ABOUT US

Katy and Justin’s introduction to the wedding industry in Austin started when they took over a part of their family business and revamped the event rental business into Sweet Sunday Events in 2009.  Sweet Sunday Event Rentals and Resources quickly grew to become one of Central Texas leading places for event rentals, floral designs and wedding planning.  As a complete design firm, Katy and Justin were written up in local publications such as Austin Monthly and Tribeza magazines, as well as national write ups on Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, The Knot as well as countless others.

As the business grew, Katy attended workshops from some of the countries best designers and launched her own floral design business, Without Wax, Katy.  With it Katy became widely recognized as a leading designer, not only in Austin and Central Texas, but throughout the State, designing weddings for brides and grooms all over the state.  

But Katy and Justin always had their eyes set on something more, on creating a wedding venue that they had searched for when they were married years before but couldn’t find.  A modern, industrial warehouse feel that didn’t exist in Austin or Central Texas at the time.  A venue you could walk in to and the building told a story and did most of the work for you.  Something industrial enough to be different, but romantic and soft enough to create an intimate space for a wedding.

As fate would have it, one day while Justin was out on an event delivery to the local university in Georgetown, Southwestern, he passed a building with a for sale by owner sign stuck into the lawn.  Thinking it was cool in that it was right off the historic Square he called Katy right away, “You might think I’m crazy but…”

And then, the Austin area’s very first industrial venue, The Union on Eighth, was born. Fast forward nine years, Katy and Justin were ready to take another historic property and breathe life back into it. In August 2021 the Wish Well House was introduced and the rest is history.

ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Step inside Wish Well House, its stunning high ceilings, original hardwood floors, natural light warmly streaming through the two stories of windows and what you’ll find is that, behind all the beauty around you, is quite the history.  

1920 was the date.  And Sheriff Lee O. Allen was the man behind the building, constructing the then, 8 room home, into a refuge for his growing family.  Sheriff Allen, one of the counties first, was in the midst of helping the future Governor of Texas, Dan Moody, investigate the Ku Klux Klan in what would eventually help bring the downfall of the Klan in the State of Texas.  

Sheriff Allen moved on, eventually becoming the Sheriff for Travis County.  Leaving the home to his son, he would transform the Prairie Style mansion into overnight accommodations, dubbing it, The Texas Hotel.  The hotel would then be sold to the Dixon Family in the 40’s.  Coco, the matriarch, and her family would add onto the rear of the house to make more rooms for the hotel, bringing the total rooms to 15.  

Upstairs in what are now the sophisticated bride and groom’s quarters were 2 of the original Texas Hotel rooms.  The original pine floors and windows look out onto the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas, just as they did so long ago.  

Back downstairs, in what is now the reception hall, stood a single story building that was used as the washhouse for the hotel.  Coco and her helpers would do the laundry and make preparations for the day’s guests here. 

Coco would eventually shut the hotel down and pass the spectacular property onto her nephew who had begun his own legal career, setting up the Bryce Law firm that would remain until it started its new chapter as the Wish Well House.