It All Started With A Margarita

Kathryn and Shane met at the Margarita Salsa Festival in Waco, Texas. Last year, they eloped at a Turnpike Troubadours concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Being a singer herself, Kathryn envisioned their wedding not as a traditional reception but as a music concert. For Kathryn and Shane, the little things really turned out to be the big things. Aware of Shane's fondness for the violin, she arranged for live violinists to perform during the ceremony, a surprise that deeply resonated with him.

As the bridal party walked down the aisle, "Wildest Dreams" by Taylor Swift filled the air, setting a dreamy ambiance. Kathryn can't forget that moment before she hopped out of the cherry red 1971 GMC pickup her dad drove. It was buzzing with excitement and emotions that she knows will stick with her forever.

"The altar was a vision I had while driving around checking cows last Fall. Our entire ranch is fenced in a rust-red rectangular tubing and I asked Shane to build it for us out of the same metal, and boy did he deliver! We “Planted” the cross in front of the Salado creek that runs through the heart of the ranch for the Ceremony site and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. Our florist Heather of Terroir Designs had to trust me when I told her the cross was going to be 14 feet tall, and seven feet wide. She knocked the Fall florals out of the park.

"For the reception area, I went with sailcloth tents for a more romantic feel, and used one of them for a seating area and the other for the band and dance floor. We pulled two flatbed trailers in side by side for our favorite band (Braxton Keith) to play on as a stage, Yellowstone style! The wooden dancefloor and sawmill shavings added to the Texas dancehall aesthetic I was after. Shane’s family is big into team roping so I knew we would need to entertain lots of cowboys and keep them fed, Texas style BBQ from the family favorite Schoepf’s was the only way to go!

"JC Jones, our photographer, is so near and dear to our hearts. She was the only one I knew from the very beginning I was going to use as a photographer hands down, and she’s shot Shane and I so often over the years. Her work is incredible and I love the editorial vibe that tends to shine through. Having a photographer that you’ve worked with before and are comfortable with makes taking wedding pictures such a breeze especially when it rained ALL day up until the very start of the ceremony.. literally it rained until 4:05 pm and stopped raining until 3 in the morning! I trusted her and her vision and she delivered tenfold.

"Designing the stationary was one of my favorite parts of planning the entire wedding! I originally wanted the invites to look like a rodeo poster, so I took that idea and molded it until I had the final form! Our save-the-dates looked like concert tickets, and even had a few lines from one of my singles “Kiss a Cowboy.”

"My father-in-law Billy was a really integral in helping me plan it all - he used to put on huge open-to-the-world ropings at his arena Wildfire here in Salado. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been able to put together an event this big."

"Planning the wedding was a fun experience, but our love story is still my favorite one to tell. Shane walked past me that first night we met in Waco and turned right back around to come say hi and introduce himself, and he told me he was going to marry me one day that night we met! He came to every concert I played in Texas that year afterward, and six years later he made good on his promise. I thank God for him and his love every day, his strength in leading our family, and best of all, he’s my best friend. A true Texas Cowboy & gentleman through and through, forever taking my crazy ideas and making them come to life." -Kathryn Pipes