A Wedding That Was Truly, Unmistakably Them: Claire & Ethan in Texarkana
Some weddings follow a formula. Claire and Ethan’s followed a feeling: the more the merrier, full of life and personality, and true to the family and friendships that shaped them. From a custom invitation suite to a dance floor built over the country club pool, every piece of the weekend told a story. Most of the credit, Claire insists, belongs to her mother, and her mother is quick to point right back at Claire.
“I would have to start with saying almost 99% of the wedding planning goes to my mother. She deserves all the credit. We always joke that if she ever got to redo her life, she’d be a party planner. She loves the details.”
A Weekend Designed for Fun
Claire’s mother is a trial lawyer and says creativity isn’t her natural gift, but she knew what mattered.
“Claire wanted everyone to come and have fun. She wanted to show them the southern elegance of Texarkana for two or three days so they could see the town, meet the people and experience what a wonderful place it is! It’s unique, because it’s on the Texas-Arkansas state line, and some of our activities were in Arkansas and some in Texas.”
For many guests, a Texarkana wedding meant a destination wedding. The goal was to show them a little of our world as they celebrated the weekend with Claire and Ethan and for them to leave happy and thrilled to have been a part!
“Claire said, I want people to leave thinking, I’m so glad I came to that fun wedding!”
The Invitation Suite That Set the Tone
The invitation suite anchored the entire weekend, and its inspiration came from an unexpectedly funny place.
“The style of our wedding was Southern classic country club, and every Southern woman has that hand painted, East Asian inspired garden toile wallpaper somewhere in her home or maybe even in her powder bath. I thought it’d be neat to capture that look and feel for our wedding pattern. We chose a Thibaut design because it has such a Southern casual elegant vibe. I loved the greens and blues, they’re classic, and having little pops of lavender was fun too.”
The pattern echoed Claire’s upbringing. Her parents have decorated their home with peaceful, Asian-inspired touches for years, so the idea felt natural.
“Claire found a lovely pattern. We used it on the invitations from the beginning, gift bags for the guests, table cloths, pillows, and we even had playing cards and slip on dance shoes in the same design. We loved the colors, and it was elegant and different from other weddings.”
A Boot with Family History
One of the weekend’s most personal touches came from an unlikely source: custom boots made by Ethan’s grandfather.
“We knew we wanted to do a boot die-cut for the rehearsal dinner invitation. My husband’s grandfather is part owner of a boot company, specializing in custom made boots, so we thought that was a special tie-in.”
Ethan’s grandfather’s company is known for intricate, artistic custom boots, often made from exotic, rare, and special materials.
“Ethan has a pair of rough-out boots made from beautiful crocodile. Mine were inspired by a Carolina Herrera design and pattern. We made them blue, so they became my something blue for the weekend. Ethan’s grandfather makes a pair for every wife who marries into the family, and they normally wear them on the wedding day.”
Claire’s mother loved how the two pairs of boots reflected the couple.
“Claire wanted flowers and designs on hers, and Ethan wanted his to be manly. They’re both just perfect and the sentiment with their custom initials was simply beautiful.”
Heirlooms, Woven Throughout
Nearly every detail of the day carried personal history, much of it tied to family heirlooms.
“The sapphire jewelry I wore was my Mom’s. My father bought the set for her for her birthday on a trip to Turkey recently and she had yet to wear it. We were going through her jewelry, marking which pieces came from relatives and such, and when we saw the set, she said, here’s your wedding day jewelry. My bridal portrait session was the first time I wore it.”
Claire’s mother says she was happy to share it.
“Claire wanted to wear the set for her wedding, and of course it was stunning on her. It looked beautiful with her dress and she just beamed!”
Even the smallest accessories carried meaning.
“The brooch my mom wore belonged to her Grandmother Clarice, after whom I’m named, which is why she wore it on the wedding day.”
Claire’s mother has a sweet story about that brooch. One of her college roommates urged her to wear a brooch, and she had one tucked away but she thought it looked dingy.
“It hadn’t been cleaned in years. My dear friend took it to get cleaned, brought it back, and it was exquisite! If I’d known it could look like that, I would have worn it for years! ”
A Ceremony Full of Meaning
The ceremony at the church was led by Jim Barnett, a pastor in Dallas, who was one of Claire’s father’s college roommates. He brought personal stories and good humor in equal measure.
“He would say something so personal and so meaningful that I thought, I cannot break down and cry during this ceremony! And then the next thing out of his mouth would be a joyous or levity moment about the couple. It was like watching Les Miserables, where the audience is enrapt in a palpable, heartfelt, emotional scene, and then all of a sudden Sacha Baron Cohen appears for comic relief. Jim knows both Claire and Ethan and really did an extraordinary job with his personal touches!”
The wedding rings carried family history too. Claire wore her grandmother’s ring, and Ethan wore Claire’s grandfather’s ring. A great aunt gave Claire a gold locket that her own mother (Claire’s great-grandmother) had worn at her wedding, with a photo of Claire’s grandfather inside. And Claire gave her dad a special gift to wear.
“Claire gave her dad a Christian Dior pin with the initials CD (which are also Claire’s initials). He barely wears jewelry and he was initially hesitant at the idea of wearing it or the gold watch that the girls and I had given him years ago, which is engraved with our names on the back. Claire told him: I’m getting married, this is my wedding day, and I would love for you to wear these special things on my special day. She added, I want you to always remember that this is me in your pin. He wore the pin and the watch, and they looked wonderful on him.”
Denim, Mahjong, and a Few Family Traditions
Claire’s bachelorette weekend in Marfa carried its own personal touches forward into the wedding itself.
“I gave the girls monogrammed denim shirts at my bachelorette weekend at Cibola Creek Ranch, and Katie Kime Marfa pajamas for the morning of the wedding.”
Mahjong also made its way into the weekend and wedding morning.
“My mom, my sister, and I each have our own mahjong sets, and we bring them on every vacation. We played after the bridal party dinner on Thursday night. We played on wedding morning. We just can’t get enough of it.”
A House Full of Her People
Claire’s bridesmaids stayed at her family home for the entire wedding weekend, a detail that felt like the heart of the celebration.
“I wanted the wedding weekend to feel like you’re really at my home with me, like this is unique to my family. We’re so blessed with the space, and it was packed to the brim with girls. My mom’s college roommates spent the entire wedding morning with us, cooked breakfast, steamed dresses and made sure everything was perfect! It’s always the more the merrier.”
Claire’s mother’s college roommates are her heart and soul and were there for the entire wedding weekend. All five women have stayed close for decades.
“They’re really beautiful women – inside and out! We are all strong alpha leaders – and we love that about each other. They made Claire’s weekend picture perfect and were so incredibly helpful in helping us get ready for everything.”
A Small Bell, A Little Luck
A quiet, personal detail tied the day back to Claire’s parents too.
“My parents went to Japan a couple of years ago and brought me back an Asian bell. The idea is that you hang it on your front door, and every time it rings, it brings good luck to whoever owns it. I have mine on my bedroom door. We wanted to bring a little bit of that luck into the wedding too.”
Asian bells were not only a keepsake for guests, but denoted their dinner table and room. An Asian pagoda designated the guest’s place setting.
A Table Set Like Home
The wedding dinner’s unique and intentional table settings were a direct reflection of how Claire’s family has always gathered.
“That’s exactly how we set the table at Thanksgiving and Christmas, mixing and matching china patterns, tossing fun stuff in the middle, poppers, little details. It’s always a busy table. We wanted to bring that same feeling into the wedding, so every table felt a little different, not cookie-cutter.”
A family tradition showed up in the wedding toasts too. The silver champagne coupes, engraved with the couple’s names and wedding date, follow a tradition from Claire’s parents’ own wedding.
“My husband and I had silver champagne coupes with our names and the date when we got married. We did the same for Claire and Ethan. They match our Francis I silver pattern, which my grandmother and mother had, and both of my daughters have it too.”
A Country Club with History
The wedding dinner encompassed nearly every room of Texarkana County Club, which was built in 1914 and was the first club where Byron Nelson served as a golf pro. Claire’s mother says the original ballroom is beautiful, but its acoustics are both its best and worst feature.
“If a band is playing in the ballroom, the acoustics are so great that you can’t t hear anything except the band, and you sure can’t seat 450 for dinner and have people visit. So we used the whole ballroom and the dining room and all the club rooms for dinner and instead of a big band inside we had a dinner singer from San Diego with a small set so everyone could visit. Each room had the main Asian fabric and added its own accent color: blue, green, or pink. Every room had its own personality, and it was still cohesive.”
A Ceiling That Became the Centerpiece
The reception’s floral and draped ceiling installation came together almost spontaneously.
“We hadn’t actually discussed anything about the ceiling beforehand. Our florist walked in during an earlier planning session and suggested flowers and greenery from the chandeliers and scalloped white fabric on the ceiling. He was so great at taking a space with character and reshaping it into what we wanted.” The florals throughout the wedding ceremony at the church and, the dining rooms at the club and the celebration outside in the lounge area, cabanas, stage and pool were breathtaking – so lovely and so incredibly memorable. Our florist captured exactly the look I wanted on this special day! “
The Most Iconic Dance Floor
Perhaps the most unforgettable detail of the entire weekend: a dance floor built directly over the country club pool.
“There’s no venue in Texarkana big enough for a wedding this size, and yet we knew we wanted all of our extended family, and special and lifelong friends to be there. My parents’ wedding was open invitation, and we have deep roots in the community. We wanted to have our wedding celebration in a venue that could hold everyone and not have the guest limitations that some wedding venues bring. Still, we had to get creative. We thought, what’s the craziest thing we could do? And it worked. It was so much fun.”
The idea wasn’t entirely unprecedented, but it still felt bold.
“One of my mom’s dear friends and mentors in Texarkana covered her own pool for her daughter’s wedding, and our inspiration was born!”
Claire’s mother knew the first step was winning over the club manager.
“I told Claire we had to think outside the box, and when I talked to the club manager, he was all in, 100%.”
The team that built the pool-top dance floor to cover the Olympic-size pool made the engineering look easy.
“The stage was half off the pool for a firm anchor and half over the pool, so you need great bracing for the band, the equipment, and all the electricity. Their entire team were magnificent to work with. And the drone photos, showing the colorful lights underneath the pool, were so fun.”
The space itself held deep personal meaning for Claire.
“This is the pool where I learned how to swim. I grew up swimming in that pool every summer. It was so fun to bring part of the wedding out there in a different, unexpected way.”
One moment stayed with Claire’s mother.
“A family member on a walker asked, do you think I can get up here on a walker? I said, I think you can go anywhere you want to go! We got some people to help her up. She said, I just want to be able to stand on this dance floor.”
The lounge groupings and cabanas served a more practical purpose too. Claire’s mother says that the lounge seating offered a comfortable place for everyone to watch the fireworks, listen to the great band, visit, and be and feel involved in the celebration.
“All the cabanas had portable air conditioning and drop-down lamps wrapped in the themed Asian fabric. Four had seating areas, with a couch, chairs, and a coffee table, and four had a table that could seat six or eight.” Special artists captured guests for a memorable take home original piece of art while other chose the photo booth to capture the moment.
Fireworks, With a Story Behind Them
No detail of the weekend came without its own memorable backstory, including the fireworks.
“We hired a great local fireworks team years ago for my grandfather’s 80th birthday party at our lake house. He put on an hour-long show in a town of about 100 people. When he heard I was getting married, he immediately wanted to help with the fireworks for us.”
The lead-up to the big day came with its own comical chaos.
“Under Arkansas law, the fireworks company is required to provide public notice before any show. However, the “public notice” that was printed in the newspaper the Monday before our Saturday wedding, promoted the fireworks as a public event where all were invited. Needless to say, our country club manager and wedding planner were not thrilled, so the team had to run an explanatory retraction that it was not a public event. The story itself and the retraction were just comic. It kicked off the wedding weekend with exactly the energy of, whatever happens, happens! ”
The timing of the fireworks at the wedding celebration was intentional. Claire wasn’t sure about the idea at first, but her mother pitched it.
“I told her, it’ll be right after the wedding dinner when everyone moves outside following the band –which moved from room to room in the club gathering everyone like a Second Line parade in New Orleans. Once outside, Claire and Ethan have their first dance, then your father-daughter dance, then the groom and mother dance – then the fireworks show – that will get everybody outside. If you’re still in the club eating dinner at ten, that’s fine, but now you have a reason to go outside.”
Claire agrees it worked.
“We didn’t want to wait until the end of the evening for the fireworks, because a lot of the guests may have already left. The fireworks were also a great way to get everyone outside together for the moment and kick off the celebration outside with music and dancing.”
A T-Shirt Gun, A Family Tradition
A custom t-shirt gun brought a beloved inside joke to life, and Claire’s mother says it was Claire’s idea to have t-shirts with Ethan and her shot from the gun from the very first planning session. Then, things got busy throughout the wedding season and the idea was overlooked in the planning. Never fear – Claire raised the idea again the week of the wedding!
“She came to me the Monday of the wedding week and said, I really want to have Dad shoot T-shirts of me and Ethan from his t-shirt gun. I said, we can totally do this, and it’ll be something most people won’t have at their weddings.”
Claire explains the inspiration.
“We have this photo of Ethan as a kid dressed as Buzz Lightyear that our friend group loves to send around. We wanted to incorporate it somehow, so we made t-shirts with Ethan and me when we were four or five. My dad collects guns, every Christmas we get him a different novelty one, a marshmallow gun, a spaghetti gun, and one year, a t-shirt gun. He could not wait to use it. The moment he got to bring it out, he had the biggest smile you’ve ever seen.”
A Weekend, Not Just a Night
The celebration began well before Saturday. Claire’s mother says Thursday started at noon at the family home, with bridesmaids, the wedding party, her college roommates and close out of town friends arriving, massage therapists offering head and neck massages, and a relaxed afternoon before dinner.
“That night we went for burgers and jazz at TLC Burgers, a burger joint Claire has loved since her childhood. When we went to ask if they would open late for her for the wedding kick off party, the owner said, for Claire, anything. They were so fun to host us, and we were honored to have them be a part!”
Friday began with a bridal brunch at the first federal courthouse built in Texarkana, now the home of the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council.
“The table ran the length of the old courtroom, with the female members of Claire and Ethan’s families including grandmothers, aunts, great aunts, cousins, siblings, bridesmaids, and wedding party. All the women who hosted the event knew my mother and grandmother, and that was lovely.”
From there, everyone headed over to Rocky Creek Outdoor Shooting Sports for a barbeque and skeet shoot, which Claire herself requested.
“Claire wanted a skeet shoot and she is a great shot! She’s like Annie Oakley. My husband is a dad of daughters, so he understands that women will shoot two or three times, miss, and be done, while men will nick one skeet and think they’re John Wayne. So, we made sure everybody got to shoot, instructors were at every station, and we shot both shotguns and also provided pistol shooting, because if you’ve never shot a gun, hitting a moving target like a skeet or clay is hard.”
Friday evening, the rehearsal dinner and after party took place at the family’s home, with a horseshoe wall directing folks to their table, and a menu built around Texas favorites for guests visiting from California, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, North and South Carolina and beyond.
“For the rehearsal dinner, we had delicious fajitas with all the Texas fixins. For the after party, we had Frito pie, quesadillas, Texas sheet cake and other Texas favorites. Probably the best hits of the evening were Dueling Pianos and Gables Hat Bar at the after party where everyone received a cowboy hat and was able to custom design and monogram it to make it their own — A really unique touch on a fun western evening.
A Sparkler Exit and a Pool Full of Friends
The wedding night ended with a sparkler exit, followed by one last, unforgettable moment.
“Our wedding planner asked if I wanted to jump in the pool with everyone. I said no, but I told everyone, keep dancing, keep having fun, and jump in after Ethan and I are gone.”
Her friends, true to form, didn’t hold back.
“As soon as we were left through a wall of well-wishing friends and sparklers galore, everyone jumped in, more than once. It was awesome! There are photos of one of my bridesmaids soaking wet, mid-belly flop.”
A Mother’s Moments
Asked when the emotions hit her, Claire’s mother says it was early.
“I’m sort of emotional, so it happened at the skeet shoot. Watching Claire with her friends – who are all such lovely, wonderful, professional women capable of taking on anything in the world – was moving. They could be anywhere and yet they chose to be here with us and were truly joyous for Claire and Ethan and for each other. Claire has celebrated so many of her friends, she’s the friend of all friends, so to see so many people chose to share in this magical weekend for her was really beautiful.”
Many of those friends traveled in from out of town, including friends who grew up in Texarkana and have since moved away. Nearly 200 guests came from Baylor alone.
“Our extended family was here, too, with cousins and my aunts and uncles in their 90s. That was moving to see.”
One moment came at home, when Claire’s mother helped her get dressed in her own bedroom.
“She was so beautiful and so happy! We were thrilled to have Claire marry the man for whom we had prayed all these years!”
Claire’s older sister, Katherine Anne, also gave a speech at the rehearsal dinner that moved everyone in the room.
“She had called some of our relatives who couldn’t come to the wedding to ask for their blessings for Claire and Ethan and she read each in turn. And she told Ethan, I could never imagine my sister getting married, but when I see the way you look at her and the way she looks at you, I would never say no.”
Her Favorite Moment
When asked to choose a single favorite moment from the day, Claire’s answer centered on the person she married.
“I think my favorite moment of the whole day was kissing Ethan and becoming his wife. We didn’t see each other at all that morning, I was very firm about that, and then suddenly it’s noon, and the only person I really want to be with is the one person I haven’t seen all day.”
A quieter moment, just before the reception began, stayed with her too.
“Right after we finished family photos, Ethan and I drove in a golf cart, just the two of us, from the course back to the club house, and walked in through the back door together. That might have been my favorite moment. Just the two of us, about to see everyone, side by side with my husband.”
