I think I found my favorite wedding venue of all time in the white-washed, stained glass window filled Mercury Hall in Austin. Oh-my-goodness it is the sweetest little building I’ve ever seen and reminds me of a place I almost booked for my own wedding last year, but because we couldn’t have amplified music, we had to switch venues and I’ll admit, my heart was a tad bit broken. But in steps this gorgeous, flower filled fete by Sledd Weddings with the most delicious cake by Blue Note Bakery and my heart (and sweet tooth!) are now mended. See even more of this adorable DIY wedding here!
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From the Bride…My (now) husband and I moved to Austin two years ago from Kentucky. We wanted our wedding to showcase what we love about the city: its hip, yet casual and rustic elegance, laid-back vibe, great live music, creative culture, and delicious food. We got engaged while backpacking in Big Bend National Park.
Our venue, Mercury Hall, set the tone for the simple elegance of the wedding. Mercury Hall was built in 1904 as a church in Mercury, Texas. In the late 90s it was moved to Austin and turned into an events space. It’s clean white washed walls, smooth, worn hard wood floors and multi colored stained glass windows set the tone for a clean, colorful rustic elegance. Inspired by the succulent plants of the West Texas desert, I decided to make century plants and succulents a motif throughout the wedding. Century plants were originally thought to bloom only once every 100 years (hence the name), and I thought they made a nice metaphor to the preciousness of love, not to mention a striking, unique silhouette.
I designed and printed the entire wedding invitation suite by hand at Baltimore Print Studios, a shop run by an old friend of mine from college, Kyle Van Horn. I had painted a watercolor of a century plant stalk which we made into a polymer plate, and I letter pressed it both on the invitations and the reply card. I set the text for the invitation, invitation’s return address, reply card, and reply card address all by hand and then printed them on one of the shop’s Vandercook presses. We also made a polymer plate for the event map and I letter-pressed it as well. I loved the font of the invitation suite, Apricot, so much that I ended up later buying a digital version online, and I used it for all the text on the escort cards, table numbers, programs and even wedding favors.
The color scheme for the wedding, blues, green, yellow and pink were taken from the colors in the stained glass of Mercury Hall. These colors were picked up in the bouquets and centerpieces. I wanted them to look organic, as if you can just walked through a backyard garden and filled your arms with all the flowers in bloom. In keeping with the rustic vibe, we collected old mason jars to use as vases, and also used a few copper pots my husband bought in the Middle East as vases and the container for the programs.
Event Planning: Three Apples Events / Wedding Photography: Sledd Weddings / Floral Design: The Nouveau Romantics / Wedding Cake: Blue Note Bakery / Catering: 2 Dine 4 / Printmaking: Carolyn Kimball / Venue: Mercury Hall