Colorful and Eclectic Magdalena's Restaurant Wedding in Dallas, Texas

Vibrant Florals, 60s Music Festival Inspiration, Sequin Gowns, Mauve Suits, Floral Rose Crowns All Make an Appearance at this Restaurant Wedding

How do I even begin to retell the joy of knowing Molly or the happiness shared and celebrated between everyone at Molly and Dom’s wedding at Magdalena’s Restaurant in Dallas, Texas? This red haired, freckled angel and I met in Austin, Texas while working at a media company together. We bonded over many shared experiences and this spring when she thought a proposal might be coming, she immediately texted me saying, “If it happens, when are you free this coming May??” Not two weeks later there was a ring, and one week after her sweet lakeside proposal with her closest family, I met her and Dom in Austin for the most spectacular South Congress engagement session, featuring iconic locations such as Homeslice Pizza, Austin Motel, Amy’s Ice Cream, and the I Love You So Much mural wall at Jo’s Coffee. Molly shared some of her favorite photos from the session on her blog in a post introducing her and Dom!

A handful of weeks after their proposal and engagement session, family and friends drove and flew to Dallas, Texas for Molly and Dom’s most colorful, vibrant, eclectic, and personalized wedding! Molly and Dom together planned their wedding in just a matter of weeks! Since Molly is also a blogger, she wrote an article on How To Plan Your Wedding on a Short Timeline, where she details all her best advice and strategies on how they accomplished this and why she thinks this was preferable to them as a couple than a long engagement period! All planning aside, their wedding day went a little something like this…

Molly and Dom did not have a formal bridal party since they had such an intimate wedding, but Molly had all her best girlfriends over to her childhood home to get ready together. Molly had gotten her hair curled at the Dry Bar earlier in the day, and her dear friend and makeup artist Kayla from The Makeup Story did her makeup in the kitchen of her family home. As Molly got ready, she opened a letter Dom had sent for her. It was a letter to her as well as a torn page from an old diary of his. The torn page consisted of a prayer he had to God describing the kind of woman he might hope to marry one day. Line by line, it was as if it described Molly word-for-word, and she cried happy tears before hugging her soon to be mother-in-law and showing it off to her girlfriends curling their hair in the adjacent bathroom.

Molly’s wedding dress has its own whole story. Molly saw her wedding dress online weeks before her wedding and knew it would be perfect for her. However, being the sustainable human she is, instead of buying it new, Molly stalked Poshmark until the dress she was looking for popped up and she bought it second hand! This low cut, head-to-toe sequined gown had glossy and matte sequins, creating a glimmer without taking away from all of her other eclectic wedding details. She hung her gown on the curtain rail of her sister’s bedroom, where her sister had hung her own wedding dress when she got married and ready at their childhood home a few years before. Seeing it hang in that same spot was really special. Her mother and sister helped her into her gown and pinned her rose floral crown into her curls, curtesy of The Floral Eclectic. Once dressed, Molly did a first look with her girlfriends in the front yard before heading out to have a first look with her soon to be husband, Dom.

Dom donned a mauve rose colored suit and rose boutonnière and awaited Molly in a lush side garden nearby their venue. When they saw one another for the first time, there were happy tears, LOTS of checking one another out, and sweet kisses. Molly and Dom pinky promise one another very often, so we made sure to capture them pinky promising one another during their first look!

Typical to Texas, thunderstorm clouds covered the sky all day, and unfortunately right as everyone was arriving to Magdalena’s restaurant, where they were to have their entirely outdoor ceremony, it started to pour rain. Everyone was waiting inside and under alcoves to see if by their ceremony start time the rain would pass, but also, simultaneously, everyone was ready to take their seat under the drizzle to bear witness to their ceremony. As the drizzle became a tolerable amount, Molly and Dom were fully prepared to get married in the rain, but it luckily stopped right as they walked down the aisle for their ceremony. Under stormy skies, Molly and Dom exchanged vows, participated in a foot washing ceremony, and kissed as they became husband and wife. My favorite moment from the wedding day was right as they kissed, the dark and stormy skies parted and the sun shown right down on them for their first kiss, before hiding again immediately afterwards. Everyone exclaimed as it happened, as it was like the heavens were celebrating their union!

Molly and Dom, in keeping with their 60s music theme to their wedding, had individual cassette tapes hand lettered by Leyco Lettering as their place-cards and guest gift! The whole wedding ate together in long tables, family-style, and enjoyed live music played in the restaurant of Magdalena’s. Dom’s mother had hand made two different jumbo stacked cookie cakes layered with chocolate hazelnut frosting and vanilla for Molly and Dom to cut and share for their cake cutting and dessert. The two of them cut their cookie cake and fed one another nibbles before stealing away for a short while to take some romantic photos nearby.

Dom, as a videographer himself, knew having some photos of just him and Molly around sunset was important to him, so he scouted out the perfect wide open field of lush green grass for him and Molly to steal away to. The two of them walked down the footpath together, danced, twirled, and kissed as the sun set on the grassy field.

Upon their arrival, Molly and Dom, not having a traditional dance-floor reception, shared a first dance and parent dances in the courtyard of Magdalena’s under the string lights. As everyone watched, sparklers were dispersed as Molly and Dom took the empty space one last time for a last dance surrounded by their closest family and friends in a circle of sparklers. They danced until every sparkler burned out, then ran through a soccer tunnel of their remaining guests into their car, where they drove to their hotel for the night before flying out the next morning on their honeymoon.

Molly recounted her and Dom’s wedding day in her own blog post on her wellness blog, Living Wildly Well, and her final thoughts on their wedding are: “I definitely felt more range of emotions on our wedding day than probably any other day in my entire life haha! Weddings are the BEST. To have all your loved ones in one place celebrating you and your person is truly one of the best gifts, so my advice is to not overcomplicate it and stress about all the little things that legitimately do not matter. We have the biggest grins on our faces when we talk about our wedding and could not be happier with our decision to plan things the way we did and with the timeline we had!!”

Molly and Dom, I was honored to be part of your day, and I wouldn’t’' have traded shooting your wedding for the world!