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Okay Erin, from one bride to another: your lace-embellished Melissa Sweet gown (“Fern,” for all you need-to-know brides!) has been one of my all-time favorite dresses since – like – forever.  And, girl, you are rocking that dress and veil!  SW favorite Skip Hopkins photographed the couple’s nuptials at the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee.  The groom looks like he stepped right out of a fashion shoot in his silk neckerchief and feather-embellished boutonnière, and I’m loving the father of the bride’s low-key Southern look.  They’re all so darn good-looking, in fact, that I’m still not convinced this a real wedding, though Emily promises me it is.  Check back soon for more details from the reception!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. Adam and I met at a non-profit charity event for diabetes in Nashville the third week I moved to Nashville.
Describe the proposal. Adam took me to the hotel where we met for Christmas dinner. After dinner we wanted to walk around the hotel and reminisce about the night that we met. I especially wanted to see the rooftop again since the view is amazing and as it was where we shared our first dance. When we got up to the roof, there was a table with roses, candles, champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries…. I knew something was up. Adam got down on one knee and asked me to spend my life with him.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The gorgeous setting. There is nothing like it. The garden was so beautiful!
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: Being in the wedding industry for so long, I always knew exactly what I wanted. Finding that in Nashville was another thing entirely! I had a photo on my desktop of Melissa Sweet’s “Fern.”  It was the perfect dress!  After a bit of hunting around the internet, I found that a local Nashville boutique carried the line. It was meant to be!
Describe your wedding flowers: We used beautiful white ranunculus, gorgeous mums, large garden roses and peonies and green berries.

Written with love by Southern Weddings
7 Comments
  1. avatar Holly Hatam reply

    I love that the aisle has a little note saying "reserved for bride"…how cute is that!!!

  2. avatar Emily L. reply

    Head over heels for those pin-stripe suits. SWOON!

  3. avatar Leigh N reply

    Who made those invites? They are lovely!

  4. avatar Southern Weddings reply

    Hi Leigh! We’re pretty sure that the bride made them herself. Talented, no? We can put you in touch with Erin if you’d like!Emily @ SW

  5. avatar Dennis reply

    Beautiful setting! I like groom’s boutonniere – very unusual.

  6. avatar Carly (@realgloss) reply

    The signs are so so so sweet + romantic!

  7. avatar Jamie reply

    I just saw the dress the bride was wearing for sale at a great deal:http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/dresses/19605/Melissa-Sweet-Fern-Size-2.html

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You know what we really like about Brooke + Steve’s purple color palette?  Rather than being full on jewel-tone purple (which, I must admit, I really love!), everything – from the escort cards to the centerpieces and the flower-topped Publix cake – is tinged a soft shade of lilac.  It’s romantic, sophisticated and just a tad vintage.  And there’s my spiel on wedding colors for the day!  For more from Brooke + Steve’s Southern celebration, visit Smitten Photos’ own blog posts here and here!

Describe your wedding flowers: My mother grows the most amazing lavender roses.  My whole color scheme was based on those roses!  The roses we ended up using for the wedding with weren’t as full as her garden roses, but overall I was really happy. We had two different styles of flowers for the reception and ceremony. For the ceremony, we did simple full arrangements of white and green flowers. For the reception we chose unique flowers and vessels for each table. Describe your wedding cake: This might have been the hardest part of the whole process for me. We met with so many cake designers. Everyone was really creative, but we were on a tight budget. Steve said Publix from the very beginning, but I had a specific idea of what I wanted. Steve’s only request was no fondant. After lots of looking, I finally stopped by Publix and customized exactly what we wanted. I really loved the contrast of the white and purple roses, but my favorite part was the birds on top. Our cake topper was two birds hot glued to a stick that I had customized to look like a bride and groom with some black felt and lace trim from the fabric store.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding?
I am really lucky to have a very creative family. My parents, my step-mom and I all had very different opinions about what we wanted the day to be like, so the first thing I had to learn how to do was to make sure everyone felt they were equally a part of the wedding. I also had to figure out how to voice our view for what we wanted our wedding to be like without making it seem like we were picking sides. It was difficult in the beginning, but things magically resolved themselves as the date got closer!
Did you write your own vows?  If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line?
We didn’t write our vows, but I did use www.myweddingvows.com as a resource for things we liked and things we didn’t. We worked really hard to piece together a ceremony that reflected us the most.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?
We are really young to be married, but we have our whole lives ahead of us. That means we have a lot of flexibility to figure that out. I know there will be a big move in the future for us, hopefully back South. I’m ready for some good sweet tea, tons of sunshine and that Southern hospitality you don’t really find as much in Louisville. I know Steve eventually wants to have his own dental practice.  As for me, I know I will be doing something creative, hopefully something to do with interior design. All I can say that if the future is anything like putting this wedding together and half as fun as we had that night, we are going to be a very lucky couple.

Congratulations, Brooke + Steve!  Good luck with all the exciting things on your horizon!


Written with love by Southern Weddings
3 Comments
  1. avatar Kelley@myislandwedding reply

    LOVE the bird motif!!!-kelley

  2. avatar Holly Hatam reply

    I love how beautifully the bird theme is carried throughout the wedding. And the sketch of the bird is so cute!

  3. avatar Heidi reply

    Love, love, love!!!!!!!!!!! The wood, the sparkle, the white details are all fabulous. What a beautiful wedding.

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Holy hot shoes, Miss Brooke! (RSVP, FYI)  The bride paired her embellished heels with a traditional Maggie Sottero gown and lilac rose bouquet inspired by the mother of the bride’s own rose garden.  Could those bouquets match the bridesmaids’ belted Jim Hjelm dresses any better?  We think not.  Smitten Photos shot Brooke + Steve’s Georgia wedding at the River Pointe Golf Course.  What do you think of the “church” the bride and her father handmade for her ceremony?  Brooke insists it was her favorite part of the day, and we have to cast our votes for the wooden steeple as well!!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  We are both from really small towns in southern Georgia, and we both went to the same very small high school in Perry. I vaguely knew of Steve, but it wasn’t until a night in September of 2003 that we officially met. My parents were having a big dinner party for ten couples, and for some reason a family friend invited himself and Steve to this party.  We ended up talking the whole night!  I found out he was actually only 2 years older that me, and that we had a lot in common. I was so shy at fifteen, and Steve was a freshman in college, so I couldn’t have been more surprised when he called to ask me out a week later.  Our relationship has been a lot of growing up together. We learned to cook together, got a puppy, together, I taught him how to ski, and he taught me about music. We have seen and learned so many things traveling all over the South and throughout Europe. More than anything, we just really enjoying doing things together.
Describe the proposal. Because I knew he had the ring, I thought there was absolutely no way he could surprise me. I just knew I would be able to tell something was up. Steve was pretty clever, though, and proposed with breakfast in bed. Anybody who knows me knows that I LOVE sleep. I am a heavy sleeper, and it takes me a while to actually wake up. So when he came in that morning (which was actually Christmas Eve), I was just excited about breakfast in bed. It took me a while to wake up and notice that he was totally nervous and fumbling with a box in his hand. I dropped my fork when he opened it, and he said the sweetest things. Of course I said yes, but I still couldn’t tell if the proposal was for real or just a dream! I was completely and utterly surprised!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Romantic, creative and eclectic.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: This is a hard one. I think it has to be the “church” that my dad and I built. It just made everything so special. But I really liked all the elements of the ceremony, especially the mason jars we sprayed like mercury glass, and the drop cloth and burlap chair covers.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I really wanted to wait to go dress shopping with my mom and sisters, but I couldn’t contain my excitement and gathered some girlfriends to hit the local stores. My only direction was that I didn’t want a corset back. I had made it almost all the way through my first appointment with little success, until Zoe (our helper) brought me a Maggie Sottero. It was beautiful, but she said the reason she hadn’t brought it before was because it had a corset back. Honestly, I knew even before I walked out of the room that I was in love. It was the first time I actually felt like a bride instead of like a little girl trying on the wrong dress. Of course I didn’t think it could be that easy so I continued looking for months, but after four trips back to the first store I had my dress.


Written with love by Southern Weddings
6 Comments
  1. avatar Elizabeth @ Dapper Paper reply

    wow, that "church" is STUNNING! i can’t believe they built that, it’s so gorgeous and the chandelier and the stained glass…::swoon:

  2. avatar Emily L. reply

    I love those chair covers!

  3. avatar Album Boutique Team reply

    Stunning colors and accent pieces – I love the chair covers too!! The pictures and couple are absolutely beautiful. Congratulations to Brooke and Steve and thanks for sharing!

  4. avatar Savannah Kenney reply

    Oh dear that is the best chapel ever! Love love love it!

  5. avatar HollandPhotoArts reply

    WOW! That "church" is truly ah-mazing! So sweet that she and her dad made it, too. Also LOVE the chair covers. Fabulous ideas that really personalized their ceremony. Thanks so much for sharing this wedding, Katharine! xoxo…anne&bill

  6. avatar Heather van Breda reply

    That church is absolutely amazing. I love it!

Southern Weddings reserves the right to delete comments which contain profanity or personal attacks or seek to promote a business unrelated to the post.  And remember: a good attitude is like kudzu – it spreads.  We love hearing your kind thoughts!

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