This elegant wedding began early in the morning with getting ready festivities at the Omni Barton Creek Resort. The bride (Liz), her five bridesmaids and mother, dressed in robes embroidered with their wedding party status, gathered for hair and make up which was artistically performed by Aimee, Cris Coleman and team. Liz wore a romantic gown adorned with lace and tulle named Elysia designed by Hayley Paige. Liz made sure "HER MEN" were gifted special wedding day attire too. She presented her father with "I'll always be your little girl - Nov 5, 2016" cuff links and Mark received some fancy french cuff links too.
Consistent with their flare for romance, Liz and Mark wanted to exchange love letters in person but were adamant that they did not see each other before the ceremony. So we arranged a "NO PEEKING" photo session in the resort hallway. They were separated by a wall partition and were able to touch hands and pass their letters to each other without visual confirmation. This happened with a full audience of friends and family 5 feet away, across the hallway, swooning and weeping with sentiment. It was very touching. And a great photo opp.
Next we headed to St. John Neumann Catholic Church for a full mass at 2:00 in the afternoon. The church finally completed a mosaic dome above the alter in September and it was breath taking - as was the ceremony. After the ceremony, the bride/groom traveled in a convertible Rolls Royce back to the Omni Barton Creek Pavilion for the reception with 225 close friends and family.
The Pavilion was decked out with fabulous white flower arrangements by Westbank Flower Market and the bride/grooms' own personal monogram (E&M) was projected on the stone wall above the fireplace. The pavilion rocked with music provided by Love & Happiness. Since Mark comes from New Orleans, they arranged a traditional wedding "Second Line" dance where guests twirl white handkerchiefs or napkins in the air and paraded with umbrellas around the room to a festive jazz song.
And what wedding would be complete without a trip to the State Capital for a kiss in front of the Austin icon. Sandy Perkins, their wedding planner, arranged to have a special flag, (which was presented to them later) flown at the capital for just that picture. However, when we got to the capital we found that all of the roads around the Capital were blocked for the Texas Book Festival. So we moved to plan B - The Bob Bullock Museum. If you stand in front of the museum, you are down hill from the Capital (and flag). So we jumped out of our cars, posed them in the middle of the street and ... A police officer drove up and told us we could not do what we were doing and would have to leave. When he realized how much we wanted this picture - massive pleading, he pulled over to supervise and make sure we did not get run down. He gave us 5 minutes. We were done in 2. I did not get his name but - thank you officer.
And thank you Liz and Mark for being so much fun to work with. Congratulations to your on your beautiful wedding.