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36 T h e m o r n i n g o f her wedding day, Katie Bivins took a quiet moment in her grandmother's dressing room in Amarillo, surrounded by hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper and the vanity where she played as a little girl. Later that afternoon, she would join her fi ancé, Austin–based photographer and creative director Cameron Cone, at the altar of St. Andrews Episcopal Church around the corner. The newlyweds would then return to her grandmother's estate to celebrate with friends, family, and loved ones in the city where they grew up, just four blocks from one another. Despite their childhood proximity, the spark between Bivins and Cone didn't occur until years later, when she was working in Dallas at Grange Hall and he was building his career in Los Angeles. The two reconnected via long distance and, before long, were head over heels. When it came time to plan their wedding, they both knew it had to be home in Amarillo. Having lost both of her parents, it was important to Bivins that the wedding occur in a place that held special memories of them. The estate — now home to the Bivins Foundation, which provides services for the elderly — was the perfect choice. "It was a place that always radiated love for me," Bivins says. Dallas wedding planner and designer Julian Leaver ensured that the day's details did just that, orchestrating the reception so that guests would move through the historic Tudor Revival before making their way to a twinkling tent erected on the sprawling lawn. The Bivins home, designed by Henry Bowers Thomson in the 1930s for her great-grandparents, is one of many markers of the family's longstanding legacy in Amarillo and beyond as pioneering ranchers, politicians, philanthropists — and entertainers. "Katie's grandmother used to throw Flower girls before the ceremony B Y L I S A C O L L I N S S H A D D O C K . P H O T O G R A P H Y S A M U E L L I P P K E S T U D I O S . UNDER AN AMARILLO SKY KATIE BIVINS + CAMERON CONE The fi ve-tier wedding cake was the bride's childhood favorite: strawberry by The Cake Company Katie Bivins at the Amarillo Tudor Revival estate formerly owned by her grandparents and great grandparents The bride's dress by Monique Lhuillier Champagne tower prepped for a celebratory toast, where the family Christmas tree used to stand,