Planning a Texas wedding all the way from England isn’t exactly what I would call an easy task, but for this stunning bride and groom it was one that came together seamlessly. I’m talking an awesome team of vendors, fabulous friends + family and romantic rainy day weather all coming together to create one seriously dreamy affair. See it all captured by Geoff Duncan right here.
From the Bride… After Jon and I got engaged in January 2013, there was initially a lot of back and forth over where the actual wedding would take place. Jon is from the south coast of England, and I’m from Texas, and even though people kept telling us that it was our wedding so we should have it in the place that makes us happiest, we didn’t want it to be really difficult for all of our family and friends to make it. We eventually decided that it made more sense to have it in Texas as I have SUCH a large family – and at the time we thought we would definitely get better weather (yeah right!) and be able to have the wedding outdoors. Plus, a couple of Jon’s English friends told us we’d “better not have it in the UK” – they wanted to “go somewhere exotic, like Texas!”
Jon and I both knew we didn’t want to have the wedding in a big city – so Dallas, where I’m originally from, was ruled out pretty quickly. Our wedding location and theme inspiration actually came from one of Jon’s groomsmen’s weddings that we attended together the first weekend I moved to the UK in early 2011. Their wedding was up in the Scottish Highlands – the most uninhabited, wildest, remotest area you could imagine. We flew into Glasgow, rented a car, and drove another 3 hours north into the middle of nowhere. Most of the people attending the wedding were staying in the same hotel (or nearby) for the whole weekend and it was this (probably hundreds of years old) stone building overlooking a beautiful lake. The quaint old church was just up the road – and funnily enough – it POURED before, during and after their whole ceremony – sounds familiar. It was really romantic though during the ceremony because we were all huddled in this warm little church with the wind and rain howling outside. We really liked the idea of doing a similar thing where everyone was staying in the same area and it was out in the countryside – and we could all spend the weekend together. We thought we’d be safe from the rain in Texas summer though – we didn’t expect Scotland weather!
Planning the wedding in Texas from London did NOT prove to be an easy task. At first I thought I was on top of things – I wasn’t working and I was able to get most of my big vendors booked. But then I got a new job in July and that’s when things became really difficult. I underestimated how many little details there would be – but luckily for me – my mom and dad really pulled together and helped out – a lot. I found a lot of my ideas for the little details on Pinterest (as you do) and found the materials I needed to do them on Etsy. I would order everything I needed for one of my ideas and then try to work with my mom to see how it could get done. The mason jars were one example – I ordered 100 mason jars, labels, straws, etc and had them shipped to mom. Then I got mom to pass the labels to my invite girl (who is AMAZING by the way) and she had everyone’s names printed on the labels and gave them back to mom who stuck them on the jars. And so most of the little details were done that way! I don’t think I could have done it all without all of the amazing help I had – mom, dad, my coordinator and other amazing vendors.
Jon and I flew into Dallas the week before the wedding to help finish up some things before the day and to get used to the horrible time change. The wedding weekend started in Austin on the Thursday before because the Inn Above Onion Creek required the whole hotel was rented out for all three nights. It ended up working out great though and gave me an extra night to spend with all of my family and Jon’s friends in one place. The whole weekend was really special (obviously the actual wedding night was the best!), but it was amazing not only having all of our loved ones in one spot, but watching how well they all got along and how much fun everyone seemed to be having.
The whole week leading up to the wedding, Jon and I had been nervously checking the forecast every five minutes. Unfortunately, a rainy forecast would just NOT go away for the actual wedding day, but it kept jumping from 20% to 50% and back to 20% – total torture. EVERYONE kept saying “Ohhh don’t worry! It’s definitely not going to rain. It never does – probably will be clear skies!” SO it was really not stressful at all when three hours before the ceremony, the worst rain I’ve seen in years rolled in (well that could partly be because it only drizzles in London) but literally the sky was falling. I was probably a delight to be around during that time. Luckily as I said before – I had amazing vendors that were able to keep everything together (while I was a mess) and everything turned out beautifully. The rain stopped for the ceremony (thankfully!) and the skies even cleared which provided a beautiful backdrop for all of the group pictures. Everything seemed to be flowing smoothly and we had SO much fun talking to everyone and dancing towards the end of the night.
We couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out – it was literally everything we could have hoped for. We only felt like it flew by way too fast!
Photography: Geoff Duncan | Cinematography: Second Generation | Coordination: Style And Grace Events | Cake: The Cupcake Bar | Stationery: Love And Wit Paper Co. | Hair & Makeup: Erica Gray | DJ: Hill Country DJ | Officiant: LET’S DO IT VOWS | SARAH REED, OFFICIANT | Alcohol: Spec's | Ceremony & Reception Venue: Inn Above Onion Creek | Mixologists: Bar Divas | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Iron Cactus 6th Street | Rentals: Illusions Rentals