A D'Vine Grace Vineyard Wedding: Erin and Hunter
Erin and Hunter married at a Tuscan-style estate in McKinney and never had to leave it, from a bridal session a month early to a dance floor that moved outside.
Erin Baker and Hunter Mason found us through a Google search in January of 2025, more than a year out, and then booked twelve hours at a single address. Everything happened at D'Vine Grace Vineyard in McKinney: both of them getting ready upstairs, a first look on the grand staircase, a five o'clock ceremony on the lawn, and a reception that eventually moved outside under string lights.
Their palette was spring pastels, blush and dusty blue and cream, with five bridesmaids and five groomsmen and Brittany Pritchett coordinating. When the timeline questionnaire asked whether there was anything else we should know before we drafted the day, Erin's answer was five words: we defer to your expertise. That is a good way to start.
A Bridal Session, One Month Early
A month before the wedding Erin came back to the property for a two-hour bridal session. It is a Texas tradition we inherited when we opened the studio here, and it has become one of our favorite parts of the process, because it is the only block of time in the whole thing where the gown gets photographed properly. No ceremony to make, nobody waiting on anyone.
The day was clear and bright. We worked the travertine steps, the staircase above the ceremony lawn, and the front drive, where the wind took the veil straight out across the frame and held it there long enough.
And Then, Out of Order, Golden Hour
These next two frames come from the wedding evening, not the bridal session, and we are putting them here rather than in sequence because they are the two we would show first if you asked what the day actually looked like.
Both were made in the sunset block the timeline held back for them, at the fountain behind the estate, shooting into the low sun through the water.
The Morning at the Vineyard
Hair and makeup started at ten and ran most of the way to two. Erin's rings went down on a studded hat brim, her gown hung in the suite with two others on either side of it, and none of it required anyone to get in a car, which is the practical argument for a property like this one and the reason the morning stayed calm.
Blush, Dusty Blue, and Cream
The bridesmaids changed into blush and rose, and the bouquets arrived louder than the dresses: coral, magenta, peach, and pale blue against greenery. It is a braver spring palette than most, and a much better one to photograph, because it holds up against all that pale limestone instead of disappearing into it.
We took the group out to the balustrade above the ceremony lawn so the chairs and the rotunda sit in the frame behind them.
Hunter and the Groomsmen
Hunter and his groomsmen dressed at the venue too, navy suits with blush ties. We photographed them against the lattice hedge on the side of the building, then moved Hunter into the arcade, where the stone stays shaded all afternoon and the light gets very soft without anyone having to do anything about it.
The First Look on the Grand Staircase
They chose a first look, which is the single decision that buys back the most time on a wedding day. It meant the portraits and the family groups were mostly finished before five, and the hour after the ceremony did not have to swallow the entire cocktail hour.
Erin came down one side of the twin staircases. Hunter waited at the bottom with his back turned, the way everyone does, and it works anyway. Then we had the two of them on the lawn to themselves for a few minutes before guests started arriving.
A Five O'Clock Ceremony on the Lawn
The ceremony was outdoors at five and ran the thirty minutes it was given. White cross-back chairs down both sides of a grass aisle, a stone rotunda at the end of it wrapped in the same coral and blush and blue as the bouquets, and behind the rotunda nothing but open North Texas scrub and sky. In March that treeline is still bare, which sounds like a problem and is actually a gift, because it keeps the background quiet and lets the flowers carry all of the color.
Afterward the guests came out of their seats and closed in around them, which is how the group photograph below happened. We did not stage it.
Grand Entrance at 6:35
Reception doors opened at twenty past six, the wedding party came in at twenty five to seven, and the first dance followed five minutes after that, which is about as tight as a reception schedule gets and only works when a coordinator is actually running it.
Parent dances, a blessing, and a plated dinner went straight through, then toasts from the father of the bride, the best man, and the maid of honor.
Then It Moved Outside
Later the whole thing spilled out onto the covered terrace, string lights overhead, the carved stone pediment lit up behind the dance floor, and the pool glowing off to one side. Somebody handed out sunglasses and glow sticks. Shoes came off.
That is generally the point where a wedding stops needing us to shape anything and we just keep up.
Planning a Wedding at D'Vine Grace Vineyard?
D'Vine Grace is a Tuscan-style estate and working vineyard in McKinney, the same town as our studio, and it is one of the easiest properties in Collin County to shoot a full day at, because you never have to leave it. Twin staircases, a covered arcade, a fountain, a lawn, and the rotunda are all inside a two-minute walk of each other. That is what lets a twelve-hour day feel unhurried instead of logistical.
Our D'Vine Grace Vineyard venue guide walks through where each of those settings sits relative to the sun, and getting married in McKinney covers the rest of the town.
See more McKinney wedding photography and Dallas-Fort Worth weddings, read how the investment works, or contact us to talk through your date.
