Papercity

The Couple: Cynthia Hunt and Thomas Mixon

Wedding Date: June 26, 2010
Venue: Regency House high-rise gardens
Flowers: Designer Jeff Bass, Kroger Buffalo Speedway
Catering: Ruggles Green, a favorite neighborhood haunt of the couple
Music: DJ Johnny Blue Dots
Photographer: Barron and Barron
Dress: Anne Barge
Notes from a wedding, from friend and bridesmaid Laurann Claridge: Through the years, I’ve seen bubbly and beautiful Cynthia Hunt, one of my nearest and dearest friends, through life’s exciting twists and turns. When I first met the local television news reporter, she had landed in the big city a few years earlier and was working diligently to lose her sweet Alabama drawl as she made a name for herself in Houston. Meanwhile, I was juggling talk radio and a new job at PaperCity. When TV-ratings seasons hit, her boss would invariably send her out to track down hard-hitting stories such as “Where can single men meet single women in Houston?” — and, for some reason, she came to us for the answer.

The engaged Hunt wasn’t personally interested in meeting someone new to date (and, honestly, we knew precious little about how to help). She wed shortly afterwards because, like many young women in their 20s, she felt it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. The couple amicably parted, and Hunt struggled, as many women in their 30s do, to find a like-minded man — another soul who shared her unique brand of joie de vie.

As cliché as it sounds, love struck when and where she least expected it: at home in her high-rise, while she was walking her five-pound Chihuahua, Maxwell. Who should Hunt meet on the grounds of the Regency House but Thomas Mixon, who walked his own dog, a bulldog named Duke, nearly every night. Hunt and Mixon started meeting nightly as they walked their dogs and found themselves talking for hours about their busy lives and everything beyond, becoming closer and closer in the process. When Hunt ventured off to do a dating reality show that summer, it seemed something between them was changing. Although he was technically involved with someone else far away, the quiet Mixon found himself cringing at the viewing party as he politely watched Hunt, one of his closest friends, arm in arm with another man.

The gig was up. There was obviously more to their story than they’d admitted before. And as one of Hunt’s best friends, I realized if anyone could inspire Mixon to utter those three little words and change the course of their friendship, it was Hunt. Soon afterwards, all she could talk about was getting married as quickly as they possibly could — after all, they’d already named their future children. And marry they did, on the 26th of June under an old live oak tree on the sprawling back lawn where they had met.

Hunt’s first wedding ceremony and reception had been more formal and exorbitantly expensive, the culmination of months of planning. This more intimate garden-style gathering united two people who felt truly connected to everyone in their presence. And as you might have guessed, pups Maxwell and Duke even strolled down the aisle — dressed, no less, in tuxedo bibs.

In real life: Bride Cynthia Hunt is a freelance broadcast and print journalist and mother to newborn baby girl, Harper. Thomas Mixon owns 9C, a modern-spec-house venture. An architect and design enthusiast, surfer and skater (he started Southside skate park in his early 20s), he has invested in both commercial and residential real estate over the years, often refurbishing vintage bungalows for resale.

The Couple: Jennifer Ward and Vinod Hopson

Wedding Date: November 6, 2010, 3 pm
Venue: Ceremony, the historic St. James Episcopal Church (1855), La Grange; Reception, Sengelmann Hall (1894), Schulenburg, restored by artists and owners Dana Harper and Hana Hillarova Harper
Cake: Tabitha Kikoska
Cupcakes: Celebrity Cupcakes (organic)
Wedding Decor: Natural woodlands decor by Stevie Thompson, The Garden Company, Schulenburg
Day-of Wedding Coordination: Kelly Balfour, Eventology, Houston
Photographer: Laura Burlton
Caterer: Sengelmann Hall
Notes from a wedding: This traditional Hill Country wedding celebrated. with due reverence, the two families’ histories. The decor had a handmade elegance — much of it crafted by the bride and groom, from the felted birds that functioned as escort cards at the reception to the wedding favors: Mason jars of Texas honey from Stroope Honey Farms in Alvin, boxed with a banana-bread recipe from the couple. 

In real life: The bride and groom work at FotoFest, where Jennifer is a curator and exhibitions coordinator, and Vinod is the press and Web site coordinator. They co-curated the 2006 FotoFest exhibition “Native Sons — Talent in Texas.”

The Couple: Paige Perrin and Matt Kenny

Wedding Date: November 20, 2010
Venue: Ceremony: The Church of St. John the Divine; Reception: The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Event Production: Keely Thorne Events
Dress: Angel Sanchez
Floral designer: Lucia Joklova
Caterer: Swift + Company
Band: Dysfunkshun Junkshun, booked through Gulf Coast Entertainment
Photographer: Brooke Schwab Photography
Divine Details:
• Custom M&Ms reading “Marry Me 11/20/10” and “Paige & Matt.”
• The groom, a fine artist, painted a portrait of his bride, which was displayed at the reception. 
• In lieu of a guestbook, Paige and Matt asked guests to sign the art book Texas Artists Today.
• The bride switched out of her wedding-day stilettos and into a pair of edgy Miu Miu studded jazz shoes.
• Paige and Matt, who live in New York City, gifted guests with copies of the Sunday New York Times as they left the reception.
• Mini milkshakes splashed with liqueur were a late-night hit.
• Flowers galore at the wedding, yet no two arrangements were the same.
• Bucking tradition, the groom did see the bride in her wedding gown before her trip down the aisle: They posed for pictures with each other and their attendants at the MFAH before the ceremony.

Notes from a wedding, penned by bride Paige Perrin: It was really important that the wedding feel like “us,” even though it was being held in Houston and was going to be a “big Texas wedding” in some ways. My mom was so excited that we wanted to get married in Houston that as soon as we announced it, she took us to the Lillie and Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts,  on the way out of town to the airport. We love to spend our time in Houston visiting the museums, and we knew from our first view of the space ­— with its acres of trees, sloping walls and lawns that form a brilliant frame for outdoor sculpture by such artists as Ellsworth Kelly, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso — that the sculpture garden would also perfectly frame our wedding reception.

We went on a road trip to Marfa by way of Austin for our honeymoon, which was really fun. It was so nice not to have to re-pack and go to the airport after the wedding. We just jumped in my grandmother’s Cadillac and hit the road.

In real life: Bride Paige Perrin is from Houston, a graduate of St. John’s and UT. She works in the production department of fashion designer Marc Jacobs in NYC. Matt, a working artist, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. The couple lives in Brooklyn.

For more amazing photos of wedding details, click 'launch slideshow' above.