Stevie + Sam’s Wedding Story
LOVE ON LOCKDOWN
EARLY DAYS
In the spring of 2019, which may as well have been 10 years ago, we began the planning process for an epic wedding weekend that was to take place in Austin in April 2020. Knowing what we know now, you might be able to guess where this is going.
For 10 months, there were happy hours + tastings with our amazing clients. There was talk of a surprise Kacey Musgraves performance. There were challenges + bumps. We had navigated all of the tiny things and big decisions required to host a group of 300 guests (mostly from New York and London) in a not-so big city, with warmth and heart and intention and joy. If you guessed that this celebration did not happen in this historic April of 2020, you are correct. The knock-your-boots-off blowout is rescheduled for April 2021, and will likely change a bit from the original vision.
THEN CAME COVID
The beautiful part of this story is that our clients, Stevie + Sam and their families, had become friends through the wedding planning and even more so as we reimagined what would be, in the end, about four different versions as COVID-19 measures unfolded. The best part was that Stevie + Sam wanted to be married to each other. So that is exactly what we made happen.
HOW TO PLAN A WEDDING DURING LOCKDOWN
Step 1: Unplan the first wedding.
Steps 2 - 99: Plan Version 2, then adjust constantly.
Version 2 of the wedding was fewer than 250 guests. OK, how do you uninvite some people? Seemed like a daunting task, but nothing like the daunting tasks Version 3 would bring. Version 3 would look like this: fewer than 50 guests, at home in the backyard with a ceremony, dinner and DJ. We had a sullen meeting with Stevie + Sam and their family sitting around their dining room table. Stevie cried. The father of the groom cried. We teared up as we reassured them that we could make the wedding work in the couple’s backyard. We can add tents, we can bring in rentals, catering can happen out of the garage...we’ve done this before a million times.
After we’d all wrapped our heads around Version 3 with 50 guests in the backyard, the city mandate came down on us like an anvil. No gatherings over 10 people. So now Version 4 was staring straight at us, and it was a puzzle we had never, ever solved in 22 years of event planning.
As event producers, we are the party-keepers. We are the host-protectors. We don’t let anyone mess with our clients’ good time. And here came COVID like a slow rising flood, stressing our couple and their families, cancelling hundreds of loved ones’ plans to celebrate this particular love, gathering, communion, and basically trying to cancel love in general. Not on our watch, COVID. We took it personally.
Version 4 required 10 or fewer people onsite, which translates to: no vendors at the event. It required everything to be delivered and stored in Stevie + Sam’s garage from the last day that non-essential businesses could legally operate until the wedding day, April 4. It required Craven + Co. being movers, food delivery drivers, creators of hearts made of rose petals...you name it, we did it. Stevie + Sam were getting married. Period. End of conversation. Easy for us to sound tough now, but we’ll be the first to admit, we had lost almost every shred of our eternal optimism with each blow the Coronavirus pandemic brought.
Seven guests witnessed the bride’s mother officiate the ceremony in the couple’s backyard in front of a dream cloud of luneria designed by Antonio Bond. Under a canopy of twinkling lights, the family stood, huddled in close to the couple and surrounded them, literally, with love. Each parent read a portion of the ceremony, and yes, there were tears.
The backyard was transformed with neon artwork by Ion Art of the custom wedding logo. The fairy light tunnel was installed weeks earlier by Intelligent Lighting Design. Stevie + Sam’s living room was transformed for the dinner using the furniture our friends at Loot had delivered and stored in the garage on the last day they could operate. We couldn’t have made it as beautiful and special without our incredible vendors that we have worked with year after year having our backs, and being willing to do whatever it took within the limits we had. We are beyond grateful for those relationships.
Jeffrey’s was able to plate a modified, family style version of the planned wedding meal (from Version 1) on design-centric serving ware we had shipped to them in advance, and hand it off to our team to deliver. We checked off the bride’s must-haves: June’s Rose + french fries. The groom, Sam, had his margaritas on tap. Check.
Now we’re so proud to share their sweet story, and to know that we were part of this testament to fortitude, and staying wild...and above all holding what matters closer than 6’ apart.
All photos by the amazing Sarah Bork.