When the perfect amount of sweet mixes with with the perfect amount of style and it all unfolds at a place like Star Hill Ranch you can pretty much guarantee a winner of a wedding. Pile on the talents of The Simplifiers planning out every perfect little detail handcrafted by the Bride and her family, and fabulous images from The Nichols (who we couldn’t love more) – and consider me wrapped around the little finger of this wedding. It’s a little bit of a sass and a whole lot of sweet – and it’s all hanging out here for you to see.
From the Bride… When Justin and I met, five and half years before our wedding, I never would have thought we would have an all-out Texas-style, handcrafted wedding. Justin (born and raised in Houston) and I met when he moved to Philadelphia (my hometown) from Austin, Texas to be in a punk rock band that was based there. Justin played music and toured with his band for a living, and didn’t strike me as the “Texas” type- until I fell in love with him and the true southern gentleman that he is. After dating for two years in Philadelphia we made one of the best decisions we could have ever made- we decided to move back to Justin’s hometown, Houston Texas.
Justin and I had been living in Houston for two years when he proposed (and it was the perfect, romantic, sunset, surprise, on the beach proposal, by the way!), and even though we had made Houston our home, I was still dead-set on having our wedding at home in Philadelphia. I exhausted myself looking for the perfect venue in the Philly area, but I couldn’t find exactly the right fit. I wanted it to feel homey, creative, playful, and really what I wanted was to get married in a barn or on a farm, but the perfect barn or farm was not to be found! When I thought more and more about what I wanted (cowboy boots, bales of hay, etc.), I realized that I was envisioning a Texas wedding for sure. We love spending time in Austin, Texas, and when we saw pictures from a friend’s wedding at Star Hill Ranch, we immediately visited it and knew it was where our wedding would be.
As soon as we decided on Star Hill Ranch as the place we would get married, everything fell into place. It was the perfect backdrop and inspiration for the party we wanted to throw. We were committed to having every detail of the wedding reflect who we are and feel totally authentic to us. I went Style Me Pretty and Pinterest crazy and started rallying up the troops to help me craft up the wedding of my dreams! We spent so much time sourcing all of the materials for the invitations and the wedding itself, it was one of my favorite parts of the process. We used all vintage Texas postcard for our save the dates and reply cards, collected hundreds of vintage handkerchiefs and had them screen printed for our invitations, found a vintage typewriter to type all of the addresses and wedding signage, collected vintage bottles, stamps, silverware, teacups, and everything in between. As I mentioned, this crafting and collecting was a team effort! I would not have been able to do it with out the help of my amazing mother and mother-in-law (they made about, 10 billion feet of bunting!), and my friends (who helped me hand-make all of my invitations!) and of course my husband (who endured a year of me turning our apartment into an arts and crafts studio and storage facility…). Oh, and by the way, if you need a wedding planner, call Mary from the Simplifiers immediately. There were points throughout this year where I considered that I had actually gone insane, and that I had taken on too much, but in the end, I am SO happy that we created everything we did. Our wedding day was the most beautiful and perfect day of my life. And what made it the most special was the amount of love and FUN we felt from our amazing family and friends. I would re-live this day (and year!) over in a heartbeat.
Wedding Photography: The Nichols / Wedding Venue: Star Hill Ranch in Bee Cave, Texas / Wedding Planning + Coordination: The Simplifiers / Floral Design: Rosehip Flora / Catering: Crave Catering / Wedding Cake: Blue Note Bakery / Music: Byrne Rock / Stationery: DIY by the Bride + friends / Rentals: Loot Vintage Rentals + Marquee Rents / Linens: La Tavola Linen / Ice Cream Truck: Good Times Austin / Wedding Dress: Oscar de la Renta / Hair + Makeup: Erica Gray