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.

Natalie & Allen - Texas Hill Country Winter Wedding on Style Me Pretty

Turns out only half pictures are showing up on the past blog post. Not sure why they are chopped off but never fear, the ultimate blog has us covered. Style Me Pretty featured the stunning winter wedding and you can check out all of the beautiful images and the feature on their site, HERE or click on the logo below. Enjoy!

Natalie & Allen - Texas Hill Country Winter Wedding

In February of this year, I worked with Allen and Natalie for a winter wonderland wedding. Little did we know that it would be a winter wonderland indeed. If you will recall, that week is when one of the biggest ice storms to hit Texas, Louisiana and the surrounding states in years decided to blow in. Their family and guests persevered, one even getting in the car and driving from California. By the Saturday night of the wedding the weather had cleared and it was a perfect crisp winter night. Not that we were too worried - the enormous tent was heated and perfectly cozy.

Over that weekend, I also had pleasure of working with Allen's mother, Teresa on the rehearsal dinner. She is one of the sweetest, most delightful women I have ever worked with and Natalie may possibly have the best mother-in-law in the whole world. The fun part of the rehearsal was that both of Allen's parents wanted it to be wonderful and agreed on a location before turning it over to me. Yipeee! August E's provided the perfect sleek backdrop and amazing food. 72" round tables were brought in and draped with gun-metal grey twist linens and surrounded by white leather chairs. Working with Michelle over at Sprout, we created simple, all white centerpieces set off by 36" tall silver candelabras. In a nod to Allen's outdoorsmanship, we used white antlers to surround vases of white amaryllis. Natalie, self described as "the pinkest person ever" got her dash of pink with dusty pink color votive and pink stitching on the place cards.

At the reception Natalie chose to warm up the evening with spectacular amber lighting, gold table cloths and candles everywhere. Once again, Sprout did the flowers and wrapped each of the candles with a gold patterned paper, wax stamped with the bride and grooms initial "R". White flowers were in various mercury glass containers and completed the elegant look.

For more images of this beautiful winter wedding, visit the SMS blog.

Stacy and Stacy from SMS photography did a fabulous job capturing the entire event, as usual. I cannot express how much I enjoy working with these two. They are a coordinators dream because a detail or decor shot is never missed. Not to mention how lovely the photographs of the bride and groom always turn out. They are continually some of my favorite images. Thank you ladies!

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.

Oooohhh! A winter wonderland in the Texas Hill Country

Please, go HERE and look at Jenny Evelyn's beautiful and fun pictures from one of our December weddings!

Not only did Jenny come all the way from Georgia to do an amazing job, she had the most adorable and awesome couple as her subjects!

Thanks for sharing with us!

"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.

Winter Wonderland

The weekend before Christmas I had the chance to work with Simpson and Brian (and Simpson's awesome parents) on their wedding. Her mom and dad put countless hours of legwork into the making everything lovely for their daughter's wedding and it was all done with nothing but cheer and love. SO, so sweet - just like the Bride and Groom.

Photographer Jenny Evelyn came in from Georgia to photograph the event and I can't wait to see her pictures! She was really an artist. Just the few she showed me during the night were fantastic! Go look at her blog to check out sneak peaks of Brian and Simpson's engagement session here. These two lit up whenever one would walk into the room and I think I even saw Simpson leave the ground she had such a bounce in her step whenever Brian was nearby. Like I said - SO, so sweet!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Holiday!

I'm so excited about our 2010 weddings I can hardly stand it. Lots of fabulousness on the horizon!

A Hill Country Vineyard Wedding

The first part of June stays just nice enough in the Hill Country that outside weddings are enjoyable and not too hot once the sun begins to set. These are pictures from Alice and Taylor's wedding at a local vineyard. They were so fun to work with because they were both all about the details as well as the big picture. I loved overhearing guests from the big city say that Martha Stewart had nothing on this wedding.

Andrea Polito Photographers of Dallas had a team there to photograph the event and they did an amazing job. My favorite part of the proofing was that they had a whole section called "wedding details". Each special "little something" the couple had put so much thought into was documented for the bride and groom to remember along with the overall story of their day. Love that.

Again, many thanks to Polito Photography for taking the time to send the beautiful images, Maggie Gillespie for doing beautiful flowers for them to photograph and to Alice and Taylor for letting me be a part of their day!

Hello, 2009? Is that you calling?

Aaaaaaaat Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaast (cue Etta James here).

Here I am, standing with one toe precariously dipped into 2009 and the vast pool of technology. Social networking. The BLOGOSPHERE...or is it blogasphere? Whatever. The INTERNET. A blog. I'm a blog-ger. I'm still learning the terminology here so forgive me while I test how it rolls of the ole fingers. Seriously, I have no idea why this has taken so long other than I'm slightly afraid of technology. And I have to little kids, two businesses and my computer hard drive has crashed twice in the past two years forcing me to start from scratch. Yes, back up the hard drive, I hear you, I get it. Point is, I'm starting now and I'm excited. Behind the curve but excited none-the-less.

Annnnnd we're off....

Hello internet, my friend. I'm told that you will let me gush as much as I should so choose. Purrfect. Just what I'm looking for...due to the fact that I live in a small town and however Norman Rockwell-esq it might be, I can only blather so much to the 10 people that live here about all the lovely things in my head. Ok, so maybe there are more than 10 people that live here. But you get my point. The WORLD is now my oyster. Or would you say the INTERNET is now my oyster? Perhaps you'd say neither because I have texture issues with oysters.

See that phone above? It is a photograph. I took it. I don't know how to photoshop it so bear with me. I mean to post professional photographs - by real photographers. But sometimes one isn't available so you have to take what I've got.

Next up is a sneak peak of Alice and Taylor's June wedding at Becker Vineyards. I just got my hands on the photographs so I'll be posting them soon.