Southern Weddings

Hi belles! Our friend and former Southern Weddings intern Jessica Clinch is the newest gal to take you through her wedding process here on the blog! Jessica will be blogging for us once a month until her wedding next May. In case you missed her first post, be sure to check it out here! — Emily

Now that we have all of our big vendors and our venue selected, it’s time to start deciding on the fun details for our wedding! Before we get into the more elaborate design elements, let’s first chat about the most basic, yet crucial, detail: our color palette!

Deciding on a palette was actually a bit easier than I expected: we simply chose our favorite colors! My favorites are pink and gold, and Zack’s is blue. From there, we narrowed our focus and chose specific shades within that palette: blush and fuchsia for me, and navy (a great classic choice!) for Zack.

During our initial design-planning meeting with the Rebecca Rose Events team, we sifted through a variety of linen swatches to choose colors and patterns we loved. While we are keeping the colors above as our core colors, we also discovered that we really loved the look of incorporating accent tones of soft grey, French blue, and peach into our palette. I know that might sound like an overload of colors, but I promise it is going to be so beautiful!

Now that we have our color palette determined, we have had fun going through different ways to incorporate it into our wedding details! One of the most exciting (at least for me!) ways to do this has been gathering inspiration for our bridal party attire.

Photo on left by Erich McVey via Wedding Chicks

Zack almost immediately knew what he wanted his groomsmen to wear for our wedding. Since navy is one of our main wedding colors, it made sense for the groomsmen to be in navy suits! He really likes the look of a classic white oxford for his groomsmen, with blush ties to tie the look together. We both agreed that brown shoes would look the most dapper to finish things off. He might be switching it up and doing something a little bit different for his look, but we’re keeping that part as much a secret as my wedding dress!

I didn’t personally have as clear a vision for my ladies, however. Zack and I agreed that blush dresses would be best, since they would pop nicely against the groomsmen’s navy suits. I also knew I loved the look of mismatched bridesmaid dresses, and hoped to find dresses that flattered each of my gals’ body types and style preferences. My biggest dilemma was choosing between long and short dresses.

Since we are getting married in May, my first thought was to have them wear short dresses, since it might be warm (and I want them to be as comfortable as possible!). But, I also adore the femininity of long dresses; the silhouettes they create are so flowy and beautiful, and I want my ladies to feel their most gorgeous on our big day!

I talked through my ideas with our planners, and Becca recommended long bridesmaid dresses for a number of reasons. Most of my bridesmaids are either a bit on the short side, or a bit on the tall side. So, if they were to all be wearing short dresses, their hemlines would fall at varying heights when they were standing next to each other for pictures. I hadn’t even thought about this, but Becca pointed out that having all of my bridesmaids in long dresses would make everything look more cohesive in our wedding photos, which is important since they will be wearing different styles of dresses! She also mentioned how beautifully Perry Vaile captures the flow and movement of long dresses, which is one of the things that attracted me most to her photography.

With that decision made, it was really time to have fun browsing online for beautiful bridesmaids dresses! I adore a mix of soft romantic silhouettes and modern details (think sequins, tulle, and petals!), and quickly fell in love with the dresses from BHLDN and from designer Adrianna Papell. I hope my ladies love these looks as well! I know they are going to look gorgeous for our outdoor spring wedding.

Friends, I’d love to know: where did you have the best luck finding beautiful and unique bridesmaids dresses? Did you shop local at boutiques, or online at your favorite stores or larger shops that carry bridesmaids dresses?

Written with love by Emily