A COVID West Texas Elopement Video | Gavin and Kelly’s Desert Elopement in Terlingua, Tx

Gavin and Kelly’s West Texas Elopement in Terlingua, Tx //

We received the inquiry from Gavin and Kelly only a few weeks before their wedding day. They had to replan everything (like so many of you) after COVID cancelled their Paris elopement. We were still elated to be a part of their intimate wedding week. Being only two of eight we felt like family by the end of the trip.

Why do you want to capture your wedding on video? 

We would love to have all our friends and family there, but with COVID-19 it’s just not safe right now. We wanted a way for everyone we love to be able to see our ceremony and participate in a beautiful way!

Why did you pick Me?

Because Ivey’s a Slytherin, duh! :) We saw your Marfa video and I instantly recognized a very talented, very special artist. I loved that you were able to really get a sense not only of the couple, but of Marfa itself and how the setting played a part of that. We chose West Texas because of the scenery and the desert magic and I knew that you’d make that a part of our story.

What do you do? How do you spend your time together? What is important in life to you?

I’m a writer and teacher. My first book is coming out later this summer! It’s about my first several years of teaching and how critical public education is (and the reforms that need to be made in the system). Gavin is a district attorney in Harris County’s civil rights division and I’m super proud of the work he does. I would say our beliefs center around justice, human rights, nature, love, relationships, and the way God shows up in each of those areas. We love our dogs (Kaiser, a no-nonsense German Shorthair Pointer, and Boots, a goofball Goldendoodle), coffee, cooking, walking to our neighborhood bar, and, more recently, not killing plants in our garden!

So how did Gavin Propose?

Once every few weeks we’ll take the Metro rail into downtown Houston to grab drinks and walk around town. We had plans for our two-year anniversary to visit the coffee shop/bar where we had our first date (it was Honeymoon Cafe at the time, but is now Boomtown Coffee) and then head out to dinner. Gavin’s job was to make the dinner reservations at Nancy’s Hustle, and a few days before he had told me the only time left was at 10:00, so I was like cool, cool, cool (I am usually asleep by 9:30). On the train ride in, Gavin was acting super weird and barely talking. Then at the coffee shop when we ordered, I noticed that he was paying almost $40 for two lattes and macarons, but I’m math-illiterate so I was like huh, I guess that adds up, HAHA. When the lattes came out they were in Honeymoon mugs, and I realized he’d had them made from a discontinued logo. Then he reached into his jacket and unwrapped the ring from a paper packet in his pocket and I cried for a million years. (The $40 was a huge tip for working with the baristas ahead of time to bring out our order in Honeymoon mugs and saving us a table.)

Terlingua? Why this place over everywhere else?

We had plans to get married in Paris in March, but COVID has been given us an opportunity to reimagine what our wedding could look like. I had been out to a West Texas and Big Bend as a kid but didn’t remember much. Gavin and I drove out to Terlingua last November and fell in love with the desert: the sunsets, the stars, the mountains—it has everything. So when Paris didn’t work out, we decided on a completely different but equally beautiful space.

What experience do you want to give your guests?

I want them to experience the magic of West Texas. The way the mountains look different every hour of the sunset, the way it feels to step outside at night and gasp at the stars, the way that the desert is so much sand in rock but still contains so much life. I think that’s a good metaphor right now—that even in the most unlikely of places, even when it seems like thriving is impossible, life is abundant. You just have to know where to look for it.