Whimsy on Massey

Couple builds tiny chapel for unconventional weddings

By Abigail Allen

Managing Editor

There’s a twisted little chapel with a weathered copper steeple on Massey Lane in Pilot Point.

The structure, which is the latest addition to the LizzyGator property, was built straight out of the minds of its creators and builders, Chris Duncan and Elizabeth “Lizzy Gator” Jones.

“We don’t make plans and then draw it out,” Duncan said. “… You just kind of go to bed at night ... and think about how to do it the next day.”

Jones added that “it just evolves.”

Duncan spoke about how “every board’s at a different angle, and they’re all compound angles.”

“It was a little tough,” he said.

By starting in March, Duncan and Jones took advantage of the closures that slowed business to put their focus into building the chapel.

“We couldn’t have completed it if we had to attend to other things,” Jones said.

The pair, partners in business and in life, have used reclaimed wood and recycled design pieces to complement their tiny creation that is intended as a background for couples who want a different kind of venue for their wedding.

“I think now, with what’s happening in our country, people are going to start to downsize,” Jones said. “The mega weddings, everything is probably going to be cut in half, and hopefully that’s where we can blossom. And, you know, the fact that there’s a lot of brides out there that don’t want traditional, and the whole venue is nontraditional.”

The color scheme was chosen to provide a neutral background for the couples getting married there, Jones said, and the plants, like the others on the property, were selected with xeriscaping in mind.

Along the backwall, the stained-glass window, which is set off at an angle, was salvaged from another structure in Pilot Point and repaired by a woman in Denton, Jones said.

The space inside the chapel, which is currently unfinished, is large enough to accommodate roughly four to five people because the church was designed more as a backdrop than as an indoor wedding space.

Duncan and Jones, who plan to have the outdoor portions of the chapel completely finished by Oct. 20, have had an additional, even more personal reason to wrap it up.

The couple will be married at the chapel in November.

“I wanted to be the first wedding here, but a couple beat us,” Jones said. “So, we’ll be getting married in November. We have to debut it.”

Duncan has had that deadline on his mind.

“That was a little pressure, making sure I have it done in time,” he said.

Jones hopes the chapel helps draw people to Pilot Point.

“Hopefully it will be good for us, good for Pilot Point, as the growth is coming,” Jones said.

One question the two often get is whether it’s the smallest chapel. It is not.

The couple valued unique over record-breaking as they set out to build the space.

And the couple is trying to find the perfect name for the place, and people can send their ideas as a message on Facebook at LizzyGator or through email to elizabethdzines@yahoo.com.

“We haven’t named her yet, but I do have it open for suggestions if people want to throw out some names, and there’s been some great names out there,” Jones said. “We’re kind of waiting because there are some other surprises that are coming that might inspire some new names.”