It’s sweet weddings like this one that melt my heart. For once this Bride knew she wanted to celebrate on her family farm, her loving father made those dreams into reality. Crafting a day filled with significance and history, it’s a hometown affair dotted with handmade details that celebrate love from all angles. From their barn reception, to dancing beneath the oak tree where it all began, Ryan Price snapped it all here!
From Ryan Price Photography…Allison and Drew’s gorgeous Texas wedding took place in the small town of Bay City on the Bride’s family grass farm. The couple exchanged vows at the church that Allison grew up in and made their way back to the southern style estate for the reception. As guests drove down the winding road leading to the reception, they were ushered in my stunning moss covered trees with evening sunlight hitting them at just the right angle and pointing to the barn filled with handmade details that celebrated their love.
Being from a small town, the event was a community effort, bringing together friends and family to all chip in their time and talents to make the wedding unique to Allison and Drew. As the children enjoyed yard games and guests visited under a giant oak tree while drinking their glass bottle sodas, it was clear that the wedding was a celebration of a couple that values their heritage the people in their life.
From the beautiful Bride… Drew and I met in Vinto, Bolivia in 2012 where we were both doing medical mission work for the summer. I was in nursing school at Texas A&M University and Drew was pre-med at Wheaton College in Illinois. Three days into my trip while setting up a clinic, I started to talk to him. Once conversation about the clinic had run dry, Drew asked me if I was a nursing student, to which I knew that he knew the answer. I smiled, answered his question, and after a summer we’ll never forget, we knew we had to spend the rest of our lives together. After 543 days, 36 flights, two 36 hour road trips, and 1,100 miles of separation between us, Drew moved to Texas in January. We got married three months later in the same church my parents did by the same person who married them, my grandfather.
Before Drew even asked me to marry him, I knew I wanted to have our reception on my family’s ranch. Only problem, there wasn’t really a place to have a reception on the land. One day while visiting my parents, my dad took me on a walk and we looked at a barn with a dirt floor that housed tractors, mowers, and dirt bikes. My dad saw my vision and began cleaning everything up and adding a concrete floor. What really made the barn special was the beautiful oak tree behind it that Drew proposed to me under. After convincing quite a few people in my traditional southern family that it was actually possible to have a reception in a barn, we all went to work.
Our wedding planner was my “second mom” growing up and planning the wedding with her and my mom was so fun. As I think back, every part of our wedding décor was made by someone who loved us. The cross that we were married under was built by a family friend, my friends from church made the paper flowers that hung behind us at the reception, my dad and sister spent an entire day wrapping twine around wine bottles with an electric screw driver (don’t ask!), our wedding planner chalked and painted all the signs, my MOH picked out old windows and decorated them with pictures, my grandmother planted flowers that surrounded the barn, and my mom, bless her amazing heart, sewed all of our table runners and the beautiful banners that hung in the barn.
Celebrating our union with our family and friends in that barn on my family’s land meant everything to us. Walking into the reception and seeing everyone enjoying the beautiful landscape, the delicious BBQ, sweet tea, and pecan pie, and dancing under the oak tree is something I will never forget.
Photography: Ryan Price Photography | Event Planning: Fara Ashcraft | Wedding Dress: David's Bridal | Cake: Sunny Sweets | Catering: Hinze's BBQ | Venue: Private Ranch