{Sharon Nicole Photography} captured this beautiful outdoor wedding. Thanks so much for sending this our way! Andrea chose yellow because it’s one of her favorite colors, but green made its way into to couple’s big day and not just in the guys’ outfits. Andrea + Rene made eco-friendly choices whenever they could, from the invitations, which were made from recycled paper, to the food, catered by {Portabla}, and the flowers, by {Firefly Floral}, both of which used local ingredients/flowers. The couple and their guests enjoyed delicious cup cakes in three flavors from {Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop} at the charming {Inn at Wild Rose Hall}. The bride’s dress is from {Nordstrom}.
How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story: René and I met at a restaurant we were both working at in Austin. After going out in groups several times and sneaking glances at each other while at work, Renéasked me over to his house to make me dinner. I remember coming over excited to see what he was going to cook me (wasabi glazed pork loin was on the menu – I was intrigued!) and expected a romantic dinner for two, but when I arrived I discovered that one of his roommates was going to join us. I thought it was a little odd at first, but it was actually a nice way to get to know him better. We continued to go out (sometimes even just the two of us) and have been happily together since.
Describe the proposal: It was late on a Monday night and I had just gotten back from a short vacation with my mom in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Renémet me at the airport and we headed home. By the time we got home I was pooped. We were home for all of five minutes and I had barely set down my bag when he got down on one knee. Taking in consideration that he is constantly kidding around and being sarcastic, I didn’t take him seriously at first and even rolled my eyes at him. But then he began telling me that he loved me and he couldn’t imagine his life without me (well, duh!). I became wide-eyed and just kept repeating, “Wait…wait. Are you serious right now?!” He then pulled a little box out of his pocket and opened it. I immediately said yes and tackled him to the floor. I really appreciated that he didn’t do it some grandiose way, it was nice that it was just the two of us at home.
What attracted me to my husband was: René’s great sense of humor and laid-back nature.
Why do you love your husband? He is annoyingly good at ending our arguments by making me laugh.
What attracted me to my wife was: Andrea’s naiveté was a constant source of entertainment.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? My favorite color is yellow and the main stone in my engagement ring is a yellow sapphire. A couple of months after we were engaged I found a beautiful yellow tear-drop necklace from Anthropologie.To me, yellow is a carefree, fun and happy color, so everything we chose for the wedding followed that pattern. Even though they weren’t yellow, we thought the guys’ green Adidas shoes were a good addition.
Favorite design element of your big day: Not really a design, but I have to say – location, location, location! The Inn at Wild Rose Hall was the only place we visited on our venue search. We knew it would be perfect, and it really brought everything together.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I wanted to make sure I found a dress that I could be comfortable in and would be fitting for an outdoor wedding. It was antique ivory with tone-on-tone vertical stripes and made of crinkle chiffon. It was probably the easiest dress hunt ever – I bought it online from Nordstrom and only had one small alteration.
Describe your wedding flowers: A soft, wild-flower look.
Describe your wedding cake: We had fantastic cupcakes in three flavors: Black and Tan (Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Irish cream cheese icing), Strawberry Love (vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing and fresh strawberries), French Toast (maple cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing).
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Our ultimate goal was to make our wedding as eco-friendly as possible. Our invites were made of 100% recycled paper and we chose postcards to reduce paper (our guests rsvp’d on our website), our get-away limo was biodiesel, the take-away gifts/seating cards were biodegradable plant-able pots made of 100% renewable composted cow manure (completely odorless!) paired with marigold seeds packets, the caterer used food from local farms whenever possible, the cup cake baker’s store is wind powered, we chose flowers that were in season and obtainable from local wholesalers and we highly encouraged our guests to carpool, which they did! The other really fun part was the mariachi band. They were a 7-piece band and were so lively and really got the cocktail hour going!
Funniest moment? There were two miniature donkeys on site and the moment I began walking down the aisle with my parents they started braying the loudest they could! It was hilarious. Thankfully, they were silent during the entire ceremony, but they started at it again the moment René and I began back down the aisle!
Did you write your own vows? If so, what was your favorite phrase/verse/or line? We wrote our own vows, but we did it together instead of individually. We thought it was really important to go through that exercise together and figure out what we thought was necessary to make our marriage work and grow. My favorite line was “…to be true to you and myself throughout our life together.”
Congratulations Andrea + Rene! We wish you fun and happiness in your new life together!
Wow – the ring shot is stunning!
Congratulations – I love the greens, especially the green tennis shoes.