Macey and Brant, the new Mr. and Mrs. Hoover, had one of the most iconic weddings. It was moody, warm and completely unexpected.

Venue:

Initially, when we met their plan was for the ceremony to be at their home church with reception to follow on private property. Lemme tell ya right now, that’s not how this ends.

About a month before their big day, we were keeping an eye on the weather, and we made the call to move their reception from their private property to a venue.

I know what you’re thinking… “Rachel, sis. No way...that’s crazy.”

Yes, that would be correct.

Luckily, within 24 hours of deciding on the venue change, I found On The Levee in Dallas.

The building by itself is an open space with an industrial flair. This was not the aesthetic Macey was going for. But with a little imagination, a hope and a dream, I knew we could make it work.

Concept:

One of the big draws of On the Levee is that it is a blank canvas. It provided the flexibility for us to play and create the dreamiest reception but gave us the comfort of a built venue.

Now, let’s backtrack some. Macey told me she wanted a moody wedding with jewel tones, but that was about as far as the concept went.

As a designer and planner, this is SO fun. Knowing they trust me to create a design that would bring their vision (that they honestly didn’t even know they had) to life is such a gift. It gave me so much room to play! After some chatting, they said, “I trust you!” and gave me free rein!

In their client questionnaires they mentioned a couple of things that piqued my interest:

#1- Their favorite date night is trying new restaurants and eating delicious food.

#2- With both of them being LSU grads, they wanted a nod to their Louisiana roots but weren’t sure how to do that.

My wheels began to turn and it immediately stuck out to me that their reception needed to feel like a New Orleans Jazz Lounge. Dark, warm and sexy.

Design and Execution:

As they say… sometimes a jazz lounge is just a jazz lounge, and other times it’s your wedding. (I am “they”)

Because the venue is a blank slate, and the Hoovers were so trusting, I was able to let my imagination run a little wild!

When it comes to any cocktail lounge, the ambiance is one of the most important things. You can feel the atmosphere when you walk into a jazz bar or cocktail lounge. To create that for Macy and Brant’s reception, I knew we had to make the room less… well, completely white. It needed to feel alluring, intimate AND welcoming. So, we brought in draping to cover the room from head to toe.

To make the space feel more intimate, I decided to drape the room into three defined sections. The middle, and largest section for the band, king cake and 3 ft. wide wedding cake (!!!). While the two outside sections had the bars and soft seating for guests.

This provided all of the necessities of a wedding... Seating, bar, dance floor, cake, etc, but it didn’t *feel* like a traditional wedding. It was untraditional in the most brilliant way.

One extra tidbit to note is that by the time we secured the new venue, we had already committed to rentals and all of the big pieces. Meaning, we had to find a way to use pieces intended for the old space, in the new one.

Thankfully, the rentals were stunning and ended up working PERFECTLY in the new space.

When I was working on the configuration of tables and final details, I took a lot of inspiration from high-end restaurants and cocktail lounges. Guests were seated at banquette tables, with rich, velvety seats. Each table had dim, romantic lighting and custom clipboard-style menus.

The more guests looked around, the more personal elements they would see throughout the space. Just small reminders that we were all there to celebrate Macey and Brant.

All of these small details and thoughtful touches really built the ambiance and added to the guest experience.

It was, truly, such an incredible night and a wedding my entire team left wishing they were a guest at. 🤪

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hoover! You two were so fun to plan with and celebrate! Miss ya already!