Clare Hotze first noticed Thomas Snow from behind home plate at a high school baseball game during their sophomore year in 2017. Thomas was pitching against a rival school – the first varsity game he started as a pitcher – and it turned out to be one of the best performances of his life. Clare likes to think she was his good-luck charm. For Thomas, however, staying focused wasn’t easy. “She was sitting right behind home plate,” he recalls. “I kept finding myself wanting to look at her.”

After eight years together – including four spent navigating long distance in college – Thomas knew without hesitation that Clare was the woman he would marry. In spring of 2024, just days before their anniversary, he arranged a proposal at The Houstonian Hotel. Despite pouring rain, he guided Clare beneath the gazebo of the property near a gorgeous, towering oak tree on the lawn. There, he knelt and presented a custom engagement ring featuring a center-cut diamond flanked by baguettes, inspired by the engagement ring of Clare’s mother. Family joined them afterward for dinner, beginning a 14-month engagement filled with joyful planning.

The following spring, loved ones gathered in Houston for a traditional Catholic mass at the church Clare and Thomas attend each Sunday. “It was important to us to be married somewhere we would return to regularly,” Thomas shares. The ceremony unfolded with a curated list of music performed by eight singers and three instrumentalists. A single trumpet accompanied Clare’s entrance, adding a regal touch to the already moving service. She wore a strapless A-line gown with a feminine lace overlay.

Florals in blush, blue, and white softened the grandeur of the church. Stargazer lilies – Clare’s favorite – were incorporated into larger arrangements, while greenery framed the stately entrance doors. The bride carried a bouquet of white peonies, roses, and ranunculuses wrapped with a rosary blessed by Pope Benedict XVI. Tucked inside her shoe was a sixpence for good luck, a tradition her mother had also honored on her wedding day.

“When I was little, my parents attended a wedding that featured a pink champagne room… I always knew I wanted to create my own version someday.”

The celebration continued at The Houstonian Hotel, returning to the very place where Thomas had proposed. Clare envisioned an atmosphere that felt extravagant with timeless beauty. “Being a lifelong lover of all things pink, I knew I wanted to incorporate soft touches of pink throughout the day paired with lush greenery,” describes the bride. Guests entered a ballroom transformed with jaw-dropping cascading hydrangeas and roses in varying shades of pink, with florals suspended overhead to create a wow-worthy display.

Cocktail hour featured an overflowing seafood tower displayed atop ice – a nostalgic nod to Clare’s parents’ wedding – brimming with shrimp cocktail, crab claws, and lobster tails. “We wanted to create an abundant, welcoming atmosphere with beautiful florals and unforgettable food,” Clare says, noting that florals and well-curated fare were their greatest investments.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the evening was the couple’s “Snows’ Speakeasy,” a side room draped in cranberry- infused pink fabric and styled with plush blush seating. The bar served all-pink offerings: Ruinart Champagne, rosé, a Cosmopolitan named for Clare, and a classic Greyhound. For Thomas, it was unlike anything he had seen at a wedding. For Clare, it was the realization of a childhood dream: “When I was little, my parents attended a wedding that featured a pink champagne room… I always knew I wanted to create my own version someday,” confides the bride.

A live band kept the dance floor full from the couple’s first dance – a moment Thomas had quietly worried about beforehand – to a spirited conga line weaving through the ballroom. “I remember thinking everyone would be watching us,” he says. “But once we started dancing, it felt like it was just Clare and me.” The energy grew so lively that staff briefly cleared the floor to sweep up broken glass and spilled drinks before the celebration resumed.

Later that evening, the newlyweds slipped outside for moonlit portraits beneath the oak tree where Thomas had proposed, bringing their story full circle. Though the day passed in what felt like an instant, both made a point to greet each guest personally, even if it meant never quite sitting at their head table. Rooted in faith, strengthened by years of devotion, and wrapped in shades of pink as a nod to the bride, Clare and Thomas’ wedding was not only a celebration of love, but a reflection of the life they had been building together since that unforgettable moment behind home plate.

This real wedding was originally published in the Spring 2026 expanded digital edition of Inside Weddings magazine. 

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