There are DIY duos and then there are, you know, duos who travel the world together on The Amazing Race and then return home to craft every last detail of their wedding. Those are the kind of duos that take DIYing to an entirely new level… and those aforementioned details? Amazing (but of course). I’m talking everything from the fab signage to the beautiful blooms, all crafted by two of your favorite sweeties (Trey and Lexi) and their devoted friends and family. It’s a day that celebrated love in every which way and you can see it all captured by Everest Road Photography in the full gallery.
From Everest Road Photography… You might recognize this couple from the last season of The Amazing Race, but that’s not how I know them. When Trey and Lexi came to me about photographing their wedding I knew nothing of their reality tv fame. All I saw was an unbelievable love. From the moment she hopped out of that antique red pick-up until their procession back down the aisle, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. And it makes sense. Anyone who has met Trey and Lexi feels like a part of their story. This bride and groom love people well! Their incredible DIY country chic wedding day at Kali Kate told a story of adventure and love. These two have already experienced a lot of life together, and their wedding day showed that off to everyone in attendance!!
From the Bride… Our forever began on 05.25.13. Next to Heaven it doesn’t get any better than this. We absolutely could not wait for that very moment to finally hear the words, “Trey and Lexi, you are now husband and wife.” Our forever day was just how we imagined it. We wanted all our families and friends to come relaxed, dressed in their cowboy boots ready to witness our vows and to celebrate– our Country Chic wedding day. We wanted the day to be very intimate and personal so we wanted to make everything ourselves– spending thoughtful time on each and every detail. My entire family helped me to have the sweet Southern Wedding I had always dreamed.
We made everything ourselves… Our invitations, Save-the-date & Thank you Cards were designed by my mother and me. I knew Trey and I would love to have an icon that would symbolize our marriage, so we started there and the rest fell easily into place. Our love for the great state of Texas– deer antlers and our initials, super easy and so representative of who we are.
I work in our family business, ATX Mafia Apparel Co., so we were able to create cute tees for our family and bridal party to celebrate our special weekend! We had our wedding icon on the front and the phrase “THE HUNT IS OVER!” on the back of the tee. Trey and I had so much fun giving them. Everyone couldn’t wait to get theirs and put them on immediately to celebrate our day!
I had always dreamed of wearing my Mom’s wedding dress. So we had a wonderful seamstress alter it. We de-poofed it a bit since my mom got married in 1986, removed the sleeves, cut out the back of it to make it more dramatic and added a free hand-sewn accent and left everything else the same. This was a really special moment for us when I tried on the final dress. I topped it off wearing my sweet cousin (and bridesmaid), Sara’s veil who was just married four weeks before. It was really special for us.
When I dreamed of my wedding day, I always dreamed that I would wear my Mama’s wedding dress and a pair of my cowboy boots! I wore a beautiful pair of Corral Boots– they were stunning and I never had to worry about my feet hurting. My focus was always on the man I was about to marry– and not how uncomfortable I was in stuffy high heels. I highly recommend it to any bride!
It was important to me that my sweet and wonderful girls did not spend more that $60 to join me on my wedding day. So I hand-picked 11 unique short casual dresses off of the internet… each wearing a certain color: coral, mint, lilac, beige and vintage pink. My maids of honor– my two sisters, Brooke and Jade wore the same short dress in light pink. They all wore their own favorite cowboy boots and they looked incredible! And they were comfortable too! Love that!
Our 12ft Cross wrapped in 1250 ft of rugged rope was built by my daddy and my mom did all the flowers. At first she was super anxious about it, but they turned out perfectly! Can’t ever go wrong putting some gerbers, magnolia, peonies and lilies together with tons of baby’s breathe. Our wedding aisle was decorated with 14 stained old crates with oversized Mason jars filled with some of our favorite white flowers, all hand-cut and placed by my Mama. Awesome! She also hand-wrapped and decorated 45+ old-fashioned mason jars of all sizes (and has the glue gun burn marks to prove it).
My bouquet was handmade and filled my favorite pieces of vintage jewelry from my great grandmothers, my grandmother, my mom’s and my collections. I also had a picture of grandmother and great aunt who are longer with us. Two women that I admire with my whole heart. My bouquet was so personal, so special & something I will keep forever as a token of our super special day.
We repurposed old shipping pallets for signage and quotes that are so important to Trey and me. My sister, Brooke, stained them and hand-lettered each one. And pillows– we had pillows galore! We love, love, love pillows as accents to showcase our personalities. We just had so much fun decorating each one. My mom and I made several burlap oversized pillows and then hand stitched a couple of deer heads on them. Trey is an avid hunter, so it was a most perfect accent. They now decorate our bedroom. We also had about 6 other pillows monogrammed with our new initials.
A few other special touches included tons of candles! You can never have too many candles. We had a candle company hand-pour our favorite scent into old galvanized containers and my mom then decorated them with coordinating burlap and fun ribbon. The venue smelled amazing and lit up the room to give it a wonderful country evening glow.
Trey’s Grooms Cake – I don’t believe I know anyone more patriotic than Trey. He requested cake balls shaped in our country’s beautiful great flag….we added more mason jars and candles decorated in the beautiful red,white & blue. (Note the cakes are about the only thing we did not make ourselves—-other than Rudy’s BBQ we had catered. No one can grill better BBQ than Rudy’s! Hometown favorite!
It was very important to me that everyone walked away from the wedding knowing a little more about Trey and me. The program was an important part of that. It explained how Trey proposed, the history of my wedding dress, gave insight to my bouquet and went through all the key important dates of our entire relationship.
We wrote our own vows. It was so incredible crafting some of the most important words we would ever say to each other. Saying our vows was definitely the most incredible part of the whole wedding.
We dedicated a small area to show our family and friends a handmade World Map where we travelled during The Amazing Race. Four weeks racing with Trey around the world solidified that we can battle through anything– hunger, exhaustion, testing our physical abilities to the limits and tough translation issues from country to country. And… We leaned on each other.
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Wedding Photography: Everest Road Photography | Day Of Coordinator: Samantha Conley of Kali Kate | Wedding Venue: Kali Kate | DJ: Ryan Williams of The Beat Connection | Groomsmen Attire: Men’s Wearhouse | Flowers: Mother of the Bride | T-Shirt Favors: ATX Mafia