Southern Weddings

I wanted to wish all our Southern Weddings Blog (and now print!) readers a wonderful New Year’s! I spent my New Year’s with my boyfriend’s family in South Carolina. It was great to spend time with family over the holidays. As I look back on what 2008 brought, I am amazed at what we have accomplished. We have a successful new BlogSite, our premiere print issue is starting to hit the shelves with rave reviews and we have an amazing staff of hard working and creative women that could accomplish anything!

Since I am responsible for all the image boards you see on the BlogSite, I thought it only fitting to show you some of my favorite images of 2008. There were so many fabulous weddings this year that we had the pleasure of sharing with you all, so it was a challenge to pick my three favorites. But here they are…

Favorite Inspiring Details Features of 08′

1. Carissa + Brian {Part I and Part II}: I fell in love with this wedding the moment we got the images from the amazingly talented {Jasmine *}. The color scheme is breathtaking with crisp whites, aqua, and rustic browns. The all white flowers looked stunning and the addition of the white coral and shells made this the ultimate seaside chic wedding.

One of my favorite details from Carissa + Brian’s wedding was their cake and cake stand. The cake stand was unbelievable and really showcased how creative and inventive you can make your wedding decor.

2. Colleen + Chris : The incredible {Anna Kuperberg} sent us these breathtaking images from Colleen + Chris’s intimate garden wedding. I think one of the best ways to create an intimate atmosphere for your guests is to create these long table arrangements which makes for a family-style atmosphere. The tables looked gorgeous with the light green cloth, linen table runner and beautiful iron garden chairs.

Favorite Real Southern Wedding of 08′

3. Courtney + Phillip {Part I and Part II}: I don’t know what it is about this wedding, but ever since I laid eyes on it a long time ago, I have loved it. I may be partial to it just due to the fact that the groom is English and I happen to have a thing for British men. Whatever the reason may be, the setting of this wedding is magnificent (Seaside, Florida — one of my favorite places on the Gulf Coast). The decor just adds to the beauty of the location, creating a earthy color scheme that blends effortlessly amongst the trees. Images taken by the phenomenal Rick Schamberger of {East Hill Photo}.

Hope you enjoyed the sampling of my favorites from 2008. Can’t wait to share more gorgeous Real Southern Weddings and Inspiring Details from all over the world for you in 2009! Wishing you all the best!

Kirstin xoxo

Happy New Year to all the fabulous Southern Weddings readers! Today, I am so excited to share I am in Washington D.C. for 2009 with some of my favorite friends from my days at Elon University. As I danced the night away and sipping champagne at the Washington Harbour to bring in the New Year last night, I hope all of you were celebrating with loved ones too!

As this year comes to a close, I have decided to share some of my personal highlights from the blog. For those that do not know, I interview all of our beautiful brides and grooms here at SW. Lucky for me, I often get to read each couples love story before anyone in the office does.  I usually read it out loud for all the ladies of SW to do an “aww…that’s SO cute” out loud together.  Here are my top three favorite couples of 2008:

Janie + Tony (I) (II)

Tell us your story… It’s a great story. We both lost our spouses of many years to cancer in 2003. Both were long happy marriages. A good friend of mine, Sam Levin, and my late husband, Neil, began doing a lot of work with Tony in 2004. About a year and half after Neil died, Sam said he was awakened at 3:00 am by a dream in which Neil (my late husband) appeared. He could not go back to sleep for the rest of the night. The next day, he called each of us and convinced us that we needed to meet. The three of us had lunch together a little over three and a half years ago, and the rest is history!
Describe the proposal: It was a birthday dinner for me prepared by Tony’s daughter, Kristen. All of our children, my parents, Tony’s parents, Tony’s mother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law were all present. After I opened my gifts, Tony said he had one more thing. In front of all of them, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was beyond wonderful!

Brooke + Thor (I)

What was the design inspiration for your wedding? While my family is from Alabama, I knew that most of my Los Angeles and New York-based friends had never been to the South, and neither had most of Thor’s family. I wanted a wedding that would be fun and casual and would feature elements that were uniquely Southern. When our guests checked into the hotel, they were given a welcome bag filled with Alabama pecans and Moon Pies and my grandmother’s famous almond cookies. At the wedding, we served ham biscuits and chicken fingers and boiled shrimp. I wanted to create an environment that felt like a really great party, and I wanted everyone to leave thinking about how great Alabama is. For a little extra insurance, we passed out 200 Krystal cheeseburgers at the end of the party as a to-go gift.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: We got an amazing response from our guests when they received their invitations in the mail. I’m a huge country music fan, and when I was working in Nashville on the first few seasons of “Nashville Star,” I fell in love with Hatch Show Print. They’ve been in business since 1879, and they print the concert posters for the Grand Ol’ Opry, etc. I called them up and worked with a designer over the phone and we created poster-sized wedding invitations that Thor and I sent out in mailing tubes. They ended up costing less than most “normal” invitations, and they’ve become a great keepsake – it’s so cool to think that the little letterpress elements they used on our poster could have been used on a poster for Hank Williams or Patsy Cline. I love visiting our friends and family and seeing our poster hanging up on their walls.
The most unexpected event on our wedding day was: This would involve bridesmaids and keg stands, which is probably not the kind of thing you want to print in your lovely magazine. My grandmother was appalled.

Arjola + Peter (I) (II)

Describe your wedding flowers: All white; hydrangeas, orchids, tulips, white tea roses. I am from Shkoder, Albania and hydrangeas are abundant in my birth city, there is even a song about this gorgeous flower which in Albanian it’s called Lule Bore. It was important that we include this flower in honor of my heritage.           

A date we went on that we’ll always remember: Among so many to choose from one would be August 1, 2008, the night before Peter’s MBA graduation, exactly one week before our wedding. We packed a picnic dinner and they were showing our favorite movie outside, Casablanca, at Leu Botanical Gardens in Orlando. It was a gorgeous setting and gorgeous weather and as we watched our favorite movie under the stars and cuddling on a blanket, we would look into each other’s eyes and say “we’re getting married in a week!!”
The details: We were married on 08-08-08. According to Chinese numerology, eight is the luckiest number. We got letters from all around, including our registry congratulating us on getting married on the luckiest day of the luckiest month of the luckiest year. I guess that is why the Chinese started the Olympics on that day. All this is great but the date has even more significance to us because the reason why we chose it was to honor Peter’s grandparents who are no longer living, but we now share the same wedding date.
What are you looking forward to in the future? Everyday.

Other favorites on the SW Blog this year include:

Whitney + Steve (I) (II) Love the location of their reception at the Carolina Inn. It will always be one of my favorite locations to hold an event.

Lindsay + Jeff (I) What a beautiful winery! Can I get married here?

Clary + Robert (I) (II) Want to hear about the funniest and oddest experience I have heard from a bride about trying on gowns? Read Clary’s story. Vera Wang has never had a bride like Clary before.

The {Thanksgiving Photo Contest} was one of my favorite blog features this year.

Thanks to all the lovely readers that entered. I was truly touched by what some of you said. Here are some of my favorites:

Rae: I am thankful for so many things. This photo shows something so amazingly small, yet so huge. This is my Avery as a 3-day old embryo. I am thankful that there are doctors that were able to help me have a baby when I couldn’t on my own.

Katasha: I’m thankful for someone who loves me IN SPITE OF all my imperfections.

Jesica Haack: I am thankful for NKOTB’s reunion tour! WOO HOOOOO And pregnant sister-in-laws to go with….

Reflecting back on this year in the office and out of the office, this year has been so much fun. We all work hard,  but there is always time for laughing. The office works like this many days: I laugh about something ridiculous and continue laughing as Kirstin points out it is not funny. Lara laughs with me. Then Rachel follows up the laugh with a story about something that happened in Wilmington or Ashville or even a does a little jig. Later on in the day, Kirstin will point out that we have heard this Jonas Brothers song or Pussycat Dolls song like twelve times today on the XM radio. The Hills will come up and all our views on Spencer + Heidi’s marriage will be shared. The fabulous part is that each day we do get a lot accomplished!

Thanks to all the new friends I have made this year. Through Twitter, Engage 08 and all the brides that email daily, y’all are amazing and I loved getting to know you. Best of luck in 2009!  Laura