Kaitlin + Travis at The Arlo
FALL 2024
Kaitlin and Travis held their fall celebration at The Arlo on November 17, 2024, welcoming 100 guests to the Dripping Springs venue for an evening that moved through the property’s indoor and outdoor spaces with a consistent, garden-forward design point of view.
The ceremony took place on the back lawn at four o’clock, in the soft, low-angled light that settles over the Hill Country in late November. Ground-level floral installations lined the grass aisle in wicker vessels — green and white hydrangeas, lavender stock, and hellebores in both soft green and deep plum, grouped and layered in a way that felt organic rather than arranged. Each cluster spilled outward from its vessel, the aisle building in volume as it moved toward the altar without a straight line in sight. The oak canopy overhead and The Arlo’s iron-framed windows at the altar end framed the space without competing with it. The invitation suite carried the same palette through — deep olive envelopes, lavender scallop-edged reply cards, olive velvet ribbon, and floral-lined interiors that set the tone before guests ever arrived on property.
Cocktail hour followed in the courtyard and Storie Hall, where a 12-foot round custom green bar anchored the room as guests arrived. The move from the back lawn carried naturally along the oak-lined walkway, the property’s landscape doing as much work as any design element before guests ever stepped inside. By the time guests were seated for dinner, dusk had come through the iron-framed windows of the ballroom, and the room had shifted entirely into candlelight — the house lights dimmed low enough to let the warmth of the room take over. Taper candles and cylinder votives at varying heights moved alongside low arrangements of white hydrangea, garden roses, and peonies, stems of soft pink orchids, and small potted leafy greens — the tablescape felt collected rather than uniform. Mixed pattern tablecloths varied across the floor, keeping the room from reading as a single repeated setting — each table had its own composition. Gold flatware and napkins tied with deep olive velvet ribbon carried the palette detail down to the place setting. Deep olive velvet draping framed the windows, pulling the exterior landscape in visually even after dark.
The evening moved through toasts, first dances, and an open dance floor before Danny Ray & The Atlantic Street Band closed the night. Cake cutting came mid-reception, and the final song landed just before ten — six hours from guest arrival to guest departure — the sweet spot for moving through every space intentionally, without overstaying the moment.
LAYOUT SPOTLIGHT
The ballroom was configured with a mix of rectangular and round tables, giving the floor plan visual variation while keeping sightlines open across the room. The custom dance floor anchored the center, with table groupings arranged to draw guests naturally toward it without crowding the perimeter. Margaux chairs — a blonde wood finish, crisscross spindle back — carried the organic, textural quality through the seating itself.
NOTABLE
Umbrella seating in the courtyard offered guests a welcoming, shaded place to settle in with a drink and conversation as cocktail hour opened. The 12-foot round bar in Storie Hall served as a focal point — visually commanding and practically efficient. A round bar at that scale allows service from all sides, keeping lines short and the energy more social than transactional. A single bar inside the ballroom near the dance floor kept drinks accessible through the reception without drawing guests far from the floor. Drapery on the Storie Hall windows shifted the view and softened the light, changing the feel of the space without altering its scale.