Our Dallas wedding planners organized this glamorous wedding at Union Station, in Dallas, Texas.
Lexie and Sam had the most ethereal wedding. Both attended BYU happened to move to Washington D.C. as interns in the same program. They became friends through a mutual love for the great state of Texas and from there, the relationship blossomed.
After a very intimate and private Mormon ceremony, the couple had their reception at a historical train station in the heart of Dallas, Texas.
This fun loving duo had all sorts of fun surprises planned, from a sofa fountain station to a groomsmen dance. No detail was left untouched and guests were well taken care of from having 36 wedding cakes (yes whole cakes), at each individual guest table, milk and cookie favors to the vintage convertible getaway car at the end of the night.
This wonderful bride has taken the time to share her wedding planning experience that may also help others out. Read more from Lexie below.
Snippet and Ink also featured their wedding!
From the bride:
1. Are there any special details that made the day stand out like the venue, gown, etc?
We loved all of the details of the wedding! We really wanted our wedding to be natural, classic, and a real party for all of our guests. Here’s a list of some specifics:
Union Station: The venue provided an incredible backdrop for our event. After walking into Union Station for the first time, we thought, “we could do absolutely nothing to this space, and it still would be a beautiful wedding reception.” It’s tall arched ceilings, historical charm, and grand windows with views of downtown completely won us over. Though Union Station is unbelievable, it’s design is simple enough to complement any wedding style. We also loved the fact that the whole space was ours for the night. There was plenty of room for our 300+ guests to move around and enjoy the night. We used the smaller front room for a mock-tail hour, and side rooms for the food stations and a children’s room. It made our reception feel so special, because we weren’t running into other weddings or feeling cramped.
Music: Something both Sam and I cared about was the music. We both LOVE to dance and really wanted our wedding to be a party to remember. However, I had been to weddings where there was a stark contrast between the classy service and the dirty booty-popping music played at the reception. To avoid this mood switch, we chose to play all retro music throughout the reception. While we dated, Sam and I bonded over our love the 60s, 70s, and 80s music our parents played on our family road trips. We felt like the retro music would get people dancing, without making our grandparents feel uncomfortable. The music did not disappoint. Once the dancing began, it became quite the party. We even had my 85-year-old grandma can-can kicking on the dance floor! We got tons of compliments from both old and young guests. Some people even wanted the link to our playlist! Working with Jim was a breeze. His online system allowed us to easily handpick all of the songs we wanted and create the dance party of our dreams.
Table settings: We loved the unique floral design of the head table china. The pattern broke up the otherwise monochromatic design of the reception. The warm gold accents on the charger and silverware complemented the cool grey tones of the table linens.
Florals: The florals were really important to us, because we really wanted the reception to have a natural feel. We wanted classic and simple white flowers, with lots of different textures. We loved the thick greenery on the long tables and the statement pieces on the curtains coming into the large reception room. The florals also jazzed up our simple cake in a unique and natural way.
The gown: The gown was the first wedding decision I made. I tried it on (in blue, actually!) and fell in love with the lace details and the light, but full skirt. I truly felt like Cinderella!
2. How did you and Sam meet?
This is the story Sam wrote that we had in a basket next to the sign-in book at the wedding. If it’s too long, feel free to cut or edit it. If it needs to be written in my voice, you change it as well (or I can go through it as well. Just let me know!):
It all began when Sam noticed Lexie in a political science class, he introduced himself, and she promptly forgot about him. A few months later in April 2016, both moved out to Washington, D.C. as interns in the BYU Washington Seminar program. They became friends over their mutual love for the great state of Texas. They remained so for a few months until Sam carefully devised a plan to exit the “friend zone”. While playing ping pong one night, Sam bet Lexie that the loser of the game would pay for the other’s dinner one night in town. Sam conveniently lost and took Lexie out for her favorite meal, chicken strips.
After what he calls their first date (the details are contested), Sam hatched a plan to take advantage of their unique situation before she returned to Provo and other suitors. They played tennis, went to the National Zoo, attended an Orioles-Rangers game, and ate more chicken strips than either cares to admit. On Lexie’s last night in D.C., he took her to ride bikes around the National Mall. As the sun set over the Tidal Basin, he asked her which of the memorials was her favorite. “The Jefferson,” she replied, and off they rode to the Jefferson Memorial. In sight of the White House and the Washington Monument, they kissed for the first time.
Nearly a month later, they met up in Provo. They learned more about each other as he watched chick-flicks and she attended basketball games. Some of the most memorable experiences included several of Luke’s concerts, trips up to the Elmer’s cabin and the Prier’s house, watching Lost, and helping each other (competing) in an African Geography and a Middle Eastern Politics class at BYU. He quickly learned that she was much more than just a pretty face, and she learned just the opposite (see Sam’s biceps).
Sam got the OK to propose to Lexie while at Macaroni Grill in late January. Lexie gave Sam a few guidelines for the proposal which he tried to follow to little avail. The primary requirement was that the proposal be a surprise, because Lexie gets anxious when she knows a big moment or decision is coming. All was going smoothly until she sniffed out the proposal plan before picking him up to “go snowshoeing.” Tears were shed (hers), the surprise was ruined, and he had to improvise. The snowshoeing plans scrapped, they zoomed up Provo canyon to the Prier’s house in Heber City, followed the trail of rose petals to the balcony, where the box sat with the ring inside. After taking out a few mementos and slips of paper with “things I love about you” written on them, Sam asked Lexie to marry him. He took “Yeah. OK.” as good enough, and they began planning their wedding!
3. Favorite part of the day
My favorite party of the day was the ceremony. It was so special to celebrate our love surrounded by friends and family in the Temple. Other than the ceremony, it is really hard to pick a favorite part of the day. Both Sam and I truly loved every part of it. We had a blast celebrating with our friends and family, dancing the night away, and doing all of the traditional wedding activities!
4. What unique elements or DIY details did you incorporate?
We chose to put a few twists on some traditional wedding elements. I initially wanted a family-style sort of wedding, but after inviting over 400 guests, we realized that would be pretty difficult to pull off. So we decided to do some family-style things, with most of the food being served at stations. As guests entered the dinner, the tables were already set with salads and baskets of warm rolls. While we did have a large cake (that was nearly entirely fake!), we also put smaller one-layer cakes on each of the tables that guests could eat from. Since we anticipated left over cake, we also provided cake boxes for guests to take home extra cake. Another unique detail we chose was to have several caricature artists in the big reception room working all night. Guests could get as many free caricatures as they wanted. We learned later that the kids and families absolutely loved it. One little cousin got herself four different caricatures! Each of these different ideas were crowd-pleasers and worked really well at the reception.
Sam and I really wanted our reception to have some personal elements. To make this happen, we asked Sam’s incredibly talented brother, Luke, to play the piano during the mocktail hour. We also asked him to sing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” during dinner, and it was an absolute hit! Sam also decided to do a choreographed dance with all of his groomsmen to kick off the dancing, while I sat in a chair on the dance floor and watched them in all of their grooving glory. The dance was a mashup of several hits throughout the decades. They mastered the mannequin challenge and ended by lifting Sam into the air Dirty Dancing-style (my all-time favorite rom com) as “The Time of My Life” played in the background. It was definitely a memorable part of the night!
One DIY detail we included was a printed version of “Our Story” that Sam wrote himself. We placed it in a basket by our sign-in book. Many people picked up a copy as they came into the receiving, mocktail hour and told us how fun and helpful it was to read about our love story. It helped them avoid questions like, “How did you meet?” and “When was you first date?”
4. Advice for other brides-to-be.
The biggest advice I have for brides-to-be is to let go and enjoy your day! To make this possible, think through as many details as possible before the day of. Luckily, I had a superstar of a mom and a seasoned wedding planner who thought through everything well in advance. Because those details were taken care of, I was really able to enjoy every minute of the wedding we had taken months and months to plan. Along with that, make sure to take in all of the wonderful details of your wedding. Spare a moment to really look at the florals, table settings, and design elements. Eat the food and drink the drinks. It was really special for me to experience every detail we had worked so hard to plan.
Another piece of advice I would give, is to really think about the guests attending your wedding. We provided a well-stocked children’s room with baby-sitters, to allow parents to enjoy the evening. We made Texas-themed gift bags for all of our out-of-town guests and took the bridal party to a Rangers game a few days before the wedding (since all of my bridesmaids flew in from Utah just for the wedding and had never been to Texas before). By taking care of the details beforehand and by thinking about our guests during the planning process, we were able to really enjoy the whole wedding experience with all of the people we love!
You can also view other weddings we have done at Union Station below:
Classic Boho Garden Wedding Fusion at Historic Union Station
