Blooms and Butterflies Aplenty Transported This Couple’s Guests From a Fort Worth Ballroom to an Enchanted Forest

By Jessica Otte

Jane Speaker & Reese Gilchrist
April 9, 2022

When you’ve dated someone for nine years, it can be tough to pull off a surprise—especially when you’re historically not great at keeping a secret, like Reese Gilchrist. “If I get someone a Christmas present, I end up giving it to them in November,” laughs the Weatherford native. So when it was time to pop the question to his high school sweetheart and girlfriend of almost a decade, Jane Speaker, he disguised their weekend staycation at the Ritz as his own birthday celebration. Following a nerve-filled dinner—“I don’t think I ate a single bite,” he says—he got down on one knee. Fortunately, Jane made no secret of her answer—or her disbelief. “It definitely surprised me,” she says. “I said some bad words.”

Once she assembled her vendor team, the bride got to work planning a whimsical wedding that saw a Colonial Country Club ballroom transformed into an enchanted forest. In addition to “a million bajillion flowers”—some of which were fashioned into a transportive tunnel—one key element in conveying the dreamlike vibe was an abundance of butterflies. “I told [my planner] Sarah, ‘I want butterflies, but they need to be sophisticated. I don’t want it to look like a little girl’s birthday party,” remembers Jane. The couple also prioritized fun, incorporating everything from giant Jenga and a visit from TCU’s SuperFrog to a 15-foot video wall where guests could play Mario Kart—complete with a theme-park-style map of all the activity options on hand.

In the end, the evening (and the process of planning it) was such a blast for the bride that she’s ready to plan an anniversary bash or vow renewal. Laughs Jane: “I’ve already told Reese I want to do it again.”

Bridal Couple and Satin Gown from Jane Speaker & Reese Gilchrist Wedding

Change of A Dress

“It’s actually completely different than what I had always imagined,” says Jane of her custom Elizabeth Lee gown. Despite having a Pinterest board packed with long-sleeved, high-necked lace gowns, she tried on a spaghetti-strapped satin gown for inspiration and loved the look enough to change direction.

Wedding cake from Jane Speaker & Reese Gilchrist Wedding

The Key Ingredient

The organic meets elegant cake display was “a connecting point of all the decor,” notes Krisi Johnson of GRO Designs. To keep the butterflies from feeling too childish, Sarah says the team was exacting in their execution. “Anytime we had a butterfly incorporated into the design, we had many discussions to make sure they didn’t look too ‘clip-arty’ ,” she says.