Real Couples // An Intimate, Eclectic Austin Wedding: Jennifer + Juan

I (Jennifer) am a hilarious, loyal, and unfailingly honest girl who loves her friends and family, the Austin community, and coffee. Juan is a mischievous South Texas guy who loves adding to his record collection, his family, and ice cream.

Juan purchased my engagement ring after some helpful Pinterest direction. I found Madelynn Cassin and fell in love with her handcrafted, eco friendly designs. I absolutely LOVE my engagement ring. Madelynn happened to go on maternity leave when it came time to order my band, and I was terrified I wouldn't have one that fit against my ring! Thankfully, I found Stone's Throw Studio, a local artisan here in Austin that was able to create a custom band for me after holding my engagement ring hostage for a couple of weeks. It's perfect! Juan's band is from another Texas brand, James Avery.

Before we were even engaged, a friend of mine told me he KNEW where we were getting married. After we were engaged, we booked a tour of the venue he suggested, on my birthday. He was absolutely right. It was the best birthday gift to book our wedding venue, Casa Rio de Colores! We fell in love with the eclectic and ornate decor, and the laid back vibe of the property. Our reception (and our ceremony due to rain) was held under one of the stilted river homes in an area that looked like a cantina on steroids. It was perfect!

I found Donny, our photographer, on Craigslist of all places. After we booked our venue, photography was our next most important piece. When I first saw Donny's photos, I fell in love with his aesthetic. He took incredibly dark and emotion-provoking photos, and at the time, a lot of them were from cemeteries. He was new-ish to the wedding game, but his talent was too good to pass up. When we met him, not only was he talented, but we were so comfortable getting to know him, we felt like fast friends. I am so lucky we made that decision to hire him, as our photos are works of art. He even shot my sister-in-law's wedding a few months later! I hope we have a reason to shoot with him again in the future, although I don't plan to get married ever again! (Love you Juan!)

I am lucky enough to work for a fashion lifestyle company that started with jewelry! We launched our first bridal line just a couple months before I got married, so it was meant to be that I wore Kendra Scott in my wedding. The necklace I wore I was so in love with but, it didn't fit into my budget leading up to the wedding. My sweet work family went in on it together and gifted me the necklace and I cherish it not only because I wore it in my wedding, but because it came from them. I started my job with Kendra Scott 6 months before my wedding, so I feel like my wedding jewelry symbolizes not only my husband's and my new beginning, but the start of my new career, surrounded by wonderful people, as well!

Juan has a funny obsession with Halo by Beyonce, so I had our DJ play that for our cake cutting. We were both laughing so hard that it made for some lovely, genuinely happy photos. We went to over thirty concerts while we were dating, so music was very important to us. We chose to frame and display one of our engagement session photos with concert tickets from all but ONE show we attended. Apparently we didn't think the first concert we went to together (our second date) would yield keeping the ticket stubs for sentimental value, but we learned in just a few months they were worth holding on to. That photo surrounded by tickets still hangs in our home!

We chose to have a short and sweet reception. That has a bit of a serendipitous story. After my original officiant became unavailable, a friend of mine, Megan, came to mind as she had recently been ordained. We were her very first ceremony, but you couldn't tell. I am so glad she was there, because in addition to providing a lovely ceremony, she helped calm me while a rain shower hovered over our outdoor plans just at the time we were schedule to be married. (It was lovely and all worked out—just not what we expected!).

Our wedding was the weekend before the 2016 presidential election. Thinking this would all be a great joke, we had a Trump piñata at our wedding for adults only, stuffed with booze, snacks, and jewelry. Too bad less than a week later, that was a bit awkward in hindsight (for a lot of reasons). We have not yet been arrested for beating a piñata reminiscent of the president, thankfully. (Clearly, we had hoped for a different outcome.)

We wanted to keep our wedding food fun, comfortable, plentiful, and easy! We chose to have a fajita bar, and people raved about it! Additionally, I love tres leches, so that's what I ordered for my wedding cake. Tres leches cannot be very pretty or layered, so our groom's cake was displayed and decorated. While the caterers plated up delicious trays of tres leches, we cut into Juan's chocolate with caramel small layered cake.

We chose very bright colors for florals! I was lucky to have a florist that "got me" with minimal direction. My flowers were so perfect I cried when I picked them up. Juan drank 30 large bottles of Topo Chico leading up to the wedding to use as vases for single stems.

Words by Jennifer, the bride, as told by Amber Marlow. Photos by Donny Tidmore.

VENDORS

Photographer |  Donny Tidmore Photography

Venue | Casa Rio de Colores

Catering | Whole Foods

Wedding cake | Whole Foods

DJ | Chad Case Productions

Wedding dress | Nordstrom

Hair | Slate Hair Salon

Additional beauticians | Blue Wax and Beauty Bar | Elite Nails & Spa

Jennifer's jewelry | Kendra Scott

Jennifer's engagement ring | Madelynn Cassin Designs

Jennifer's wedding band | Stone's Throw Studio

Juan's wedding band | James Avery

Officiant | Jennifer's friend Megan

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DONNY TIDMORE PHOTOGRAPHY

Hi, I'm Donny, a wedding photographer based out of beautiful Austin, TX. I spent many years as a hobbyist photographer, working with everything from fine art photography to mobile photography to portraiture. As I moved through different types of photography, I was always looking to create work full of feelings that were real and truly meaningful. Then in 2014 I was asked if I'd be interested in shooting a wedding. The chance to work with couples in love and to capture memories that would be in their family for generations resonated with me immediately. I knew I’d found my specialty and I’ve never looked back! I am absolutley passionate about this, and thrilled that I get to do this with my life!