Southern Weddings

How fabulous are these flowers and delightful details!? Be sure to visit photographer Tine Hofmann’s {BLOG} for more of Melissa + Ryan’s gorgeous {Claxton Farm} wedding. Cake by {Cakes by Jane} . Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Favorite design element of your big day: The table decor. Our florist used all kinds of old vintage glass bottles for single cut flowers, sheet moss, and small potted trees. She sprinkled dried peas around the tables. Every table was different and there was so much to look at. At the end of the night, our guests got to take home the potted trees. We also put together a candy bar with candy apples, rock candy, marzipan, maple candy, lollipops, etc. I used vintage pink glassware my grandmother had given me. It was such a pleasing sight and the guests devoured it all.
Describe your wedding cake: Our cake blew me away. It was far above my highest expectation. It was southern cream cheese pound cake. We had two different flavors: raspberry cake with chocolate filling and almond cake with strawberry filling. It was so thick and chewy. Definitely the best cake I’ve every tasted. The icing was butter cream and the dogwood flowers were hand-painted sugar gum paste, which we saved and are beautiful in our china cabinet. We used green ribbon on the cake, same as on the tables and candy bar.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? The week before the wedding I wasn’t comfortable with our contingency plan if it rained. We added the tent and then I had to find six brown couches to put under it after the ceremony, so it wouldn’t be an empty tent once the chairs were moved into the barn for dinner and then it could be used during the cocktail hour, etc. I made about 20 phone calls and found a wonderful company that rents furniture for events all over the East coast, American Furniture Company.
Funniest moment? I have seven young nieces and nephews, and the boys were break-dancing the whole night. They were so funny, flipping over one another and getting dirty.
What were your something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue items? My something old was my mother’s add-a-pearl necklace she had as a little girl, my new was a conflict-free diamond eternity band Ryan gave me as a gift the night before, my mother’s pearl earrings were my something borrowed, and my blue was on my garter that my mother handmade from Sicilian lace and blue ribbon. My mother had saved some old sixpence for both Ryan and I to put in our shoes. I also carried a handmade handkerchief of Belgian lace with my new initials.
What attracted me to my husband was: No matter what, he always makes me laugh and he always listens to me and helps me. He has incredible blue-green-yellow eyes too! He’s my best friend.
What attracted me to my wife was: She cares about my individuality. She lets me do what I need to do to feel good with myself. She’s freethinking, passionate, strong-minded, and absolutely beautiful.
Why do you love your husband? Because he understands me and I him, and we do all we can to continue to deepen this understanding.
How was your wedding different than the way you’d always imagined it would be? The rain. I always imagined it would be sunny.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Sincere, refreshing, fun.
Did you write your own vows? Yes. We had always planned to do it, but we didn’t actually sit down to write them until 2 days before the wedding. They ended up conveying exactly what we wanted them to.
Any do-it-yourself items that you created for your big day? Yes! I did as much as I could to personalize our wedding. I made all the table name cards (we named the tables after trees), the leaf escort cards on the bird’s nests, little signs for the escort card table and candy bar, the menu card, the CD favors. I also made a guest “book” that was a painting for our guests to sign so we can frame and hang it in our home. I cut fabric squares for guests to write their advice on with permanent marker that a friend of ours is going to make into a quilt. I also made welcome bags for all of our guests that were placed in their hotel rooms full of flower seeds, cookies, maps, a schedule, bubble bath and salts, and more. Practically every detail was personalized.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? A bride has to accept now that it might rain on her wedding day and it doesn’t have to mean that it will ruin the day. I would say to plan on it raining. I wish I would have known it would have been just as perfect in the rain while I was planning. Let everyone else know you are perfectly fine with it raining, so no one will be upset beforehand, including you.

Congratulations, Melissa + Ryan! We wish you a lifetime of love and pure joy!