Fall Wedding in the Texas Hill Country - Nimitz Museum

This past October we had a wedding each weekend and no two were even remotely alike. Each bride and her family were so unique to work with and it made the fall really fun to see how each person had their vision come to life.

Lucky for me and my poor blogging skills, Style Me Pretty had been publishing a lot of our weddings lately so I can leave the blogging to them! Taadaaa. Thanks for saving the day SMP.

First up, we have Meredith and Andrew who had were married at the same church her parents were married in and had their reception at the same location her grandparents had, The Nimitz Museum. It's always fun when a wedding is a family affair and this was no exception - her father made the deals with the vendors, her mother kept busy with more projects than I could count and Meredith was right in the middle of managing it all, embarking on DIY projects and working full time as well as conducting a cross country job search and planning a post-honeymoon move to California. To say that young lady was amazing would be putting it lightly. She was rocking some crazy organization skills.

Meredith chose to go with an elegant fall harvest theme - complete with a wheat logo, wheat centerpieces and monogrammed beer steins of german wheat beer waiting for the guests upon their arrival. But that wasn't all. A stunning tent was decked out and with the help of Sprout flowers and the stage was set for a beautiful wedding followed by a dance-all-night party.

This wedding is a perfect example of how lighting can take an event to the next level. When you are working with a tented space, particularly a large tent like this 40' x 140' tent, it makes a huge difference to break up the large expanse of white. Lighting can be a great option. We also chose to light the floor of the untented courtyard with the same pattern so that when guests arrived the mood was set and the ground was covered in a warm welcoming light pattern. I was quite pleased with the overall effect.

From beginning to end, this wedding weekend was beautiful and most important it was fun. For more many many more of La Dolce Vita's fabulous images via Style Me Pretty click HERE.

Fall Hill Country Weddings

We've had the most wonderful fall! As luck would have it...and I almost hate to even talk about it...but, what the heck...it didn't rain for one single event all fall!!! Wooo Hooo! It threatened a few times, but no big storms actually blew thru. After a really rainy spring, I think the break was well deserved. Although we always have a rain in place, it's nice when the rain doesn't show up.

Speaking of which...did I ever tell you about Caroline's wedding where Hurricane Ike hit Texas and Thursday it was forecasted to bring 40 mph winds and rain all the way to Fredericksburg? And did I mention that it was slated to be an outdoor, tented event? Caroline, her parents and I made the decision to move to an entirely different venue across town so we weren't risking it. Another venue just happened to be open and we whipped up these cute little cards about the "unexpected guest named Ike" with directions to the new location. We then bought 100 black umbrellas that were tied to the cards and delivered to each guest's hotel room. The wedding turned out so beautifully that I don't think there was a guest there that believed it was actually a "plan B". Of course, the calm and cool bride and her family set the stage and a great night was had by all.

Back on track though...here are a very few clips of fall...as seen thru the lens of an iphone. I'll look forward to seeing the "real" pictures since these come nowhere close to capturing the true beauty. We had 13 rather large events over an 11 week period this fall and my favorite part was that no two events were even remotely the same. Each one was completely different and personal.

This is Brynn's bouquet. I miss getting to work with flowers and Brynn was sweet to trust me to put together her bouquet after telling me the colors and to make it "different". Although I work with many talented florists, I enjoyed getting to do Brynn's flowers myself! Brynn and Tom were married at 8:30 pm in a candle light ceremony under the canopy of an oak grove. Think Mid Summer's Night Dream. To say it was magical does not even begin to describe the evening where the guests were lead by candle light from the ceremony by a bagpiper who took them down the road to the limestone Mansefelt barn for the reception.

Michelle at Sprout did an amazing job with the centerpieces at Eileen and Chris's reception (also at Mansefelt) . This shot does not do them justice! The colors were so rich. I was quite taken with them.

The lighting combined by the sheer size of Meredith and Andrew's tent was so dramatic. The tent was intended for dinner and dancing but guests couldn't help themselves and began pouring in during cocktail hour because it was just too tempting to be in that amazing space.

This was setting for Meredith and Andrew's cocktail hour moments before the guests began to arrive. We echoed the same pattern on the floor of this entrance and cocktail hour that was then seen on the ceiling of the tent (pictured above). Very effective and set the tone for a fantastic party.

Below is the a candlelight garden dinner at Hoffman Haus for Monica and Chris. I work there often but this was the first time we'd done dinner outdoors in the garden. Tables lined the garden pathway and candles hung from the trees overhead all the way back, deep into the garden. The effect was quite enchanting and the garden never looked so beautiful.

"I just want it to be fun and happy"

Last spring I met with Amy, a bride who, like so many women these days, had a lot on her plate and very little time to plan a destination wedding. She chose the location and then gave me a call. Her wonderful bridesmaid came to town with her for our initial meeting and gave me the heads up: "she makes really fast decisions". She was right! That day we went over a lot of looks and as we started narrowing down a direction Amy told me something that stuck with me. She said, "I just want it to be fun and happy because that's how I feel. Happy."

We walked down to Morgan Davis and she picked a really fun, colorful and totally unusual invitation before we even we sat down. After that we were off. Save the Dates and then Invitations went out and before we knew it the wedding was upon us and my entire studio was filled with bright colored tissue paper poms and candles. FILLED. Seriously. There was a VERY small path to walk into the front and turn in a tight circle, nothing else.

Amy's now husband, Aaron, was so nice and this was one of those weddings that Jasper and I both had "Awwwww" moments and got all teared up just during the rehearsal! I know. We're saps.

Photographer Corrie Fish was nice enough to send me these images. She and her husband work as a team and not only did they do a great job, they were really nice and so easy to work with. Thanks Corrie!

Kairos absolutely glowed with warm light from all the candles and Chinese lanterns

Goodbye you two! It really did turn out to be fun and happy...just like yourselves.

Whew!

This has been a busy wedding season! Fall is an awesome time to get married in the Texas Hill Country. The weather is beautiful - sunny during the day, just barely cool at night. The rain has left everything lush, green and blooming. We've had a wonderful variety of weddings the past few months. From Hill Country elegant at the family ranch to down home casual for the Canadians at Luckenbach. It's been so much fun! But, it's also meant that the blog has suffered. That's what happens when you launch a site before one of the craziest times of the year. Have I said already how fabulous fall in the Hill Country is? In fact, the calendar for next fall is already filling up.

I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing photographers and really lovely brides so I promise to post pictures as soon as I get my hands on them!