Southern Weddings

I don’t think I’ve ever started a post by focusing on the wedding cake before, but there’s something about Courtney + Andrew’s three-tiered confection from Fatty Patty’s Cakes and Café that makes me smile.  I just love how the bright, full blooms surrounding each tier perfectly match the bridesmaids’ Nouveau Flowers bouquets.  Bold, colorful flags, bright serapi blankets and gold ceiling decorations transform the Seaside Lyceum into an ultra-festive venue perfect for the couple’s Cinco de Mayo-inspired reception.  The cute chalkboard menu paired with the Dine by Design fixings round out this Florida fiesta.  Now that we’re all in a festive mood of our own, it’s time to start looking towards the weekend!  Happy Friday from all of us here at SW!  

Describe your wedding flowers: The only flowers in the entire wedding were the flowers the girls carried, which were the same as the flowers on the cake. I wanted each bouquet to make its own individual color statement. Since they were going to be the only flowers in the church, they really needed to pop. We did rustic bouquets of apple green hydrangeas, purple stock, orange orchids and hot pink dahlias. In contrast my bridal bouquet was just a simple bouquet of ivory garden roses. We didn’t have any flowers at the reception, so decided to use simple candles and succulents on top of colored linen runners that matched the colors of the bridesmaids’ flowers). Since we had a family style dinner, we couldn’t have a huge floral arrangements on the table.
Describe your wedding cake:  We had a Mexican Chocolate cake with Kaluah butter cream alternated with a layer of tres leches cake with key lime butter cream. The outside of the cake itself was a vanilla butter cream that was finished like an old-fashioned cake. The pop of color came from the flowers alternating between the layers.  I loved that the flowers on the cake matched the bridesmaid’s flowers.
What was your favorite design element of your big day?  I loved the lounge our designer created on the lawn. It was gorgeous with all the colored papel picalo and the lights. It quickly became the place everyone wanted to hang out in during the reception. I also loved all the candles used during the ceremony and later at the reception. They added a very romantic vibe that made it feel even more vintage Mexico.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: I loved the lanterns hanging from the ceiling of the dinner tent. We collected them all year and I loved that they all were unique and slightly different. I also loved our seating cards or, rather, tiles. We had everyone’s names and table number written on traditional Mexican tiles. When they were all put together on the table they created a fun, colorful pattern that made the table looked tiled!

Congratulations, Courtney + Andrew!  We love hearing about the happy endings of college sweethearts!