1. Real Weddings

A Rustic Destination Wedding

Though they live in New York City, it was a cross-country barbecue tour of the south that brought Leesy and Dan to Marfa, TX for the first time. And w

Though they live in New York City, it was a cross-country barbecue tour of the south that brought Leesy and Dan to Marfa, TX for the first time. And when Dan picked the city to be the place for his proposal, it instantly became dear to both of them. When they started to plan their wedding, the couple wanted to share the magic they felt in Marfa with their friends and family. The Bride Elyse (Leesy) Kaplan, 33, textile designer The Groom Dan Berkman, 29, licensing associate at Peter Pennoyer Architects The Date May 22 It was extremely important to Leesy and Dan that their wedding be something they had made -- and they didn’t want a specific color scheme. Instead, they let the rustic style of their wedding venue guide their decor decisions. Using his design background (and the fact that he was between jobs during the entire wedding planning process), Dan designed and brought to fruition almost every single detail, from the invitations to the ceremony huppah. The final product was an intimate destination wedding packed with personalized details.

Even though they didn’t really need programs for their small wedding party, both Leesy and Dan wanted them, so they decided to make them into fun props. Dan designed them as fans with all of the necessary information on one side and the word “YAY” on the other. After the ceremony, they took a group picture with all of their guests holding their fans.
Their wedding photographer used Dan’s Polaroid SX-70 camera to take candid shots of the guests, which were then displayed on a photo board.
Even though the owner of House on The Hill had never had a wedding on his property before, he was extremely accommodating of the couple’s request. Dan designed and built the huppah at a woodworking shop back home in Brooklyn from rift white oak that he had milled himself.
Guests received a custom screen-printed organic tote, which Dan had designed online. The bags were filled with bottles of water, snacks, and a few toiletries.
A platter of tissue packages was set out at the ceremony for any guests who shed happy tears.
Leesy wore her hair in a finger-curl bun with an ivory marabou feather fascinator and a detachable birdcage veil. Dan found her hairstylist the week before the wedding on Marfalist.com (like Craigslist for Marfa), and Elyse loved how the look came out.
Using paper left over from the invitations, Dan created a map, wedding weekend schedule, and a thank-you note to include in each welcome bag.
Dan used his design background to craft these rustic-style screen-printed invitations, which he had printed at Lead Graffiti in Newark, DE.
Leesy ordered a custom-made peg bride and groom at a store on Etsy.com to use as the cake topper.
The wedding cake baker (Leesy’s cousin’s wife) crafted the two-tiered, ten-layer chocolate cake and frosted it with espresso buttercream.
Aside from the hanging yellow and white paper flowers used to decorate both the ceremony space and the lounge area, the couple used little extra decor.
Leesy and Dan wanted the dinner table to be the heart of their event. Because their guest list was so small, they wanted everyone to sit together to enjoy the reception meal, so they set up a long, simply decorated table where everyone could relax.
Because it was a destination wedding, Leesy and Dan tried to use only decor items that they could find in Marfa. This included a bunch of vintage Mason jars, which they used for their centerpieces and to hold candles that they distributed around the property.
Dan and Leesy’s father wore dried flower boutonnieres that they ordered through an artist online.
To create their homemade seating chart, Dan painted a lightweight drawing board with chalkboard paint and Leesy’s sister wrote out the names.
There were two Airstream trailers on the property that Leesy and Dan incorporated into their wedding decor. Dan made paper banners to hang on the side.
The couple decided to embrace the rustic atmosphere of their reception venue in the décor. For centerpieces, they used antique Mason jars filled with orange daisies, mums, and peonies.
Each place setting had a menu and a place card with a vintage Texas pin with phrases like, “Texan Till I Die,” on them. Dan even gave a few of the servers pins so they could get in on the theme.
Instead of a traditional guest book, Dan bought and copied a bunch of vintage Marfa postcards for guests to sign.