Southern Weddings

Raven + Ben happily admit that it wasn’t love at first sight but it was something. The two became friends and began dating a year later and somewhere with the spark of the friendship became the spark of love. The two happily married at {Blowing Rock Country Club} near Boone, North Carolina. Their photographer, {Jeff Holt} captured this amazing day and we thank him for submitting these images to us. The incredible flowers were designed and created by {Millefleurs}. We love the use of yellow flowers in the arrangement and bouquets. Raven’s dress was from {Pattis Bridal} and the bridesmaids wore dresses from {Forever 21}. (What a chic and cheap idea). To see more from this fantastic NC wedding check it out further on Jeff Holt’s {Blog}.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story: We met after college through a mutual friend. I had just moved back to Charlotte and was living with a friend that I had known since grade school. He and Ben had met each other after graduation and hung out in the same circle in Charlotte. Ben had come over to our house one day to borrow something and that was our first meeting. Admittedly, it was not exactly love at first sight, but I knew Ben was someone special. We became friends first and then started dating about a year later.
Describe the proposal: We were visiting Napa Valley and enjoying the beautiful wineries. We stopped at Sterling Vineyards and took the Gondola up to the top to enjoy the tasting and views from the area’s only mountaintop winery. On the way down, I was enjoying the view out of the window and turned around just in time to see Ben getting down on one knee! I can’t even remember what he said because I was just knocked down with excitement and surprise; but remember blurting out “well, are you going to put it on my finger?” after he just kept holding the box and shaking. Afterward we shared our news and celebrated with Ben’s family in the Bay area of California.
What attracted me to my husband was: His beautiful blue eyes, his charming sense of humor, the kindness and warmth in the way he treated others.
Why do you love your husband? For so many reasons: his big heart, the way he makes me laugh and because he is my best friend – just to name a few.
What attracted me to my wife was: Everything. From the way her big brown eyes look at me to the way she snorts when she laughs. I was a goner from the moment I met her.
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: It doesn’t count as a date per se, because this was before we were official and we were not alone. In fact, Raven and I did not even come together. But, I remember meeting up one night at a local bar and just being captivated with her. We spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing, and there was nothing that could take me away from her side. Our first date was also memorable: dinners and lots of talking and getting to know each other!
The weather on our wedding day was: It was a picture perfect fall day in the North Carolina mountains. It was late September and the entire weekend had sunny blue skies and pretty, puffy clouds. The days were warm enough to allow the guys to golf in shorts and the nights were just cool enough to enjoy the big, outdoor, stone fireplace at the reception. It was ideal!
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I had always envisioned my wedding being outside, and after some searching we found the perfect venue. The ceremony was at a pretty Catholic Church in Boone, NC that allowed us to quickly move to an outdoor reception at a nearby country club. The Blowing Rock Country Club Lakehouse is a large, open-air, covered pavilion that overlooks a small lake with trees and wild flowers all around. It was a picturesque setting and exactly what I had envisioned with the ease of all the facilities right there. For design inspirations I was thinking of a natural, rustic chic theme that was simple and casual, yet modern, fun, and unique.
Favorite design element of your big day: Our colors were yellow and gray; we loved how fresh, modern and original they were! We enjoyed using those colors in different ways; like the bridesmaids wearing bright yellow satin shoes with their gray dresses and the honorary bridesmaids wearing chunky yellow necklaces with black dresses of their own choice. It added just the right touch of color and casual chic we wanted. Also the way the white and yellow flowers popped off the steely gray table linens-so pretty!
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I exhausted every website I could find and looked through endless magazines, tearing out pages of dresses with various elements that I liked. I went to a few boutiques with my mom and grandmother, and one of them had actually just gotten one of the dresses I had found online and printed out. It was so unique, fit perfectly and was so flattering, that I knew at once, it was the one for me. I loved the details of the pleated tulle that was in the bust, kick pleats and train. It had a vintage feel with the lace overlay yet the cut was so modern. And it did not hurt that it was right in line with my budget! I did not want to take it off!
Describe your wedding flowers: I knew I wanted all yellow and white flowers with a lot of natural greenery, but I was not set on any particular flowers. I wanted to use what was in season, which also makes the flowers more affordable. Our florist Carolyn, who did an amazing job, put together a mix of enormous yellow Latina Roses, locally grown garden dahlias, golden cockscomb which provided an amazing fuzzy texture, hanging amaranthus which dripped over the bouquets and vases, bells of Ireland, yellow calla lilies, zinnias, Asiatic Lilies which smelled so lovely, and river oats which gave a delicate sense of dimension. The flowers were arranged in simple, birch bark wrapped vases and staged at various heights. I didn’t want it to be fussy and I didn’t want to compete with the amazing outdoor setting already provided by the Lake house. Mixing in our flower arrangements with the lake and natural blooming wildflowers was more than I expected and it all looked gorgeous.
Describe your wedding cake: It was a very simple square, four tiered cake with a graphic yellow flowering, gray tree branch that switch-backed across the cake. We did alternating layers of white chocolate truffle (which had little pieces of chocolate in the icing and was so delicious!!) and classic lemon (Ben’s favorite). The cake looked amazing and tasted even better, so much so that our guests kept talking about how delicious it was.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The photo booth! We had the idea early in planning to try and have a photo booth at the wedding, and even designed our save-the-dates around the theme. The result was such a hit and everyone enjoyed it throughout the night! We were able to set up a booth at the entry that was both out of the way from the wedding, yet easy to access. It allowed guests to take photos while also providing enough room for the packed dance floor. The photo booth printed double copies; allowing the guests to receive a copy while also saving a copy for our own wedding book. It was so fun to go through them all the next day and see everyone enjoying themselves and we know this will be something we can save and look back on and enjoy. One other fave was the Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and lemonade cocktails!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Procrastination. We waited longer than we should have to book our band and many of the good ones in our budget were booked. I ended up getting very lucky and finding an AWESOME band in the end, but it was very stressful for a while.
Were there any special family traditions you included in the wedding? I wore my grandmother’s guarder and carried one of her handkerchiefs. Ben wore a pair of my late grandfather’s cuff links, which I gave him as a wedding gift as he was getting dressed before the ceremony. We also had flowers and special notes in the entry of the church that represented our family members that had passed or couldn’t attend.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Walking into our reception after being pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Ben Watt and seeding all of our friends and family cheering us on! It was so incredible!
Scariest moment? When our limo van was late to pick us up after our pictures. We arranged for it to take the wedding party from the ceremony to a nearby location for photos before the reception and
they had gotten lost before picking us back up and actually dropped us off at the reception quite later than we had planned. Luckily, the cocktail hour kept the guests entertained, but we were definitely stressed and anxious to get back and start celebrating with everyone.
Funniest moment? When the band started playing “I Like Big Butts!” by Sir MixAlot. It totally caught me off guard, but was hilarious! That immediately brought everyone to the dance floor and had everyone singing along!
Hardest decision you made in planning? Finding the place to have the wedding was hard at first. Narrowing down what city we wanted it all to happen in and then what we hoped to create. We also tweaked the menu several times but in the end we kept it simple and classic with dinner stations with something for everyone.
The most unexpected event on our wedding day was: When our priest starting singing a prayer right in our face during the ceremony. This was neither planned, nor practiced, and it completely caught us off guard. Afterward, our guests said that the looks on our faces were priceless!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Honestly, words cannot to justice to the day. It was so much more than we could ever imagine. Celebratory, breathtaking, joyous.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Prioritize. You need to figure out what is important to you and try to avoid getting hung up on all the other small details – you can drive yourself crazy. We also took pride in making our wedding our own and not conforming to other’s ideas or influences. The result is an event truly representative of you and something to cherish forever. And lastly, enjoy every moment. It all goes by so incredibly fast.
Best advice or most memorable comment someone made to you during the wedding celebration. Take a moment to yourself and take it all in.
Who was your most honored guest at the wedding? For me it was definitely my Great Aunt Faye. She is in her eighties and traveled from Phoenix, AZ just to be with us on our special day. It was her first trip back to NC in years and she came for us. We also had our close friend Shepherd travel all the way home from Australia to be with us as well! He was a groomsman and made his first trip back to the states just to help us celebrate. Both of these people came just for the wedding and it really makes it that much more special knowing the difficulty they endured to make it happen.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We are hoping to take a big trip for our one year anniversary in September. And, I am sure we will be thinking about starting our own family down the road. Beyond that, I just look forward to having a partner in crime to grown old with.
Any DIY items? We did a lot of things on our own. It allows you to make the wedding that much more unique – and it’s also a great way to save a little money. We are both creative minded and work in design fields, so we looked forward to making things ourselves. Ben is a whiz with the computer, so he was able to make a lot of things after we decided on some of the details. He did our wedding website, save-the-date cards (cute photo-booth style pictures to tease the photo booth at the wedding), our wedding programs (which featured some of the same design details that were used on our invitations), detailed driving and attraction maps to go in the invitations since our wedding was out of town, and even our own wedding favor labels that were affixed to chocolate covered pretzel rods and read “So sweet of you to join us!”

Congratulations to Raven + Ben. We wish you the best!

Written with love by Lara Casey