Cimarron Hills Country Club perfectly located in Georgetown between Austin and the Hill Country, has quickly become one of my favorite places to photograph weddings. And when you have such a beautiful and sweet couple as Alyssa and Jason, you can’t ask for more. View the photos of their amazing wedding and read their love story as told by beautiful Bride below. How and when did you two meet? What made you fall for each other?

Jason and I met the summer of 2009 at work, but … Jason remembers that and I don’t! So, we met once again (and for good!) at my mother’s retirement party in September, 2010. After that and a few salsa dance lessons, we started dating in January, 2011. The rest is history.

Our fun and adventurous spirits is what attracted us to each other. However, our shared morals, life goals, and mutual desire to improve the world around us is what made us fall in love and pursue a life together.

How did he propose?

We had a wonderful weekend doing what we love to do! We went paddle boarding on a local lake, picked up some food from one of our favorite local restaurants and sat out on the lawn at Hermann Park to watch an outdoor summer opera. We laughed at ourselves for being freezing cold and bundling up under a blanket that is meant for a single person. The next morning, May 18, 2014, the surprise!

A single word to describe our wedding day – perfect! We were so blessed to have the most important people in our lives with us on one of the most beautiful days ever for our “rustically elegant” hill country wedding. We felt relaxed, happy and so excited to marry each other.

Wedding Day

We had decided upon a short engagement of just five months. That turned out to be liberating in many ways as decision-making becomes very efficient…no time to belabor some of the details! We wanted the ceremony and reception to reflect our personalities and that also made it easier to plan.

Jason and I wanted to incorporate nature and natural elements into our wedding as well as our love of travel. Above all, we wanted a wedding that was fun for us and our guests. We spent hours and hours (and hours) getting ideas from Pinterest, wedding blogs and vendor websites. Within a couple of weeks, we had a solid idea on the thematic areas for the wedding and also an idea of the number of guests and a budget.

We checked a number of venues around the Texas Hill Country and quickly booked Saturday, October 25 at Cimarron Hills Country Club in Georgetown, Texas. The private events director at Cimarron, Lily Jones, was a tremendous help with the next planning steps. Lily provided names of vendors with whom she’s worked in the past that have consistently delivered high quality services. This was worth its weight in gold!

The biggest services to get under contract were our band, florist, photographer and minister. We loved each of them! The band, The Argyles, set the tone for the “fun” part of the wedding. They not only provided an elegant and beautiful acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment during the wedding ceremony, but the full band with horn section had the dance floor full all night long. Our florist, Ginny Swalley of Creative Innovations, quickly understood the natural elements we wanted to incorporate into the ceremony and the reception. We had bright autumn flowers with succulents interspersed, lanterns, wood, and a gorgeous iron arbor. She “got us” and everything she designed flowed seamlessly with the natural beauty of the rustic surroundings. And, our photographer, Svetlana Frolova of Svetlana Photography, captured the beauty of the day and the intimacy of the ceremony. Her photos are so artistic and we’ve had friends say some of the pictures look like they are straight out of a bridal magazine. Finally, our minister, Reverend Yvonne Coon of First United Methodist Church, gave the most unique and personal message to us. Since we don’t live in Georgetown, we had only met Yvonne once prior to the wedding, but we did converse on the phone and via email leading up to the wedding. She wove our life stories into an inspirational message.

Jason and I were also thrilled with the dinner that was prepared by Cimarron’s culinary team. We decided on a buffet due to many dietary restrictions that needed to be accommodated. Adding a carving station for prime rib and a made-to-order risotto station provided a step-up from the typical buffet. And, to stay with our autumnal theme we had a lot of farm to table roasted root vegetables to accompany our main courses of prime rib and halibut. So delicious!

In lieu of the typical wedding cake, we chose to have cupcakes from Hill Country Cupcakes in various flavors to allow guests to choose and share. We chose a mix of delicious traditional flavors and unique fall inspired cupcakes. They were even able to provide a number of gluten free cupcake flavors to accommodate some guests’ dietary needs without sacrificing their party sweet tooth.

A few DIY projects made their way into the wedding and reception. We made rustic wooden signage and a 6’ x 4’ rustic wood chalk board on which we wrote the dinner seating chart. Table names were also homemade wooden chalkboards with each name being a place we have traveled to together… these were a hit as some were missing by the end of the night. We also purchased wildflower seeds that we packaged ourselves in personalized packets for parting gifts.

Overall, it was a beautiful, fun day with personal touches that made it so “us.” Every aspect of the wedding was perfect to us and we wouldn’t wish for anything different.

Do you have any tips for future brides?

Do not stress over the little things that will be forgotten in the big picture. What you will remember when looking back is not the exact color of your table clothes or types of plates, but how you felt during your ceremony, the emotional reunions with family and friends, and how much fun you had. Decide what is important to you for your wedding day (i.e. the atmosphere, the food, the dress, whatever you value) and decide how to make that element spectacular. For us, we wanted to have a fun atmosphere for us and our guests to relax and let loose during the reception so we decided to focus on the band and dance floor. Overall, have fun with the planning and big day. Don’t let the stress get to you and ruin this once in a lifetime period of joy and excitement.

________________________________________________

Wedding Ceremony and Reception: Cimarron Hills in Georgetown | Wedding coordinator: Lily Jones at Cimarron Hills | Catering: Cimarron Hills | Photographer: Svetlana Photography | Band: The Argyles | Cupcakes: Hill Country Cupcakes | Invitations: Forever Fiances | Hair: Breeze Salon | Makeup: Nanette Johansen at Cimarron Hills | Florist: Ginny Swalley at Creative Innovations in Salado, TX | Tux: Men’s Warehouse | Wedding Gown: David’s Bridal | Shoes: Seychelles | Ring: Znascko’s in Dallas, TX