Kata de Solis and Ashley Hicks’s Countryside Wedding
Photo: Tara Sgroi1/32There was really no debate on the wedding venue, as it would be almost impossible to find a more beautiful place to get married than our own backyard. And obviously it made wedding planning—which was all done on such short notice—much easier.
Photo: Tara Sgroi2/32Raised as a “special snowflake” only child, I obviously wanted a wedding ensemble that was different and, most important, unexpected. And as a Texan, I felt that it also had to be unfussy. So I asked my dear friend Jennifer Zuccarini and her amazing team at the über-chic lingerie brand Fleur du Mal to create a lace jumpsuit, based on their black jumpsuit that I wore on my first date with Ashley, specifically for the occasion.
Photo: Tara Sgroi3/32During the wedding, Ashley’s best man, Donald Robertson, stayed in our pavilion, Grump Tower—a mini tower surrounded by a moat designed by Ashley’s late father, David Hicks, and constructed for him by his wife, Lady Pamela, as a 60th birthday gift. Donald was still air-drying his “best man trousers”—made from the same trademark David Hicks fabric that we used as tablecloths in the wedding tent—from his window just moments before the festivities started.
Photo: Tara Sgroi4/32The women at Erickson Beamon, who are like family to me, were so generous as to custom design a pair of dazzling diamond earrings and a matching bracelet for the wedding ceremony. They also made a last-minute wedding ring for me, which my bridesmaid Mandie Erickson had to fly in with the day before the wedding.
Photo: Tara Sgroi5/32While the ground floor of Grump Tower was used as a studio, the top floor—which overlooks a secret rose garden visible only from the tower—was used by my father-in-law as a personal retreat from the main house at The Grove. It is bursting with treasures, including his highly curated library, which Donald enjoyed perusing and remarking on the various inscriptions found within.
