Alex and Katie Borremans
TELL US ABOUT YOUR LOVE STORY!
How did you meet?
Our families have been friends for the last ~15-20 years. Our older brothers were best friends growing up and our families would often get together for pool days and dinners. At the time, we were both our brothers’ annoying little siblings and there was no interest from either one of us. Alex has one older brother and his mom used to tell me (Katie) and my sister that we were the daughters she never had. In 2015, Alex’s family moved to Canyon Lake. My family had a tradition of spending one weekend every summer in New Braunfels floating the rivers and going to Schlitterbahn. When Alex’s family moved to Canyon Lake, part of my family’s yearly tradition became spending a day with Alex’s family boating on Canyon Lake and having dinner at their house. However, the first few years when my family went to Canyon Lake, Alex was not there. When we did go in 2020, Alex was there and we were both single. Depending on who you ask, they’ll tell you Alex was clearly putting the moves on Katie or vice versa. But regardless, it was clear that we were hitting it off. Alex had made comments about wanting to visit me in Omaha, where I was going to college, but I kept challenging him saying I’d believe it when I saw it. I spent the next few weeks in Omaha getting ready for my college soccer season, but when the season was cancelled due to COVID, I decided to fly home for a few days. While home, Alex decided to drive down from Huntsville to take me out on our first date. After that, Alex bought tickets to visit me over Labor Day weekend in Omaha which turned into when we first started officially dating!
How did you know he was “The One”?
I knew Alex was the one when I tore my ACL playing college soccer and Alex supported me through it. I had never had a major surgery and the idea of going under anesthesia terrified me, but Alex kept reassuring me that everything would be fine. On the day of my surgery, Alex had told me he couldn’t be in the waiting room with my parents because he had to get back to Huntsville for his summer school class. When I woke up from surgery, I was still nervous, in pain, and very disoriented. My mom came in and told me that Alex had been waiting and wanted to come in and see me before getting to school. Alex had skipped his first few classes to sit in the waiting room with my parents for hours just to surprise me and briefly see me after she got out of surgery. As soon as I saw him, I felt relieved and safe, and wrapped in his arms I felt like I was home. What seemed like the easy and right thing to do to Alex, meant so much more to me.
Alex knew I was the one when we went on our first road trip together to Yellow Stone and Montana (even though it was with my parents). It gave us the perfect opportunity to see how we connected outside of our day-to-day lives and the fun we had exploring and traveling together while laughing and taking silly photos. It sparked our shared love for adventure and travel which is now one of our favorite things to do. I was also in the early stages of recovering from my ACL surgery and needed help walking down slopes, climbing stairs, etc. and Alex was able to provide that strength and support.
How did he propose?
He proposed at our favorite winery in Fredericksburg, Becker Vineyards. My family takes a yearly trip to New Braunfels and Alex had convinced my family to spend a day drinking wine in Fredericksburg, or so I thought. Little did I know my entire family and Alex’s parents were in on the plan. I got ready for the day with my sister who offered to do my hair. That almost turned out poorly, but my sister managed to save it! I was then going to wear jean shorts and a shirt when my sister told me to just borrow her dress instead. The only shoes I had to wear were white high-tops, and my sister asked, “are those the only shoes you have?” and I said “it’s either these or crocs” and my sister said “guess these will have to do.”
Describe your wedding planning process
What planning tools did you use?
I had a spreadsheet that I used to track which vendors we had booked, what the total price was, how much we paid, and their contact information. This spreadsheet allowed us to keep track of our budget.
Who Helped With The Planning?
My mom helped us the most with the planning process and really helped our vision come to life. She ordered everything we needed not only for the wedding, but also the rehearsal dinner. She had a table and a box full of things at her house to help us pick exactly how we wanted the table layout to look. And on the morning of, she was the first one up working on the reception space.
We also had an amazing wedding planner. She’d answer all of my dumb questions and would always respond super fast! She was so organized and handled all of the final details with all of the vendors. As soon as she started working with us, it was like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders.
Did you hire a planner or day-of coordinator?
We had a wedding coordinator that started 45 days out. She was so much help and finalized all of the remaining details with the vendors! We couldn’t have done it without her!
Did you DIY any aspect of your wedding?
Ihad a lot of fun downloading Etsy templates and editing them in Canva. We printed our dinner menus, table numbers, and welcome fans/itineraries on cardstock using our own printer. Alex designed our “Thank You” bags and a personalized sticker for the candles ordered off of Amazon. My mom and I spent several months shopping at different antique stores to find a bunch of bud vases for the tables. My mom also ordered all of the linens, runners, plates, utensils, cups, etc.
How many guests were invited?
We invited around 120 people and had about 90 people attend.
Where did you save the most?
We saved the most on our dinner. Instead of doing plated meals that can quickly become really expensive, we did a buffet dinner using Chuy’s. Although this is where we saved a lot of money, it didn’t feel like a compromise at all. We love Tex-Mex and Chuy’s was fantastic as a caterer with outstanding food and service.
We also saved on our cake. I love bundt cakes so I knew I wanted to skip a big wedding cake and opt for bundtinis for our guests. We also got a wedding cake, but it was small and was only intended to be used for cake cutting photos. It was also eaten by us as well as family and close friends the day after the wedding. We used HEB for our wedding cake and we weren’t too picky about the flavor. This cake was honestly SO good and a lot of our friends and family that tried it said it was the best wedding cake they’ve had!
Where did you splurge?
We splurged on our photographer. Photos are really important to us so we knew we wanted to get a reputable photographer. I knew of someone who had used Pine and Blossom as her wedding photographer and loved her work! We instantly connected with Adrien when we talked to her on the phone and knew she would be a great photographer. We also added on a second photographer and an extra hour of coverage so we could capture getting-ready photos with our wedding party.
Why did you choose your venue?
We chose our venue for many different reasons. To start, we were obsessed with the interior designing of all the spaces. It was important to me to have a space to get ready in with my girls and the bridal suite at Stoney Creek was PERFECT. The outdoor ceremony space offered the Texas Hill Country background, but with shade which meant we could almost guarantee the wedding would be outside even if it rains. We were also planning to have a summer wedding, so the shade was a deal breaker.
Did you incorporate any special traditions or sentimental details in your ceremony or reception?
I gifted my father a sticker for the inside of his tie that had a photo of us from when I was little.
My grandparents had a chalice with their names engraved on them that they drank champagne out of during their wedding. They then had my parent’s names engraved on the same cups which they also drank champagne out of at their wedding. They then got our names engraved onto the cups as well for us to drink champagne out of for our wedding! This chalice will be used by all of my siblings at their weddings and will have the entire families’ names engraved on it!
What was your most stressful decision?
The most stressful decision was the floor plan for the reception. We were trying to find a way to keep the DJ on the main floor while maximizing the size of the dance floor AND have the sweetheart table in a prime location. Additionally, we had to figure out where to put the cake table, photobooth, and buffet. We were trying to keep the buffet and photobooth inside, but we didn’t like any of those floor plans. So we trusted our wedding planner and put them both outside and it worked great! We were probably driving our venue and wedding planner crazy because we asked for so many floor plans and kept flip-flopping and took way too long to make a decision!!
What turned out to be your best decision surrounding the big day?
The best decision we made was picking the venue we did. The location was perfect, providing the Texas Hill Country beauty, and the staff at Stoney Creek was amazing. We also had our rehearsal dinner at their venue the night before which was great. Our families stayed in the apartment on property which made it really convenient for transporting, storing, and set-up. We got so many compliments on the venue and everyone was asking how we managed to find it.
And of course, the best decision we made was choosing to marry each other!
Is there anything you would have done differently?
The only thing we would have done differently is also cater the ice cream during the reception or include beer donkeys during cocktail hour. My favorite ice cream shop is located 30 minutes away from the venue and we wanted to find a way to cater them, but at the end of the day, we just didn’t really have the budget left. And the beer donkeys would have been a fun addition to the cocktail hour.
Tell Us About...
Your dress:
When I started looking at wedding dresses, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want a ballgown because I don’t think that style looks flattering on me. For all of my school dances, I always chose a tighter fitting dress and I knew that’s probably what I wanted for my wedding dress. I started looking online and there were only two dresses that I saw that I knew I wanted to try on. One of those two ended up being my dress! It was the last dress I tried on at the second location we went to and as soon as I put it on, I knew it was my dress. It was very lacey which gave it a sexy look while also being modest and elegant at the same time. The back was low cut which is what I was looking for because I wanted to show off my back muscles that I worked so hard for! It flattered me in all the right places and I felt like a princess! It definitely helped that the dress also fit within the budget.
Your flowers:
We didn’t want to spend too much money on our flowers, but we really wanted the girls to have nice bouquets, to have some nice flowers along the arches, and to have a lot of little bud vases on the table. We used Piper Rose Floral as our florist and she was great to work with. She has done several weddings at Stoney Creek which really helped provide some inspiration. Going into our first meeting, my mom and I weren’t really sure what they wanted, but Piper Rose Floral worked with us and helped us bring the vision to life. With blue being our main color, we went with a pastel palate that included light pink, white, light orange, etc. The flowers looked great with the bud vases we had picked out and the color of the linens and runners!
The Food:
We enjoyed eating Tex-Mex on our wedding day, which is one of our favorite foods. We have Tex-Mex almost once a week with my family!
The cake:
Neither one of us cared too much about our cake. We wanted something small that looked nice for the cake cutting photos, but we weren’t too picky about anything else and didn’t even do a cake testing. We ordered our cake from HEB and the manager of the bakery was super helpful. She helped recommend a cake flavor and frosting. We wanted a relatively simple cake with white frosting and some blue and pink flowers and they did exactly that. The cake tasted amazing and was very affordable – highly recommended!
Recap your big day for us
What made you laugh?
The best man, who was Alex’s brother, played along with a prank in which he put on a white dress for a “fake” first look. Alex thought he was about to see me, but when he turned around, he saw his brother in a dress instead. Alex reacted just as I had anticipated and immediately started chuckling. The best man made it even better by going in for a kiss. I was hiding around the corner so I got to watch the whole thing! While it gave everyone a really good laugh, it also helped us shake the nerves of the day.
We asked our bridal party to do fun entrances into the reception to help get the party started and they all delivered!
What made you cry?
Several things made us cry that day. To start, my maid of honor, my sister, started off the morning by giving her a scrapbook that included “letters to the bride” from her family and closest friends. I read everyone’s sweet letters and couldn’t stop crying.
What made everyone cry was the surprise mother/daughter dance. I grabbed the microphone and said a few quick words about how the wedding wouldn’t look the way it did without all the help from my mother and yet she doesn’t get any special recognition. It was important to me to give my mother that recognition because she deserved to feel special too. From what we were told, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room during the dance.
What were the most memorable moments?
Definitely our grand entrance into our reception! Walking out together as Mr. and Mrs. Borremans for the first time and seeing all of our favorite people in the room was such a special moment. We felt so much love and appreciation for everyone that made the trip out and we couldn’t wait to get down on the floor to mingle and dance with everyone all night long.
Another memorable moment was our first dance. We decided to pick “From the Ground Up” because we felt like we really resonated with the lyrics and it has always been one of my favorite songs. We had spent the last few weeks choreographing the dance ourselves after watching several different videos on TikTok for inspiration. We had so much fun putting the dance together, but we were both nervous to perform and we had contingency plans in place in case we messed up. When we actually got to do our first dance, it couldn’t have gone better. We executed it perfectly and it was so fun getting to see and hear everyone’s reaction to our fun lifts and turns.
Another memorable moment was having our dogs present at the wedding. They walked down as fake ring bearers and they were the stars of the show. Anyone who knows us knows that we love our dogs so much. Getting to see them at the end of the aisle as we were both walking down was so special. We also had the cutest drinks napkins with their faces on it.
Another memorable moment was using my uncle as our officiate. I only have one uncle and is great. WHen we were in the early stages of our wedding planning process, we knew we didn’t want a stranger to be our officiant. Instead, we wanted it to be someone close to us who we knew would be in our lives forever. My uncle was the obvious choice. He’s funny, but knows how to be serious and also has a strong faith. He did a great job officiating and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to help us begin our marriage.
Another memorable moment was of course me walking down the aisle. I will always remember getting to walk down with my dad down the aisle to the love of my life and future husband. Alex will always remember how beautiful I looked walking towards him as they were about to enter into the next chapter together.
Did anything unexpected happen?
The only thing that went wrong was that we forgot the pencils/pens for the wordsearch and crossword puzzle that Alex had worked really hard on.
Advice and Looking Ahead
What’s the best advice you can give a bride and groom planning their wedding?
Enjoy the planning process and don’t forget that this is your day! You get lots of opinions from a lot of different people, and at the end of the day, that’s all it is – their opinion. It’s your day so you get to do what you want!! And you’re going to stress about all of the little things, like the colors of the napkins and silverware, but that’s just a small part of the day and most people won’t notice or remember those things. They are coming to celebrate your love and that’s what they are going to remember.
Don’t forget to show your appreciation for all the people who help make your wedding possible. We wouldn’t have had the incredible day we did without the support of our families.
What did you look forward to most as Mr. and Mrs.?
We were really excited to get to call each other “hubby” and “wifey”, we even got matching shirts and bucket hats to wear on our honeymoon (which we were also really excited to get to go on)! One of the first things we bonded over when we first started dating was a shared dream of ours to be able to honeymoon in Bora Bora in an overwater bungalow. Well, thanks to many people, we were able to make that dream a reality. We went on our honeymoon a week after getting married and it was literally paradise on earth and the perfect honeymoon. There was no better way to start our journey together as hubby and wifey!
Anything else you’d like to share?
This blog is mostly about the wedding, but we also wanted to share that we had an incredible rehearsal dinner. We used the space at Stoney Creek next to the groom’s suite and it provided an intimate dinner we were looking for. We catered food from our favorite restaurant in Canyon Lake, Gennaro’s Trattoria,and had wine from Stag’s Leap. We did an open mic and it was so much fun getting to hear the fun stories and memories people shared of us. Alex’s parents also wrote a song describing the two of us and used AI to have Parker McCollum sing it because he’s one of my favorite artists. We then had a welcome night outside Stoney Creek that was open to any guest in town wanting to come hang out and it was a lot of fun getting to mingle with everyone before the big day.
Local Vendors:
Wedding Venue: Stoney Creek
Reception Venue: Stoney Creek
Planner: All in the Details (Jessica Sales)
Photographer: Pine and Blossom
Videographer: Reverent Wedding Films
Caterer: Chuy’s
Florist: Piper Rose Floral
Cake/Dessert: HEB Bakery
Bridal Shop: Brick House Bridal
Makeup Artist: Le Atelier
Hair Stylist: Le Atelier
Bartending/Beverage Service: Bartenders 4 You
Music/Entertainment: Gaines Entertainment
Dog Walker: Wedding Pet Attendant
Wedding Music:
Dog’s Entrance: Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men
Processional: Can’t Help Falling in Love (Violin Instrumental) – Alan Ng
Bride’s Entrance: A Thousand Years (Violin & Piano) – Joel Grainger
Recessional: I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
First Dance: From the Ground Up – Dan + Shay
Father/Daughter Dance: Yours – Post Malone
Mother/Son Dance: Her Little Man – Jami Grooms
Surprise Mother/Daughter Dance: Mama’s Song – Carrie Underwood
Private Last Dance: Ordinary – Alex Warren
