Rustic Grace Estate Wedding
Van Alstyne, Texas
Catie & Nico
Catie + Nico's Documentary-Style Rustic Grace Estate Wedding
There was very little about Catie and Nico’s wedding that felt like it was there simply because a wedding was supposed to have it.
Everything belonged.
They brought about one hundred of their people to Rustic Grace Estate in Van Alstyne, Texas for a summer wedding that was laid-back, deeply personal, and very much theirs.
When we talked about the photographs, they didn’t want me to turn the day into anything else.
They wanted to remember what it felt like to be there.
So, for most of it, I let them forget about me.
vendors
venue // rustic grace estate
suit // mens warehouse
planner // rustic grace estate
bakery // sweet by design
florist // en fleur dallas
caterer // Hutchins bbq
dj // bright star entertainment
hair/makeup // onsite hair & makeup
rentals // simply chic rentals
Getting Ready at Rustic Grace Estate
There was already plenty happening. People coming and going. Dresses being steamed. Someone looking for something. Conversations happening across the room while Catie got ready in the middle of all of it.
The getting-ready spaces at Rustic Grace Estate gave me plenty to work with without needing to manufacture much of anything. Which is generally how I prefer it. Catie got ready. Her people were around her. I photographed what happened.
A Rustic Grace Estate Chapel Ceremony
Catie and Nico were married inside the chapel at Rustic Grace Estate. Before the rings ever reached them, they moved through the hands of their guests during a ring warming. I loved that.
Throughout the day, their family kept finding me to tell me things. Little stories about the two of them. Who someone was. Why something mattered. Things I never would have learned from a timeline. And suddenly I wasn’t simply photographing someone touching Catie’s shoulder or Nico laughing with someone across the room. I knew a little more about why. That matters to me.
The chapel itself has beautiful window light, while the white exterior gives us an entirely different place to work once we step outside. We used both.
Wedding Portraits Around Rustic Grace Estate
Most of their wedding happened without much interference from me. The portraits were different. We intentionally gave ourselves a little time to make something.
Catie and Nico wanted a handful of photographs that felt more considered. A little editorial. The kind they could imagine printing very large and living with for a long time. So I borrowed them for a bit. Then Texas decided it should rain.
We moved inside, kept making photographs, waited it out, and eventually wandered back outside. Nothing catastrophic. Just weather being weather.
One of the things I appreciated about photographing a wedding at Rustic Grace Estate was having enough variety around the property that changing plans didn’t mean losing the photographs.
A Summer Reception at Rustic Grace Estate
By the reception, everyone had settled in. Including Nico. He was having a particularly good time with his friends, Catie was somewhere in the middle of everything, and neither of them seemed especially concerned with what I was doing.
Perfect.
There wasn’t one enormous moment that defined their reception for me. It was Nico laughing with his guys. Catie moving through the room. Family finding one another. People talking when they probably should have been sitting down. And a cake cutting they were very excited about. I photographed that last one on both film and digital. The film photographs are still some of my favorites from the day.
Photographing a Rustic Grace Estate Wedding on Film
Catie and Nico’s wedding was photographed across 35mm film, medium format film, half-frame film, and digital.
Not because every format needed its turn. I just like having different ways to see something. Sometimes I reach for digital. Sometimes a moment feels right on 35mm. Sometimes I slow everything down and pull out the medium format camera. I’m not saving film exclusively for the pretty parts. It gets the messy rooms and strange expressions and people mid-sentence too. Because when you eventually receive the photographs, I don’t want there to be the wedding gallery and the film photographs.
It should all just feel like your wedding.
What to Know About Having a Wedding at Rustic Grace Estate
One thing worth considering when planning a Rustic Grace Estate wedding is the layout of the property.
The getting-ready spaces, chapel and reception hall aren’t all immediately beside one another. The distance isn’t difficult to manage, but it is something I would account for when creating your wedding timeline.
We used a golf cart to move around the property, which made getting from one area to another quite easy.
I actually think the separation gives each portion of the wedding its own little sense of place. Getting ready feels separate from arriving at the chapel, and the reception becomes another transition later in the day.
I would simply leave yourself enough breathing room in the timeline that those transitions don’t need to feel rushed.
Rustic Grace Estate also has plenty of character already.
You don’t necessarily need to completely transform the property for it to photograph well. The exterior of the chapel, outdoor spaces and existing details around the venue gave me plenty to work with throughout Catie and Nico’s wedding.
And if rain happens, as it did for us, there are interior and paved areas that can still be used photographically without sending a wedding dress through wet Texas grass.
What to Know About a Rustic Grace Estate Wedding
Rustic Grace Estate is spread across several spaces, with separate areas for getting ready, the chapel, and the reception. Personally, I like that. Each part of the wedding gets to feel a little different from the one before it.
It does mean I’d give yourself some breathing room in the timeline. We used a golf cart to move around the property, which made things easy, but this isn’t a venue where I’d want every part of the day scheduled down to the minute. Give yourself time to get somewhere. Give yourself time to get distracted on the way.
The property also already has plenty of character. The chapel exterior, open outdoor areas, getting-ready spaces, and reception hall give us variety without needing to leave Rustic Grace Estate for photographs. And if Texas sends rain? We’ll figure it out.
Documentary Wedding Photography at Rustic Grace Estate
What I remember most about Catie and Nico’s wedding is how little they seemed to be thinking about the photographs. Catie was in her wedding. Nico was with his people.
Their families told stories. Their dog appeared. Their rings passed through the hands of people they loved. It rained. It stopped. They cut the cake. And somewhere inside all of that, photographs happened. I think that’s why these feel so much like them. They weren’t trying to create a wedding for the photographs. They created their wedding. I was there to notice it.
Investment Details
Wedding photography begins at $5,200.
What you need from me depends entirely on what you’re planning. Eight hours might make sense. Maybe you want film everywhere. Maybe Super 8 belongs there too. Maybe none of that is the point.
We’ll figure it out together.
If you’ve made it this far and something about the way I see people feels familiar, tell me about yours.
