“Natalie + Patrick managed to create a wedding day that brilliantly blended the unique and the timeless – an homage to classic tradition with special touches that made the day perfectly THEM.”

The TFWC Mansion is the kind of wedding venue that makes you FEEL it’s history when you walk inside. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this venue is just utterly gorgeous and we were very excited to photograph such a beautiful wedding here! 

Natalie + Patrick (or as we like to call them, Nat + Pat) are so special to us, and though we can’t wait to tell you about their wedding day, first we have to tell you the really cute story of how they got together. 

Nat + Pat met at church when they were just little kids, but they never really interacted with each other all that much back then. Time moved on, they grew up and for a while they went their separate ways in life. She went to A&M while he went to Texas State, until one year on New Year’s Eve life brought them back together. 

On NYE 2019 Natalie’s friends convinced her to create a bumble profile. Reluctant, she downloaded the app and soon she and Patrick were exchanging messages and realizing they had known each other years and years ago. They made plans to go on a date and the rest is history. She only had the app for 2 DAYS before she found her future husband, how sweet is that? 

Nicely done, Bumble. :)))

Prior to the wedding day, we had met Nat + Pat on two occasions: at Emily + Michael’s wedding (another L+L Couple) at which Natalie was a bridesmaid, and at Natalie + Patrick’s super fun engagement session at Bull Creek District Park. (Click those links to see photos of both!)

After really getting to spend some time with them at their engagement session, we left buzzing with good feels and adrenaline, due in large part to the fun dynamic and just overall sweetness that Nat + Pat have with each other. They’re just super cool, super sweet people that we totally connected with, so as you can imagine we were excited when their wedding day was FINALLY here! 

We started our time at the Mansion with some getting ready shots, moved into the First Look (such a touching moment), then Nat + Pat participated in one of our favorite (albeit lesser-known) wedding traditions: a foot-washing ceremony. It was a really beautiful moment. A short while later we left the Mansion to head to our Ceremony location: Saint Mary’s Cathedral on 10th Street. 

My goodness. This church is just jaw-dropping. With origins that date back to the 1850’s, Saint Mary’s was absolutely perfect for this wedding day. Nat + Pat managed to create a wedding day that perfectly blended the unique with the timeless – an homage to classic tradition, with special touches that made the day perfectly THEM. We love that. 

Speaking of unique touches, this wedding featured one of the GREATEST and most unique wedding traditions we have ever seen – the wheelbarrow…thing. Okay, to be honest, we don’t know what its called, but we stinkin’ loved it. 

The groom pushes the bride in a wheelbarrow with a flat tire (and chains dragging behind it) to the entrance of the wedding reception. Natalie’s Dad explained to Lee, that the beauty of this tradition is it’s not easy. In fact, it’s really hard (especially in this summer heat!) but you know what, LIFE isn’t easy either. And much like the challenges of life, Natalie + Patrick didn’t have to suffer the difficulty of this task alone – they ended up getting help from lots of members of the Carlin and Hoelting families to get the wheelbarrow down the road and to its destination.  

The reception was a sweet, sentimental and lively party, complete with LOTS of dancing, a frankly mind-blowing chair dance set to “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, but also some really, really touching speeches from Russell (the Father of the Bride), Ed (Patrick’s brother and Best Man) and Natalie’s twin brothers (Jacob & Shane). We should also mention that for their last dance song, Nat + Pat chose “To Be the Moon” by Aaron Watson, a song we had never heard somehow but it is a stinkin’ masterpiece of a song and we will be singing it to Baby Bortner as a lullaby in the future for sure!

We danced, we sang, we danced some more and eventually we sparkler’ed as Natalie + Patrick walked their way out of their reception and into their new beginning as husband and wife.

We HAVE to give a big shoutout to the vendor team that worked this wedding – it was truly an awesome team effort, and a testament to Nat + Pat that their vendor team was made up of such great people. All the vendors were absolutely excellent but Julie with Merci Bouquet and Micayla with The Moore the Marry Her truly went above and beyond to make this wedding and the images we captured from it, as beautiful as possible. We are so thankful for both of you!!

A special thank you is also due to all the other people who helped make this wedding day such a success! Emily + Michael (it was SO great to see ya’ll!!), Denise + Russell, Robin + Rick, Sandra, Jacob, Shane, Pita, Claire, Ed (by the way Ed, Lee also grew up reading the Redwall books, and he loves them!) and all the other people who helped to celebrate Natalie + Patrick. We appreciate you all! 

Nat + Pat – the only appropriate way to end your blog post is to say, thank you. Truly, thank you. Ya’ll are such special people. It’s made so apparent by the unbelievable love that surrounds you in your community, and for us to be invited into the midst of that community was a true privilege. Throughout this whole process you two have trusted us, believed in us and made us feel like we were part of the crew, and that’s a really special thing we appreciate more than you know. And at the end of the day, when life brings you challenges, hardships or things that must be overcome, we know the two of you will weather it together with grace, faith, a couple of jokes, and probably the family wheelbarrow. :)))

With all the love, 

L+L 

VENDOR TEAM:

Reception Venue: TFWC Mansion
Ceremony Venue: Saint Mary’s Cathedral Austin
Wedding Coordinator: The Moore the Marry Her
Floral: Merci Bouquet
Cake: Frosting Fanatic
DJ: Tunes Across Texas
Hair & Make Up: Luxe Beauty & Bridal
Catering: Hooked Up Tacos
Linen & Table Rental: Premiere Events

If you liked this timeless wedding at the TFWC Mansion and Saint Mary’s Cathedral Austin, make sure to check out Kim + Marcus’ Painted Church Wedding! Interested in booking your own wedding or an intimate engagement session with your person? Click here to get in touch!

Lacey + Lee Photography is a wife-husband photography team based in Austin, Texas who specialize in creating bold, intimate and emotive wedding, engagement and elopement photography. Within the Austin Area they serve South Congress, East 6th, South Lamar, The Seaholm District, Mueller, Dripping Springs, Kyle, Hutto, Georgetown, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, and Bastrop. They also serve San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Waco, Dallas, Houston, and any State or National Park you get to by plane, train or automobile. They are available for destination weddings, proposals, elopements and micro weddings.

Get in touch today for more detailed pricing!