Mariah and Brody wanted their wedding to be an experience, not just an event, and they knew exactly who could deliver that: Julian Leaver Events. The reception turned into a living Van Gogh painting, with projections shifting across the walls as each course arrived. It flowed straight out of a classic church ceremony, and somehow the two felt like one continuous world — each half completing the other.
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Style: Sophisticated, Immersive, Timeless
Time of planning: 14 months
Number of guests: 207
Setting: Church & Hall
Season: Spring
Mariah and Brody met in Undergraduate Pilot Training, in the same flight, where they spent nearly eighteen hours a day studying together for the better part of a year. The connection was immediate, even if neither one planned on it. “I remember exactly the way Brody looked at me for the first time,” Mariah says. “His green eyes are hard to miss! It was undoubtedly a connection I had never felt. Soul mates!” Brody had told himself he’d stay focused on his studies and skip relationships during training entirely. “I did not make it through Day 1 in the flight room! She had me from the start.”
Outside the cockpit, both are fighter pilots — Mariah in the F-16, Brody in the A-10 — but they make a point of keeping that identity separate from home. They read philosophy, stay active together, and share a love of art that runs through their home, where Mariah’s textured paintings hang throughout. They also share their house with two rescue dogs, Sweets and Don Amado, the latter known for his habit of trying to escape.
Concept & Inspiration
The vision came together with Julian Leaver Events and GRO Designs, who built the wedding around a single throughline: art, immersive and full-scale. The church needed no embellishment on its own — a historic, holy space that spoke for itself. The reception was where the concept lived fully, transforming into what the couple describes as walking straight into The Starry Night, layered with music, candlelight, and a room-wide art installation that shifted throughout the night.
"The bride and groom were into art and wanted the wedding to feel like an art museum. We wanted to make each space almost feel like its own exhibit. Even the menu followed the theme, designed to shift with the room's projections course by course, moving guests through the evening the way a gallery moves visitors through rooms."
Welcome Day
The wedding weekend kicked off at Little Daisy, setting the tone with a rehearsal brunch and a welcome party that was colorful from the start — poppies in moody reds and blush tones, houndstooth linens, art-lined walls, and a monogrammed popcorn bar from Nikki’s Popcorn.
Welcome cocktails and handwritten notes to guests rounded out the evening. It was a fitting warm-up for a wedding built entirely around atmosphere.
Wedding Morning
Mariah chose a long-sleeve lace gown from Netta Ben Shabu, sourced through Kleinfeld Bridal — a high neckline, fitted silhouette, and a dramatic train. Jones Beauty Co did her hair and makeup: soft curls, a beaded headpiece, and a classic red lip. She finished the look with a pearl-white clutch.
Brody wore a classic black tuxedo with a bow tie and a white boutonniere, sharp and understated next to Mariah’s gown.
Ceremony
The couple chose Dallas as their starting point — a central meeting place between their two hometowns and close to the friends and family who’d traveled in. They exchanged vows at Highland Park United Methodist Church, a historic space they felt didn’t need embellishment.
Officiant Walt Marcum led the ceremony, with Gyros String Quartet providing music as guests took their seats beneath the church’s stained glass and towering organ pipes. Shannon Skloss photographed the ceremony from above, framing the couple against the church’s soaring architecture in some of the day’s most striking images.
"It was really important for us to get married under God. HPUMC had all the qualities we were looking for in a church. It’s in a great location, historical, beautiful, and, most importantly, preaches a virtuous message."
Reception & Decor
Mariah found Union Station Dallas while Brody was deployed, choosing the historic building off photos alone. It turned out to be exactly right: grand, timeless, and big enough to hold the scale of what GRO Designs had planned. The staircase leading into the reception was transformed with cascading floral installations in jewel tones — deep blues, burgundy, and burnt orange — with paper airplanes tucked into the greenery, a playful nod to the couple’s life in the sky.
Inside, the room became the immersive art exhibit the couple had envisioned. Lightware Labs and Jacob Co Creative projected Van Gogh’s Starry Night across the walls in motion, the swirling blues and golds shifting as the night went on.
Long tables were dressed with mirrored surfaces, cascading candles, and place settings that doubled as art pieces of their own — glass cloches, printed menus, and pops of red in the napkins. Rentals came from BBJ, Nuage, Posh Couture, and Top Tier, with flooring from Amigos Flooring and a custom painted dance floor that looked like dripping paint underfoot.
Jordan Kahn Orchestra kept the dance floor full late into the night. The cake, a four-tier design from Fancy Cakes by Lauren with a rippled, textured finish, stopped guests mid-conversation — one more piece that felt like it belonged in the exhibit rather than on a dessert table. That was the thread running through the whole night: every detail, down to the confetti and the vintage car waiting outside for the couple’s exit, carried the same level of intention. A testament to a vendor team that clearly understood the assignment.
"Our reception was quite literally an immersive art exhibit. Moving art covering the entirety of the walls was the most insane part. We were transported into The Starry Night. The music, the candles, the art: it truly was a one of a kind wedding."
PLANNING Julian Leaver Events | DESIGN GRO Designs | PHOTOGRAPHER Shannon Skloss | VIDEOGRAPHER The Crakes| CEREMONY VENUE HPUMC | RECEPTION VENUE Union Station Dallas | WELCOME VENUE Little Daisy | OFFICIANT Walt Marcum | BRIDAL DESIGNER Netta Ben Shabu | BRIDAL RETAILER Kleinfeld Bridal | MUAH Jones Beauty Co | ENTERTAINMENT Gyros String Quartet, Jordan Kahn Orchestra | CAKE Fancy Cakes by Lauren | LIGHTING Lightware Labs, Jacob Co Creative | RENTALS BBJ, Nuage, Posh Couture, Top Tier | FLOORING Amigos Flooring, Shag Carpet | TRANSPORTATION DFW Vintage Cars, Premier Transportation | STATIONERY Southern Fried Paper | POPCORN BAR Nikki’s Popcorn | WELCOME DESSERT Rock Chick Cookies | PHOTOBOOTH/DJ LeForce | ACCOMMODATIONS The Adolphus Hotel, The Thompson Hotel
