Dallas Wedding Planner | Keestone Events

Elizabeth was a bride who knew exactly what she wanted from the very beginning. Being a Type A personality, it was important to her to have her planner be on top of things, help bridge any gaps and make sure the flow of the wedding day went well.

After getting to know her personality a bit, Stephanie was the perfect lead planner for her + Alex’s wedding day.

Fun facts about this wedding:

The groom’s family writes and performs a surprise song for big milestones – graduations, weddings, big birthdays, etc. and this wedding was no different. They surprised the bride and groom with a special surprise compilation to Rent’s “Seasons of Love” during the reception.
The groom’s cake was a replica of their new house and the adorable dog figurines digging in the dirt out front was a fun surprise for Alex that Elizabeth had planned.
Instead of a standard guestbook, they had guests “record their name” on records that they can hang in their new home!

Elizabeth was gracious enough to answer a few questions about her and Alex’s story, leading up to the day itself.

Tell us about your love story – how did you meet?

Alex and Elizabeth met in their first semester of college at SMU, in the fall of 2012…and there was no spark. They were pledging the same business fraternity and bonded over the trials and tribulations of pledgeship. Their friendship grew, with a wonderful circle of mutual friends and a backup date to formals when they needed one throughout college. Fast forward three years, and Alex graduated early, moving back to Florida to work in the family business. They fell out of touch, but kept ‘in the know’ about each others’ lives through a mutual friend. A phone call out of the blue in 2019 would be the start of the rest of their lives…

What was your vision for the wedding?

We wanted to focus on timeless elegance, but in a unique way. I wanted to incorporate classic elements while also allowing other elements to feel untamed. We went with classic black bridesmaids dresses which allowed the unstructured nature of their bouquets to really pop. Each detail was thought through and specifically chosen to lean into that overall vision.

What was your favorite part of the day?

My favorite part of the day was our first dance – I have danced ballroom semi-competitively for over a decade, but Alex had never learned. We didn’t tell people that we were working on a waltz, and seeing his family’s faces as we took the floor was so much fun!

Teaching him to dance was a bonding moment for my side of the family, with my mom and dad helping me teach him in the neighborhood street in front of their house – the only space that was large enough to practice traveling. It wound up being doubly special, as his sister just got married, a month after us. Alex and I got to work with her fiancé on the morning of the wedding to put the final touches on their own first dance, also a waltz.

What unique elements or DIY details did you include?

There were a few things that I am especially proud to have included in the wedding. Rather than the standard ‘giving away the bride’, we adjusted it to ‘who takes this bride to join their family’ and vice versa, involving both of our families in the moment rather than only my father.

We asked a close friend to play piano for our wedding and he played some of our favorite songs throughout the processional rather than having our DJ playing something. We didn’t focus on organizing tables at dinner by family grouping, but instead mixed up the seating chart with common threads like a passion for Alabama football, or shared life experiences. By the time the dance floor opened, our guests had bonded and as a result, our wedding photos from the evening were fantastic, with people we knew from different walks of life celebrating together.

Were there any sentimental moments/items incorporated to the wedding?

Something Borrowed: Forty-three years ago, my parents got married in a wintery Nebraska. With limited options for flowers, my mother, Terry, reached out to her soon-to-be father-in-law and asked for his help in putting together a bouquet of pheasant feathers. I borrowed this idea , including pheasant feathers in my own bouquet as a nod to their enduring marriage. I also incorporated pheasant feathers into our in memoriam table, and for those who looked closely, they may have noticed that Alex’s buttons and cuff links were likewise pheasant feathers.

What advice do you have for other couples/brides-to-be?

Book every vendor who can only do one event per day right away. I was told, multiple times, to ‘relax and take some time to be engaged’ before starting to plan. I am very organized and Type A so I ignored that advice and got started on planning, to discover with almost a year ahead of me, I was already behind. Once I got all my vendors booked, then I really had time to relax and enjoy the excitement of being engaged. Get the vendor contracts out of the way and the rest will be much more relaxed!

Also – having someone that you truly trust as your wedding planner is a game changer. I don’t like handing over control of things that are important to me, but Stephanie made me so comfortable and relaxed in doing just that, simply because it didn’t take me long to realize that she was even more organized than I am. I have seen plenty of weddings where the planners miss an important detail, but at our wedding, she had my complete trust and absolutely lived up to it.