months, and then went to lunch.  We hit it off and I got more comfortable.”  The pair dated for about a year before marrying each other in Eureka Springs.  They were engaged in February 2011.

She and Gregg each have two children and each have custody of them.  They all live together.  “They get along.  It has been really good for everyone,” she says.  Her daughters Sydney, 11, and Gracee, eight, stood up with their mother for the ceremony.  And Gregg’s daughter Jordan, 16, and his son Jantzen, eight, were next to him.

 “We planned the wedding in about three weeks.  I got lucky shopping.  I found my dress and all three girls’ dresses, and still made it back for an afternoon baseball game,” Melisia laughs.  Her white full-length dress was simple, but elegant with a halter top and a full skirt that pooled into a train and hid her white toe less shoes.  Her bouquet of pink roses, daisies and white carnations was designed by Eureka Flowers, as were all the flowers for the ceremony.

Jordan wore a dress with a pink satin bodice and charcoal satin skirt and wide sequined waist band.  Sydney’s solid charcoal satin dress with spaghetti straps featured horizontal gathers.  Gracee’s solid pink dress with full skirt was accented with gray sparkles.  All three wore slender silver lame sandals.  Gracee carried a basket filled with pink rose petals and her sisters each held bouquets of daisies and pink roses.

Gregg dressed in a black tuxedo with white shirt and black studs.  A black bow tie and a pink rose boutonnière completed his wardrobe.  Jantzen wore a black tux, white shirt and white necktie, with a matching pink rose boutonnière.

Douglas Reed from Thorncrown Chapel performed the wedding on Thursday, June 2, 2011.  Besides Gregg and Melisia’s children, another couple they know who lived nearby were there.  “Thorncrown Chapel is a beautiful place – you can’t get the full scope of it all from the pictures,” Melisia says.  And photos were important to her.  They used Melodye Purdy of Purdy Art Co. to help them preserve their occasion.

 “I knew we wanted to spend more on photographs than anything else, because you keep them forever.  Melodye did an awesome job,” Melisia says.  “She also helped us with other recommendations, she was like our wedding planner.

After the wedding and photographs, the couple and their children went to the Basin Park Hotel downtown for dinner.  They stayed at the Crescent Hotel and “we ate breakfast at the Crescent most every morning.  It was nice,” Melisia says.  The two older girls also went on a Ghost Tour one evening.

The family drove on to Joplin to pick up Melisia’s niece, Ana, and then headed home to northwest Texas from there.  But Gregg and Melisia planned a return trip to Eureka Springs and the Crescent Hotel at Thanksgiving.

Bella, Bella, Even Wunderbar

Bella, Bella, Even Wunderbar

by Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

Why is the 1937 Andrews Sisters hit “Bei Mir Bist du Schön” this young couple’s song?  Eric Grode sent it to Marisa Irving, his then bride-to-be, to tell her how he felt about her.  If you don’t remember the catchy song by its title or the phrase “bella, bella, even wunderbar”, look it up.  The title translated in English is “To Me You Are Beautiful”.  It is quite romantic, with such lyrics as:  “Until I met you I was lonesome.  And when you came in sight, dear, my heart grew light and this old world seemed new to me.”

“I’m not sure we played it at our reception, though,  because we didn’t know how to dance to it,” Marisa admits.  She describes Eric as more romantic than most me.  Also she says he and all his friends are “very tech-y”.  So, the music they did use for dancing at the reception was all loaded onto their I‑Pod and played at random – or on “shuffle” for those in the know.

Eric’s very good friend, Josh Hilton, even officiated while referring to the ceremony on his I‑Pad rather than holding a book.  Marisa and Eric were married on the evening of June 11, 2011 on the East Lawn of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where the grass was emerald-green, the flower beds were beautiful and the fountain trickled gently in the background.

Eric had been to Eureka Springs for another wedding and suggested it for theirs.  “I didn’t know much about it, but we looked at photos online,” she says.  Marisa and her dad and step-mom scouted out the Crescent Hotel and booked the wedding and the reception that was held in The Conservatory.  The hotel staff gave them a list of possible photographers.  She and Eric looked at all the suggested photographers’ web sites and their photographs, and picked Purdy Art Co.  “She was my favorite.  When we talked, she was very friendly and had good ideas and suggestions about what pictures to take, things I had not thought about,” Marisa says.

Both Eric and Marisa are from the Tulsa, Oklahoma area and met while working at Best Buy when she was an undergrad.  He was in sales and she was in customer service.  “We flirted a long time before dating,” Marisa says, laughing.  When they did date, they “hit it off” and have been together for about three-and-a-half years.  Dexter, a white Maltese, and Rusty, a red Dachshund, are their “babies”.  Dexter attended the wedding, but Rusty, who doesn’t like car rides, stayed home.

The rehearsal dinner at Local Flavor in downtown Eureka Springs was arranged by Eric’s mother.  “It was so good, so good.  The portions were huge, none of us could eat it all,” Marisa says.

“We wanted our wedding to be different – plain and elegant,” Marisa says.  She wore a strapless white Maggie Sottero gown that laced up the back, and included a full skirt and train.  Her hair was pulled back and adorned with a short veil of open netting and white feathers.  Low-heeled glittery sandals and a bouquet of sunflowers completed her ensemble.

Her maid of honor was Casey Elliott.  Marisa’s sister, Hannah Irving, and friends Kendra Westmoland and Jamie Soma served as bridesmaids.  The four of them wore black strapless dresses hemmed above the knee that set off their summer tans, along with black pumps.  They also carried sunflower bouquets.

Eric wore a black tuxedo, with a white shirt, black vest and bowie.  And he rocked his look with black patent leather Converse All Stars shoes.  His best man was Brent Essley and the groomsmen were Chris Layton, Joe Dacyczyn and Jon Berrien.  The four of them wore black tuxedos, too, but with black shirts and white neckties and white vests.  Sunflower boutonnières were pinned to all the tux jackets.  All the sunflowers worn by the wedding party festooning the reception tables were arranged by Marisa’s step mom

Following the outdoor ceremony, the party moved indoors to The Conservatory.  There reception-goers were treated to a Mexican buffet dinner, followed by dancing.  After the Grodes cut their three-tier square white cake trimmed with black ribbons and topped with sunflowers, they chased each other a little with pieces of cake.  Then they toasted with champagne.  The cake was by Lori Renko, owner of Eureka Sweets.

Melodye Purdy of Purdy Art Co. not only photographed the proceedings, she “helped out everywhere,” Marisa says.  “She got everyone involved and to start dancing.  And Melodye introduced the garter and flower tosses,”.  Later, she even photographed Eric entertaining guests by performing hand stands on the hotel’s lawn.

After their stay in the Crescent Hotel’s honeymoon suite, the couple flew from Tulsa to Fort Lauderdale, where they set sail for a seven-day cruise on the “Oasis of the Seas”, Royal Caribbean’s largest ship.  Ports of call were St. Thomas, St. Marten and Nassau, Bahamas.

Following their honeymoon, the couple camped out with her parents for a week before moving to Oklahoma City, where Marisa started classes at the University of Oklahoma (OU) College of Pharmacy in the fall.  Eric owns his own business, 12Volt Auto Specialists (http://www.12vautospecialists.com), where he installs such things as remote starts, car audio, window tinting and heated seats for customers.

Why Arkansas?

Why Arkansas?

by Judy Montgomery, staff wedding reporter, Purdy Art Co.

“It rained the entire weekend, there was torrential downpour, thunder and lightning.  We were all scurrying around with umbrellas the whole time.  But that just made our wedding more memorable,” says Lizette Resendez.  She and Bret Hirsch came from San Francisco, California, to be married in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  The nuptials took place on the evening of April 23, 2011, at Thorncrown Chapel.

Thorncrown was actually the reason the couple traveled so far to get married.  When Bret was about 12, he visited there with his grandparents and that is what germinated the idea to have their wedding there.  The pair met during spring 2003 in College Station, Texas, immediately following college graduation.  Friends introduced them and they eventually lived together for two years.  Both were looking for “real jobs” after school and they agreed they would move to wherever the first of them landed a job.  “He wanted San Francisco and I wanted New York City,” she says.

Bret landed a job first, so they relocated to San Francisco, where Bret is an architectural designer for DRW, a firm that designs fire stations, post offices and other municipal buildings.  No doubt his admiration of Thorncrown Chapel was a precursor to his future career.

Lizette is a copy writer, which she did for five years for Pottery Barn, and for three months with Intuit.  Just this fall she landed a position as the sole copy writer for YouSendIt, a company that allows its users to send, receive and track large files over the internet.

Even though their families and friends are all in Texas, New York, Virginia or in San Francisco, 100 of them trekked to Eureka Springs “questioning why we would get married in Arkansas?”.  “But they loved Eureka Springs, all the stores, spas, caves and bars,” Lizette says.  She only saw the town for the first time in April 2010 when she and Bret came to scope out wedding possibilities.

They knew they would be married at Thorncrown Chapel, but in searching for reception venues “nothing called to us until we had dinner at Rogue’s Manor and saw a brochure for Castle Rogue.  We made an appointment for the next day with Smith (Truer) and he showed us all around and told us about building the castle.  Remember, my husband is an architect, and he was drooling,” Lizette says.  “We liked the water and trees all around it.”

The Friday night rehearsal dinner was at Rogue’s Manor for twenty or so members of their immediate families.  Later that night at Eureka Live, they met up with a driver for Eureka Springs Limo Company who gave them all cards that said “Famous $5 rides!”.  Their friends took advantage of the limo service for rides to town and back all weekend.

They ate meals at Local Flavor and Pied Piper while in town, too.  Lizette says that “on Sunday about twelve of our friends who were still in town met at Pied Piper for a long lunch and Bloody Marys.  They threw rice and lit sparklers for us as a send off, which we couldn’t do at the reception due to the rain.”

Bret spent the night before the wedding at the Basin Park Hotel, where some family members also stayed.  Others stayed at the Best Western Inn of the Ozarks.  Most of their friends stayed in downtown hotels, rented houses or bed and breakfast accommodations.  Lizette stayed at the Palace Hotel and Bath House and got ready there.

“Trisha Ackerly, my best friend since sixth grade did my makeup on both Friday and Saturday and was with me getting ready all day Saturday.  She’s a good hand-holder,” Lizette says.

Bret’s father, Jet Hirsch, got licensed to marry them.  His brother Patrick Hirsch was best man.  Lizette’s sister, Annette Resendez, was maid of honor.  Nick Hirsch, Bret’s cousin, played mandolin and ukulele before the ceremony.  And Lizette was escorted down the aisle to the song “Rise”.

She wore a halter v-neck lace ivory dress, floor-length with a train designed by Casablanca, “style number 1979, which also happens to be my birth year,” Lizette says.  Gold sandals, jewelry from Macy’s and earrings by Givenchy completed her ensemble.

“My sister’s jade-green dress was Vera Wang Lavender Label.  It was knee-length with a gold belt and she also wore gold shoes,” Lizette says.

Bret wore a dark gray suit from Banana Republic with a white shirt and gray striped tie.  His brother dressed in a beige suit, also from Banana Republic, with white shirt and green and brown tie.

After the ceremony, it was off to Castle Rogue for the reception.  The centerpieces were vintage book stands with small vases of roses, that fit the narrow tables well.  The castle staff served a buffet dinner that Lizette calls “an Italian family feast” of pasta, chicken, shrimp, salad and bread.  Pam (Marion) at Peace Love & Cheesecake made nine different cheesecakes along with platters of brownies  in lieu of traditional wedding cake.

“All the vendors we chose were great,” Lizette says.  “Melodye (Purdy) was almost like our wedding planner, helping us move along.  She was hilarious and awesome.  Our friends loved her.”  Melodye is well-known for making her clients feel comfortable, even playful.

The dance floor was well used that evening.  “Kyle Eagan was our DJ and he had our friends dancing all night.  We stayed an extra two hours at the castle, dancing,” Lizette recalls with a smile.  “Even some of the servers came out on the dance floor, too.”  Then the party moved to Eureka Live in town where they “closed the bar”.  And they again took advantage of Eureka Springs Limo Company’s driving services to get there and back safely.

“After the wedding we spent three days and two nights at Beaver Lakefront Cabins, a beautiful setting.  It was peaceful after the whirl of the wedding.  And the weather gave us the excuse to watch movies and go walking, do nothing.  We grilled and made margaritas,” she says.

The couple then flew to Houston, Texas, to attend another wedding and on home to San Francisco.

For their honeymoon, they flew out early the morning of September 8 to travel in Italy and Croatia, renting a car to drive down the coast.  Staying in hotels or camping, they planned to stop in Dubrovnik, Island Cres and national parks in Filtvit and Paklenica, and Serento, Cinque Terra, Florence and Tuscany.  Their last stop would be Rome, and then they would to “fly back to reality”, Lizette says and home to San Francisco.

The couple definitely plans to return to Eureka Springs, maybe for anniversary visits.  “Our friends were pleasantly surprised by Eureka Springs, even though they had questioned why we wanted to get married in Arkansas.  Some of them even talked that weekend about buying a vacation house there.  My Dad doesn’t usually like to travel, but he loved Eureka Springs.”