Monday, December 13, 2010

The Wedding. Part 2.

Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to post again about my wedding, this time doing a post on the details that made the day so special! Most of the pictures below were taken by my wedding photographers, unless otherwise noted! Enjoy!








































1. Cookies, given as favors, at my bridal luncheon. So cute! My three aunts & 2 grandmothers gave me the luncheon on the morning of my wedding. 

2. My bouquet, plus the 5 bridesmaid's bouquets. One of the bouquets is hiding, but each girl carried a bouquet of a single flower, making up all the flowers I had in my bouquet. I loved the symbolism that it stood for!

3. Close up picture of my bouquet, taken by my cousin Elizabeth Looney. She is a photography major and amazing at what she does! Check out her website.

4. Close up of the broach I found to put on my bouquet.

5. Amazing arrangement at the church, made by a very talented friend :)

6. Programs, using the same monogram that I used on our invitations.

7. The Hutton Hotel ballroom, before everyone came inside.

8. One of three centerpieces I helped design for the reception guest tables. This one was my favorite! 

9. Groom's cupcake tower. We wanted to be creative, as opposed to having a regular cake, so we chose baseball cupcakes in chocolate, vanilla, fresh strawberry, and red velvet. The Cupcake Collection in Nashville made the cupcakes, and they were AMAZING! Best cupcakes I've had in Nashville, hands down. We surrounded the bottom with Cracker Jacks and baseball turf, to keep with the baseball theme. The cupcake tower is one I designed, using 3 different sized mirrors and mosaic-tiled round bases, all stacked on top of each other to create 3 tiers for the tower. 

10. Picture of the whole table, taken by a friend.

11. & 12. On the groom's cupcake table sat both a ceramic man and woman vase. My mom had these, and we wanted to use them to add a whimsical touch to the table. Flower arrangements were made and placed in the top of each "head" to create the whole look. They put flowers in the woman vase to mimic the look of my curly hair, and they cut the hydrangeas on the man's head to mimic the look of Chris's faux-hawk! Too creative! I loved that special, personal touch! haha

13. Picture of our "candy bar," complete with our favorite candies! A tall manzanita branch tree graced the center of the table.

14. & 15. Close ups of the manzanita branch tree. The tree was adorned with fresh orchids, black ostrich feathers, hydrangeas, jewels, silver ornaments, black & silver glitter birds, and a bird's nest with silver eggs. 

16. My wedding cake! I designed this with the help of Jay Qualls, at Maples Wedding Cakes. Jay is INCREDIBLE!! I highly, highly recommend him if you are anywhere in the Nashville area - he travels, too! Jay has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings and is now on this season of the Cake Boss on TLC. My wedding cake was shown on the show, too! Check him out... you won't regret it!

17. Had to add some whimsical - yet elegant - touches to the cake. That came in the form of black ostrich feathers!

18. We used baseballs nestled in grass for the seating charts. The guests could take the baseballs home, as a favor, too!

19. Guest book table. I wanted to create a elegant entry to the ballroom, which we did by borrowing some style elements from Jeff Leatham. I loved how he used bunches of the same flower, set a little off-center in tall, clear vases. (see the pictures on his website of Eva Longoria's wedding) In front of the flowers, I had 6 picture frames of our parents and grandparents on their wedding day!

20. For our guest book, we used a "Nashville, Tennessee" book. We wanted our guests to see some of the famous Nashville hot-spots, and we wanted to incorporate Nashville into our wedding as much as we could since that's where we will make our home. For now, anyways ;)
















Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Wedding. Part 1.

Look who's BACK!!! First of all, let me apologize for being away so long. In the past month, I have gotten married, been on a 10 day honeymoon, gone back to my hometown for Thanksgiving for several days, bought a house, and now we're in Southern CA! And that's only the beginning! So, again, I am sorry for neglecting my blog... but life happened! :) I wanted to share some pictures from my wedding with you guys. I will do it in a few parts, because there are so many special details I want to share! First, I want to share the clothing details of the wedding. As I've mentioned before, my mom has been a HUGE influence on me, fashion wise. We collaborated to add special family touches to the wedding in regards to our clothing. Take a look...





Photo by Inara Studios


Photo by Inara Studios.

Photo by Inara Studios.

Photo by Inara Studios.

Photo by Inara Studios.

Photo by Inara Studios.

Photo by Inara Studios







1. Picture of us at the church, after the wedding. 

2. Close of picture of both our dresses. I posted this one because it's a close shot of my mom's dress. My mom's vintage dress was made and worn by my grandmother in 1949! My grandmother made it to wear in her best friend's wedding, and it fit my mom perfectly - no alterations! My mom's necklace was a labor of love. We found two strands of rhinestones and wound them together, creating a thick chain. Next we needed a pin - or something big - to add to the necklace to make it "pop!" We looked all over the U.S. and all over the Internet and found nothing. Finally, on a trip to Chicago, we found these perfect pins! They are two black rhinestone flowers, placed at the side of the necklace, to make a stunning and one-of-a-kind piece! Her earrings were vintage, and her shoes were Stuart Weitzman with rhinestone detailing. Big bracelet from ??. Her clutch was from Kittie Kyle in Memphis, TN. 

3. Just wanted to share this special one of my sweet family. 

4. This photo shows all the detailing on my dress. This dress was HEAVY!

5. Shot of all the bridal party. The bridesmaids dresses were lovely! In all black and rhinestone accessories that I gave them, they all looked stunning! More on this later, but each bridesmaid carried a bouquet of a single flower, all making up the flowers that were in my bouquet.

6. Another full length shot of the dress, at the church.

7. Posted this one because it's another clear, up-close shot of my mom's beautiful mother-of-the-bride dress. She looked STUNNING!

8. My Christian Louboutin shoes, with the vintage shoe clips my mom found for me in Atlanta. Those vintage shoe clips took the shoe to a whole different level! I was so glad to have them as my "some old," along with my mom's veil.

9. & 10. Speaking of my mom's veil, I wanted to wear something of hers on my wedding day. We were going to re-do her dress for me, but it would have taken too much work to re-do it. Her veil was gorgeous, so I decided to take it and re-work it so I could wear it on my wedding day. Olia Zavozina took my mom's veil and created an updated version for me. It took my breath away the first time I saw it! Olia is amazing! This picture and the next one show it in detail. The top half-moon shaped headpiece and the entire sides & bottom of the veil are made from vintage lace, with some bead work throughout. I was so proud to be able to wear my mom's veil, and even though I re-did hers, I know she was happy that I wore it as well!

11. & 12. Another vintage dress my mom wore to my bridesmaids luncheon was this rose colored dress of my grandmother's. Again, no alterations were needed on this dress either! It fit my mom perfectly! The picture from the luncheon was a little dark, so I wanted to include another picture of my mom wearing it. This picture was taken this past Easter when we were all trying things on for the wedding. My grandmother brought over a bunch of her clothes from the 1940s and 50s, so my mom and I both were trying them on. How lucky it is we are (or were) all the same size! My mom didn't have any makeup on, so disregard that... but I wanted to show a better picture of the whole dress. 

13. I also tried on the dress, just for fun! It's in perfect shape and is still stylist today - after 50+ years! I can just image my cute little grandmother waltzing around the house cooking and cleaning for my grandfather and 3 small daughters! She was something else! :)

Wanted to give a little shout out to my photographers, Inara Studios. They are out of Nashville, and they are amazing! Husband and wife team, Marcia and Cade, worked with me to make my wedding day flow smoothly and get all the shots I wanted to capture the special day. My husband, entire bridal party and family all loved them and said how professional and accommodating they were. I highly recommend them as wedding photographers! Check them out here

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures and stories that went along with them! I am so proud to share it all with you! Keep checking back for other posts on my wedding! xx