This gorgeous Bride found out pretty quickly that planning a Texas wedding from Montana is no easy feat, that is until she brought on the lovely Emily Moise of Keely Thorne Events. That’s when she found the wedding of her dreams quickly unfolding before her very eyes. With inspiration from an early morning sunrise directing the color palette and floral decor from Events in Bloom so perfectly luxurious yet with a dash of whimsy – this wedding is inspiration overload in the best possible way. See it all here.
From the Bride… I knew I was up for a huge challenge wanting a wedding in Houston and living in Montana. Planning my wedding wasn’t as easy as I thought. When I started the wedding planning process, I had no idea where to begin. All I had were these random tidbits of ideas plus an extremely long list of things that I didn’t want. It was early on that my future husband suggested that my mother and I hire a wedding planner. That’s when we went to Keely Thorne Events and met our extraordinary wedding planner, Emily Moise. Emily took all my tidbits of ideas and with her creative ability turned them into the most phenomenal wedding that PJ and I could have ever imagined.
I wanted my decor to have a traditional yet fun and whimsical feel to it. The colors we chosen reminded us of an early morning sunrise .. pinks, purples and sky blues. We both love the outdoors so I knew it would be important to incorporate the natural look and feel of wood throughout the wedding ceremony and reception area. My love for the outdoors and nature is also what led me to select a hummingbird as a wedding logo. Atheneum Creative integrated the hummingbird into our save the date cards, wedding invitations, along with our wedding programs, table cards, menus and escort cards all which were custom designed by Amy Boyter at Atheneum Creative.
One thing that was very important at every step of the wedding planning process was that we wanted our wedding to be about hosting our friends and family rather than us being on display. For that reason we decided not to do a head table during the reception and incorporated sitting areas throughout the reception room to facilitate a laid back and comfortable atmosphere. We really just wanted people to relax and have fun. With that in mind … Our obvious choice of venue was no other than the Luxury Exquisite Boutique Hotel “Hotel Zaza”. One criteria I had for the venue was that I wanted it to be a historic building. Hotel Zaza is the former “Warwick Hotel.”
On the day of our wedding, our guests were seated while listening to classic rock favorites such as The Beetles, Led Zepplin, Queen and many more other bands. The music was performed by the very unique string quartet group called Divisi Strings. I am sure it was an unexpected surprise to many of our guests.
After the ceremony my husband and I were escorted to a private room where he and I snacked on hors d’oeuvres with our Shiner Bock Beer and our signature drink Bubble Berries. In the foyer, before entering the Phantom Ballroom, our guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. In the meantime the ballroom was being transformed into a truly magical setting by the phenomenal and very gifted Rob Smith with Events In Bloom. You could actually smell the breathtaking flowers before you could see them! The floral arrangements were incredible.
Adorning each dining table were gold trimmed chargers, pale blue water goblets and Burlap wrapped Votive candles of assorted sizes and colors along with gold Chivari chairs. The unique uplighting that was put in place created the most amazing atmosphere where you felt like you could have an intimate conversation with a guest while being surrounded by 150 other guests! And the dancing… I don’t believe there was one single person that came to our wedding that didn’t at some point get up and dance to the fabulous sound of the live band Drywater. Drywater kept our party going till 1:00am. Even then our guests weren’t ready for the night to end, especially since Hotel Zaza brought out the most amazing sliders and fries for the remaining guests to snack on.
Our wedding cake, made by Who Made the Cake, was equally amazing. Our cakes had special meanings to us. My bridal cake was a 5 tier white cake with shimmery Buttercream frosting and a vanilla filling. Each layer was a different shade of sky blue making it an Ombré effect. The cake toppers were actually two birds that I had fashioned up myself. The bride wore a string of pearls and a veil. On the groom I had painted a tux and created a top hat and a tiny bowtie. When it was time to cut the cake we used PJ’s Saber sword from the “Corps of Cadets” at Texas A&M University, which is where we met and both went to college. The grooms cake was the show stopper. It was a 3 tier chocolate square camo cake with a Mallard duck decoy on top, complete with shotgun shells, cattails and an A&M logo on the front. Did I mention that the filling was peanut butter?
We really just wanted all of our guest to have the time of their life at our wedding. Each and every moment was captured by our photographer Adam Nyholt. 31 films captured our entire wedding ceremony on video. They also created a unique video production of our love story.
To this day, our guest are still raving about our wedding and what a fantastic job our wedding planner Emily Moise did with creating such a masterpiece. It was truly “the wedding to end all weddings!” Photography: Adam Nyholt Photography | Venue: Hotel Zaza | Wedding Planner: Emily Moise of Keely Thorne Events | Cinematography: 31 Films | Cakes: Who Made the Cake | Decor: Events in Bloom | Stationery: Atheneum Creative | Wedding Dress: Ivory Bridal Atelier | Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Bella Bridesmaid | Band: Drywater | Ceremony Music: Divisi Strings
