AGAVE ROAD KATY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
7 years ago, Nicole and Dominic met at Texas A&M University in Physics lab. They were both engineering majors and signed up for many of the same classes. She was sitting at a lab table by herself. Most people were already paired with a lab partner when Dominic walked in. His friends were paired up together, and they had to convince him to come over and sit next to Nicole. He was a little nervous but used the pickup line of “I’m on the Ice Hockey Team.” Two weeks later, Nicole went to one of his hockey games. They began studying for their classes together and the rest is history!
You may be imagining how Dominic’s proposal to Nicole went down. On the ice? In a science lab? Close. Sort of. There was definitely chemistry going on, and it was wintertime. Nicole absolutely loves Christmas, and every year she tried to drag Dominic to a drive-through light show in College Station called Santa’s Wonderland. He usually didn’t like to go but in 2012, he asked if she wanted to stop by Santa’s Wonderland on their drive home from Dallas over Thanksgiving. Nicole got so excited that he actually wanted to go and she recommended that they get a carriage ride for just the two of them. Little did she know, Dominic had already set everything up and had a surprise party waiting at her parents’ house in Houston afterward!
When it came time to go on the carriage ride, it turned out that the carriage ride was for 3 couples, not just one. Dominic started to freak out because he was planning on proposing during the carriage ride but did not want to do it with other people there. During the ride Nicole noticed Dominic looking everywhere and not sitting still but she just assumed he was ready to head home. Once the ride was over she suggested that they leave, but he asked if they could walk around a little bit more. He brought her over to a quiet area that overlooked all the lights and started taking off her gloves as he got down on one knee. How romantic! What a wonderful surprise to have so many family and friends waiting at her parents’ house to celebrate the happy news with them!
Dominic and Nicole wanted a venue for their wedding that was non-traditional and unique. “When we took a tour of Agave Road, [in Katy, Texas] we felt that we were transported to an exotic location outside the United States. The grounds were beautiful with luscious plants and we loved the idea of being married in the courtyard outside, in front of the stone fireplace, with the sun setting behind it. After talking with the coordinators, we were very impressed at how accommodating and personal the staff was; they allowed each wedding to be just as the bride and groom had wished. The cherry on top was the food to be catered by Cordua. Churrascos is one of our favorite restaurants and we usually go there for special occasions so we knew that the food was going to be amazing!”
Agave Road is located not far from the busy city life of Houston, Texas. A peaceful estate nestled on 30 acres of country woodland on the Gulf Coast. If you haven’t found the right place for your wedding day, this all-inclusive venue in the country; Agave Road, is worth checking out!
Choosing the gown is so important to brides, and everyone says that ‘you just know’ when you’ve found the right one for you! Nicole’s gown was beautiful and looked even better on her. She describes how she found her perfect wedding gown. “The gown is by Allure Bridal and I got it at Weddings by Debbie. It was the fourth dress that I tried on and everyone loved it instantly. After trying on about 10 other dresses, the bridal assistant told me we needed to wrap things up so I needed to try on a few dresses one last time before leaving. The moment I put the dress on for the second time, I knew it was the one. It checked off everything on my list: sophisticated, lace, traditional with a modern touch, elegant, and timeless. When I walked out all my friends and family members that were there gasped and they knew it was the one too. I surprised everyone when I decided to take the dress that day; I am a very picky person and usually take forever to make a decision. Everyone assumed I would travel to every bridal store in Texas before deciding on the dress. After looking back at photos from the wedding, I am so in love with my dress and I know that I made the perfect choice.” SGI Photography couldn’t agree more, Nicole!
Dominic and Nicole also decided to be non-traditional when it came to cake.
“We decided to do a small cake topper that he and I would cut and do the traditional feeding each other. We used a cake topper that read “That’s Amore” as a toast to Dominic’s Italian heritage. I absolutely love cupcakes so it seemed fitting for me to have a variety of cupcakes for our guests. Edible Designs by Jessie did an outstanding job with our cupcakes and cake. We had three flavors to choose from: chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling, almond cake with buttercream filling, and amaretto cake with raspberry filling. Instead of a groom’s cake, Dominic asked to have a cannoli bar; a cannoli is an Italian pastry that is a hard shell filled with cream cheese. We provided toppings such as crushed pistachios, chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, powdered sugar, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream.” Can we all say, “Yum”?!
All of the lovely floral décor was done by Tawnya Morse from Agave Brothers, through the venue, Agave Road. “We chose Tawnya because of her amazing ideas and knowledge of the venue. I absolutely loved my bridal bouquet which consisted of white calla lilies with baby’s breath and greenery. The bridesmaid’s bouquets were white peonies, carnations, burgundy berries, and greenery. The centerpieces had white hydrangeas and baby’s breath at the top with sage green ribbon, berries, and baby’s breath at the bottom.”
Everyone wants to know what is running through the minds of a bride and groom when they first see each other on their wedding day, and how they were feeling emotionally during their wedding. These fabulous newlyweds were willing to let us know what they were thinking and feeling!
Dominic: Wow, she managed to improve perfection. She was as beautiful as she always is, but wow! How did she manage to improve on perfection?
Nicole: He looks so handsome, and I feel so honored to become his wife!
Dominic’s most emotional moment of the wedding day: When Nicole’s dad gave giving his toast and officially welcomed me into the family.
Nicole: When Dominic started to tear up saying his vows; it was very special since we wrote our own vows together.
Dominic really enjoyed their wedding reception at Agave Road:
It was one big dance party! Everyone was having a great time and happy to share the celebration with us.
Nicole loved having almost all of their family and friends in one place at the same time celebrating their love together.
Finally, Nicole and Dominic were off to Italy on their fabulous honeymoon!
“We started out in Rome going to a Roma vs. Udinese soccer match; we visited the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Baths of Caracalla, and St. Peters Basilica. We ate the most amazing food, drank way too much wine, and explored the city on foot. We then traveled to Positano where Dominic’s family is from. The views were breath-taking and it almost didn’t feel real. We explored the town, shopped in the local stores, played at the beach, went to an amazing restaurant at the top of the hill where we ate so much we passed out afterward. We picked up bottles of wine and watched the sunset over the mountains from the balcony. On our way to Naples, we stopped in Pompeii to explore the ruins of the ancient city. In Naples, we had the best pizza ever along the coastal restaurants overlooking the ocean and castles. We watched more intense soccer matches and tried new drinks at the local bars. We visited the National Archaeological Museum that had many statues and artifacts from Pompeii that we visited the day before. It was the only day that it rained so we shopped for ourselves and for our family and friends. Our last day, we traveled back to Rome and went to the local supermarket to collect authentic Italian food to bring back home with us. It truly was a fairytale honeymoon!”
A few words of advice for future brides and grooms from the newlyweds:
Nicole: Cherish every moment, take a million pictures, let everyone know how special they are to you, and all the hard work will pay off in the end.
Dominic: Abide by the pre-ceremony beer limit.
