Grace & William

“We were both separately on a random weekend vacation to Houston, Texas. I had just moved to Dallas a couple months earlier, and William had grown up there. While in Houston, we met through mutual friends. When I found out William lived in Dallas, I exchanged contact information with him, as I was trying to make new friends in a new city. Neither of us would’ve ever guessed that we’d be getting married one day. But as we made our way back home to Dallas, both of us definitely felt a special connection from meeting.

It wasn’t until a month after we first met that we made plans to see each other again. William asked me out to dinner because he ‘had a gift card.’ I know… so romantic! We didn’t stop laughing the entire date. I even convinced him to eat some mystery shellfish that came out on one of our plates, shell and all. It was the best first date either of us had ever been on. Eventually our dates became more frequent and it became clear that this was more than just a normal relationship.

Being that we had to plan a wedding from across the country, we had our friends tour several different venues in the area. They had such a different reaction to The Villa compared to the others. The beginning of our decision making process definitely started with us hearing out how enthusiastically our friends described their first impression of the location.

We chose The Villa because we loved that the ceremony garden had trees and bushes that added a layer of separation from everything surrounding it, making it much more intimate for our ceremony. We also liked how nice the indoor option for a ceremony was – you never can trust what the weather might be in New England!

On the day of our wedding, the staff was wonderful, they took care of things we never would have thought of – from having drinks ready for the bridal party immediately after the ceremony, to knowing exactly how to distribute the bubbles for our sendoff.

I think the first look was my favorite part of the day. With everything passing by so quickly, I thought it was so special to share the intimate moment with William. It was nice to have a brief moment in the middle of our big day where we weren’t both in the spotlight. The reaction of him seeing me in my dress for the first time felt more real since it wasn’t in front of a large crowd. During that period where it was just the two of us, it was as if time slowed down and we got to reflect on how special our day was so far and what was yet to come.”