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Bri Houk and Lindsey Leaverton Wed at Doc’s Drive-in Movie Theatre in Buda, Texas

Austin Couple Wed on Big Screen at Doc’s Drive-in in Buda

Bri and Lindsey Leaverton, a couple based in Austin, have envisioned what their happily ever after would look like together since the day they met.

Back in the summer of 2018, they found each other on a dating app called HER. Both single moms who didn’t go out much, the women thought the chances of finding someone was unlikely – until they matched.

Within 12 hours of connecting, Bri and Lindsey were going on their first date – which happened to be Lindsey’s birthday – watching Bob Schneider perform at Blues on the Green.

“It was really love at first sight,” Lindsey says.

“We did fall in love that night,” Bri adds. “And it was three days after that when I asked Lindsey to be my girlfriend. And five days after that, I said, ‘I love you.’”

“In true lesbian fashion,” Lindsey jokes, the two were quickly head over heels and rushed through it all.

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A year later, they moved in together. A month after that, they both planned proposals. Bri proposed to Lindsey at the 2019 Austin Pride Parade while Lindsey asked her best friend to spend forever together at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico.

Now it was time to plan their dream wedding.

The couple decided to tie the knot on Good Friday, April 10, at Hotel Ella in Downtown Austin. But everything changed when the coronavirus pandemic was declared a national emergency, and a shelter-in-place order was set to take effect in Austin on March 25.

“We realized our wedding was going to be postponed, and we kept trying to figure out a way to reschedule it, but nothing was working,” Lindsey says.

The reality of the crisis hit the couple hard when Lindsey got news the day before their original wedding date that one of her family members tested positive for COVID-19.

“It really changed the way that we looked at the timeline,” Lindsey says. “I mean, no one’s promised tomorrow.”

Now more than ever, Bri and Lindsey knew they wanted to go through with their wedding plans. Fate was on their side when Bri learned that Doc’s Drive-In Theatre in Buda, Texas, was still operating since it was considered an essential business thanks to its full-service kitchen.

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With only 17 days to re-plan their wedding, Bri and Lindsey broadcasted their intimate ceremony live on two movie screens on April 28 at the drive-in theater. While more than 80 decorated cars, filled with close friends and family, honked their horns as they watched the happy couple say “I do” from afar.

Guests who couldn’t make it in-person got to watch the newlywed’s special day on Facebook Live and YouTube.

Now, instead of spending a 10-day honeymoon in the Yucatán Peninsula, the spouses are together in a cozy Airstream trailer overlooking a view of Lake Travis.

But the Leavertons wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Even in the midst of something so tragic and so difficult, I would not change one thing because it was the most beautiful, unforgettable night of my entire life, aside from when my twins were born,” Lindsey says. “It was so perfect that it almost feels like it had to be this way.”