A Garden-Style Maximalist Wedding in Texas With Punchy Colors and Next-Level Details
Planning a wedding that combined Ansley’s retro style and her Texan groom-to-be’s outdoorsman vibes was a challenge she happily accepted. “I wanted the wedding design to feel very eccentric and campy (over-the-top, not outdoorsy), but know that I would love it for years to come,” Ansley says. “You can find [Jonathan] most in a pair of boots, jeans and a fishing hoodie…I've always been drawn to unique shapes, textures, color expression and vintage pieces.”
Having first met as neighbors in college, the two soon fell for each other after a fraternity formal, when Jonathan asked her last-minute to be his date. Of their proposal, she adds, “My heart place is Nantucket – it's where I've spent every summer there, going to our family home. One weekend while visiting my parents, he fooled me into thinking we were going to walk on the beach before dinner, and he proposed at my favorite lighthouse - Great Point.” Though the events leading up to the engagement were “chaotic,” with their car getting stuck in the sand and a park ranger pulling them over, both of their families were waiting at their house to celebrate the just said yes moment, which she calls the surprise of a lifetime.
Choosing Texas, Jonathan’s home and now Ansley’s, to host the event meant finding the right venue to intertwine both of their unique styles and cultures. Woodbine Mansion, with its stunning outdoor space and gardens, gave the nearlyweds just what they were looking for. Inspired by their Southern roots, an autumnal color palette and vintage elements, the couple and their vendors got to work to craft a one-of-a-kind wedding weekend. “It really started with strong designs on paper… Our designer Eliza's creative design and choices for the wedding were out of this world. She was able to take all my concepts and [make them tangible] in the most stunning ways,” Ansley says.
These designs included playing cards and retro fonts, with a vibe that blended Texas Hold ‘Em with Alice in Wonderland. Florals played a major role in decor, with jewel tones and natural greenery being a thread throughout the arrangements at their ceremony and reception. And for this interfaith ceremony, that included a breathtaking chuppah full of garden roses, orchids and other seasonal blooms in a mix of deep reds, pale pinks and vibrant oranges. The bride adds, “I was so in love with [our floral team, Remi & Gold’s] choice of florals from different varieties to color and shape; it was truly a masterpiece.”
For their attire, the two chose outfits to match the day’s vibes while also bringing their personalities forward. Keeping to her vintage theme, Ansley wore a taffeta, off-the-shoulder Danielle Frankel dress with draped sleeves, evoking both the ‘70s and ‘80s with its classic but soft style. She paired her gown with a Danielle Frankel veil with blusher, Jimmy Choo slingbacks she got secondhand and her “something borrowed, something blue” from her mother: tanzanite earrings to match her engagement ring. “This one stunning oval tanzanite sat in my mom's closet unused, and she would always find me playing with it -- just so captivated by its beauty… I had mentioned it to Jonathan before; he remembered, and thus my dream engagement ring was born,” Ansley says. As for Jonathan’s look, he wore a Bill Reid tuxedo in classic black, with a matching bow tie and Lucchese calfskin boots.
Standing beneath the chuppah on the grounds of the Woodbine Mansion, Jonathan and Ansley honored both of their cultures through a blended ceremony. She says, “We had an interfaith wedding with my uncle representing my Christian faith in our ceremony and Rabbi Dan Gordon officiating the ceremony to honor Jonathan's Jewish heritage…The merging of our heritages and religions in such a unique ceremony was so beautiful and unique to us.”
The tented ceremony location soon transformed into the reception space, with personal touches in every corner of the space. “The entrance to the tent and tablescapes so playful and unique, and of course, the fringe dance floor chandelier (a surprise!) blew me away,” the bride says. She even spray-painted a life-sized chessboard the morning of the wedding, a DIY element that perfectly fit into the whimsical, wonderland-esque garden space with its playing cards, paper fortune tellers and colorful signs. Ansley even changed into a new look for the reception, an Oscar de la Renta feathered, pink mini dress to complement the pink throughout the reception.
Their loved ones were welcomed to the reception with creative “merch” and favors the couple gathered, like custom AJ foam cowboy hats in red and a caricature artist who created cartoons for guests to take home. Ansley also says, “ I knew I wanted to make some rope flat bill caps, so I crafted a western-style font ‘Newar Rodeo Club’ series of caps with Texas phrases like ‘All Hat (no cattle),’ ‘YEE HAW," ‘Save a Horse,’ ‘Rootin' Tootin’ and my personal favorite, a Davy Crocket quote ‘You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas’.” Their menu consisted of classic Texas and Georgia fare with an elevated twist. “My favorite bites of the evening were freshly shucked oysters, beef confit deviled eggs, mint and sweet pea croquettes, late-night beignets and of course, fried chicken and caviar,” Ansley adds. The bar served signature cocktails, all named after streets in Athens, Georgia, the spot where they first met.
One of the couple’s most anticipated moments of the weekend was the live music. Ansley says, “Music is a huge part of our lives and passion… We got a Tom Petty cover band for our cocktail hour, our friends from Texas String Assembly played bluegrass during dinner, and then we leaned into a more traditional wedding band for the reception dancing, which was SO fun.” As the last song of the night, the band played “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” by ABBA, a tradition for the bride and her friends. For their grand exit, the newlyweds rode off in a pedicab as a nod to Austin, with a sign modeled after Ansley’s parents’ own getaway car. She says of this special homage, “My grandmother, who has since passed, wrote ‘Honk if you're horny’ on the back windows and filled the car with shaving cream and packing peanuts. I never got to meet her, and everyone has always said I evoke a lot of her energy and sense of self, so this was a way of having her there for the day.”