Colorful Fredericksburg Wedding

Dawn Strong
January 22, 2015
Categories: Real Weddings, Rustic, The Blog

So this is what happens when two insanely talented people say I do. Pure awesomeness. Think amazing DIY details meets an array of colorful blooms from Maggie Gillespie Designs meets one of the cutest backdrops ever. And that’s just the beginning. See it all captured by NBarrett Photography in the full gallery, and then check out the the fab film from Nostalgia Film below!

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And a little Save the Date sweetness from Red Balloon Photography and Kristi Flango…

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From the Bride… What happens when an art director marries a museum exhibit fabricator? A creativity explosion (with no off switch).

Projects aside, when planning our wedding, we were going for a feeling and a vibe. We wanted our wedding to be a reflection of our relationship and life together – which is chock full of fun, lots of laughter and never losing sight of the little things.

We found Luckenbach while on a family vacation in Austin (before we were engaged). It’s a magical place that has a “leave your worries at the door” attitude and at its core – it’s all about the music. And since Jason and I are both big music nerds – it was love at first sight.

But unbeknownst to me – it was also where Jason asked my parents for their blessing. And two months later, it found its way into his proposal. Inspired by an old saloon sign at Luckenbach, he constructed 4ft x 4ft western wooden letters that read: “Will you marry me?” Our friends and family held up the letters at GasWorks Park in Seattle and he proposed to me across the lake from a WWII periscope in the MOAHI Museum. I knew at that moment, I had a keeper.

Afterwards, when we first started to discuss where we should have our wedding – I threw out the idea of doing it in Luckenbach and he was immediately on board. We didn’t have a back-up plan, so fortunately we were able to make that happen.

Music has played a large role in our relationship from the beginning, so getting married at music venue made perfect sense. We sprinkled in lots of special song references and music inspired décor and mixed it with a touch of southwestern charm (a nod to Jason’s Native American roots).

Jason and I spent a year and a half slowly making all the decor, signage, stationery, etc. and had a blast doing it. I was the creative brains behind the projects and he was the producer/fabricator/perfector.

Together we hand-sculpted clay longhorn skull magnets for the escort tags and favors, painted vinyl records to use as charger plates, wrapped and dyed dream catchers out of embroidery rings, made feather boutonnieres for the guys, hand-tied arrows for the backs of the ceremony chairs, built and painted table numbers to match the proposal letters, created various wooden signage, designed and assembled fan programs that looked like 7” records, created and glued menus, designed a music soundtrack comprised of special songs from the big day (which also looked like vinyl records)… and the list goes on. But probably the biggest highlight/accomplishment was the giant Lite-Brite arbor that we created that spelled out the words: We Do. It consisted of 1700 vintage Lite-Brite pegs and was turned on (via a remote held by our officiate) after we said our vows.

We packed all of this décor in a crate, including the ‘marry me’ letters from the proposal and shipped it down to Texas. We met the truck in Luckenbach to unload it, just five days before the wedding.

The wedding party and guests stayed at the amazing Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg, TX. It’s a WWII era themed hotel (which happened to be a perfect tie-in from our periscope proposal) and is on an active runway. We shuttled our guests via a school bus to Luckenbach.

Our ceremony was amazing and so much fun. The Lost Pines performed all the music live, and did it so beautifully. After a few readings from our family members, Jason’s brother played an original song he wrote to us on his flute. Then during our vows, two of the Lost Pines band members stood beside Jason and I and sang a duet “Cause I Love you” by Johnny and June Carter Cash, while Jason and I quietly sang the words to each other. Afterwards, we said our vows (with a few personal lines to each other sprinkled in). Once we were introduced as husband and wife and the Lite Brite was clicked on, we asked our guests to open up a scroll that they picked up on their way to their seat. The band then led everyone in a surprise sing-a-long of “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson. Once everyone got into it, we headed down the aisle.

The cocktail hour was full of fun things to do. We had a live Longhorn for our guests to climb on and get pictures. We had the talented David Harris (host of the daily Luckenbach picker circles) singing with his acoustic guitar. And we had the funny and quirky QuickDraw Photo Booth getting everyone in the laughing mood. Basically, the guests got in the photo booth and he snapped three pictures then “developed them” by hand-sketching them in three minutes and then slid the strip out the photo slot all while being in character as a crazy cowboy. And finally, we also had a mini polaroid guest book where we asked our guests to snap photos of themselves and leave us a little note.

Once cocktail hour was over, we entered the reception to David appropriately singing “Luckenbach, Texas.” Then after an amazing dinner from the Salt Lick BBQ and dessert- we got out on the dance floor and had our first dance. It was to a song that David actually introduced to us when we met him during a wedding planning trip to Luckenbach a year earlier. It gave us both chills when he played it and described our relationship perfectly. So we later approached him to sing it at our wedding and he obliged. It’s a song written by Hank Williams called, “I’m So Happy I Found You.”

After the father and mother dances, The Lost Pines gave all of our guests (none of which were from Texas) a two-step lesson to get them warmed up. We then spent the next three hours singing and dancing the night away. And at one point, Jason even jumped on stage with the band and serenaded me with “Hey Good Lookin’.” A song he has been singing to me since we first met.

We left the reception with a sparkler send-off and hopped into the back of a vintage truck. All in all – it was by far, the best day of our lives. And according to our friends and family, it was a day they will never forget either. A friend of ours even created a hashtag to document the wedding and it took on a life of its own. Someday we hope to get the “band” back together and have a reunion tour. #Lucasbach