Southern Weddings

This week’s Southern Wedding of the Week features one of our favorite southern bride bloggers, Erin, of {Blue Eyed Bride}. How gorgeous is this wedding!? I love this couple and I am a huge fan of Erin’s blog! The shot of Erin and her maids with the purple umbrellas (from {Toss Designs}) is one of my favorite wedding images of all time. Photos by {Kelly Moore Photography}. Thank you so much, Kelly, for sending us this inspiring wedding! Floral design by Libby Munn. Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Tell us your story… I graduated with my Masters degree in August of 2005 and immediately began working at a law firm in town doing special events and meetings. I also managed the floor that housed all of the meeting space. Football season was about to start and it was Steve Spurrier’s first year with the Gamecocks. Todd came up to the floor one day to meet another attorney that was supposed to give him football tickets to the first game of the season. As he waited, we started to talk and I found out that he’d be starting work there full time in a week. When he came back a week later, I saw him a few times and I definitely remembered him, but we never talked. I ran into him at Publix one night after I’d just finished working out. I had on ratty gym clothes and had a cart full of food. Todd had his little basket with just cereal and milk. I told him that I recognized him from work and we talked for about 20 minutes there. The next day, I spoke to him in front of his friends, and obviously embarrassed him. He quickly emailed me and we emailed each other for months. It got to the point where I couldn’t wait to go to work and see what he had written that day. We finally decided to go to lunch and then our first date followed about a month later. I told my roommate the night of our first date that it would be the last first date Id ever go on!
Describe the proposal: It was a normal spring Saturday in Columbia. I had just finished planning my major golf tournament for the year the week before, so I was looking forward to a relaxing day. I wanted to go to Charlotte to visit a friend, but Todd begged me to stay in town. I thought this was a little strange because when I asked him why I needed to stay in town, he didn’t really have an answer. We took Boudreaux, our Golden Retriever, to the park, went to lunch, and then he told me that he wanted to go have a nice dinner. I was getting ready for dinner and he called to ask if we could take a walk because he needed to get some things off his chest. We drove to the Horseshoe on the USC campus and started walking and talking. Most of what we talked about I don’t really remember, but he pointed out that the University was kind of a cornerstone in our relationship. It brought me to Columbia for grad school, he met me the day that he was picking up his football tickets, and now we would start the next phase of our life on that campus. He said, “Erin, will you love me forever and marry me?” I said, yes! We drove to the restaurant and when we walked in, I saw my Mom, Dad, and brother and Todd’s Mom, Dad, and Nana there at the table. Todd’s family lives in Columbia, but he had flown my parents in from Dallas and my brother in from Louisiana. It meant the world to me to have them there. We spent the entire weekend talking about wedding plans and it was wonderful that we were all there together!
What attracted me to my husband was: Instantly, it was his quick wit. He has a laugh that is so infectious and he is so warm and welcoming to everyone he comes in contact with.
Why do you love your husband? Todd is the kindest, most patient man that I know. He can make me laugh like no one else can and has been able to finish my sentences since the day we met. He met my family right after we started dating and they loved him, too. I knew very early on that he was the one for me and I think of those moments from the beginning every day when I look at him. He’s smart and he challenges me on a daily basis. He is the most complimentary person I’ve ever known and he makes me feel the way any girl would want to feel.
What attracted me to my wife was: I met Erin the Thursday before I started my first job out of law school. We ended up working at the same law firm, but she was quite intimidating. Not only was she beautiful, but it seemed like the entire firm’s power brokers knew her and liked her, but none of them had any clue who I was. Thankfully, we ran into each other at a neutral location (in the frozen foods section at a local Publix), and we immediately hit it off. I found out very quickly that, in addition to being a knockout, Erin was hilarious, deftly quoting lines from Home Alone and doing other random things to keep me laughing, and smart as a whip. Erin’s heart of gold was obvious, too, and it instantly became clear that she was everything that any man could ever want in a wife. (And while they technically did not attract me to her, Erin’s phenomenal Cajun and Southern cooking abilities have been a wonderful bonus to marrying my bride!)
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: For my birthday in 2006, we went to Gainesville to watch USC play Florida. The game was on my birthday and we ended up losing by one point, but the trip was so much fun and so memorable.

The weather on our wedding day was: Surprisingly beautiful. Weather reports for the whole week said that it would be gorgeous in Greenville except on Saturday, May 3. It was supposed to rain all day long. It rained while I was putting my make up on and as soon as we stepped out to take pictures on campus, it was gone. The temperature was great and the sun wasn’t totally out. Todd said that the sun came out completely just as I started walking down the aisle.

What were your something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue? My something old was Todd’s mom’s handkerchief. My something borrowed was a locket that my grandfather had given my mom. We attached it to my bouquet and it had pictures of my parents and a picture of my brother when he was 4 years old. I cried so hard when I saw that for the first time. My something new were my gold Manolo Blahniks and my something blue were my Hanky Panky’s and a little blue ribbon attached to an E monogram that Carolina Herrera sewed into the dress.

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I wanted to go shopping with just my mom. I knew it was very special to both of us. My parents live in Dallas and I wanted to go to Dallas to find the dress. We made appointments with lots of shops and found a perfect Carolina Herrera dress that really felt like me at Warren Barron Bridal in Highland Park Village. The veil was Angel Sanchez.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? The design inspiration was a gorgeous handkerchief that Todd’s mom gave me the night we got engaged. She carried it on her wedding day and it had this beautiful paisley lace design around the edges. It was the very delicate linen hankie and I knew it had to be incorporated into the big day. I also had this really pretty magazine page torn out that had a pink and gold card that said, dinner and dancing. I had never considered pink and gold as my colors, but they were so beautiful together.

Scariest moment? When we realized 20 minutes before the ceremony that when we sent our bags and clothes back to the hotel with the valet driver, the rings were still in the bag! The father of my flower girls dashed off to get him and we got them back just in time!

Funniest moment? When my Dad, who raises money for a children’s hospital, looked at me and was wearing a clown nose just minutes before we were to walk down the aisle. He decided to bring it from Dallas just in case he thought I needed to laugh!

Check back later for Part II of Erin + Todd…