Dallas Realtor Kari Schlegel’s Fairybook Wedding: The Reception

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I don’t think a Dallas Realtor has ever had a gown quite like this. The bride wore a dress designed specifically for her by bridal gown designer Monique Lhuillier in Los Angeles, and Kimberly Schlegel  Whitman tells me that she was under orders by Kari not to cry lest the floodgates open. Also, it was J.R.’s idea to carry a bell and ring it down the aisle. Kim says that when she tried to involve him in the planning process, she asked her son if he’d rather carry a box or a pillow in his role as ringbearer.

“No, I’m going to ring a bell,” he said. And so, he did.

Kim says Todd Fiscus out did himself once again, and created exactly what Kari said she wanted, the glam and glitz that was elegant yet traditional, like the lucite candelabra in the church cut into a baroque design, to please Myrna, and the lucite flower vases on the dining tables filled to overflowing with pure white flowers.

The moment we got wind of the security outside and walked into church, I could feel the power of the guests. Alan Peppard insists many were following the Kentucky Derby on iphones, but those guests must have been in his pew. Those around us were busy snapping iphone photos of the altar and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In the sanctuary were Lucy Billingsly, Caroline Rose Hunt and daughter, Laurie Sands, Lydia and Dan Novakov, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and his wife, Tricia, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Gene and Jerry Jones, Charlotte and Shy Anderson, Plains Bank honcho Alan and Lee Ann White, Chuck Norris, Annette and Harold Simmons, Elaine and Neils Agather, Phil Lacerte, Ken and Millie Cooper, Scott and Gina Ginsburg, Sam and Sonia Hamra, Jan and Jim Showers, Allie Beth and Pierce Allman, The Duke Jimersons, Tom Leppert, Michelle and Bernard Nussbaumer and beautiful daughter Nile escorted by my “second son”, Clayton Floyd, Janet Roselle and hubby,  the Crawford Brocks, Carl and Peggy Sewell, Barbara Daseke and her husband, Don, who is running for mayor of  Addison, and so many more guests I am getting dizzy trying to recall — 1000 easy. Oh yes, Mark Seal flew in to cover the event for Vanity Fair; the late Dominique Dunne wrote up Kim’s wedding for the pub. Mark is, by the way, married to ob/gyn Laura Blocker who trained with my husband. They live in Aspen.

Mr. and Mrs. Troy Kloewer

The tent was at least as large as the new casino at the Greenbrier; if Kim’s was 33,985 square feet, Kari’s was surely larger. I mean, it covered the football field. Technically, it was a series of tents, the first one being 18,000 square feet. I’m told the tent rental ran about $350,000, plus $40,000 alone for the carpeting. Guests left the church and walked up a few broad carpeted steps into a cooled reception area for cocktails with a long bar along both ends, a table of cheese hors’doeuvres, and silver-draped tables.  I took note of the votives on mirrored shelves behind the bars. At first I thought the sky was open overhead, then I realized the entrance tent even had a crystal roof! Sliding silver doors kept the formal dining room and dance floor closed off until after cocktails. Once the bells rang, the doors opened. Inside the dining room, there were round and oblong tables, hanging chandeliers, flowers, candelabra, a marble-esque dance floor, carpeted floors, and two elevated platforms, one housing the Chicago-based band, the Ken Arlen Orchestra, the other the wedding party. Soft up lights were tucked in, crystals hung from flower tips and there was sparkle, sparkle everywhere. I was particularly impressed with the bathrooms which were the most incredible port a potties I’ve ever seen, nicer even then the ones at Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance — these had marble around the sinks.

First dance

SMU President Gerald Turner helped Bob Schlegel welcome the crowd — “welcome to SMU’s new practice field,” he joked. Bob promised he’d put everything back as it was after the wedding, offering to add in some paving stones “and toughen those guys up”, he said. He noted the importance of SMU in his family’s life — daughter Krystal is a junior at SMU –

“I trust she’ll be a senior”, he joked.

Kari is an MBA candidate. He also made reference to Kim’s wedding and the tent motif, which had also played a role in reverend Craig’s sermon, saying, well, I figured, how much can a tent cost?

Then he introduced Troy, his new son-in-law. In the center of that giant two million dollar production, with the name-drop-able names and couture and jewels and wealthiest of the wealth of Dallas and Texas surrounding him, Bob Schlegel told Troy Kloewer that he was a good man, and had met with the family’s complete approval, but they were now entrusting him with their most precious asset.

Thank goodness for those “K” monogrammed napkins at our tables. They were soft, but strong, and just what we needed to keep the floodgates in check.

Justin and Kim Whitman

Walking to the reception "across the Boulevard"

The dance floor

Centerpieces had crystal lucite bases and cascading white blooms

Kari said she wanted a really big wedding cake!

Candy Evans

Candy Evans

9 Comments

  1. Paul J. Williams on May 11, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Candy, Don Daseke is running for mayor of ADDISON, not Arlington. 🙂



  2. Paul J. Williams on May 11, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Candy, Don Daseke is running for mayor of ADDISON, not Arlington. 🙂



  3. Candy Evans on May 11, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    #@*%!!! it! I need a proofreader like up I need a horseshoe you-know-where! Thanks Paul my dear, this is why I need you to read my stuff and probably owe you tons of drinks!



  4. Candy Evans on May 11, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    #@*%!!! it! I need a proofreader like up I need a horseshoe you-know-where! Thanks Paul my dear, this is why I need you to read my stuff and probably owe you tons of drinks!



  5. Teia Collier on May 12, 2011 at 10:35 am

    The cake looks lovely!



  6. Teia Collier on May 12, 2011 at 10:35 am

    The cake looks lovely!



  7. […] ask Candice about her wedding plans, and quite frankly, still being starry-eyed from the Texas Royal Wedding of May 7, I was more than happy to oblige. All I wanted was dirt on the […]



  8. […] ask Candice about her wedding plans, and quite frankly, still being starry-eyed from the Texas Royal Wedding of May 7, I was more than happy to oblige. All I wanted was dirt on the […]



  9. […] ask Candice about her wedding plans, and quite frankly, still being starry-eyed from the Texas Royal Wedding of May 7, I was more than happy to oblige. All I wanted was dirt on the […]