Southern Weddings

We just love it when brides profess they’re diehard SW fans, and Meredith insists she’s one of our biggest.  (Yipee!)  Meredith + Patrick celebrated their nuptials with a pumpkin-accented shindig at the bride’s family home.  We love Meredith’s flowy Anne Barge gown – and love it even more now that we know it’s a bicycle-friendly gown.  So cute!  A Twist of Lime designed the floral arrangements for Meredith + Patrick’s rustic soirée, and The Cake Stand gets all the credit for the couple’s lace-trimmed confection.  Be sure to visit the original post, courtesy of Jenny McCann Photography!

Describe your wedding flowers: I love succulents, garden roses, and ranunculus so it was important for me to have those elements in my flowers. My bridesmaids carried a smaller version of my bouquet and my flower girls carried even smaller arrangements; I loved the flow.
Describe your wedding cake: The wedding cake was delicious! We kept the cake very simple and added lace details so it had a vintage feel to it. The flavor was spice cake with raspberry puree and cream cheese filling and cream cheese butter cream. It was a crazy combo, but 100% amazing. Needless to say, we had none left. I guess we will have to re-order the top layer for our anniversary!  


Were there any wedding traditions or new ideas you included in the wedding? Both my mother and father walked me down the aisle. I was also proud to dance with all of the important men in my life. Patrick, his father, uncle and brothers all danced with Patrick’s grandmother, since she traveled all the way from Michigan for our wedding. He along with his brothers, father and uncle were able to share a dance with her.  All in all, we kept most of the wedding more traditional. 
We served our dinner family-style, which encouraged everyone to talk and mingle.  Our wedding day was also my father-in-law’s birthday. My little sister, Beth, made him his favorite cake (chocolate with green icing) and we all sand happy birthday during the reception.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Seeing each other for the first time before the ceremony. He surprised me under the tree and we were able to have a few moments alone without having everyone else around. I also was able to share a special dance with my mom.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We are looking forward to being newlyweds for a while, living in Chicago and traveling. 
The wedding was awesome and I would do it all over again, change nothing and marry Patrick everyday. We are so blessed to have such amazing family, friends and support.

Congratulations, Meredith + Patrick!  Enjoy your time as newlyweds!

I am in love (nay, obsessed) with the silvery-grey custom frocks Meredith’s bridesmaids wore to her Texas wedding.  Can you believe the bride designed these sophisticated sheaths herself before enlisting the experts at Bridal Portfolio to bring her vision to life?  A-mazing.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can focus on the flower girls’ darling yellow + gray plaid jumpers and those incredible wildflower-inspired bouquets from A Twist of Lime.  Special thanks to Jenny McCann for reminding me why I love Southern weddings so darn much!

How did the two of you meet? Well, it is a very fun story. We were neighbors for about 2 years, living in the same condo complex in Dallas, TX, yet had never met. Then, we were introduced to one at a party by a mutual friend.  Neither of us thought anything of it, and just said “Wow, that’s cool… we’re neighbors!”   After that December evening, we didn’t talk again until March, when I was out at lunch with our mutual friends. Patrick’s name came up and they asked if I would be interested in meeting with him since they thought we would get along well.  So Patrick and I made plans to meet and the rest is history!  We remained neighbors while dating and, when Patrick accepted a job in Chicago, I followed him to the Windy City after a year of distance dating.
Describe the proposal. I had just moved to Chicago and, while we were getting settled into our new condo, Patrick surprised me with a last-minute trip to New York City… one of my favorite places since I lived in the city for about three years. Patrick had never been so I was happy to play tour guide. It was an amazing weekend! Patrick waited until the very last day (if not the very last minute!) of the trip to propose near a little chapel. 


Three adjectives that describe the day are: Southern, charming and cozy.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? The love my mother had for the live oak tree was a huge inspiration for my wedding. She and my step-father built their house in a spot so she could see the tree from the kitchen, living room and back porch. 
It is over 300-years-old and I love what a tree stands for: roots that merge into one trunk and spreading branches.  To me, a tree symbolizes family and how it all comes together. What was your favorite design element of your big day? The use of the natural elements like the oak tree, raw silks, the gourds and pumpkins of the season.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The flowers and the Southern comfort food and Southern dessert bar we served at the reception.  I also loved the peanuts I got for Patrick since I call him “P-Nut.”
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I was so lucky to work for Bridal Portfolio while living in Dallas. It is a couture gown salon that has amazing dresses from top designers like Anne Barge, Romona Keveza, Rivini and many others. The ladies are amazing and it is such a special place. During all my years at the salon, I had not come across a dress that really excited me.  Then one day I was unpacking a box and Debbie, the owner, told me to open a box containing a dress she had seen on the Anne Barge runway.  She said she thought of me when she saw that dress and just knew she had to order the sample.  I am not a fan of silk satin for an outdoor wedding so we contacted Anne and she and her team were happy to change the fabric for me.  I ended up with an Anne Barge couture drop-waist, deep V-neck shantung taffeta gown that featured Chantilly lace a custom-made veil. It was amazing and I would wear my dress again and again if I could.

Next to the adorably bow-tied ring bearers, my favorite thing about Elizabeth + Paul’s North Carolina wedding is definitely the mix of boutonnières, courtesy of Aria Floral.  The Blue Ridge Mountain proved an ideal backdrop for the couple’s intimate Rich Mountain nuptials.  We’re just glad HH Fine Arts Photography was there to capture the rustic affair, planned and designed by the talented team at Asheville Event Co.  Emily, of course, loves how the bride wore her mother’s lace veil with her Reva Mivasagar gown, and I’m straight-up crazy for the bridesmaids’ bejeweled sandals.  Now I know some brides are all about birdseed, rose petals or even bubbles, but dashing through an archway of glittery-gold sparklers is my favorite way for newlyweds to make their exit!  Be sure to view the photographer’s original post here!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  Paul moved to Brevard after graduating from Belmont Abbey College and worked as a counselor at camp Chosatonga and later as a bar tender at Dugan’s Pub.  I had just transferred up to Brevard College to be in the mountains and to study environmental studies. After seeing each other around town, we officially met at the climbing gym back in 2005. Paul took me out to eat at the local drive-through and won my heart by paying quarters J. We each moved away at different times in 2006, but we came back to each other and have been together ever since.
Describe the proposal. Paul and I went down to St. John’s with his parents the week of my birthday in September of 2008.  Paul did a good job of making the proposal a complete surprise by not telling anyone and by waiting until a couple of days after my birthday to make his move J. We went to this beautiful spot called Lameshur Bay where we went snorkeling. As I walked on the beach picking up shells, I picked up a shell and told Paul to look how pretty it was.  I turned around to find Paul on his knee with a sapphire stone the exact color of the Caribbean in a small Ziploc bag hanging from his hand.  He said, “Look how pretty this one is” before asking me to marry him.  Paul then pulled out a little piece of paper with a picture of the ring he was having made for me when we realized the stone had fallen out of the bag!  As Paul paced the beach, I leaned down at my feet and started picking up shells to see if the sapphire had fallen underneath one of them. I said a quick prayer that if this was meant to be I would find the stone.  I then opened my eyes to find the sparkling blue stone resting on the white sand.  With a huge sigh of relief and a great deal of laughter, we put the sapphire back in the bag and swam ashore to share the news with our family. It was beautiful!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Beautiful, happy and magical.
What was your favorite design element of your big day? The backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains coupled with a big open green pasture and the natural elements scattered throughout the entire wedding.
Describe your wedding flowers:  Our floral decorations were colorful, aromatic and even edible!  They were filled with poppies, peonies, mint, lavender, strawberries, blueberries and other local flowers, greenery and branches.
Describe your wedding cake: Our wedding cake was made by a dear friend of ours, Kristen Tekell. She created an absolutely delicious red velvet cake covered in cream cheese icing with the inner layers filled with her special ingredient, Nutella. With the help of another close friend, Jesse Lutz, she also made chocolate cupcakes dipped in chocolate Ganache and topped with rock candy to represent our love for rock climbing.
Were there any wedding traditions or new ideas you included in the wedding? Our dog, Wendall, was the ring bearer.  Our weddings bands were in a little jewelry bag attached to his collar.  We also had our little cousins serve as aisle boys rather than having flower girls. They were absolutely adorable!  The boys wore seersucker suits and carried rustic buckets filled with lavender.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?  We are actually going to have a little addition to our family in April.  Although unplanned, we could not be more excited about our little baby blessing on the way!!! 

Congratulations, Elizabeth + Paul!  We can’t wait to see pictures of your new baby!

Asheville Event Co. is a Southern Weddings sponsor.