An Ombré-Themed Rooftop Wedding in Downtown Houston

Lindsey and Connor met through mutual friends shortly after graduating from college in Houston in 2018. Three years later, in June 2021, Connor and Lindsey went to Lake Austin to celebrate Connor’s birthday. After enjoying a special birthday dinner, the couple watched the sunset and Connor surprised Lindsey with a proposal.

The couple planned to host a large 250-guest wedding on January 22, 2022 in Houston, Texas. They chose to exchange vows at an important location in the bride's life, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. It's where Lindsey’s parents got married, she was baptized, and her sister also said "I do." The couple decided to follow with a reception at Post HTX, a mixed-use complex that once was the United States Postal Service headquarters.

Lindsey and Connor set out to have a colorful wedding with ombré, floral, and color-blocking elements. They trusted their wedding planner, Chelsea Wenner from Kiran + Leigh, to help them execute the details and lock in vendors that fit their vision. “The easiest part was knowing we had so much help from our wedding planner and family members as well as having full trust in all our vendors’ visions,” Lindsey says.

Read on to see Lindsey and Connor’s wedding day from behind photographer Gracie Byrd Jones’ lens.

Lindsey and Connor’s custom invitation suite from Mesh by Alex featured an illustration of vibrant flowers and a striped envelope liner.

The bride began her morning with her wedding day beauty and a Connor surprised her with earrings made by the same jeweler that made her engagement ring and wedding band. Lindsey was also gifted earrings by her florist, which she wore for her second look.

Shopping for her wedding dress was Lindsey’s favorite part of the planning process. “Nothing is better than shopping with my mom and sister,” she says, “We have so much fun together.” When she tried on a silk satin open-back Rivini gown with a V-neckline, she was surprised by how much she loved it. “It was the complete opposite of what I thought I wanted, but it felt comfortable in every way and didn’t overwhelm me,” she says, “It was the only one that brought my mom and sister to tears.” Lindsey added a custom bow to the back of the dress for a special touch.

Leading up to the wedding day, Lindsey did dermaplanning treatments and a hydrafacial a few days before the wedding to prep her skin. She decided to skip the hair and makeup trial and trust Blush and Co. to give her Hollywood waves and a makeup look that made her feel like herself. She borrowed her veil from her sister and finished her look with Sophia Webster shoes and a pink shellac manicure.

Connor got ready for the wedding with his groomsmen. He wore a custom black tuxedo with suspenders, black velvet loafers, and a tuxedo shirt with Mariquita Masterson tuxedo buttons from Q Clothier. He made sure to get a haircut a week before the big day to keep styling easy.

Lindsey’s sister, Loren, was her maid of honor, while Connor’s two brothers, Bo and Seth, were the best men. Lindsey gave her bridesmaid a color palette of sunset shades and let them decide what to wear. “I wanted them to stand out and knew they likely would with it being a winter wedding,” she said, “I don’t like the old rule that you can’t wear red or super bright colors at a wedding to ‘take away from the bride.'” Lindsey held a bouquet with a mix of caramel and mustard blooms tied with a custom-dyed silk ribbon, while her bridesmaids were given floral wrist corsages to wear.

The groomsmen matched Connor in classic black tuxedos with bow ties from The Black Tux. The couple also had their two nephews, Bear and Henry, as their ring bearers.

The couple kept the ceremony décor simple with two flower arrangements in urns at the altar. “The chapel spoke for itself, and we didn’t want to take away from that,” Lindsey says. Lindsey’s father walked her down the aisle as an organ played “Trumpet Tune and Air” by Henry Purcell.

When they saw each other for the first time, Lindsey says, “We both felt like we forgot about all the little stressors leading up to the wedding and only thought about how excited we were to start our lives together.” The priest who officiated their wedding incorporated some personal elements into the homily, and the couple exchanged traditional vows in front of their loved ones. The couple recessed down the aisle as husband and wife to “Widor Toccata” by Charles-Marie Widor.

Lindsey used a diamond that was left over after resizing her wedding band to customize the inside of Connor’s wedding ring, along with a short note and their wedding date. “It was just the two of us on our ride to the reception and I told Connor to look to see my note in his ring,” she says, “It was a big relief seeing the surprise and excitement on Connor’s face when he saw and heard the story behind the diamond.”

Lindsey and Connor’s reception took place at Post HTX, where the festivities kicked off with a rooftop cocktail hour. Guests enjoyed hors d'oeuvres like crab-cakes (the couple’s favorite!), and stuffed bacon wrapped dates. The bride’s cousin Joe, a professional musician, played the saxophone for entertainment. The couple took some portraits with their photographer, Gracie Byrd Jones, taking advantage of golden hour at their reception venue.

The tented reception space was filled with long tables topped with white linens and paired with white chairs to contrast the colorful centerpiece arrangements. The head table had blush linens and an ombré flower arrangement in shades of pink, red, orange, and ivory.

For the menus and place cards, the couple incorporated colors from the ombré floral arrangement to alternate at each place setting.

The couple’s friend, Bailey, created a watercolor drawing that the couple used for the reception bar, bar backdrop, and cocktail napkins. The ombré floral design continued with a floor arrangement at the base of the stage.

The couple’s wedding cake featured four tiers of white cake embellished with single-stem roses in varying shades. The cake was displayed on a table decorated with another ombré floral installation in shades of ivory, yellow, and pink.

Lindsey and Connor made their grand entrance at the reception and shared a first dance to “Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys. Lindsey danced with her father to Frankie Valli’s “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," and Connor danced with his mother to Aretha Franklin’s “I Say a Little Prayer.”

Lindsey and Connor cut their vanilla and red velvet cake to serve for dessert.

Toward the end of the reception, Lindsey changed into a colorful Nihan Peker dress with a red feather trim and red satin Alzuarr heels. The couple snapped a few photos on the rooftop before their sparkler send-off. Following celebrations, the couple enjoyed a honeymoon in South Africa.

To couples planning their wedding, Lindsey and Connor offer a unique recommendation to prepare for saying "I do": marriage counseling. “We learned so much and it really grounded us through all the planning craziness,” Lindsey says.