Amy Watson has been to many Fort Worth weddings. So when it came time to plan her own, she wanted something different.
“I had a lot of friends from Fort Worth who had gotten married before me,” says the Fort Worth native and TCU alumna. “I wanted a place no one else had done.”
Working with elite Fort Worth wedding planner Tami Winn, Amy says, the Fort Worth Zoo came up as a potential venue for her nuptials to Trey Sullivan on March 30, 2019.
“None of my friends had been to a wedding there before,” she says. “The pieces fell together and it just worked.”
Having met through mutual friends, Amy and Trey dated for about three-and-a-half years before he popped the question in dreamy fashion. Flowers and cards in Amy’s home directed her to be ready for a driver to pick her up.
“The car took me to a park where Trey first told me he was falling in love with me,” Amy says.
“It was super romantic and simple and absolutely perfect.”
From the get-go, Amy and Trey wanted their wedding guests, all 300 of them, to have fun. Those involved in the wedding party started the weekend with a Friday night rehearsal dinner, catered by Heim Barbecue, at Whiskey Ranch.
The ceremony took place at University Christian Church before guests headed to the Fort Worth Zoo for a party to remember. Festivities started with feeding the giraffes in the new African Savanna exhibit during cocktail hour.
“We said we can’t get married at the zoo without interacting with animals,” Amy says. “It was super cold, but you can’t even tell how cold we are in the pictures. And the giraffes certainly didn’t care.”
But guests kept warm under the zoo’s massive event tent complete with a built-in stage. The dinner menu, catered by the zoo’s on-site catering team, was anything but fancy — just the way Amy and Trey wanted.
“I don’t really like fancy food,” Amy says. “Trey and I both love pizza and tacos and all the things that are so bad for you.”
Guests indulged in said pizza and tacos, along with a mac-and-cheese bar and late-night sliders with house-made potato chips, before dancing it all off on a black-and-white checkered dancefloor to the tunes of the Walton Stout Band.
“They were amazing,” the bride says. “I think that was the most feedback we got after the wedding. Even my parents’ friends said they were the best band.”
Walking into the reception, hand-in-hand with Trey, was Amy’s most memorable moment, she says. The entrance was a grand one as the couple was led by three female members of the band playing brass instruments.
“You sit through those planning meetings, month after month, so I knew exactly what it was going to look like,” Amy says. “But seeing it all together, I was so blown away.”
The couple exited in the same manner, with the brass trio leading them to a vintage Rolls Royce, before stealing away to a honeymoon in Maui.
Ceremony venue:University Christian Church
Reception venue:Fort Worth Zoo
Wedding planner:Tami Winn Events
Photographer:Lightly Photography
Floral:Branching Out Events
Wedding cake: Crème de la Crème
Hair: Trio Hair Concepts
Makeup:Adina Wright & The Styling Stewardess
Videographer:Thompson Pictures
Band: Walton Stout Band
Rentals:Grand Events, Bella Acento, Center Stage, Perch, Shag Carpet
Lighting:LeForce Entertainment
Stationery: Robyn Humphreys
Transportation:Silver West and Blue Diamond Limousine
Amy and Trey Sullivan's reception at the Fort Worth Zoo included giraffe feedings.
Claire Messerle, Betsy Price, Katie MesserlePhoto by Savanna Romano
Guests bid in the live auction.Photo by Savanna Romano
Champagne Yacht Club Band kept the dance floor lively.Photo by Savanna Romano