Another October-- aka Wedding Whirlwind Month-- Draws to a Close

They begin their married life together as I conclude another busy October.

This past weekend was super-light for me. I just had one ceremony-- a truly lovely affair on Friday night at Mercury Hall. This wedding was my last one for October-- I think I did 13 all together but it felt more like 53. Though April certainly gives October a run for the money, I think October wins as the most consistently busy wedding month in Austin.

And why is October so busy? Because October is the June of Austin, weather-wise. And while you can risk a chill factor if you get married outside during this month, I think October holds less of a rain threat. (You know the old poem is about April Showers, not October Showers.) Then again, considering the drought, maybe the rain threat is minimized year round now, though I am recalling October 9th, when I had three weddings and the skies opened up. Still, all three were held outside, with the rain pausing for each ceremony.

The groomsmen make their Oceans 11 entrance.

For my final October 2011 wedding, the couple traveled here to have a destination wedding in Austin. Austin, as it turns out, is pretty darn popular as a wedding destination. That makes a lot of sense-- there is no shortage of awesome things for guests to do if they want to fly into town a few days early or stay a few days after. And as one couple pointed out to me recently, Austin can be very convenient if, say, the bride's family is from one coast and the groom's is from the other, as is the case for them. Choosing a fun spot in the middle of the map means no one has to deal with the hassle and expense of flying all the way across the country. Plus, of course, everyone gets to eat BBQ.

Also, call me biased, but I think Austin provides a most excellent wedding vibe if I may tiptoe toward being ever so slightly New Agey. The energy here is fun and playful and hap-hap-happy and so, I say, that makes it a very auspicious place to begin heading down Wedded Bliss Highway.

I've seen a lot of beautiful cakes in my day but man, is this gorgeous or what? Those are golden raspberries you see, held in place by sheets of white chocolate. The genius behind the cake? Scott Calvert, the chef at The Cake Plate.

And-- not that you probably need any more convincing that Austin is a spectacular place for a destination wedding-- the natural beauty here is just stunning. In town there are lots of beautiful places to get married outside: The Umlauf Sculpture Garden, Mayfield Park, Laguna Gloria, the lawn of the Four Seasons, Green Pastures, Barr Mansion (and on and on and on). And out in the Hill Country there is also a selection that is pretty amazing. Lots of ranchy places like Red Corral Ranch and Star Hill Ranch and Hamilton Twelve.

Friday's lovely bride, calm, happy and ready to go!

Often when a couple tells me their families are flying in from afar, I tell them that if they need a list of suggested Things to Do, Places to Eat, Things to See that they shouldn't hesitate to ask me. I am Austin's biggest cheerleader and, for a little while, I even had a job writing thirteen blog post each week for JetBlue Airways, letting the world know about the wonders and secrets of Austin. Thanks to that job plus twenty years of living passionately in Austin, I'm sitting on a gold mine of suggestions, and it is always my pleasure to share this knowledge with folks coming to town for an Austin or Hill Country wedding.

This is Christian Barbuto of Altared Wedding Productions. Not only is he a kick ass DJ, he is also totally on top of it. He helped line up the wedding party, was in fifty places at once, and was just a major asset to the whole event. 

And here is Kristin Stephens, principal at Austin Catering, putting on some final touches before the reception. 

If you want to know more about my work as a wedding officiant, including testimonials, please drop by my wedding website. It would be my honor and my pleasure to perform your wedding. 

Something Old, Something New

The Winfield Inn in Kyle

Well it was another glorious, super-busy wedding weekend for me. I had a rehearsal Thursday night, two rehearsals and a wedding on Friday night, two weddings on Saturday, and a wedding on Sunday. Before I tell you about the weddings, let's take a minute to talk about the PLUS SIDE of rehearsals!

Rather often I will perform a wedding without having attended the rehearsal. There are all sorts of reasons for this. Some weddings are so tiny that a rehearsal isn't necessary. Some venues, like Chapel Dulcinea-- which is free-- don't have rehearsal slots available the day before, since the chapel is booked for multiple weddings seven days per week. Some folks are on a super tight budget, and I charge extra for rehearsals so that's one way to save a little money. It's not a bad idea either, if they're getting married at a venue I've worked at a million times before like Barr Mansion, the Winfield Inn, Allan House, or Hamilton Twelve to name but a few. And, too, if a couple is working with a coordinator, like the ever delightful and efficient Keri Wooten at Leave the Details to Me, or Deidre Brown at Detailed Weddings & Events, or with a venue that has a full time planner-- well then it's fine for that person to run the rehearsal and I can just plug in the day of.

However... I can now reveal for you a whole NEW reason to have a rehearsal and insist everyone attends. I showed up for a rehearsal on Friday night at La Hacienda the RV Resort & Cottages (where I performed a wedding this past summer) not realizing that I was supposed to be at Hacienda del Lago, which is a good thirty minutes away. I was so thankful that I was late for the rehearsal and not for the wedding. I was also grateful that the couple was totally chill about my mistake, and we had our run-through anyway, even though it was an hour later than we'd planned.

So there you go, folks. When you're debating whether or not to have a rehearsal, or to have everyone at the rehearsal, consider the location, figure out if there's another nearby location with the same name, and plan accordingly.

Now, about the weddings themselves. Well, as ever I am here to proclaim how much I love my job. This weekend was a great mix of old and new as I found myself performing two of the ceremonies at favorite venues with which I am well-acquainted, and the other two at brand-new-for-me venues.

Wedding Number 1, on Friday night, was held just before sunset at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. That place is just gorgeous. Bride and groom were utterly calm and the wedding started precisely on time. They even memorized their vows (though I always, always, always insist on keeping a back up in my book, just in case.) For readings, they had a friend deliver-- absolutely brilliantly I might add-- this wonderful Frank O'Hara poem, Having a Coke with You. And then I got to speak these lines from Robert Frost a little later on in the ceremony:

Two such as you with such a master speed

cannot be parted

nor be swept away from one another

once you are agreed

that life is only life

forevermore together

wing to wing and oar to oar.

Well, the nice part about arriving late for the second rehearsal on Friday night was that it was so dark I could enjoy the lights at Hacienda del Lago

Wedding Number 2 was held at the aforementioned Hacienda del Lago, which is out by the Oasis and Lake Austin Spa. If you take 2222 all the way out to 620, then keep going straight across 620, the road turns into Bullick Hollow Road, and that leads to a part of the world I didn't even know existed. Hacienda del Lago used to be a private residence-- belonged to a UT football coach is what I heard-- and now it's this totally groovy wedding venue. I can't believe I never heard of it before. I sure hope I get to work there again, soon.

The Inn at Pearl Street

Wedding Number 3, which was right on the heels of Wedding Number 2 (requiring me to drive with pure precision, no hesitation, and a mindset designed to will all lights turn green as I approached them) was at another new-to-me-place, Austin's Inn at Pearl Street. What an AWESOME boutique hotel, hidden in plain sight. Just off of MLK at Pearl Street, this four-building affair hosts all sorts of nooks and crannies packed with wonderful art and tchotchkes from around the world. Jill, the owner, is super nice and super hands on helping with the weddings she hosts there. The wedding was held in the little courtyard, which is surrounded by Live Oak trees covered in a gazillion little twinkly lights. I hope I get to do more weddings here, too. 

Couple Number 2 and Couple Number 3 shared something interesting in common-- both couples had been together for more than twelve years and all of them were under 35 years old. Yep, that's right-- young love taking the leap. Couple Number 3, still in their 20s, actually had been high school sweethearts who met in 10th grade English class. Often my wedding ceremonies include a bit of the story of the couple, and that was true for both of these couples. Very fun to recount early dates that involved doing homework together or going to Schlitterbahn.

The Winfield Inn-- not really my home, but I sure feel at home here.

Our beautiful bride before the Winfield Wedding

Couple Number 4 -- that final wedding weekend was on Sunday at the Winfield Inn in Kyle. I've done so many weddings out there that heading up the front walk almost feels like I'm heading home. Robyn and April are the coordinators out there and they always have it going on, totally organized, usually assisted by a gaggle of interns. Such was the case on Sunday. And this is an example of why it was okay I didn't attend the rehearsal-- we have such a good working relationship that we can speak the necessary shorthand to get me exactly where I need to be in the processional. 

This couple, though we hadn't met in person before the ceremony, felt familiar thanks to the miracle of Skype. They were coming in from the West Coast to get married in Austin, so we used vid-conferencing to get acquainted. It also was a nice bonus to know that the mother of the bride and I had taken a knitting class together. (I very often knit right before a wedding, during that little period of time I show up just to be there. It's a nice way for me to sort of meditate, and I think it has a calming effect on all present, too.)

Here are some more excellent pictures from my excellent weekend:

The Inn at Pearl Street

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Cute idea-- near the guest book there was a bowl full of skeleton keys on key tags. Guests were invited to inscribe the tags with "keys to a happy marriage."

I LOVE bouquets made from old brooches. Isn't this smashing?

The art at Hacienda del Lago is really cool. I think they call it Neo-Grecian.

Another great aspect of my job-- I am a craft queen and at weddings I see the coolest crafts.

Another cool craft idea-- the bride made these flowers for all the attendees. I wore mine as a boutonniere. Some wore them in their hair. And, see below-- Vera wore hers on her collar.

Vera!

Hacienda del Lago

Hacienda del Lago. I love this semi-circle chair set up. Very pretty and very intimate.

Hacienda del Lago

Okay, the Hacienda del Lago wedding featured cupcakes from Sugar Tooth Bakery, owned by my friend Meghan. Her cupcakes are INCREDIBLE!

In fact, Sugar Tooth Bakery cupcakes are SO  bad ass that I just had to sneak in a Red Velvet one before dashing off to my next wedding. MMMMMMMM.

Inn at Pearl Street

Inn at Pearl Street 

Winfield Inn -- this is where I sit and knit before ceremonies.

These Kolder Holders were custom made by the bride's uncle, with art provided by their animator friend. So cute!

The Bride at Wedding #4 carried a pinwheel instead of flowers

Table centerpieces at Winfield Inn included jars filled with characters from the couple's favorite shows. Here: Star Wars

Mario Brothers

Dr. Who

The path to Happily Ever After begins with a single step

A butterfly I captured (just with my camera) as I exited my last wedding for the weekend. Like I said: I LOVE MY JOB!

Want more information about my services? Please visit my Austin Wedding Officiant website.

Wild West Wedding Weekend!

I think I might have to keep saying I LOVE MY JOB until somebody begs me to stop. Because, yet again, I had another great time this past weekend. Things kicked off early with my Unicorn Mask wedding on Thursday. Then on Saturday I had two weddings in the Hill Country. The first was in Wimberley and the second was in Blanco.

Actually, back up. I had a rehearsal for the Blanco wedding on Friday. As occasionally happens, the rehearsal was in a different spot than the wedding. So I found myself at this cool place in downtown Blanco-- some shops/restaurants that open up onto a courtyard out back. This is an added perk that comes with my job-- I wind up discovering places I might never know about otherwise. And in these places, I find things I never saw before. Case in point-- at the Blanco rehearsal there was a Flower Kaleidoscope. I have no idea if that's what it's really called, but I saw this planter/sculpture thing with a sort of telescope attached to it. I looked through the telescope and WHOA!!! But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:

Saturday dawned and I headed out of town a bit early to stop at the Thyme and Dough Bakery in Dripping Springs, since I love it there and it's right on the way to Wimberley. I mention this because I had an accidental religious moment of sorts at the bakery, and I wrote about it over at my other blog. I think from now on when I meet couples who want to know about my religious beliefs I'll just direct them to that piece.

Job perk: I drive on roads like this a lot as part of my work. 

Then it was time to actually get going. I arrived at the Wimberley wedding-- held at the home/ranch of the bride-- around 4 in the afternoon. Truly a glorious day. The guests hung out on the porch until it was time, and just before 5 I invited everyone to gather in chairs around the fountain out front. Then up rode bride and groom on horses-- wow. Talk about a dramatic effect.

The first wedding included a sand blending ceremony, and the bride's son participated. I like using this ritual to bring in family members and make them part of the big day.

I had to scoot almost before the kiss was finished since I only had a half-hour to get to Blanco. GoogleMaps and the first bride both assured me this was doable. But even though I carry a GPS and have a very patient partner who will take phone calls from  me and help navigate, I swear I could get lost inside of a paper bag even if I had a professional guide at my disposal. That said -- and not to jinx myself-- I have spent enough years driving the backroads of the Hill Country now that even if I do feel a little bit confused, I also know I can usually figure it out quick enough. Still, in this case, I had not a second to waste.

An intimate reception under the Live Oaks at wedding #1.

Fortunately, even though I was on a lot of winding little country roads, I did manage to find the second wedding no problem. This one, too, was held at the family ranch. In fact it's where the bride's parents had gotten married thirtysomething years before. They told me the day they got married it just poured rain. That was not going to be an issue for the younger couple-- it was just a stunning evening.

I just loved looking at all the seats before the ceremony, waiting to be filled.

While Saturday's first wedding was a really intimate affair, the second wedding was one of the biggest weddings I'd ever been to. Over two hundred guests filled chairs that had been set up out in a pasture near a couple of trees which, come to think of it, remind me a bit of the trees in that popular Khalil Gibran reading, On Marriage, used so often at weddings (but not at this one).

I should say that one big reason Wedding Number Two went so smoothly is because at both the rehearsal and the wedding Jessica from Pearl Events was there coordinating. Very often the weddings I preside over are fairly small and the couples don't have event planners and day-of coordinators. But sometimes I am tag-teaming with another professional. I'm down with either option and with the latter I get to meet some very cool, very organized folks.

As I was driving home from the later wedding, off into the sunset, I felt like some JP from the Wild West or at least a character in a Larry McMurtry book. All I needed was a horse as I traveled the countryside from event to event to offer my blessings. I imagined getting called to my next duty-- presiding over the trial of an outlaw in some tiny courtroom. Then I spotted the ever-growing Austin skyline and remembered what century I'm in.

My Greatest Job Strength? FLEXIBILITY!

When I meet with potential clients for an initial howdy, I want to give them a feel for my vibe, answer any questions they have, learn a bit about them, and emphasize my strengths. I even have a corny canned joke I trot out pretty much every single time that goes like this, "I'll tell you my strengths and hide from you my weaknesses!" (Haha-- as if I have any weaknesses! JK, JK.)

Of my strengths I think the most important are these two: 1) I never forget it's not my wedding-- which is to say I don't dominate, proselytize, or in anyway try to impose unwanted opinions on a couple and 2) I AM FLEXIBLE!! To the point that I have never had a request that made me feel so uncomfortable I declined a gig. (There was that one rehearsal where I nearly punched a DJ's lights out, but that's a different story for another day). In truth, I don't get too many odd requests. My very first paid wedding gig, the couple wanted me to do a little comedy routine where, when I asked the congregation to be seated, some remained standing. This was pre-arranged and my job was to look at those stubborn standers, sigh loudly and say, "Alright, alright! Simon SAYS sit down!" And of course I get a decent number of requests to include dogs-- to me that's hardly difficult or unusual as I think all weddings should include dogs.

But I have to say that when I got an email a few months ago asking me if I'd be willing to don a unicorn mask for a ceremony, it gave me pause. Not pause as in, "No way-- you can't pay me enough." Pause as in, "Okay, which of my friends is trying to punk me?" (This recalls another situation, a long time ago, when I answered the phone and the caller identified himself as Tim Rice, as in THE Tim Rice, and I talked to him for the first few minutes in a very, "Right, right, and I'm the fucking Queen of England" tone until I realized it WAS Tim Rice. I'll tell you some other time while Tim Rice was calling me.) Anyway, so I wanted to answer that email in a way that suggested-- if it was a real request-- that I was up for the task but that if it was a prank email that I wasn't born yesterday. 

As it turns out, the unicorn mask was a real request. And the wedding happened yesterday. It was scheduled for 4:20, but we were running little late, as so often is the case. Maybe people who want to get married at 4:20 should tell their guests it starts at 4:03. Hell, probably all couples should lie about the start time-- sort of a reverse bar time trick. I can't tell you how many times I see stragglers come strolling up in the middle of the ceremony or even after it's done.

                

So there you go, people-- I am so flexible that if you want me to wear a costume that suggests I am a mythical creature at your wedding, I am all over it. In fact, wearing the mask was quite easy compared to another unforeseen task: being in the room with balloons. It never dawned on the couple to ask me if I have any unusual phobias and it never dawned on me to tell them. But, in fact, I have this kooky ailment called globophobia. Which is to say I am more or less terrified of balloons. I've worked hard to overcome this phobia, or at least adapt, but still-- when faced with a sudden bouquet of balloons as I was yesterday, I have to stop and do some deep breathing. There was also a huge mylar balloon (in the shape of a unicorn... natch)-- fortunately mylar balloons are less scary for me so I was able to take a nice close up picture.

The space-- Mercury Hall (one of my very favorites)-- was done up quite lovely. Most folks opt to get married there outside, under the big trees. But some, like yesterday's couple, chose the inside, which feels a little churchy without feeling actually churchy. The cake was just wonderful. I don't think it's my imagination-- I think wedding cakes these days are far more creative and over-the-top than in the old days.

                

And thus concludes another installment of WHY I LOVE MY JOB! Tomorrow I've got two ceremonies in the Hill Country and one of them involves horses. Can't wait.