Bride Kristina shares all the details on her blue and peach wedding at The Farmhouse!
I’m excited to introduce you to today’s bride, Kristina, and have her share a peek into the planning behind her sweet wedding to Kevin. Kristina met Kevin at a young adult bible study, and though they did not start dating immediately, as soon as they did they knew very quickly they were meant to be. In Kristina’s words, “We were in love and wanted to spend our lives together. After about 4 months of dating he proposed, and six months later we got married!” I, too, knew within a very short time that my husband was the man I would marry, so I love hearing from other couples that simply just know.
Kristina also knew that The Farmhouse was the perfect place for them to start their married life together… even without seeing it finished! “I just knew from the moment that I saw it that this was the place where I wanted to exchange my vows and to spend the evening celebrating with family and friends,” Kristina says. Keep reading to learn more about their darling story and wedding planning journey.
Thank you kindly to Erin Wilson (also the bride’s sister!) for sharing Kristina and Kevin’s wedding with us!
Did you have something borrowed, blue, old, and new? I borrowed my beautiful pearl earrings from my mom for my wedding! My something blue was the blue stone on my garter that I wore, and my something new were my beautiful Badgley Mischka shoes. I did not have something old.
Tell us the highlights of finding your wedding dress. I put on the first dress, and I remember thinking in my head that I thought that this one looked really pretty on me, and then she put the belt on with it and this huge smile just came to my face. I walked out to show everyone, and within seconds my mom started crying which made me cry, and everyone else to follow. I knew that this was the dress and that Kevin would love it too!
Our flowers for our wedding were absolutely beautiful. They were an organic take on classic Southern style/Southern elegance. There were lush blooms with big petal counts and an assortment of greenery types to give it that organic feel. Everything was very natural and textured.
Did you decide to do a first look? Why or why not? Kevin and I wanted to be able to share that very special moment of seeing each other for the first time between the two of us. A first look to me is a moment frozen in time between a soon to be husband and wife that will forever be ingrained in your mind for the rest of your life. The nerves that come right before you get to see each other will always stand out to you, and the smiles and hugs that you exchange within those first few minutes are priceless. A first look allows you to block out the rest of the world for just a few minutes and soak up the fact that you finally get to be with the one whom your soul loves!
I had so many people comment on how much the loved the venue and how beautiful it was. We couldn’t have picked a better place.
My youth pastor from when I was in high school did our ceremony, and when he got to the vows he did it in such a way that made Kevin jump to saying “I do” before he was supposed to and before my youth pastor even finished saying the vows. The entire room filled with laughter, including Kevin and I. In Kevin’s laughter he whispered to me and asked me if he was red, and I just looked at him and said “This is why I love you!” It really cut any tension that might have been in the room, plus who can say that their husband said “I do” twice! It is my favorite memory and moment from our wedding!
Outside of our premarital counseling Kevin and I spent a lot of time talking about our expectations for marriage whether that was what a normal day might look for us or what our finances would look like, all the way to talking about what we wanted for a family in the future. We set goals together, and dreamed up what we wanted life to look like for us in a year, five years, and down the road.
What was Southern about your wedding? One of the Southern details included in our wedding was the actual venue itself. It was a beautiful white sophisticated barn that mixed classic style with Southern elegance. We also served sweet tea and lemonade during the cocktail hour, as well as brisket and other southern dishes for dinner. Also a lot of our greenery and flowers added to the Southern details, like beautiful Southern gardens. My favorite Southern thing that we did had to be the ice cream bar! Who from the South doesn’t love ice cream?!
My sister-in-law is a design major, and she helped with digitally creating our programs, seating chart pages, and name plates. She also did a lot of our chalkboard writing and the handwritten calligraphy on the table numbers and tapestry behind the cake. She helped save a lot of money by not having to hire a calligrapher!
Our favorite detail of the wedding was the Ice Cream bar! Ice cream was something that Kevin and I ate a lot of while we were dating. So we knew that we wanted to include ice cream in our wedding somehow. We had vanilla ice cream for everyone, and all sorts of toppings. You could choose whatever your heart desired, and we knew you would feel like a little kid again! We wanted to take everyone back to the days when they were kids and there wasn’t a care in the world, and to remind them that “Love is Sweet!”
Tell us your love story in one sentence. I was invited by some long-time family friends to go to a young adults’ Bible study, and (reluctantly) I ended up going! That first night the young adults played a game called “Fast Friends”. It was basically speed dating, but in a way for you to get to meet both guys and girls in room filled with 75 people in a nonthreatening way. You would meet one person and then have 2 minutes to strike up conversation with them, and Kevin ended up being about the 5th or 6th person that I met that night. Needless to say the two minutes was not enough time for either of us, and it kept us wanting to know more about the other person. I ended up continuing to go every week, and over time conversation with Kevin continued to grow. About two months after the last night of meetings for the semester, Kevin asked me out on date. The first date was enough for both of us to know that this was going to be something really good! The dating process went fast, and the both of us knew within the first couple months that we were in love and wanted to spend our lives together. After about 4 months of dating he proposed, and six months later we got married!
Tell us all about the proposal! It was the day before my birthday, and I knew that the proposal could be happening at any time, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I kept my excitement to myself. We had planned to spend the evening before my birthday celebrating so that we could celebrate with my family on my actual birthday. So Kevin was able to disguise a few things and make me think that it was all because it was my birthday. That Friday morning at work (I’m a teacher), I got a phone call from the front office telling the me that “I had the most beautiful arrangement of flowers that I needed to come pick up.” As I entered the office my mouth dropped to the floor, because it was the most beautiful arrangement that anyone had ever gotten me filled with 2 dozen beautiful red roses. I read the card and it said “Happy Early Birthday. Love, Kevin”. I took it back to my classroom and all my teacher friends kept joking and asking me if there was a ring attached in there somewhere! That evening he picked me up to take me out to a fancy dinner at a restaurant called Peli Peli. On the way to dinner I was kind of on to him, because he kept breathing really deeply, and I kept asking him if he was ok and his response was “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” It was humorous. During dinner one of the managers stopped to ask if we were celebrating something special and we said it was my birthday but he did it in such a way that it was like he was up to something. So she gave us dessert on the house, and I thought at that point that maybe Kevin was in on the whole thing. Come to find out that was just coincidence, and something to laugh about later. After dinner we came back to my apartment, and Kevin asked me to dance with him in the living room. It is something that we do often and holds very precious memories and moments. I told him yes, and we danced to Pat Green’s song called “Crazy”. After the song we hugged each other tight, and within seconds I could feel Kevin’s heart beating super fast and his body started heating up like a furnace, and I knew at that point that he was about to propose. He looked at me and told me that he had a gift for me but that I had to turn around to get it. Then he told me that I could turn back around, and when I did he was down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I am pretty sure that I probably told him “Yes” about twenty times!
When did y’all get married? March 10, 2017
How many friends, family members, and loved ones attended your wedding? 200
What did you serve for your wedding cake or dessert? Why did you choose it?
Our wedding cake was 4 tiers with each layer being a different flavor. Some of the layers included vanilla cake with a white chocolate raspberry icing, a chocolate layer with dulce de leche icing, and an Italian cream layer with vanilla icing. The outside was decorated with a white stucco type icing covering the entire cake. I then had flowers inserted in a diagonal slope downwards towards the bottom. It was beautiful and everything that I wanted it to be! It looked amazing in front of the greenery and the tapestry that said “I’ve found the one whom my soul loves.” Song of Solomon 3:4.
What was one way you saved money or cut costs at your wedding?
One way that I was able to cut costs was through my amazing sister, Erin. She was also my photographer, and her gift to us was to be our photographer on our wedding day. I know that most people don’t have the luxury of having an amazing photographer as their sister, but that was certainly one way I was able to do everything within my budget.
What is the one detail or vendor that you were so happy to have as a part of your wedding?
This is such a hard question but I have to say my photographer, because she is also my sister. I loved knowing that my sister was getting to capture all of the precious moments from our wedding that I know will last for years and years. I wouldn’t have wanted to share any of those moments with anyone else, and I am so blessed and lucky to have had her capture our special day!
What advice would you give to someone currently planning a wedding? Advice that I would give to anyone planning a wedding is don’t sweat the small stuff. I know that in the moment of planning there are a lot of little things that seem so huge to you, but on your wedding day those things end up being something that you don’t even notice. Also make sure to enjoy the planning, because the wedding day will come in go so quickly. At the end of the wedding day when it is just you and your husband, you will look at each other and say “Where did the day go?” So make sure to enjoy the family time that you have while planning and all the celebrations that go along with it. I would say that planning a wedding is one of the greatest times in your life, and you want to be able to look back on it and smile!
What’s next for you as a couple? What memories are you looking forward to making together?
For us a couple, right now we want to enjoy the next few years where it is just the two of us without any kids. We want to truly take this time to get to know each other and see what life is like for the two of us. Included in that is finding a church for the two of us. Before we were dating Kevin and I both had our own church that we were involved in, and now that we are married we are looking to find the place that is perfect for us to be able to get involved and serve. Also we currently live in a quaint one bedroom apartment, and we are looking to start the search for a house in the next year or so. We love our apartment, but we also want to be able to plant our roots somewhere permanently in the near future. Also something that we have talked about is wanting to go on some sort of vacation together every year. Our honeymoon was amazing, and we loved those memories that we made. We hope to be able to do that every year:)
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your wedding?
Something else I would like to share about our wedding is that as a gift to Kevin on the wedding day, I gave him a journal that contained letters I had been writing him starting from about a month into our dating relationship. Like I said before, I just knew Kevin was going to be the guy that I would spend my life with, and I didn’t want to go one day without documenting our journey together!
Photographer: Erin Wilson Photography | Videographer: Reverent Media | Planner: The Farmhouse | Ceremony and Reception Venue: The Farmhouse | Florist: Magnolia Belle Floral | Wedding Cake or Dessert Baker: Dolce Designs | Caterer: A Taste of Catering | Band or DJ: J&A Entertainment | Special Details (tapestry, table numbers, seating chart, chalkboards, name plates): Emily Joiner Design | Paper Products: Minted | Bride’s Gown: Essense of Australia, STYLE D2122, Ivory | Bride’s Veil: Veil-Bel Aire, V7263C, Ivory | Hair Stylist and Makeup Artist: Updo Gypsy | Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka | Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Bill Levkoff, Style 976, Slate | Groom’s and Groomsmen’s Attire: Men’s Wearhouse | Ceremony Music: Third Floor Strings
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