A few miles north of the oldest town in Texas where citizens blend southern hospitality with its original Spanish heritage to make it a uniquely “Texas town,” a wedding took place this past weekend at the Frederick estate.
All the guests considered it to be a good ole’ fashion red barn Texas wedding. Few, however, knew the extent of work that took place a few weeks and days before the wedding. This artist considers it to be a work of art, and although it was not done with paint brushes and substrate, it was still a work of art. The 10.55 acres estate was literally turned on its head in preparation for the wedding. We all wish Cody and Olivia the best as they venture into their new life together.
When the decision was made to have the wedding in the old barn on the estate, John (the father of the bride), decided it wouldn’t work unless a floor was installed. Up to this point, the barn had a dirt floor. So, the barn had to have a cement floor put in around the supporting beams. Then, came the landscaping.
“It just gave me an excuse to landscape the entire estate, which I wanted to do anyway,” stated John (my son-in-law~and son of artist, James Frederick).
From hundreds of flowers and plants planted to stone laid surrounding the flower beds, including the stone path laid to the red barn, commonly now called the”bridal path.”
I actually took over three hundred pictures for this wedding. My wife, Nancy, and I caught a plane and traveled all day Wednesday, and then drove two and a half hours to arrive late in the afternoon. Saturday was the day of the wedding, so I had plenty of time doing what I do, take lots of pictures, lay around watching a lot of workers work, give my advice (seldom taken), and overall enjoy myself.
We did take in a museum of the colorful town on Thursday, and my son-in-law, John, took Nancy and I on a colorful country ride on Friday, stopped by a Mexican restaurant for a lunch of chicken chopped cheese enchiladas and a chilled mango Margarita. We barely had time to take an afternoon nap, clean up, and show up at another Mexican Restaurant for the wedding recital dinner.
The landscaping, decorations, and planning were coming to their zenith. The work was near finished and it was time for the touches to the wedding preparations.
The mother of the bride was getting very involved, not only from the kitchen, the drinks, set ups, the cake, the communications from the wedding planner, and more…even the dogs were involved.
The dogs gave up chasing squirrel, deer, antelope, wild boar, and any other creature they imagined roams the 10-1/2 acre estate in East Texas to help the adults with the wedding (if you believe that we all have problems!). We’re only trying to put on a wedding here, not jump into Storybook.
This was only the first chapter. Please follow the wedding of the century in the next blog: TO BE CONTINUED……
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