Southern Weddings

There’s debate in the office over whether Lisa knew we were throwing her a bridal shower. I maintain she was totally surprised (see photos below for evidence!), while Kristin insists she must have known – we are a wedding magazine, after all! Either way, there was no doubt we were going to celebrate our special girl, and our team retreat, just a few weeks before her wedding, was the perfect time to do it. Blue Ribbon Vendor Rebecca Rose Events did an impeccable job pulling together a bridal shower full of Lisa’s favorite things (she admits there was some Pinterest and Instagram sleuthing involved to get everything just so!), and another BRV member, Julia Wade, was on hand to capture the festivities! Let’s take a peek…

Lisa knew afternoon tea at the Carolina Inn was on the retreat schedule, but until we handed her a box with a special invitation inside (designed by Rebecca!), she didn’t know it was in her honor. I think she might have been a little surprised :)

There may have been a few tears when we rounded the corner and saw the tea room all set up.

And with good reason – everything looked gorgeous! Rebecca and Betsy chose a palette based around Lisa’s favorite black and white stripes, with a little pop of red for fun. The beautiful linens were from Nuage Designs!

In addition to the main table, Becca and Betsy also set up the sweetest “Garden of Wisdom” – beautiful white ranunculus, stock, and peonies, all with quotes, verses, and advice for cultivating a growing marriage!

After we finished oohing and ahhing over everything (it took awhile), we settled down for the Carolina Inn tea service – such a treat!

There were freshly baked scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, egg salad and cucumber sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, petit fours, and so much more! And, of course, more than ten varieties of tea to sample, like ginger peach, wild berry plum, and black raspberry.

There were also gifts! Instead of choosing something off Lisa and Dave’s registry, we opted to each gift them a favorite date night to help their first year of marriage be full of fun and adventure! For example, I wrapped up the schedule for my favorite outdoor (free!) summer concert series and a gift card to the restaurant on the premises. Kristen went low-key, with gift cards to Publix (for cooking together dates) and Starbucks (for coffee dates). Morgan chose two tickets to a favorite local winery.

We were so glad to have this time together to celebrate just a few weeks before the big day! Lisa experienced her fair share of stress in the last month (yes, it happens to magazine editors, too!), so it was sweet to set that aside for a few hours and look forward to all the good things that were to come.

Big hugs to Rebecca Rose Events, Julia Wade, and the Carolina Inn for all they did to bring this day to life!

Written with love by Emily