Southern Weddings

The entire SW office LOVES this wedding! Such gorgeous images from {Heather Essian}!  I love the color combination and the floral arrangements by {Todd Events}. (editor’s note: we were thrilled to meet Todd and the beautiful Sara Fay and Mary at Engage09.  They produce some of the most spectacular events in the South!) Lynn + Jonathan had a beautiful vintage inspired wedding outside, despite the sudden change in temperature. The reception was held at {Marie Gabrielle} where guests enjoyed wedding cake from the bride’s parents and cupcakes from a local vendor. The bride’s dress was by {Vera Wang} and her accessories were by {Blush Couture}. To see more of Lynn + Jonathan, check out Heather Essian’s {Blog}.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story: Jon and I met in medical school, but we didn’t start dating until our 3rd year. We ran in different circles and never really hung out. One night I was surprised to see him at swing dance party I used to go to on Saturday nights. I had so much fun teaching him how to swing me around…. we shared a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and talked into the wee hours of the night afterwards. We became fast friends and quickly found that we were in love!
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I really wanted our wedding to feel whimsical, elegant, natural, modern and vintage all at the same time! I am in love the vintage color combination of aquamarine, soft pink and gold. Throw in these colors with vintage touches at the locale of a beautiful European garden in the middle of the skyscrapers of downtown Dallas, my inspiration came to life!
Favorite design element of your big day: It is so hard to pick, because I loved all of the elements. But if I have to pick one, I would have to say our ceremony site because of the distinct feeling I remember from it. We were getting married under a grove of trees that was nestled behind our reception site in the middle of downtown Dallas. We originally had planned for a huge vintage chandelier to be hung in the trees for us to be married under. However, due to untimely bad and windy weather, we couldn’t hang the chandelier due to safety issues. However, our amazing florist quickly thought on her feet and instead hung all these colored ribbons in our wedding colors (pinks and aquas) from tree branches with crystals hanging from the bottom. When I was walked down the aisle with my father towards my husband, I was so struck how beautiful and magical the whole scene looked: Imagine all the guests huddled in the cold, standing, smiling and clapping among the trees, with all these colored ribbons flowing wildly in the wind, and my future husband and I grinning from ear to ear as I approached him. I felt like a modern Maid Marian.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I loved my Vera Wang dress. I literally tried on hundred dresses. I was surprised how hard it was to find THE wedding dress! I’m quite petite and each of the dresses made me feel like a snowball and heavy and, frankly, uncomfortable. I happen to have a morning off work one day and stopped by a sample sale at Warron Barron, a beautiful boutique in Highland Park, Dallas. I found this ivory dress that was simple, pretty, flowy, comfortable, and feminine. It was so different from any of the other dresses! I felt exactly how I wanted to feel on my wedding day. It made it even more amazing that I got it for 80% off from the sale.
Describe your wedding flowers: sweet and whimsical, I wanted a pink soft palate with garden roses, ranunculas, hydrangeas, gardenias, and orchids. For the reception, each of tables had a unique vignette of aqua and clear vases with different arrangements of pink flowers. For the 3 head table, 3 clear tall Parisian vases were filled with large magnolia branches with hanging votives and candles. The reception room was breathtaking when I walked in. It was unique, whimsical, vintage and modern all at the same time.
Describe your wedding cake: The wedding cake was one area that I had no input in! My aunt and uncle, who own a cake bakery, gifted us with the cake. They surprised us with a gorgeous tiered cake decorated with sugar art of flower and butterflies. It was perfect and so grand. Everybody was amazed by it. Instead of a groom’s cake, we had 300 mini-cupcakes made in various flavors by a local vendor. They were displayed on vintage cakestands another local vendor made for us.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Too many! I loved that all the beautiful pink and aqua details that I made along with the professional touches of our florist came together and everyone felt that it was so “us!” I loved that I used many local Dallas vendors who are just starting out. Each of them had such amazing talent to share. Perhaps my favorite details were my friends and family. Many things didn’t happen as I expected… the predicted 70 degrees weather unexpectedly became a windy chilly day of 38 degrees! We had to change our ceremony decor and move the dance floor inside last minute. My new sister in law got into a car accident during our rehearsal. Regardless of what disaster that came, our family and friends surrounded us with love and help…It was completely memorable and so much fun!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Emotional, Loving, Unforgettable.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Enjoy the moment. You’ve put so much effort into that one day. Realize and prepare yourself that things will go wrong. Not everything will be what you expect. But some things will be better than you ever imagined. Enjoy every moment good or bad. You’ll never have it again. Love yourself, love your friends, love your family, and love on your new husband.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We’re looking forward to finishing up our residencies and begin new adventures with each other. I’ve had so much fun planning the wedding that I hope that along with medicine, I will able to work on side art projects such as photography, invitation design, and party planning.
Any DIY items? So many! I love to craft and design and had a hand in almost every aspect of the wedding. I gocco’ed our Save the Dates and created the invitations. Our invitations were definitely labor of love. I designed the invite, the Dallas map, the two sided rsvp and sent the files to Studio on Fire to letterpress. I gocco’ed a wedding booklet as well. These went into a fabric padded box that was decorated with crystals and embossing. I mailed them in burlap bags. Our programs were accordion style in different shades of pink and aqua with gocco’ed covers. My sister and I made the escort card tree. Our favors were boxes filled with personalized small tins of tea and timtams (australian chocolate tea cookies). We decorated the top of the kraft boxes with various designs of cherry blossoms. It was so much fun to make all these details.

Congratulations, Lynn + Jonathan!  We wish you a lifetime of happiness!