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It should come as no surprise that the wedding of For the Makers co-founder Janet was a perfect example of DIY-done-elegant — after all, through her genius business, this talented gal has subtracted the guesswork and multiplied the beauty of craft projects everywhere. (LOVE!) So even though her wedding to Collin was filled with DIY projects, from the dye-dipped napkins and table runners, to the watercolor invitations and custom wine labels, the chalkboard photo booth backdrop, Janet’s jewelry, and ALL the desserts, the end result is clean, sophisticated, and understated. Huge thanks to Julia Wade for capturing everything to perfection so we could share!

What a beautiful sentiment with which to start your wedding day!

Janet’s gorgeous necklace was actually featured as a DIY on For the Makers — find it here!

A lot of the music, both from the ceremony and reception, was really just songs that represent memories that we’ve shared. Many of the songs were later-year hits from the Beatles. I walked down the aisle to “Here, There and Everywhere,” and exited to “All You Need is Love.” We chose Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” as our first dance because we love the song and we were married on the first day of fall (just after a harvest moon).

So many happy faces in a row!

How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story. We met in college. He sat in front of me in Art History. I asked him for pencils. The whole semester, he would turn around to look at a clock behind me, even though we both knew that he couldn’t actually see it from where he was sitting. On the last day of class, I asked him out for coffee. He said yes (and that he had wanted to do the same but was too shy) and we’ve been inseparable since. That was ten years ago.

I saw a Vera Wang dress in a magazine and thought it would absolutely be the one. I booked an appointment at the showroom along with a few other places in NYC, and my mom came up from North Carolina to help me look. The Vera Wang dress turned out to be a complete disaster — I took it off just as fast as I put it on. At the next location, I pulled several dresses from the racks, and the second one I put on made my mom start crying. I loved its simplicity and subtle structure. I slept on it and we went back the next day and bought it. I wasn’t a fan of the flutter sleeve that it originally had, so we had them alter the shoulder for a more streamlined look. After that change, I loved it even more.

Describe your wedding flowers. Natural, loosely arranged in pretty pale tones. Both the ceremony floral arrangements and the table arrangements were stunning. Each one was different and in a different vase/vessel. We included fruit and lots of foliage. We wanted it to feel natural and fit in with the gorgeous venue.

Get ready for your mouths to water, y’all…

Instead of a cake, we opted for cakes. My mother, an excellent baker, crafted more than a dozen cakes, plus cookies, truffles and macarons. The specific cake that we cut was a three-layer white velvet cake with milk chocolate buttercream icing, wrapped with French vanilla buttercream. It was topped off with a poured dark chocolate ganache. And it was the best cake ever.

Tell us all about the proposal! It was my birthday. We spent the day wandering around the city, shopping, eating and drinking. Hours later, we went to my favorite restaurant and ordered my favorite meal. On the way out to catch a cab, he asked me if I felt like the luckiest girl in New York City and I said yes. Then he said “will you make me the luckiest guy in New York City”? I turned around and he had knelt down on the sidewalk looking up at me with a cute box in his hand. I said yes before he could even open it or say anything else. All I remember saying was “oh my God” over and over again. I was shocked. After nine years of dating, you just don’t expect it. He asked me if I liked the ring and I realized I hadn’t even looked at it. It was gorgeous and perfect. We got into a cab and drove off to midtown to catch a Broadway show we had tickets for. After that, we met up with friends for celebratory drinks. It was the perfect day.
When did y’all get married? September 22nd, 2012
How many friends, family members, and loved ones attended your wedding? 170
Did you decide to do a “first look”? Why or why not? No, neither of us wanted to. Collin said the first time he wanted to see me was when I walked down the aisle. I felt the same way.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Our favorite details really sprang from my DIY skills. My mother, my bridesmaids and I worked to create one-of-a-kind pieces that tied in with the overall theme of the wedding. From dye-dipped napkins and table runners to watercolored invitations and custom wine labels, the wedding really reflected the warm, personal feel of an idea that was hand crafted. The ultimate centerpiece was a huge chalkboard that doubled as a photo booth backdrop and giant wedding card.
Did you have something borrowed, blue, old, and new? If so, do tell! On the inside of my dress, we sewed in one of my late Grandmother’s blue silk hair ribbons that I borrowed from my mom. So that covers everything!
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? We heard it was good luck to bury a bottle of bourbon a month before the wedding so it wouldn’t rain. We did that. It absolutely worked. We had gorgeous weather and not one second after the last song ended, it started to rain. The next day, we dug the bourbon up and drank it, as all good Southerners would do.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? The biggest challenges when planning the wedding centered around our distance from the location. While the caterers, photographer, florists, and most importantly, our family members were busy planning and facilitating, we were hundreds of miles away in NYC. We both had fairly unforgiving schedules at the time, so finding our way down to meet and plan with all of the various folks that really pulled this day off proved to be incredibly challenging.
What is the one detail or vendor that you were so happy to have as a part of your wedding? Hands down, Julia was the best photographer we could have ever asked for. She was so warm and professional that she truly felt like a part of the bridal party by the end of the week. While all of our vendors were amazing to work with and blew away our expectations, Julia still managed to shine.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? We both agree that our favorite moment was the walk down the aisle. Everything was perfect. Neither one of us have ever smiled half as hard as we were in that moment.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you most looking forward to about married life? Just more of the same. Please and thanks.

Julia Wade is a delightful member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

emily Written with love by Emily
2 Comments
  1. avatar Sara Velordi reply

    I love this – that dessert table is simply incredible! And I LOVE “For the Makers!

  2. avatar a well-crafted home – Julia Wade Photography reply

    […] who hired me in 2012 to photograph her beautiful wedding (see it featured on Southern Weddings here) and then became a dear friend in the process.  When she reached out to me about this project I […]

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Annie + Jimmy’s V4 wedding is one that I keep finding new details in. Their Tennessee nuptials bound their love of the South and all things vintage with a dedication to tradition and family. Their ceremony was packed with nods to Jimmy’s love of literature and the couple’s relationship, with a reading of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven.” The reading was extra special since it was the poem that Jimmy included in his first love letter to Annie (aww!). Just looking at these images from Jonathan Canlas makes our hearts melt.

I found my wedding dress at a little boutique in Nashville called B. Hughes Bridal. I was set on having a Vera Wang dress, and B. Hughes had the best selection. They were also incredibly nice and made the whole experience so much fun! My best friend and mom went with me to help – along with my dog for some of my fittings! My dress looks like a mixture of vintage lace and couture fashion. Fashion is my other weakness – so it fit the bill perfectly! I knew it was my dress, because it was the one that best made me feel like a bride. Surprisingly, the style was opposite of what I always thought I would have, but I absolutely love it! I felt so beautiful in it.

For the groom, the vintage handkerchiefs in the wedding program held extra importance. In just the seven months prior to our wedding, I’d lost the two most influential men in my life. Without Annie sticking by me, I would have fallen beyond salvation. Our wedding was thus shadowed by, and saturated with, their presence. We acknowledged their loss in our programs: I wrote a brief message thanking our guests for supporting us through the loss of my best friend in the fall, and then my dad in the winter. I quoted my father’s speaking points for his engagement toast—one he was unable to deliver, and in our program message, I wrote: “We cherish his words, and have smiled through our tears at the legacy of love left to us. Along with our gratitude, please accept these handkerchiefs: though they may aptly wipe away tears of sorrow, we pray they may only catch tears of joy today.”

We had a spring wedding on May 28. The ceremony was at 5:30pm on Signal Mountain, TN. Signal Mountain is where Jimmy grew up, and the church is where I have wanted to get married for years. It’s affectionately referred to as The Little Brown Church by locals, and for obvious reason. It’s a quaint old church surrounded by pine trees that was built in 1908. Our reception was at Lindsay Street Hall in downtown Chattanooga. It used to be an old church built in the early 1900s that has been restored into a beautiful event hall. Both of these venues seemed like the perfect spots for our vintage wedding! Our rehearsal dinner was at the River Inn, also known as The Old Catfish House, situated on the Tennessee River with a sunset view of the River Gorge. We thought it had a perfect laid back Southern atmosphere with a view to match!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We met through close mutual friends. Jimmy is an old friend of my best friend’s husband. She and her husband schemed to get us together, thinking we would be perfect for each other. Once we were acquainted, a friendship slowly grew into a relationship that neither of us expected. We seemed so different, but had all the important common interests (faith, family, hair metal and country music, and plaid). In the end, our friends really knew what was best for us!
Describe the proposal: We had planned to go for a short vacation to my family’s beach condo in Clearwater, Florida. I have been going there since birth; it feels like a second home to me. Jimmy had schemed to propose while on this getaway. He hid the ring in his carry-on bag and sweated his way through security. Unfortunately, we arrived to a heavy rainstorm, so we decided to nap after unpacking. Later, after showering for dinner, Jimmy saw the skies beginning to lighten and suggested we take a walk on the beach before eating. He sent up a little prayer for the rain to stop, and the Big Man upstairs was listening! The rain cleared just in time for a beautiful sunset. There was hardly anyone on the beach due to the weather, which was perfect! We walked down the beach a little ways until Jimmy was too nervous to wait any longer and got down on one knee. Of course, I said, “Yes!” We then went to eat dinner at a beachside restaurant that used to be the hotel where my family stayed for years. Jimmy had a table waiting with champagne, and we called our family and friends to share the good news!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Vintage, warm, loving
How many guests attended your wedding? I think we had just over 200 guests attending.
Bride’s favorite detail of the wedding: There were too many details I loved to choose just one. I loved that we had bluegrass music rather than standard classical music, and each song in our processional was meaningful. We didn’t chose standard wedding songs. My favorites were the Tennessee Waltz for the groomsmen processional and the song for the mothers’ processional. I chose the song “May The Lord” which is to the tune of Edelweiss. It was the lullaby my mother used to rock me to sleep to every night when I was little.
What was your favorite design detail: The programs were one of my favorite aspects of the ceremony. We used handmade and craft paper for the various paper announcements, so we carried the theme over with the programs. I wanted to use an old wax seal on all of our various invites, so we had a seal made that looked like the drawing of the pine tree from the hymnal of The Little Brown Church. The lady who made all of our paper goods also added our initials at the base of the pine tree to personalize it. We used a similar pine tree for the front of the program. Jimmy loves literature, so I wanted the programs to look like a book for him. We made a thick cover out of craft paper backed in an old floral print we used throughout the paper goods. The pages were made from handmade paper we used for our various invitations, and we bound the book with boucle linen thread. We tucked a vintage hanky that my mom and I had collected in each program and tied it with an aged-looking silk ribbon. They were so special and beautiful. My family and friends helped me assemble them all a few days before the wedding.

nicoleyang Written with love by Nicole
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