Amy and Ryan wanted a sweet, nostalgic and happy wedding. They were married at Star Hill Ranch in Austin, in March. “I originally wanted a ceremony at our house, but there was no way we could fit everyone, so we brought elements of our home to the venue”, Amy said. “We both love mid-century ascetics, but didn’t want it to be too kitschy or overdone. One guest described it as ‘if Wes Anderson remade Steel Magnolias’ which is a fantastic compliment if not just a really, really good idea.”
“Our décor was a combination of handmade projects, beloved items from our own home and items provided by family. Our taxidermy weasel on our sweetheart table was actually what Ryan proposed to me with… long story! My mom even made us a piñata for guests to drop in their well-wishes. All of the paper flowers in the décor were made by Ryan, my mom, her students and myself. The flowers in my bouquet were picked up that morning at Whole Foods and beautifully thrown together.”
The couple organised the whole wedding themselves, but they had a day-of co-ordinator there on the day to make sure everything ran smoothly. “We actually surprised ourselves with just how much we were capable of – we could have saved ourselves a lot of worry if we had just done everything ourselves from the beginning instead of wasting time with outside businesses. If you have even half an ounce of creative aptitude and desire, chances are, you’re going to do it better for yourself than anyone else will.”
“The one thing that is worth outsourcing is day-of co-ordination though. “Lindsay was kind enough to work with our family’s budget and helped us immensely on our wedding day. Having someone there to tie up loose ends and insure everything runs according to schedule is SO WORTH IT. Do not do this yourself.”
“A funny little tip I have for future brides is that my mom and I came up with a pretty great system for rejecting ideas and suggestions during the planning stage”. Amy concluded. “It probably saved us from many uncomfortable disagreements and hurt feelings. Any time my mom would send me a link to something or suggest something to include that I didn’t like I’d just send her a banana emoji. This was a mutual signal for, ‘no, no, not ever, please stop’. It was so much better than rejecting ideas and explaining why and just having a big-to-do over the smallest things. We still use this system today. ”
