A Vibrant, Lively Modern Wedding at South Congress Hotel in Austin, Texas

Chelsea Walker (an event planner) and Cecil Freitas’s (an engineer) modern and energetic wedding reflected their love of vibrant colors, music and dance. Chelsea, an event planner, hired a coordinator to get the wedding work off her mind. “I wanted to be a guest for once,” she says. “Best decision ever!” Explosions of flowers transformed the bright reception hall and mandap, and its floor-to-ceiling windows brought the outside in.

Chelsea and Cecil switched the traditional order of the events, so the ceremony was held in the ballroom after the cocktail hour. “We walked in together to the theme from Superman,” she says. “At the end of the ceremony, we immediately started our first dance under the mandap.”

One of Chelsea’s closest friends created her bouquet, a blend of pink and burgundy peonies and calla lilies.

Chelsea wanted her wedding to be an experience her guests would remember—she even went so far as to pick a theme song for her wedding (Janet Jackson’s “Escapade”). “I wanted it to feel like a celebration of life from the beginning to end,” she says. “I wanted everything to be energetic and fun.”

The couple surprised their guests with the Austin Samba Group, who danced through the reception area and brought everyone out to the courtyard for a show. “It was one of my favorite moments because no one cared that it was raining—the energy level was through the roof!” Chelsea says. A subtle henna-inspired pattern was added to the cake for a touch of Indian culture.