Austin Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Wedding Questions!!!!!
Ok....I really would like to avoid getting on the knot. 
I did not get married in Austin so I am clueless! My sister in law just got engaged! (YAY!) She just moved from Providence, Rhode Island (college at Providence) and is now in Georgia.
I offered to help plan the wedding with my amazing mother in law!
HELP!!!
Do any of y'all have recommendations for reception sites in Austin? We would love a place where we can bring in our own booze and even food if possible. Since most guests will be from out of town (her fiance is from the northeast), she wants an "austin-y" wedding. She is planning on the actual wedding at the Catholic Cathedral downtown.
We also need a good photographer and florist. I am making the wedding and groom's cake.
Re: Wedding Questions!!!!!
For florist, I highly recommend Rebekah with the Glass Fountain. She did an amazing job, is extremely affordable and has great customer service.
I'm sure there are more beautiful locations, but ours, the Phillips Events Center, was great for us. It's just a massive ballroom with an outdoor area. We actually got married outside and then the reception was right there. We brought in our own alcohol and chose our own caterer.
My Bio (wedding pics added 7/6)
My 101
I'm not sure what type of caterer requirments they have, but the Bob Bullock Museum is pretty cool for things like that.
I also like the Texas Women's Mansion http://themansion.info/
My wedding was at the Bullock Museum, and at the time (2004), they made you use their in-house caterer and you could not bring your own booze. We did get them to let us bring in our own cake. . .made by my former MIL. ::shudder::
That said, I felt like it was a beautiful and unique location! The reception was set up in the main rotunda, we did not pay extra for acess upstairs or into the museum exhibits (again, that might have changed in the last several years).
Rarely Updated Blog
Whoops, I meant to add my recommendation!
I've been to several weddings at the Austin Club, and it's really close to St. Mary's (I assume that's the Cathedral you're talking about?). No clue about the food/booze situation there. Their ballroom is lovely, though.
Rarely Updated Blog
I'd recommend Austin Women's Club (Chateau Bellevue). Our wedding was ~150 ppl so I wouldn't recommend many more than that comfortably. Its got a beautiful ballroom, and a really pretty courtyard adjacent that is included with the wedding. Its on 8th/Nueces (1 blocks north of little woodrows), so its in the heart of W6th. We had a lot of OOO and young people, so the location was awesome.
You can BYOB, but no liquor. Only beer, wine, champagne, and beer has to be in bottles. Catering is done onsite, but they had a lot of options and I thought it was reasonably priced.
cake - loved matty cakes.
florist - we went with Central Market on 38th st (Donna - not sure if she's still the one) -they turned out awesome.
Oops - I messed up! you wanted a photographer not a cake!
For photographers, we loved Tyler Schmitt Photography. He was recommended to us, and we recommended him several times since. We see him at a lot of our friends weddings too - he & his partner are fantastic.
I highly recommend central market for flowers- Donna is the coordinator at the lamar/38th street one and she was awesome and the flowers were 1/3 the price of other places. I heard the glass fountain rec a lot but I could never get her to return my calls.
My photographer is now in NY and my reception was Balcones Country Club so no bringing in food or booze, sorry to be of no help on that end!
florists: cannot recommend bouquets of austin enough. fab. friendly. budget concious, but didn't scrimp.
photographer: melissa glynn, the nichols, gosh -- there are soooo many amazing photographers in austin, it's really going to depend on budget in regards to what she will be able to get.
venue: we used vintage villas but they provided the food and drink (which is what i wanted... they were delish!). I don't have any suggestions of byof places because I didn't look at too many of those.
"The House We Built."
A journey of building the dream.
Planning
Married*With Super 8 video*
Blog
I loved my wedding photographer, Stella Alessi.
Here are some of her photos from my wedding:
http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/03/12/san-antonio-riverwalk-wedding-from-stella-leon-alesi/
A lot of the wedding venues in town do not let you bring in your own food. I had a friend that recently wanted to do this for his wedding, and found that it would be very difficult. Many venues want you to hire a licensed bartender any parties as well.
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I was married at Star Hill Ranch and think it's a great "Austin-y" location, but it would be a drive from the downtown area. They do let you bring your own food and alcohol though. This site was compiled by some Austin Knotties and has a long list of local venues: http://sites.google.com/site/austinknotties/venueinfo
I used Rebekah with The Glass Fountain and my experience was less than favorable. I would not recommend her based on my experience with her. There are two major vendors I would change about my wedding if I had to do it over again, the florist being one of them (and catering the other). I have long reviews in my bio if you are interested in the dirty details, link in sig (click on "vendor reviews" obviously haha).
My photographer was great but he mainly works out of New York now. He did say he would still be interested in Austin weddings, schedule permitting so if he's their style I would definitely recommend shooting him an email. Again, details in bio.
My Austin Wedding Vendor Reviews
Pro Pics
We got married at The Winfield Inn in Kyle. It was awesome and we brought our own alcohol but it may not be what you're looking for.
We also used Tyler Schmitt for our photography and were so happy with our pictures. It was him and his wife and they were just awesome. It felt like just another friend hanging out taking pictures while we were getting ready. We also got tons of compliments on their work. Definately check them out.
i'm about to attend a wedding at the palm door in a few weeks, downtown near 4th and Sabine. http://thepalmdoor.com/facility.html
it looks like you can do your own catering (at a small fee) and alcohol. might be worth checking out since it's also really close to the ceremony site.