Al Fresco Austin Wedding with Wellness Focus
We live in Texas and even though we love our beloved city of Austin, we wanted a venue and vibe that felt more elevated, chic and sophisticated for our wedding day. For years, I dreamt of getting married abroad in Italy… but an overseas wedding so soon after the pandemic era felt like it was going to add too much extra stress and uncertainty. As soon as I saw Villa Antonia online, I knew right away that was where we would get married. We knew right away we wanted our style to complement the old-world vibe of the venue with some fresh modern touches and a color palette that would match the Spring season. The vision of our wedding day was inspired by 2 big elements: wellness and an elevated experience for us and our guests. It was really important for us to incorporate wellness moments throughout the day that helped Michael and I connect with the present moment. Everyone knows that the wedding day goes by so fast — we wanted to make sure we could really soak up the day and all of the special moments. One of my bridesmaids led a beautiful mindfulness meditation at the start of our ceremony to help Michael and I, our wedding party, and our guests connect to the present moment together. It was one of my favorite moments of the whole day!
I knew early on that I wanted to do two separate and distinct looks — one for the ceremony and another for dinner & dancing. For my ceremony dress from Pronovias, I knew I wanted something simple & timeless with a touch of whimsical. My veil was my favorite accessory of the whole day, and it really completed my ceremony look. The veil had little petal, butterfly-looking lace pieces all over it that was the perfect way to add a dash of whimsicalness without going overboard. For my second dress, I knew I wanted something that felt a bit more couture and high fashion (again, without going over the top). One of my bridesmaids found the dress for me at A & Be in Austin. As soon as I put the dress on, I knew it was going to be the perfect dinner and dancing outfit for me at our wedding. I’m still trying to find an excuse to re-wear it again! I paired the dress with birdies “Swan” flats which are the most comfortable brand of stylish flats I’ve ever worn. I felt like I was walking on pillows, which was important for me to feel comfortable on the dance floor.
The food really blew us away! Austin Catering did such an amazing job bringing our al fresco dinner dreams to life. So many of our guests raved about how much they loved the food, and I couldn’t wait to have seconds after the night ended. The dinner was my favorite part of our entire wedding day, which we hosted in the Butterfly Garden, an area of our venue that isn’t traditionally used for dinner service. We’re really grateful for the team at Austin Catering for bringing our dinner dreams to life. We served an arugula salad with fresh pears, walnuts and prosciutto, followed by filet mignon and grilled redfish salmoriglio. The filet was served with scalloped Yukon gold potato & rose leeks and sautéed haricot verts. The redfish was paired with asparagus, zucchini & spring pea risotto, and haricot verts. We served a wide variety of locally sourced spirits & beer, and our favorite wines produced in Santa Barbara — one of our favorite places and where I had my bachelorette party. Our signature drinks where the Virginia Gentleman, to highlight where Michael grew up, and a signature mocktail, the Blushing Bride with rose petals, since I don’t drink alcohol and some of our guests are also alcohol-free. We wanted our alcohol-free guests to have a delicious drink option and not feel left out of the party.
We’re flower people and the florals were one of the most important items on our list. I found our florist, Tiffany from Ida Mayes Floristry on Instagram and immediately fell in love with her style and how I felt when I looked at her work. I love the architectural elements she used to design our flowers and the big blooms throughout every single piece. We gave her a lot of artistic freedom to express what she thought would align best with the vision we gave her — and everything exceeded our expectations!
One of my favorite moments of the whole night was getting to taste and eat our cake. Sugar Mama's Bakeshop in Austin never disappoints. Our cinnamon cake with strawberry jam filling and vanilla icing was the perfect sweet treat. We even had a gluten & dairy-free option that I and a few of our guests opted for. It was just as delicious (maybe even better!) than the regular kind.
Music is something that both of us feel really connected to, especially Michael. We had selected every song that was played during our ceremony and throughout the entire night. We incorporated strings for the ceremony, a jazz trio for dinner, followed by a jazz line that led everyone up to the dance floor after dinner, and a live band + DJ for dancing. Our ceremony music included some our classic favorites including: Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac and Nat Cole.
