Bird Dog Wedding is a boutique event planning and design company passionate about creating fresh, fun, and beautiful weddings.

Emily Leach

Founder, President & Lead Designer

Emily has extensive event industry experience and a passion for design, branding, marketing, and all creative aspects of business. She is also highly organized, and considers herself a “both-sides-of-the-brain” person. She is widely known for her creativity and eye for design. She loves playing with color, pattern, texture - layering all design elements to create interesting and personalized events for her clients. Relationships are also hugely important to Emily, and she has developed many long-lasting partnerships with vendors and clients over the years. She is the ultimate hype woman.

Emily built Bird Dog Wedding from the ground up and has been owner and operator for over 15 years. She is so proud of her talented team for consistently producing high-design & high-logistics events throughout Texas and beyond. 

Emily has resided in Austin since 2002, when she moved here to attend the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em, Horns!). She is a San Antonio native, which may explain her love of color - Fiesta, anyone? She and her family - husband, Matthew, and two ginger children, Levi (7) and Charlie (4) - love to adventure out and about to all of Austin’s local parks, sights, and festivities. They also have a signature road trip (New Mexico and West Texas) they take every few years. They are proud Ridgetop Rattlers! They are on a constant quest for the city’s best chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, and chocolate cake. Send reccos.  

Mel Murray

Lead Planner & Designer

Mel is a Planner, Designer & Hospitality Fanatic at Bird Dog Wedding. Born in the Texas Gulf Coast, the Southern Hospitality runs deep and has been a constant theme and pillar in her life. Mel has always had a creative spirit, and loves all things Austin after spending over 10 years in the city. It is her ultimate goal to make planning and executing events fun, innovative, personal, and memorable. Mel loves to come up with unique and funky ideas to elevate the guest and client experience and make any event one of a kind.

As a trained Culinary Arts grad, Mel spent many years cooking professionally in restaurants and hotels. She even worked as concierge and front desk lead before immersing herself in the event industry. Mel had a hand in opening the South Congress Hotel before joining the opening team of Uchi Denver in 2018. She served as a private chef in Austin, cooking for families and VIPs alike. Food is one of Mel's love languages, and that expertise truly comes into play as an Event Planner. 

When she’s not creating unique and extraordinary event experiences, Mel loves to hit up a cocktail bar with her boyfriend and corgi, Nala. With an insatiable appetite for travel and trying the latest hip restaurant in town, she loves adventuring through life. 

Meredith Quinn

Lead Planner & Designer

It's truly a joy to help manifest beautiful and memorable events with this rockstar team. I find satisfaction in creating order out of chaos, and my goal is to ultimately showcase the fun, creative spirit of each couple.

Growing up in Louisiana has given me a deep appreciation for celebration, and I love to see loved-ones connecting over food, music, and friendship. After moving to Austin, I worked for several years in marketing, copywriting, and project management, but soon noticed a desire to combine my creativity and organizational skills. I have a degree in English with a minor in Art History from LSU, and I'm perpetually interested in all forms of storytelling. (Sometimes the movie is just as good as the book!) I'm currently in search of the perfect pastry and would love to tell you about my jam addiction.