welcome         blog

to the

HILL COUNTRY VINEYARD WEDDING | NATALIE + SETH

Natalie and Seth had the most romantic spring wedding at an all-time favorite venue of mine, the picturesque Becker Vineyards. Surrounded by family and friends, the couple exchanged their vows under a century old oak tree surrounded by the lavender and blue salvia fields ….the most perfect backdrop! I am so in love with this wedding! View the photos and read their love story below.

Also see this beautiful wedding featured on Wedding Wire,  Borrowed and Blue and 7 Centerpieces

Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-1Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-2Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-3Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-4Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-5Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-6Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-7Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-8Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-9Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-10Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-11Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-12Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-13Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-14Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-15Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-16Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-17Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-18Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-19Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-20Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-21Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-22Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-23Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-24Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-25Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-26Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-27Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-28Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-29Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-30Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-31-1Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-32Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-33Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-34Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-35Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-36Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-37Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-38Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-39Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-40Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-41Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-42Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-43Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-44Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-45Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-46Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-47Vineyard_Wedding_Hill_Country-48 How did you meet? 

Our love was a slow love.  It was not love at first sight and, when it finally did take a form we could recognize, was certainly not expected.

The moment I met him was something I’ll never forget.  He held the front door open for me as I arrived to work and he was on his way out, having just interviewed.  The moment made me uncomfortable–it felt as though I recognized him in some way even though I knew we had never met.  I know that sounds ridiculous.

Although Seth will now tell you differently, we did not particularly care for one another for quite some time.  Our mutual annoyance was magnified when we were forced to sit in neighboring desks.  This slowly changed as we got to know one other over lunches with another colleague who, you could say, served as our DMZ.  Soon the three of us found ourselves socializing outside of work.  Seth and I became very close friends–late night conversations to help each other through breakups, offering advice through life’s challenges, and enjoying successes.  We took daily walks at work–something I look back and realize was just an excuse to spend more time together.  It was only a matter of time before we realized love was inching us closer and closer and denying it became nearly impossible.

I had just gotten out of a relationship, something I had spent at least a month discussing the logistics of with Seth on our daily walks, when denial finally became no longer possible.  I found myself frustrated, asking myself why my ex boyfriend couldn’t have been more like Seth in this way or that, why couldn’t I be as happy with him as I was with Seth, why I felt completely offended at the idea of Seth possibly dating a girl I saw flirt with him.  I know, it was an embarrassing level of density.

It turned out that Seth knew about his feelings long before I did and was too much of a gentleman to interfere with a relationship.  I was a little late to the party, you could say, but I had loved him for quite some time.  Though our love was slow to reach fever pitch, it was rooted in friendship, bloomed with passion, and there was definitely no going back.

What made you fall for each other?

We had so much fun together, truly respected the other, and relied on each other for support.  And that’s what matters–you want to marry someone who you want to come home to after a bad day, the one who will keep you going when things are hard.  For this reason, I am so lucky to have Seth.  He is one of the best men on Earth and I am so very much in love with him.

How did he propose?

SETH:  I took Natalie to the place of our first kiss to propose.  Something we did as friends, before we were romantic, was drive past the city lights, find a spot to stop, and stare at the stars while we talked about life.  That is where we had our first kiss and it felt only right that we would have such an important moment there.

The wedding

I have to credit my mother for being the reason my wedding truly came together.  Though I think it represented both me and Seth, it was she who brought it to life.  My sister gets a lot of credit as well for her artistic contributions.  For the reception, we wanted to bring together our love for nature and our love for those closest to us so we kept the party intimate with only forty guests invited–about thirty-five attended.  We are very thankful we kept it intimate as it allowed us to really soak everything in and enjoy it with our loved ones.  We also chose to have the ceremony and reception outside in May so we could enjoy the night air.  Becker Vineyards in the south Texas Hill Country was the perfect setting.

My inspiration for the wedding was a bit of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a bit vintage, and some Anna Bond’s Rifle Paper Co. mixed in.  I chose a lighter pink and navy for my colors.  The men wore navy suits and bow ties.  My maid of honor wore a light pink dress from BHLDN–I love that store.  I put our ring bearers in navy pants, white shirts, navy suspenders, and matching Liberty of London print bow ties.  I nixed the jackets with them because I anticipated that they’d come off pretty quickly anyway.  Stacked navy (jacket-less) books, moss, and mercury glass vases/votives were used for the table centerpieces with some small arrangements I made.  My mom found most of the mercury glass pieces at West Elm and Hobby Lobby.  The books were either from our collections or picked up from used bookstores.  The moss was from Michaels.

I have a small collection of vintage hats so we had a table of those for fun pictures; however, I think we were too busy dancing and enjoying each other to get to it.  Things definitely do not always go as planned with weddings.  Another example of that is the backdrop I wanted to make.  I saw a DIY backdrop on a blog that was made of a bunch of paper circles strung together.  It was a really neat, simple idea but I had trouble finding paper in the right shade of pink so I ended up buying white cardstock and using watercolors to achieve what I wanted.  I painted the whole pieces of paper, dried them on the kitchen table, and then used a 2″ hole punch to make the circles.  Then I threaded them with different shades of pink embroidery floss at varying lengths–er my sweet and obliging aunt and cousin helped me do a lot of the stringing.  It ended up looking really, really good because the color wasn’t flat and had varying depths.  Fast forward to the day of, there was some confusion over where to put them so the individual strands ended up strung from branches of the big tree we all sat beneath for dinner.  I have to say that although it wasn’t what I envisioned, it was way better than my plan.  The strands swayed in the soft breeze around us; it was perfect.

Since we invited children to the wedding, my mother put together little inexpensive things for the children to play with.  She included a couple light up toys, some glow bracelets, glow wands, and some bouncy balls that lit up–everything lit up, which was a neat detail since the reception was at night and outside.  My father made a couple of teepees out of bamboo poles and dropcloth for the kids to play in out on the lawn–they were so cool!  My sister used gold paint to stamp and stencil patterns on the fabric.  The kids had a great time and were occupied, which allowed their parents to stay a little longer.

Lastly, I have to mention our photographer, Svetlana Frolova.  It was very important to us to have beautiful pictures to document our day and we could not be happier with Svetlana’s work.  She worked so hard to get every shot from every viewpoint we could have wanted.  She has a gifted eye for not only seeing what would make a great photograph but also accurately capturing the moment.  Of all the photographers we considered, her breathtaking photography stood out among the rest.  Svetlana also did a great job of making me feel comfortable in front of the camera, which is not natural for me.  She was so very sweet and wonderful to work with.  I would definitely recommend her and we plan on using her again in the future for other shoots.

Do you have any tips for couples planning their wedding?

I did my own flowers for the wedding.  I do not regret that as it was something special and important to me; however, I wish I had arranged everything the day before the wedding instead of the morning of so I could have had a slower day of.  I was so afraid the flowers would start to wilt but they would have held up beautifully.  I believe the key was cranking the hotel thermostat down and keeping them in fresh water.  Ordering them was extremely easy and fiftyflowers.com has good customer service.  They arrived to my house two days before the wedding in boxes and once we got to our hotel we started waking them up–our hotel room smelled like paradise.  http://mrsfancee.com/diy-wedding-flowers/  This girl did a great job breaking her experience down.  Also, FlowerMoxie.com is a great resource.  She also has a very helpful youtube channel.

Don’t put anything off.  My wedding shoes didn’t arrive in time so my sister and I had to make an emergency stop on the way out of town to Nordstrom, the mothership.

Seth and I used evernote to keep organized between the two of us–that was really helpful.

I would say that if you take anything away from my experience it would be to enjoy the planning of your wedding as much as you can and put less focus and stress on filling the actual wedding day with specific wants–things that will not actually matter to you later.  The journey of planning was so memorable for me, my mother, and my sister–something I will cherish for the rest of my life.

___________________________________________________________

Ceremony and Reception: Becker Vineyards, Fredericksburg, TX | Rings: Tacori | Dress: Ranna Gill, BHLDN | Veil: by bride’s mother | Shoes: Badgely Mischka | Caterer: Delicious Details | Cake: Sophie’s Bakery | Photography: Svetlana Photography

 

Reply...

Comments Off on HILL COUNTRY VINEYARD WEDDING | NATALIE + SETH

© Svetlana Photography 2022

Brand & Website Design by Carrylove Designs