Southern Weddings

This reception is filled with amazing details.  From the vintage tins to the chandeliers in the tent, this wedding was ‘flea-market chic’, as Terri calls it.  Terri and her mom worked very hard to plan this terrific event at {The Half-Mile Farm}.  With coordination by Shay Brown of {Shay Brown Events} and floral design by {Jan’s Floral Art}, the celebration went off with out a hitch.  Well, except for first dance song jitters.  Read on to hear how they learned how to dance in less than a week.  Thanks to our friends Brian and Gry of {Woodward + Rick Photographers} for sharing this wedding.  Check out more from Terri + Sean on their {Blog}. For even more check out {Mari Kittredge’s}, the videographer, wedding highlights video {here}.

The weather on our wedding day was: At the last minute, it turned out absolutely gorgeous! For the three days preceding our wedding day – and the morning of – it was cloudy and drizzly. But about an hour before our ceremony started, the sun came out and we had blue skies with puffy white clouds. Perfect!
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I’d describe the reception style as ‘flea-market chic.’ We wanted to coordinate with the décor and general feel of our venue, and I had planned from the beginning to display framed wedding photos of several generations of our families, so I decided that a vintage, ‘grandma’s attic’ theme would work well. We used vintage tins as our centerpieces, hung chandeliers from the tent, made our own tea-stained lace tablecloth overlays, and incorporated vintage glass vases and old family doilies in various places around the inn.
Describe your wedding flowers: Of all our décor elements, I probably fretted the most over the floral arrangements. All the planning and research were so worth it in the end though … the flowers absolutely blew me away. In fact, our wonderfully talented florist went so far beyond what I expected that I cried when I saw them! We used a variety of types of flowers in berry shades (burgundy, eggplant, raspberry) with non-floral elements such as berries, feathers, and fruits mixed in. For containers, we used the vintage tins and glass vases. The result was colorful, eclectic, and very sumptuous looking.
Describe your wedding cake: Our wedding cake was a chocolate lover’s delight … layers of rich tiramisu and Kahlua mocha chip cake with dark chocolate fondant. It actually tasted even better than it sounds! The special touch, however, was the groom’s cake. Sean is allergic to wheat and dairy products, so our baker agreed to try her hand at baking him his favorite – a gluten-free, dairy-free carrot cake with vanilla (pseudo-)butter cream. To top it, she sculpted a sugar-paste squirrel with an acorn – a surprise for Sean, because ‘squirrel’ and ‘acorn’ are our pet names for each other! Not only was the cake gorgeous to look at, it tasted so good that there were no leftovers at the end of the night.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? I’d say planning an event of this magnitude (a) without any prior experience and (b) from out of town. The venue we used essentially was a blank slate … we had to design and furnish everything that went into it. Plus, it was in a relatively remote part of the mountains, so we had to search all over the southeast to find our (wonderful!) vendors. Without the help of an event planner, it was up to my mom and me to make decisions on things we knew very little about. As it turns out, though, this challenge was one of the biggest joys of planning the wedding! I wouldn’t trade the time my mom and I spent working together for anything … it was a great bonding experience.
Were there any special family traditions you included in the wedding? Where do I begin? Our wedding really was all about family, and we included a bunch of traditions and special items. I wore my great-grandmother’s 1920s-era wedding gown for our first dance; we had songs sung for our ceremony that had been played at my parents’ and great-grandparents’ weddings; my sister hand-painted a sign for the entrance to the venue on wood taken from our childhood home; my mom sewed me a handkerchief using fabric from the wedding gowns of three generations of our family; our ring bearer pillow was made from a lace doily made by my great-grandmother; we displayed family wedding photos from several generations; and the stamps for our invitations featured photos of my great-grandparents’ and Sean’s grandparents’ weddings. That’s just for starters.
Scariest moment? The scariest but also one of the most rewarding moments was our first dance. We chose a jazzy Ella Fitzgerald tune, then realized at the last minute that we had no clue how to dance to it! So, with literally days to go before the wedding, we signed up for a crash-course in dancing. We specifically didn’t want a choreographed number, but one thing led to another, and that’s exactly what we got. We were quaking when we went out to perform it, but it turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the night! Sean and I had a blast, and our guests seem to really enjoy it as well.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Heartfelt, Meaningful, Unique
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? I’d try to avoid saving projects – particularly involved DIY ones – until the last minute! Time flies once you get within a few weeks of the big day. Also, be sure you give equal attention to planning the ceremony as to the reception – not only is it the reason for the occasion, it also can be just as, if not more, meaningful and memorable.
Other details you want us to know about your wedding: We added a number of handmade details to the ceremony and reception, such as crossword puzzles about Sean and me (“How Well Do You Know the Bride and Groom?”) on the cocktail tables, fabric-wrapped pots with succulent plants as favors/escort cards, an “art table” and play quilt to entertain children during the reception, a digital photo station for our guest book, and customized welcome baskets for all our guests. Not only were these projects fun to work on with my mom, they also infused some of our personalities into the wedding and made it more entertaining!

Congratulations to Terri + Sean.  We wish you a lifetime of happiness!

Terri + Sean had a very unique Southern wedding.   They combined Catholic and Buddhist wedding ceremonies and used stunning natural elements in the decor.  Family heirlooms were scattered throughtout the celebration– Terri’s great-grandmother’s wedding dress and family antiques were used as centerpieces.  Aren’t the flower girl’s headpeices adorable!?  How about the beautiful paper cranes? Photography by the incredibly talented Brian and Gry of {Woodward + Rick Photographers}.  Enjoy!

How did the two of you meet? Sean and I are truly a 21st century couple! We met online about 3 ½ years ago. As Sean loves to inform people, I “winked at” (or contacted) him first. He sent the first email, however, which led to about a week long correspondence before we got together over lunch. We hit it off at once, and the rest, as they say, was history!
Describe the proposal: When Sean and I were first dating, we came across a children’s book that featured a character who liked to give gifts on his birthday instead of receive them. We both loved the book and talked about it from time to time. After we’d been dating for a couple years, Sean’s birthday rolled around, and he began dropping hints about a gift he wanted to give me. As you might have guessed, it turned out the gift was a beautiful engagement ring! He had designed the ring himself, and he wrote the proposal inside a copy of the book we’d found so many months ago.
What attracted me to my husband was: Aside from his beautiful blue eyes, Sean’s intelligence first sparked my interest. I loved how he seemed to know a little (or more than a little) about everything. I also was drawn immediately to his sincerity and thoughtfulness. Something else that I didn’t discover until a few days later but found just as attractive was his silly sense of humor. (It was just silly enough to match my own, in fact!)
Why do you love your husband? I could go on for pages and pages … I love Sean for his honesty, integrity, compassion, generous spirit, sense of humor, intellectual curiosity, and his kind heart. I love that he is devoted to his family and that he inspires me to try things I wouldn’t otherwise. I love that he makes me feel completely secure and cared for. And I love him for loving me just the way I am.
What attracted me to my wife was: Besides her warm smile and beautiful eyes, her sincerity amazed me. From the very first moment we talked openly about family, values, spirituality, philosophy and so much more. (Within 30 minutes on our first date we were deep into a conversation about Buddhism in America.) Since then, Terri has been someone I can share my entire life with – whether it’s talking about nonsense like why we both love ketchup or serious matters such as how to raise kids. I’ve never found anyone as sincere, caring, loving, and beautiful as her.
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: We had such an unexpectedly wonderful time on our first date. Both of us had gotten tired of the dating scene and were a bit jaded by the time we met each other. However, from the first moment we met, we completely hit it off. We had a fantastic conversation over lunch, and neither of us wanted the date to end, so we came up with excuses to spend more time together (including shopping for speakers – something neither of us needed).
Favorite design element of your big day: We loved all of our special projects, but probably our favorite was the backdrop of origami cranes we used for the ceremony. Folding 1,000 origami cranes is a wedding tradition in many Asian cultures that confers good luck and prosperity to the newly married couple. (I think we ended up with 1,083 total – too many helping hands!) We chose this project in order to honor Sean’s Buddhist beliefs and the time he spent living in Japan. To display all the cranes, we strung them on twine and hung the strings from a bamboo frame constructed by my uncle. A great number of our friends and family helped bring this project to life, and the cranes are a special memento that we’ll be able to cherish for years.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Actually, the most meaningful moment for us was the entire wedding ceremony. Sean and I had a joint Catholic-Buddhist ceremony – the Catholic component, which was celebrated by the priest from my childhood church, was for my side of the family, and the Buddhist component, celebrated by a Buddhist minister, was for Sean (he lived in Japan for several months and has studied Buddhism for years). We designed the ceremony ourselves, which took quite a bit of time and innovation, particularly since there are no models out there for this type of service. However, it was worth every bit of effort and planning. Each part of the ceremony – the readings, the songs, the vows – was intensely personal and meaningful for Sean and me. For instance, instead of a unity candle, we had a ceremony that involved adding cupfuls of dirt from our childhood homes to the base of a Japanese Maple tree that we now keep in our home – a neat symbol of our new union.

More to come from this fantastic Highlands wedding…