Southern Weddings

This wedding is special for many reasons.  First, it took place at Claxton Farm, a beautiful, beautiful venue in Weaverville, NC that burned down last November.  Impressively, the amazing staff succeeded in rebuilding the barn in time for their summer brides to enjoy it.  Second, this is Mr. and Mrs. Snow’s wedding!  For all of you who are familiar with my slight Weddingbee obsession, you know that this is very exciting for me.  Third, it’s the perfect blue + red wedding to lead us into the Fourth of July weekend!  Mary + Greg asked Oh, Darling! Photography to document their day, and I must say, that was an excellent decision.  Aria Floral provided the beautiful blooms — don’t miss the bouquet tile from SW fave Paloma’s Nest!  More DIY goodness coming your way in part two!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  We met eight years ago on a punk rock community website.  We chatted online, met in person over university spring break and hung out as friends off and on for several months.  We finally started dating in June of 2002 after attending a Piebald concert where Greg interviewed the band for his zine. The rest is history. We usually just tell people we met at a punk rock show!
Describe your Proposal:  Greg’s proposal was very unique. We knew we would get married since the first summer of punk rock love in 2002, but several significant life events pushed us off the wedding path. In addition to a cross-country move from our beloved North Carolina to blustery Wisconsin for graduate school, Greg battled cancer twice in five years.  (We’re cautiously optimistic we’ll continue to see our favorite words, “All clear,” from here on out).  Needless to say, it felt like tempting fate to plan something so joyous in the face of such difficult times.  Still, on our anniversary, 7 years into a great relationship, we had an amazing discussion about moving our relationship forward and finally making the scary but exciting decision to get married!  We researched and chose the ring together, and I asked for no surprises with its delivery.  We’d had enough surprises in the past four years!  When it arrived a week later, I signed for it and waited patiently until Greg arrived home from work to open it.  After we called our families, we celebrated with friends at a Decemberists concert – our musical courtship come full circle – and found ourselves laughing hysterically at the irony of our first post-engagement date being chock full of songs about love-gone-wrong. Strangely enough, it was a perfect proposal for us.
Three adjectives that describe the day are:
From Greg: Appropriate, specific and relevant.
From Mary: Creative, local and love-filled.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The cohesiveness. Our planning was somewhat fractured due to distance, and we were nervous about our ideas and projects working cohesively when finally put together at our venue, which we’d only seen once, by the way!  Seeing the paper goods, fabric, attire, food and décor come together on the wedding day proved very emotional and rewarding for us.
What was Southern about your wedding?  What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? From the local bluegrass band to the favors containing Cheerwine, Moon Pies, and Texas Pete, our wedding was an homage to our Southern heritage. Being recent transplants to the Midwest, we missed our home state of North Carolina a great deal. Our wedding was a chance to celebrate the cuisine, arts and traditions of the South with our guests who had traveled from fourteen different states.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: As a bride on a budget, I decided to explore alternative bridal options. While visiting Charlotte over the holidays, my mom and I scheduled an appointment at Bella Bridesmaids – they’re phenomenal, by the way.  The shop had a “bridal alternative” version of Lula Kate’s Christy dress in the shop for another potential bride.  I tried it on, and everyone in the shop agreed that it was perfect.  We added a perfect pale pink sash, and the look was complete. I adored my dress!

Written with love by Emily

Kate Headley always delivers the most beautiful portraits, and Paige + Joe’s South Carolina wedding was no exception.  Friends and family toasted the happy couple at McCrady’s restaurant, and spent the evening grooving to Mike and the Mixers.  Branch Design Studio styled the pink and white blooms in traditional silver julep cups (love this!), and Cakes by Kasarda whipped up a totally Southern bowtie cake fit for the similarly bowed groom.  Want a little more eye candy?  Take a peek at Kate Headley’s blog post here!

Describe your wedding flowers: I started out knowing that I wanted to use my favorite flowers, peonies and hydrangeas, in a range of pinks. For the bouquets we used hydrangeas, peonies, ranunculus, sweet peas, dahlias, astilbe, and garden roses. My bouquet used lots of pale pinks and creams while the bridesmaids’ bouquets had the same flowers, but in medium to bright pinks. The boutonnieres were made with pink sweet peas and navy berries. The alter flowers and centerpieces were set in large silver footed bowls and silver mint julep cups and were made up of pink hydrangeas, peonies, garden roses, ranunculus, dahlias, sweet peas, and dusty miller.
Describe your wedding cake: We chose to have a pie station instead of a wedding cake. We had buttermilk pie, pecan pie, and blueberry pie. We also had a groom’s cake shaped like a bowtie to match the tie that Joe was wearing that day.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Trying to plan our Charleston wedding while living eight hours away posed a slight challenge because we couldn’t always be down there to do things in person. We relied on email a lot and I put a lot of trust in my vendors and the staff at McCrady’s. Everything turned out just the way I wanted it. I will really miss heading down to Charleston for wedding planning weekends!
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? The most memorable moment for Joe and I was when our brothers gave toasts towards the end of the reception. Weeks later we are still laughing about what they had to say!
Did you write your own vows?  If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? We did not write our own vows but we did create our entire ceremony using several examples of past ceremonies that we had seen performed. Our favorite part was a reading from our favorite book “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and was read by one of our friends.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?  We just returned from a wonderful honeymoon in Sea Island, GA and are now settled into our new home in Ann Arbor, MI. Our future plans include lots of traveling, Joe finishing law school, and starting a family.

In true Southern fashion, Paige + Joe’s Charleston wedding – photographed by Kate Headley – was a traditional and elegant celebration.  Petal pink bridesmaid dresses from Lula Kate, a historic downtown venue and a classic silk Jim Hjelm gown?  Yup, pretty traditional – and all kinds of stunning.  (The dramatic key-hole detailing on the back of Paige’s dress adds just the right touch of playfulness, though, don’t ya think?)  My favorite accents have to be the bride’s cute navy clutch (it was one of my Fab Finds picks in the last SW issue!) and the groom’s coordinated bow tie.  Simply sweet Southern weddings make my day.  How ‘bout yours?

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  Joe and I began working for the same consulting company right after college. Although I lived in Connecticut and he lived in Washington D.C., we were both in training for work in Chicago at the same time. After sitting next to each other during long days of training classes we became good friends and then started dating soon after that. A few months later, I moved down to D.C. and the rest is history!
Describe the proposal.  Joe surprised me by proposing during a picnic lunch in Middleburg, VA.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Intimate, classic and preppy.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The location was by far our favorite detail. We love Charleston and were so happy to have our wedding in such a beautiful, historic city. We were so happy to have our wedding at McCrady’s and feel that it was a perfect venue for us. We loved the character of McCrady’s so much that we felt we only needed minimal decorations. The room where we held our ceremony had beautiful chandeliers, fireplaces, and pale yellow damask wallpaper. It was elegant and traditional and felt very southern. In complete contrast was the room where our reception was held. That room had exposed brick walls and large exposed wooden beams. The room felt very rustic, yet sophisticated.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I had found a wedding dress back in October, but when it came in March I was unhappy with it. I tried the dress on and just didn’t feel like a bride. After several days of worry, I was flipping through the spring issue of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and saw a dress that I fell in love with. I did some searching online and found that there was one in stock at a store about 30 minutes from me. I went to try it on and bought the dress right off the rack since it was impossible for me to order it with less than 8 weeks to go until my wedding day. Thanks to a wonderful seamstress I would up having a dress that fit perfectly and made me feel like a bride. My favorite details of the dress were the cutout back and the pockets!
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration?  What was Southern about your wedding? (It’s okay if not much was!) We served our favorite Southern foods including shrimp and grits, pork tenderloin with chutney, johnny cakes, fried green tomatoes, ham biscuits with peach preserves, crab cakes, and fried mac n’ cheese. The location itself was also southern since it was a destination for everyone. We had guests fly in from all over the country to be there for our big day, as well as to explore all the history and charm that Charleston has to offer.