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Texas’ Hill Country Weddings – Boot Ranch

So many of you have enjoyed the amazing weddings that Austin photographer Jennifer Lindberg has shared with StrictlyWeddings.com. This very intimate (family-only) wedding is as elegant and lovely as any of our more grand weddings and Jenn’s talents shine through in showcasing the love and joy of this new family.

The wedding theme and decor is the magnificent Texas Hill Country (why mess with Mother Nature?). The location is Boot Ranch, a development located near Fredericksburg, Texas (another one of our Texas treasures). Even though a private development, Boot Ranch appears to host events for those outside its private community and could be the perfect setting for your wedding.

Floral design by Maggie Gillespie Designs

New Featured Wedding – Wild Horses and Westies

Got your attention? Great! We wanted to because sometimes our featured weddings do not always get the attention they deserve. Truly, StrictlyWeddings.com showcases some of the most amazing weddings – better than many found in the multitude of bridal blogs today.

Photographer Jennifer Lindberg provided us with this gorgeous featured wedding. The bride’s wedding gown – to die for. What’s with the Wild Horses and Westies? Read on and find out for yourself.

Featured Wedding: Abril & Mark – Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag them Away

Why start a featured wedding with the title of a Rolling Stones song? We couldn’t resist when we saw that the Bridal Procession was to the song “Wild Horses.” Intriguing. Even better to end your ceremony with a procession to Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” So we were hooked before we even saw the gorgeous photography provided by Jennifer Lindberg Photography!

The setting for the wedding of Abril and Mark was held at the glorious Laguna Gloria Museum in Austin, Texas (now the Austin Art Museum – Laguna Gloria — a personal favorite and must see when visiting Austin). The couple met while at SMU. She was attending the prestigious law school, while Mark was there getting his MBA.

Her stunning wedding gown is Monique Lhuillier. “This was the gown of my dreams,” explains Abril.  “When I first saw it online, I knew it was THE dress.  I tried it on and I was right. I only tried a handful of other dresses and nothing compared.”

A few special notes the bride wanted to share. “My mom is a china painter and she hand painted every single small porcelain dish (our guest favors). Our (dog) kids, Austin and Ema, were there to celebrate with us and I individually cut by hand every Westie shaped escort card!”

Other wedding vendors include: Hair & Makeup – Tanya Carpenter, owner of TRU Salon in Dallas; Floral Designer – Prive Floral; Wedding Planner – CLINK; Cake – Michelle’s Patisserie

Capturing the Bride

Memorable shots of the bride can run from the more traditional photo of the bride looking directly into the camera, to one of her looking off in contemplation, to those expressing the emotions of joy, laughter, love. How the photographer creates that moment depends as much on the photographer’s style as that of their subject – the bride. Here are just a few of our fav StrictlyWeddings.com “just the bride” photos.

Carasco Photography – Chicago

Fred Marcus Photography – New York

Thisbe Grace Photography – Dallas

Fred Marcus Photography – New York

Gruber Photographers – New York

Jennifer Lindberg Weddings – Dallas and Austin

Courtesy of The Adolphus Hotel – Dallas

Jai Girard Photography – Chicago

Our Bride & Groom Photographs Capture the Moments

We just love how this post came together. We’ve captured poses from our Featured Wedding bride and groom showing love, joy, drama, playfulness … all the wonderful, exciting emotions that can be experienced during the wedding day.

We are so grateful for the amazing talents of our StrictlyWeddings.com photographers who made these moments possible – Carasco Photography, Brian Dorsey, Phil Farber, Jai Girard, Thisbe Grace, Gruber Photographers, Scott Hagar, Jennifer Lindberg, Andy Marcus.

Favorite Wedding Reception Floral Designs

Here are some of our favorite examples of wedding reception floral designs from our featured weddings. These floral designs make such a statement as guests walk into the reception area. Love the color.

Camp Lucy Wedding – It Took This Couples’ Breath Away

StrictlyWeddings.com partner, Photographer Jennifer Lindberg, is one of our fab wedding resources who recently clued us in on the greatness of Camp Lucy (recently talked about in StrictlyWeddings.com’s blog) as a Texas Wedding Destination. To be able to showcase one of our featured weddings at this Texas Hill Country wedding venue, is even better.

Emily and Matt met at the Monkey Bar at Mi Cocina in Highland Park Village in Dallas. She was there with friends and he was too; fortunately, their friends overlapped. Years later, he rented out the Monkey Bar and proposed to Emily in the exact place they met. Matt told Emily they were meeting his work friends for happy hour, she was late and very surprised! Lots of their friends and family joined later to celebrate their engagement.

The wedding took place at Camp Lucy in Dripping Springs, Texas. The couple did not want to get married in Dallas and The Texas Hill Country is one of their favorite places. Emily’s 90-year-old grandmother, who lives in a retirement community in Austin, suggested they make a stop at Camp Lucy. “Lucy” (the Lucy) is a good friend of the grandmother’s at the retirement home and she had recently toured it with her. As soon as Matt and Emily drove up, it took their breath away. They had found the spot. It was also pretty special that her “sweet grandmother” played such a role in it, too.

Melissa Sweet was the designer for her gown. For tradition, the bride’s “something old” was a brooch from her grandmother who had passed. For something new, her parents, knowing she cries, gave her a lace handkerchief embroidered with the couple’s wedding date. She wrapped the handkerchief around her bouquet and pinned it with her grandmother’s brooch.

• Verve Austin/ Barbara Shorts - Event planning and coordination
• Photographer – Jennifer Lindberg Weddings
• Marquee Rental – Tents, Chandlier, Stage Furniture & Heaters
• Westbank Flower Market – Florals
• Crescent Video - Film
• Arundel Ensemble – Strings
• Hair and Make up - Mandy Ray Hernandez
• Transportation Consultants – Valet
• R& R Limo – Shuttles
• Sight – Ceremony and Reception – Camp Lucy Dripping Spring Texas:
• RK San Antonio – Catering & Linens, Displays
• Dripping Spring Rental – Table and Chairs
• Strong Production -Tent Draping & cocktail tables
• Lighting – illios Lighting

Featured Wedding: Just say WOW! This wedding’s glamour was definitely in the details

We love Austin photographer, and StrictlyWeddings.com partner, Jennifer Lindberg’s incredible work. Our latest Feature Wedding showcases not just her photography, but the outstanding job by all the other wedding vendors to create this stunning wedding.

The following wedding details from Blair and Andrew’s wedding were shared with us by Wedding Coordinator CLINK…

The ceremony was held in the Pavilion of Barton Creek Resort and we brought in draping and chandeliers to create an elegant and breathtaking ambiance. A cross backdrop was adorned with roses in shades of ivories, peach and pale yellow and was complimented by two modern arrangements that completed the look perfectly.

The remarkable cocktail hour included an ice sculpture that served double duty as a jaw-dropping centerpiece and raw bar display. The pianist played throughout cocktail hour so there was never a lull in phenomenal entertainment.

The ballroom doors opened and WOW!!!!!!! The ballroom was transformed into a couture playland of modern floral, linens and lighting. From the cake table that had four linens layered to make it just right – to the chair ties on the head table that were tied in a rosette style to compliment Blair’s dress. IT. WAS. TREMENDOUS. Purple smoke bengaline linens adorned all the guest tables and was the perfection combination of modern and elegant. The head table had a dark lavender satin as the base, platinum crush for the middle layer and purple smoke bengaline on top. Centerpieces were all different shapes and sizes of purple and coral floral housed in mercury glass containers.

After enjoying a delicious dinner, guests danced the night away! The band was awesome and was more than willing to let Blair, Andrew and other members of the wedding party up on stage to get the crowd going.

Blair’s to-die-for gown served as inspiration for the custom designed wedding cake. Melissa Sweet herself couldn’t have designed those sugar flowers better!!! And the delicate wisps of feathers blew ever so gently all night. As an added personal touch a crystal bee was placed on the cake. Everyone calls Blair “B” so it was a great feature.

 Andrew’s Louisiana heritage inspired our late night snack – beignets!!! Complete with bags flown in from Café Du Monde in New Orleans – YUM! Guests were beside themselves with all of the fun surprises they had in store. And then the final surprise of the night, the horn section led the entire wedding out to “When the Saints Go Marching In.” FUN! Blair made a quick change into a beaded Marchesa dress and then she and Andrew were COVERED in a blanket of fluterfetti as they made their way to an antique convertible Bentley.

Venue/Catering/Cakes – Barton Creek Resort
Chairs and Linens – Marquee Rachel Church
Linens – BBJ Linen
Cocktail hour linens – Cloth Connection 
Draping – Strong Events
Lighting – ILIOS
Makeup Artist – Kandy Glass
Hair Stylist – Sasha Lemay
Ceremony Music – Arundel Ensemble
Soloist – Steve Morris
Pianist – Mac Bynum
DJ Penguin Entertainment – Josh Wilkinson
Reception Music – Professor D Scott White
Florist – The Flower Studio
Ice Sculpture – Amazing Ice
Photographer – Jennifer Lindberg Weddings
Videographer – Crescent Video
Wedding Coordinator – CLINK

Vintage Vineyard Wedding In The Texas Hill Country

Bride and Groom, Rachel and Greg, met at work where they both work at Marquee Event Group, an event rental company in Austin, Texas. Rachel is an outside sales representative; Greg is a member of the inside sales and marketing department. The attraction started over their love of dogs.  After initially blowing Greg off with a “I don’t date my co-workers excuse,” Rachel returned several weeks later from a trip to Ireland to attend a friends wedding, with a different perspective. Rachel asked Greg on a date to the dog park and that was the beginning.

Now, the juiciest part of the story is that they never told anyone at work they were together until Rachel walked into work with an engagement ring on her finger several years later. They blew everyone away! They were both nervous about people’s reactions. Yet, it turned out that everyone was so excited (and so shocked). In the end, it was the greatest surprise and their “family” at Marquee threw them a great wedding!

The wedding theme – Vintage Vineyard Elegance – was due to Rachel’s work. As a vendor in the events industry she had been fortunate to be a part of some truly amazing weddings. She wanted her wedding to be something she’d never seen. She wanted something unique that was her own. That’s why Rachel and Greg chose Flat Creek Estate in Austin’s Hill Country. Food was a big part of the wedding as well. They wanted to have a nice dinner party with a ceremony thrown in. Thus creating a family reunion with elegance, and they felt the vineyard was the perfect venue to create that experience.

Rachel used her wedding dress as her first item for décor inspiration. Marquee’s Owner, Damon Holditch, had her butter taffeta linens made from scratch. Damon also agreed to make the plum faux silk cocktail tables linens tied with a butter taffeta sash around the base as well as the plum silk button cake table. Purple is Rachel’s favorite color but she didn’t want to go too crazy with the purple.

The tent was also a very important design element. It can be difficult to maintain a vintage look in a tent and it’s even more difficult for someone who rents tents for a living to be wowed by a wedding tent! The goal was to have the ceiling treatment low and bring the top of the tent lower and cozier. Rachel also wanted eclectic and mismatched lighting. The tent went right on top of a parking area with paver stones that made it feel antique. Marquee’s efforts brought tears to the bride’s eyes when she finally saw it all come together.

The Bridal Bouquet was a mix of fluffy white hydrangea, white ranunculus, white sweetpeas, white majolica roses, white spider tulips, white hyacinth and white lilac. On her bouquet, “The Key” is the badge of the brides’ sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. The sapphire is recognized by Kappa as the symbol of truth, sincerity and constancy. Although the bride graduated from college in 1996 Kappa is still close to her heart. There were 7 Kappa’s at the wedding, including the Matron of Honor who was a sorority sister and college roommate.

Final notes from the bride …

“Photographer Jennifer Lindberg is amazing! She is truly dedicated to her craft and she is incredibly talented. It was a dream come true for her to photograph our wedding. In my mind there was no other choice. We were lucky and deemed it fate that she was available on our wedding date. We knew she would bring a personal view and photo journalism style photography to our wedding. That is what I wanted. As soon as I saw our “sneak peak” slideshow that Jennifer put together I was in tears. She is brilliant!”

“Take my advice … Hire a wedding planner and trust them! Use strong and reputable vendors because they really will make a huge difference in your wedding execution. Try to make decisions and stick to them. Because our engagement and wedding planning was only 3.5 months long we could not waiver on decisions and that really was a blessing. If any part of your wedding is outdoors be prepared for Plan B and be comfortable with it. I think our final plan was Plan E but it ended up perfect. If you’re planning your wedding on a budget set priorities on what is most important. For example, catering and décor was a high priority for us but that meant that music and paper goods had a lower priority.”

Featured Wedding courtesy of Jennifer Lindberg

Wedding dress: Forever Yours
Grooms attire: Black suit – Jones New York Collection
Bridesmaids: J Crew
Wedding Coordinator: Clink Events
Location: Ceremony & Reception – Flat Creek Estate
Rentals: Marquee Event Group – the bride & groom’s employer.
Floral: Prive Floral
Caterer: Primize
Wedding Cake: Simon Lee Bakery