Southern Weddings

There’s something so dreamy about Jordan + Adam’s Spring Creek Ranch wedding, photographed by Whitney + Jesse Chamberlain from Our Labor of Love.  The lighting, the vintage portraits, the quirky candid shots… love ‘em all!  The bride wore a sweetheart gown with feminine embellishments from Mikaella Bridal.  We love the pop of color in her ruffled Chinese Laundry heels.  Loose, wildflower bouquets courtesy of Flowers by Regis were the perfect complement to the attendants’ breezy Gap frocks.  Come back soon for some awesome reception shots!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  We have a mutual friend who was my roommate in college. She and Adam are from the very small town of Williamston, South Carolina. All three of us attended the same college. One day she and I were on a run and she mentioned that I should meet her friend Adam, who was studying to be an architect. It was not until two weeks later that Adam called her up asking about a cute girl that he had seen on campus. One day after making several trips through the computer lab, he finally got up the nerve to introduce himself! We went out for pizza, fell in love, and the rest is history! It was definitely fate.
Describe the proposal. For spring break I really wanted to go and visit Adam, but my mom and her friends were coming to Savannah to visit me. Although I was looking forward to spending time with them, I was so sad that I wasn’t going to get to see Adam during my time off from school. As it turned out, he had organized a gathering of our families to surprise me that weekend. They had planned for us to meet up on the beach at Tybee Island, where we had our first kiss. He ran up to me on the beach, got down on one knee, and popped the question! It felt like we were the only two people on the beach in that moment. That weekend, our families met for the first time. It was an amazing weekend we will never forget!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: incredible, unforgettable, lovely
Our favorite details of the wedding were: the programs and invitations designed by the groom and my mom’s garter that was remade for me by a very dear family friend.
What was Southern about your wedding? Our wedding took place out a beautiful golf course in Collierville, TN. The location had a very rural feel to it…it was so beautiful. We also had a diet coke toast rather than a champagne toast using the old fashioned coke bottles.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I had tried SO hard to find my dress, my mom and I even went to Atlanta to go wedding dress shopping and I still had not found “the one.” One weekend I was visiting a girl friend in Nashville who had just gotten engaged…we went to go try on wedding dresses just for fun. I found my dress that day with her.
Describe your wedding flowers: Peonies are my favorite flowers, and I wanted the arrangements to look like they were right out of a garden so we started with that. Since everything was so edgy and contemporary in our wedding, which is very Adam, I wanted to use the flowers to soften that and give the wedding a romantic feel. I think the combination was a perfect reflection of our personal styles.

10 days ago, our Editor-in-Chief, Lara Casey, jetted off to Grand Cayman for the premier wedding conference, Engage!10.  (It’s kind of a big deal, and she was just a teensy bit excited, as you might imagine.)  She came back with a tan, a plethora of great pics, plus a ground-breaking survey from Two Bright Lights.  (For a full recap of her week in paradise, check out Lara’s mega-post here!)

An online image-sharing and networking service, Two Bright Lights is on the cutting edge of social networking and is committed to revolutionizing how wedding professionals showcase their work and promote their business.  Pretty nifty, eh?  Earlier this year, Two Bright Lights conducted a comprehensive survey of 700 wedding professionals from across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.  In addition to exploring the in’s and out’s of the luxury wedding industry, theirs is the first survey that’s been able to quantify the exact revenue benefits of marketing activities.  Yeah, we were pretty impressed, too – not to mention chomping at the bit for the results!

If you’re a Planner or Designer: your best sources are past client referrals, Google searches, endorsements from wedding venues and other vendors, and paid online listings.  Not too terribly surprising, right?  Next in line are referrals from another planner, Real Wedding publications and print ads.  Yes, folks, even in this crazy magazing climate, print ads still go a very, very long way in boosting your revenue.

If you’re a Photographer: your single biggest source of revenue is those invaluable client referrals.  Next in line are Real Wedding publications, referrals from other photographers and favorite venues, and print ads!  Yes, you read that right!  

What’s the takeaway from your friends at Two Bright Lights?  Market smarter, not harder.  “Remember that time is limited, and money tight.  Pick the marketing activities that give you the biggest bang for your buck.” 

Want to chat about the survey findings and geek-out over the cool results?  Interested in taking the plunge into the world of advertising, and want to see a copy of our new media kit?  Email me!

Signing off,
Katharine