Keestone Events Dallas Wedding Planner-159 | Keestone Events

Sarah, one of our lead Dallas wedding planners, planned Sydney + Brandon’s wedding. This sweet couple had to postpone their wedding not once, but three times in the past year due to 2020 being…2020. ⁠This couple is in the medical field so it’s easy to know just how swamped (understatement of the year) they were with hospitals being overwhelmed, extremely long days at work, and just sheer exhaustion from everything going on in the world at the time.

To alleviate some of the stress from Sydney, Amy, her mother came into the picture and together, we planned the wedding with input from Sydney when she was able to resurface every few months or so. Did I mention that Amy has an AMAZING eye and sense of style? It made planning a lot of fun because someone else cared just as much about the details and knew how important they were!

Because Sydney + Brandon’s wedding dates changed, each time, the layout and plans also were altered to go with the “new” guest count along with the seasons. We initially planned for a spring wedding, then late summer evening, and then spring again at Arlington Hall. There were layouts on top of layouts, with rain plans for each situation since the vision for each season did change quite a bit…so much so, it seemed as if we had planned three different events! ⁠

Third time was the charm for this couple, and we had plans for their day to be held entirely outdoors. If you know Dallas weather, it tends to lean on the bipolar side, preferring to keep one constantly guessing.⁠ The night before, it stormed like no other, but that thankfully led to a sunny day after with cooler temperatures in the 60s.⁠

It was a long road to celebrate this couple, but we couldn’t have been more thankful to have met with and planned for such kind, gracious and genuine people. It feels like we say that a lot but we have been truly so fortunate to meet some of the best humans with planning events!

You can also read more about the day and learn about how things went from Sydney’s own words below:
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Tell us about your love story. How did you meet?

Brandon and I met in college through mutual friends. We happened to move into the same apartment building, and my (Sydney’s) roommates were friends with his (Brandon’s) roommates. We became good friends first before we started dating.

What was your vision for the wedding?

We were hoping to create a day that felt welcoming and warm, something that felt casual but still had an elegance to it. Before COVID we had hoped for a fairly unstructured reception that felt more like an elevated backyard party than a wedding, with no assigned seating and plenty of time for mixing and mingling. COVID certainly changed those plans and we added in more structure to help our guests feel safe, but I think we were still able to achieve our goal of ditching any stuffiness or excess formality.

What was your favorite part of the day?

Brandon and I decided that halfway through our first dance we wanted to invite our guests to join in with us. When we were planning it, I thought it would just be a nice way to open the dance floor to our guests. But when it actually happened, it felt like an incredible metaphor for the love that we are surrounded by in our friends and family. It took my breath away when everyone rushed onto the floor to dance alongside us. It felt so powerful and made my heart glow to look around the dance floor and see the smiling faces of everyone we love and know just how supported we are by all of them.

What unique elements or DIY details did you include?

Anyone who knows us, knows that we are obsessed with our two cats, Suri and Ollie. There were multiple details that we incorporated them into, including our signature drink signs, cocktail stirrers, napkins, and the light-up cat ears that were passed out on the dance floor. Because of COVID, we also made the atypical choice to assign seating at the ceremony as well as at dinner, so that it would always be up to the individual guest whether they wanted to mingle outside of their household or not. (P.S. this was probably not a request that Sarah’s team gets often and they executed it like total champs).

We also incorporated our reception seating assignments into this, with a hand sanitizer table assignment already waiting on every guest’s ceremony chair, so that there was no bottleneck point when getting into the reception. Those table assignments were handmade by my very crafty and creative aunt! She also handmade gifts for our bridal party and made the cat cocktail stirrers.

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

We toasted with the hand-painted champagne flutes that my dad proposed to my mom with. Our last dance song, Can You Feel the Love Tonight?, was also sentimental as it is an inside joke for us from our early dating days.

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

A top notch planner like Sarah with Keestone Events is a must! Honestly she saved us so many times, she planned and replanned our wedding through a pandemic, and I don’t know what we would have done without her. She also was the one who connected us with the rest of our high-quality vendor team, which also made the whole process so easy.

I also want to shout out Dyan, our photographer, and Olivia, our florist. Two immensely talented women who are just as smart and kind as they are gifted. Hire them and you will not be sorry. And lastly, I’m sure any COVID-bride will tell you this, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. Your wedding day might not look anything like how you originally planned it, and even then, it will still be even more amazing than you can imagine.