11 Nov Real Wedding: Lharizza and Eric

Posted at 07:45h in Real Weddings by davidsbridal

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A rustic and charming wedding in Dripping Springs, Texas

Real weddings are so inspiring! To get you in the mood to plan—and party!—we asked real brides to spill the details on everything from getting engaged to finding their wedding dresses to the special touches and surprising moments that made their celebrations completely one-of-a-kind. Read on for Lharizza and Eric’s charming military wedding wedding in Dripping Springs, Texas.

The story begins…

We met at the United States Military Academy at West Point. My (now) husband was a cadet there at the time. I was visiting the coffee shop at West Point and he came over and started talking to me and we hit it off really well!

How did he propose?

My fiancé proposed to me at Disney World. I am a huge Disney fan, but I had never been to Disney World before. He took me there for the first time and one of our first stops was Cinderella’s castle. They have photographers there to take your photos, so we got in line to have our photo taken. After the first couple of photos my fiancé got on his knee and asked me to marry him while the photographer continued taking photos. I started crying and said yes and everyone around us started clapping. It took me completely by surprise and made for a great photo!

Bride Lharizza and Groom Eric at altar with puppy

Tell us about the dress!

I knew I wanted my dress to be simple and elegant. I tried on several dresses but my heart was set on this dress by Vera Wang. The dress had everything I was looking for. I love the tulle skirt and the details of the back!

On finding The One…

There are so many beautiful dresses to choose from, but did I see myself walking in the aisle with each dress? Did I feel comfortable? Dress shopping can be overwhelming but it’s important that the dress meets your criteria and especially makes you feel good when you’re wearing it.

Real Wedding: Lharizza and Eric at Altar

Were there any military traditions that you tried to incorporate into your wedding day?

My husband and I did the saber arch after the ceremony. We also used his class saber to cut our wedding cake!

Military Ties:

My husband is in the military, my dad is in the military, my husband’s dad and brother are former military, and most of our friends have some sort of military connection. We’re very much a part of the military community, so there was no question that we were going to do a military wedding.

Bride and Groom kissing under military saber arch

What was the most challenging part about planning a military wedding? How did you handle these challenges?

Finding a chaplain was somewhat of a challenge because we decided to do our wedding over a four day weekend, so everyone had plans to go out of town. Our chaplain was going out of town that weekend, but luckily we had a chaplain friend from another battalion who did our wedding for us which was great.

Another challenge is having so many guests coming from out of town and trying to assist them all with trying to find accommodations and locations for the events. It’s different than when you do a wedding in your hometown. If you’re in your hometown, a lot of your guests are from there and can help the other guests. When you have military families who are spread all over the country, you have to help people with all of the coordination. Blocking hotel rooms can be a good idea, but make sure you do it in advance. I would also add things to do within the area to give guests suggestions.

Another challenge is planning the wedding while your spouse is away for a couple of months. We made sure we had our venue booked, did our food and cake testing, and did premarital counseling before he left for his deployment. The distance and time difference made planning a little difficult because I wanted to ask my husband his opinions, what else he wanted for the wedding, and so on. Make sure to get the important stuff out of the way if you know your spouse is leaving for a few months.

When he saw her:

As soon as I walked down the aisle, he was smiling and in complete awe. He was speechless and kept smiling me the whole time.

Do you have any advice or tips for military brides as they begin to plan their wedding?

Find a place that rents sabers if you want to do an arch. You can call the cadet hostess at West Point and they can send them to you or tell you where to find them near your military installation. We were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and the cadet hostess was able to tell us about a shop in a town near Fort Hood that had sabers. I’m pretty sure they would do that for non-West Point officers as well.

Practice the saber arch beforehand and make sure everyone’s sabers are aligned the same way when they do the arch. If you don’t practice, then everyone will have their sabers slanted at different angles and it won’t look as good in photos.

A lot of the groomsmen will be military as well, so make sure if you’re a fellow military member, bring extra uniform devices. Some of my husband’s friends forgot a bowtie or other uniform device, so having extras was helpful. Especially because our wedding venue was far away from the nearest Army post, so there wasn’t anywhere to buy uniform items.

Also, take advantage of people offering their help to you especially when your planning your wedding when your spouse is deployed. I thought I could do everything myself but it just adds more stress.

Most memorable part of your wedding day?

Before getting married, my husband and I did long distance for four years. The past four years, we haven’t been together for our anniversary. What made our wedding special was that our wedding took place on our fifth anniversary in front of our families and friends. After being together for a long time and the sacrifices we have made in between, we finally had the day we deserved together.