My wife Heather and I just moved to Texas, and within months of our ascent, we exchanged our wedding vows right in the heart of downtown Plano. We’re young enough to like the night life, but old enough to appreciate the charm of the area. Plano offers that assorted blend of new meets old in a carefully planned and well thought out fashion.
Plano is the largest city in Collin County, Texas, and is approximately 20 miles North of the monster city of Dallas. This city is latent with a rich balance of history and modern growth. With the charm of the historical downtown area, you are warped back in time to the origins of the city where due respect and homage is paid in maintaining the aesthetics of the historical architecture, while at the same time providing the modern conveniences of restaurants, coffee shops, retailers and a wedding venue. With the advent of the DART system, it is also a decisively convenient little destination without the struggle of finding parking in this popular area. Although the buildings may have their old charm on the outside, the night life thrives into the early morning hours on Friday and Saturday nights. The demographics no know bounds—you’ll find millennials and baby boomers, alike.
Whether you’re there to grab the pub fare and a smooth local micro-brew pint at The Filmore Pub or Vickery Park, or to take a step up to the counter for your fill of BBQ at the Lockhart Smokehouse, or maybe to grab a slice of a wood-fired pie (pizza folks) at Urban Crust, or on your first date looking for that quiet and quaint place to grab a soothing cappuccino and get to know someone new at Fourteen Eighteen Coffeehouse, the historical epicenter of Plano has it all.
With the recent buzz due to the comment “It’s a little Plano in here” by LeeAnne Locken of the ridiculous excuse for “entertaining television”—The Real Housewives of Dallas—one who’s never been here might get the impression that it’s just that, “Plain-O.” Far from it, Plano is actually home to several little bitty companies that are household names such as Hewlett-Packard, Frito-Lay, Toyota, Capital One….you know, just a few Fortune 500 companies.
With everything you could wish for (except an ocean) right here at your fingertips, Plano is truly a remarkable city despite being in the shadow of its big sister. With ever expanding economic growth and development, strategically located accessibility to a light rail transportation system and highways, cultural destinations for those that appreciate the arts and fine dining and the vibrancy of a big city without the big city feel, Plano is anything but “Plain-O.”
