Southern Weddings

We love Lizzie + Miles’ outdoor garden reception at the Crane Cottage almost as much as their joyous ceremony. Delicate blooms (arranged by Mardee Morris) balance the rustic vibe from the burlap tablecloths, but our very favorite detail is the lovebird-topped cake prepared by the talented staff at the Jekyll Island Club. Open Light Studio has more from this Georgia wedding waiting for you on their blog!

See all the photos from Lizzie + Miles’s wedding in their Real Wedding Gallery!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I wanted lots of advice so I planned a weekend of shopping with my mom, sister, and good friend in Atlanta, where my sister lives. I finally found the perfect place called Kelly’s Closet with the perfect dress, a Modern Trousseau. Everyone at Kelly’s Closet was so helpful and creative. They were able to make the dress my very own by removing the sequined sash and creating one made of the same lace from the bolero they designed. In the end, I was able to make my wedding dress uniquely mine.
Describe your wedding flowers: My florist, Mardee Morris, kept the design very organized, yet each detail had its own special “whimsy”. For example, billy button flowers and green orchids were mixed with traditional English garden roses. Inside the reception tent, each floral arrangement was formed within a different blue and white patterned porcelain container. The flowers used were hydrangea and tons of ivy and maidenhair fern, along with garden roses, orchids, beapluerum, freesia, and Casablanca lilies. Mardee collected bottles and apothecary jars for the glass topped café tables and filled them with fresh greenery and single stems of green centered sunflowers, kangaroo paw, lily grass, dahlias, lilies, orchids, and freesia. Touches of fresh lemons and Spanish moss were also placed throughout the venue. The mantles were adorned with pillar candles among more blue and white vases filled with bells of Ireland, hydrangeas, and plumosa fern.
Describe your wedding cake: Our wedding cake was sweet and simple: a lemon sponge cake with layers of Cointreau-laced, raspberry cream filling, and topped with butter cream frosting and fondant. The pastry chef at the Jekyll Island Club tied raffia around each of the four layers and our florist adorned the cake with orchids, roses, and stephanotis jasmine blossoms. My mom made the bird nest cake topper, which contained two feathered lovebirds representing Miles and me. The cake plate was a wonderful, antique, wooden serving platter, which sat upon a family heirloom linen cloth.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? The most memorable moments of our wedding day—besides the ceremony, of course!—were dancing our choreographed polka to Edward Sharpe’s “Home,” the awesome band (The 8-Tracks from Savannah), going away through a gauntlet of giant sparklers on a surrey bike built for two, and the amazing feeling of being so loved!
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We are so excited about getting back to our lives! I’m working hard to get my graphic design business off the ground, and Miles is back to writing at the local weekly, the Mountain Xpress. We’re looking forward to settling down and possibly making Asheville our permanent home.