For nearly a decade, Christina Dandar has built a career on noticing the details most people walk right past: a painted front door, a boxwood on the step, the quiet charm of a well-loved facade. As the voice behind The Potted Boxwood, she’s spent years teaching her 246,000 (and counting) followers how to see a home differently. So when Christina got married this August in Connecticut, we couldn’t resist asking: what happens when someone with that eye turns it toward her own wedding day?
We sat down with Christina to talk through the planning process, her favorite details, and the intentional overlap between styling a home and planning a wedding.
The Wedding Tour
If Christina brought her signature “home tour” format to her own wedding, where would she start? The goal was to create an environment that felt like a thoughtful dinner party at home.
“I wanted it to feel like you were at somebody’s house for a dinner party. I love a party that feels residential. Our reception venue was not just some big ballroom. It didn’t feel corporate at all. I wanted everyone to feel kind of cocooned in there.”
As someone who has spent years noticing the small details that make a space special, we wanted to know what she cared most about getting right for her own day.
“I didn’t want over-the-top flowers, because you wouldn’t have that in your own home. I didn’t want anything to look kitschy, and I didn’t want props. That actually helped narrow down what I did want.”
From Dallas to Connecticut
Christina has spent years photographing beautiful homes across the country through The Potted Boxwood, with Dallas at the heart of it. But Connecticut became home for this new season of life, and her wedding followed suit.
“We got engaged, bought the house, and got married all in the span of a few months.”
We were curious what made this particular season of life move so quickly, and how she made sense of it all.
“I waited so long to get married. This was such an answer to prayer. God doesn’t forget the little details. He went way above and beyond when I finally let go and trusted the process.”
We were curious whether her new surroundings shaped her design choices the same way a home’s architecture might shape one of her posts.
“It should look like a beautiful party 100 years ago, and one that will be beautiful 100 years from now. Everything should feel intimate, gracious, and timeless.”
Designing a Home vs. Planning a Wedding
Christina is currently in the middle of designing her own home, making the timing of this conversation especially fitting.
“Basically all the furniture groupings at the reception were from my great-grandmother and my grandmother. We used my family’s silver collection to hold the flowers. Repurposing things just made it more special.”
We also wondered whether her years of styling and photographing other people’s homes changed the way she approached her own wedding, down to what happened with the decor afterward.
“What’s even more special is that the skirting on the escort card table is something I’ll now use as a café curtain in my powder room, the same fabric. I do think there’s something about that timeless aesthetic of repurposing things that just makes it more special.”
A Friendship Years in the Making
Christina’s relationship with John Cain Photography goes back long before her own wedding day. We asked her to reflect on how that history came to be.
“I just wanted someone who I knew got it and could deliver. You either get the vision, or you don’t, and John totally gets it. We have very similar taste and a very similar eye. His studio mimics that of a beautiful home.”
One of Christina’s favorite things about John is that he “tells the best story start to finish.”
“Multiple guests said, ‘Oh my gosh, he made that so easy.'”
Behind the Planning
Most of Christina’s wedding planning happened right there on her podcast, Chic Between the Lines, co-hosted with her friend and wedding planner, Sara Fay Eagan. The whole process was planned and shared with listeners in real time.
Along the way, that meant working closely with the vendors and people who understood her vision, John Cain Photography included. It’s fitting, in a way: a wedding built on the idea of a beautiful home, chronicled by a woman who has spent her career teaching people how to see one.
A Day to Remember
Looking back now, a few parts of the weekend stood out above the rest.
“I enjoyed watching people experience Connecticut for the first time. Most of my guests had never been here, and it was one of the most beautiful weather weekends that we could have had.”
For Christina, it was as much about how her guests felt as how everything looked:
“What I enjoyed the most was creating this environment that people could feel at ease in… I didn’t want to be stressed out, because as soon as a host is stressed out then that seeps off to the people that are in attendance.”
And, of course, a few favorite details:
“My husband saved our first date receipt at the Honor Bar in Dallas, and I had no idea until he was moving out of his townhouse. I was like, ‘Oh, so you knew!’ So I framed it in this really pretty frame that was a gift off of my registry, and Sara Fay saw the receipt frame and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have to put this somewhere, like on a table at the reception,’ and she did.
One of her favorite photos from the night captures that same sense of intimacy and joy, with John behind the camera.
“One of my favorites is a black-and-white shot of the two of us kissing in the middle of the reception. John captured it so perfectly.”
If The Potted Boxwood had covered her wedding as a tour, we imagine the headline would be simple: no props, no kitsch, just timeless.
“It goes to show you, our first date was November 21. A lot can happen in a year.”
From a first date at the Honor Bar to a wedding day that felt like the best kind of dinner party, Christina’s story is proof that the details we save, the pieces we repurpose, and the people who truly “get it,” are what make a celebration feel timeless. We’re so grateful to have been trusted with capturing it.
A huge thank you to Christina for letting us step inside her wedding day the way she’s let us step inside so many beautiful homes. Follow along with Christina and The Potted Boxwood on Instagram [@thepottedboxwood] and catch more of her being the scenes planning and story on Chic Between the Lines.
