Southern Weddings

I love how Britney + Chris’ wedding color palette of peach, blush and grey mixed with with soft greens and metallics makes for romantic and preppy style all at the same time! The lush blooms make me feel like I’ve just stepped into a loveliest garden, and boy does it look like it would smell divine! Oh, and that ceremony installation from The Nouveau Romantics? Holy smokes, that is gorgeous! But one of my favorite parts of B + C’s feature has to be Britney’s advise on planning. She says ” it’s so easy to get lost in the details when planning your dream wedding. Don’t forget to remind yourself of what it’s really all about: you and your husband becoming one.” Yes, ma’am!

Special thanks to The Nichols for sharing this gorgeous wedding with us!

I need these shoes! Like NEED them!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: After we got engaged, I started looking at wedding dresses online and in magazines for ideas and inspiration. I fell in love with a gown from Priscilla of Boston and had planned on setting up an appointment at their salon a year out from the wedding date. To my surprise, I received an email one morning saying that Priscilla of Boston was going out of business and that they were selling their entire inventory starting that day. I jumped in my car and drove straight to Houston in hopes of buying the dream dress I had been admiring for months. When I arrived at the salon, the gown I had had my heart set on was still there, and it was a BRAND NEW sample at that! It had only been tried on a few times and was in perfect condition when I bought it. The Mischa gown and I were destined to be together! Not only did I get my dream dress but at a fraction of the price! Score!

Describe your wedding flowers: The theme for our wedding was a preppy garden party with a dash of whimsy. I wanted the flowers to have a romantic feel and to have a “freshly picked from the garden” look. The main request I had was to include lots of garden roses! Elizabeth Lewis of The Nouveau Romantics has her own style and flavor, and her bouquets and arrangements are truly works of art! She did an incredible job designing and arranging the flowers for our wedding. They were gorgeous and very unique!

Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding. I did A LOT of research when it came to picking songs and musicians and a DJ for our wedding. We wanted the music to reflect on who we were and our style as a couple. We hired a local string trio for our ceremony and cocktail hour and Michael Antonia of The Flashdance for our reception. I worked with our string trio to have custom sheet music created for the songs we used during our ceremony. While our bridal party walked down the aisle and lined up, our string trio played “Here Comes My Baby” by Cat Stevens. When I walked down the aisle, they played “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. (It is absolutely gorgeous when played in strings!) For our recessional, they played “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles. For our first dance, we chose “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. We had seen the Beach Boys in concert a few months prior to our wedding and thought that song would be perfect for us!

Did you decide to do a “first look”? Yes, we definitely wanted to do a first look. We wanted to see each other for the first time in privacy versus in front of an entire crowd of people. We knew that it would be emotional and wanted that moment just to ourselves. Plus, it made for the sweetest pictures! His face was priceless when he saw me for the first time. It will be a moment that I treasure forever.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? My most memorable moment was walking down the aisle. I kept my eyes on Chris the entire time. I wanted to soak in every moment. Christopher’s most memorable moment was the first look.

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: We had two favorite details! The first and most favorite would have to be, hands down, our alter installation. Elizabeth Lewis of The Nouveau Romantics really created something magical when she transformed that gazebo into an alter for us. Our ceremony space was so romantic and dreamy. The linens, the garlands, the flowers…perfection in every way! Our second favorite detail was the balloon installation floating over the DJ’s table. Geronimo Balloons created those beauties using my color palette: peach, blush and grey with greens and metallics. Event design genius, Elizabeth Lewis, also assembled the floating cluster of balloons.

Our wedding cake was the brainchild of a Pinterest inspiration. I saw a cake with stripes made out of sprinkles and knew it had to be mine! I mean, how cute! I’m obsessed with stripes and all things preppy, so I was thrilled when I found a baker that said they could recreate the sprinkle stripes. My favorite part of our cake table was the linen we used! The white sequin linen added so much panache! Sequin linens = totes amaze.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. Christopher and I met in 2008 in Lubbock, Texas while we were both attending Texas Tech University! Christopher was in graduate school studying history, while I was an undergraduate studying psychology and biology. I met Christopher through mutual friends at a college hangout across from campus. We ran around in the same social circle for about seven months before we discovered that our feelings surpassed friendship. We started dating, and the rest is history!!
Describe the proposal. In the summer of 2011, we took a road trip to a music festival in Tennessee: Bonnaroo. On the last day of the festival, our favorite band, Railroad Earth, was playing at noon, so we went early to get a good spot. Luckily, we went early enough to get directly in front of the stage! During the last song, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Christopher hand over our camera to the girl standing next to him. I looked over, thinking he wanted to take a picture but he was down on one knee! He was so nervous that he grabbed my right hand. Ha! However, he quickly recovered and grabbed my left hand and said, “Baby, will you please marry me?!” as he put one of the zipper pulls from my backpack onto my finger. I was in shock and so excited! Of course I said YES! The crowd all around us was cheering and congratulating us. I was so thankful that he thought to have someone snap a few pictures of the proposal. So romantic! After we returned home from the festival, Christopher had a real engagement ring made with the beautiful heart-shaped diamond that was originally used in my mother’s engagement ring from my father.
In what month did you get married? October
How many guests attended your wedding? 80
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? We are a Southern detail lovin’ couple y’all! We had LOTS of Southern goodness in our wedding! First, I had seven bridesmaids. The girls wore preppy, lady-like dresses and pearls, which also screams Southern. We got married at a historic venue that was built in the 1850s. Instead of a guest book, we had guests sign a giant wood cutout of our wedding monogram. Our custom Save the Dates made with a peach gingham design. Lastly, one of our signature cocktails was a barrel-aged Vieux Carré. A Vieux Carré is a cocktail that was created in 1938 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. Chris prepared a giant batch and barrel-aged it for three months prior to the wedding. He also hand-carved large format ice in the shape of a ball to fit each glass perfectly. This took days to hand carve enough ice for each Vieux Carré. Talk about a true labor of love!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Constantly trying not to become a Bridezilla. Chris will tell you I failed.
What is the one thing you are most happy you splurged on? We were so happy that we splurged and booked The Flashdance. He turned our reception into an epic dance party! Everyone, including myself, danced nonstop for hours! We are also happy that we splurged on our invitations. Momental Designs created such lovely invitations for us. I cried when I received them in the mail! Hand painted flowers on each invitation…swoon.
What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? It’s so easy to get lost in the details when planning your dream wedding. Don’t forget to remind yourself of what it’s really all about: you and your husband becoming one.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We are looking forward to house hunting and seeing where married life takes us!

Written with love by Marissa