If this bride isn’t the cutest bride in the whole wide world, I’ll eat my keyboard. She is so stinking cute. And nothing is sweeter than a ridiculously adorable bride on the happiest day of her life, especially when the wedding day is just perfect. Seriously, just perfect. Forever Photography Studio captured the aforementioned wedding, and holy cow, we are smitten!
From the beautiful bride… Jonathan and I met at The University of Texas Cheerleading tryouts in April 2007. For me, it was definitely love at first sight, but I was confident that he was probably already seeing someone because he was so adorable! After a little research, I discovered that he was actually single and we really clicked over the summer. He was from Dallas, I was from Houston, but that summer in Austin was unforgettable. We started dating the day after cheer camp. We had been dating for three and a half years and I was blessed to share three of those years cheering on the Texas Longhorns alongside my partner and best friend. We had talked about marriage for some time but knew that it would be difficult with him starting law school in San Antonio in August 2010. He also knew that my dream proposal would occur on the UT football field after one of our games. The 2010-2011 season has been a record-losing season for Texas, which was very disappointing coming off of a National Championship Game last season. Our last game/my last game to EVER cheer at Texas was on Thanksgiving Day vs. our in state rival, the Texas A&M Aggies.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium on Thursday/Thanksgiving/my LAST football game to cheer at EVER (excluding alumni games of course), the cheerleaders ran over to the front of the band to sing “The Eyes of Texas” for one last time. Of course, I was bawling crying, just soaking it all in and thinking of all of the wonderful memories I had had out on that field. Afterwards, all of the seniors were having a moment, namely Alyssa Durrett, our team captain and I. As we were hugging, my coach grabbed me around the neck and started walking me towards the 50 yard line. In the middle of that beautiful burnt orange longhorn on the 50, stood Jonathan, decked out in his Texas Cowboys gear. Jono (his nickname that I gave him) kept walking backwards because he knew I would want it to be RIGHT on the 50 yard line. He said, “Why are you so sad?” and as any good longhorn would I replied, “Because they’re playing the Aggie war hymn…” The Aggies had just beaten my beloved Longhorns by a measly seven points, to end my cheerleading career forever. He took my hands and said, “It’ll be okay. And besides, I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a really long time.” And as he got down on one knee he said, “Brittany Elise Wier, will you make me the happiest man in the world? Will you marry me?” I immediately tried to say “YES!” but had no voice from yelling the entire game, so I just shook my head violently and mouthed “yes, yes yes!” I was so excited and overwhelmed with emotions. I was closing one chapter of my life and opening another! The other best part was that all of our friends and family were cheering on the sidelines and almost all of my very best girlfriends were all there to share my special moment with me! I will cherish that moment forever. Even though Texas lost the game, Brittany Wier and Jonathan Richardson won. Not only was I thankful for friends, family, and the Texas Longhorns that day. I was SO thankful for my wonderful new fiance. Not only had he moved to a new city to take on law school, but he somehow found the time and money to get me the perfect ring and pull off the PERFECT Texas Proposal!
We knew we wanted a Texas’y wedding, so what better place than the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum? In all seriousness, I grew up in the Houston area, Jonathan grew up in Dallas and we met in Austin. We both love Austin and that’s where we plan to settle down, so it seemed like the obvious choice. The museum is beautiful and would house our 350+ guests, so it just worked! It was absolutely perfect!
Being born and raised in Texas and meeting at The University of Texas, we wanted our wedding to be very Texas inspired. At the same time, I had always dreamed of a large, extravagant and elegant wedding. So I would say our style was Texas elegance. We thought about burnt orange for a wedding color or a metallic copper, but that was too difficult to incorporate and too fall-like for our winter nuptials. We went with metallic gold with rhinestone, bling detail everywhere. Our flowers were ivory with subtle hints of blush pink. We wanted lots of rich gold tones throughout the reception space from the metallic gold bridesmaid dresses to a sparkly gold sugar rim on our signature drink, The Grandioso. We served Salt Lick BBQ for dinner, as another tribute to our Texas heritage.
I mentioned that I was very close to my grandparents who lived three houses down growing up. I wanted to pay tribute to my seamstress grandmother who would have given anything to make my wedding dress and to be at our wedding. At the reception, we displayed my mother’s wedding dress and my grandmother’s wedding dress, both made by my grandmother. We also had their bridal portraits next to mine.
Everything went by so fast; I really enjoyed brunch the morning before the wedding and hanging out with my 13 bridesmaids at the Driskill all afternoon. I loved seeing Jonathan’s face as I walked down the aisle. I loved the photos we took with our two golden retrievers (bow tie and tutu clad) after the ceremony. I really loved seeing the reception space for the first time and catching up with so many people who love us so much. It was so neat seeing my two year long vision, come to life.
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Photographer: Jona and Jerry Blackwell, Forever Photography Studio | Videographer: Richard Lizama, Lizama Videography | Floral Designer: Amy Bodle, Merveille Events | Event Planning + Design: Aimee Villa, Lizze Belle Events | Invitation Designer: Vanessa Pischer, Posh Posh Designs | Cake + Desserts: Judy Lee, Simon Lee Bakery | Wedding Gown Designer: Pnina Tornai, Kleinfeld | Bridesmaid’s Dress Designer: Lula Kate from Bella Bridesmaid | Any special jewelry: Grandmother Dorotha Hurst’s wedding ring worn on right hand, along with tennis bracelet, given as pre-wedding gift from the groom.