Real Weddings: Molly Raynor and Don Bowers
All you need is love. The Beatles had it right.
Molly Raynor and Don Bowers met when they were both future lawyers of America, studying contracts and torts at SMU law school. Assigned to the same section, they saw each other often, but it wasn’t until Don organized a camping trip for some of their friends to Turner Falls in Oklahoma that the two really got to hang out—and realized they liked each other.
A couple of years later, after like turned to love, and in another natural setting, they decided to get married. On a blanket at the Dallas Arboretum, Don asked Molly to be his wife.
The art history minor chose the Dallas Museum of Art for her wedding because “I’ve always loved the building, and I loved the idea of doing both the ceremony and reception in one spot since we were having lots of out-of-town guests,” she says. They held the former in the outdoor sculpture garden and the latter in the lofty Dale Chihuly-accented atrium.
The Edward Larrabee Barnes building requires little in the way of decoration, even for a wedding. The sophisticated setting speaks for itself. “We didn’t try to compete with it,” Molly says. “We let it be classic and elegant.”
They did, however, choose a theme to inspire the designers at The Garden Gate. Music—in general that of The Beatles, which they both adore, and more specifically John Lennon’s 1970 song “Love”—was a fun way to tie in the bride’s and groom’s personalities to the ceremony. A string quartet played “In My Life” as Molly walked down the aisle; it played “All You Need Is Love” as the couple left the ceremony-in-the-round, where “love is real” appeared in yellow cursive in the reflection pool.
Nearly 300 guests mingled with cocktails in the spine of the museum before making their way to food stations in the atrium. The couple’s good humor was evident in the bright flowers that dressed the tables: purple orchids, pink hydrangeas, pink and yellow tulips, pink and yellow calla lilies, and yellow forsythias stood in clear glass vases around the room. And then there was the band.
Don and Molly saw New Wave ’80s band The Spazmatics play during their second year of law school and just had to have them at their wedding. The musicians kept guests dancing into the night—until the current lawyers rolled off in a yellow submarine, er, taxicab.
RESOURCES
Ceremony Site: Dallas Museum of Art
Photographer/Studio: Perez Photography
Bridal Gown Designer: Vera Wang
Bridal Gown Retailer: Warren Barrón
Hair & Makeup: Lenore Caulton-Downey
Flowers: The Garden Gate
Reception Site: Dallas Museum of Art
Cake: Panini Bakery
Caterer: Dallas Museum of Art
Band and/or DJ: The Spazmatics; Randal Stout Entertainment
Lighting: Absolute Lighting
Wedding Rentals: Stage Works; Flipbooks
Wedding Planner: Paige Chenault
