Southern Weddings

I love how Brooke + Nathan’s traditional ceremony at the Huntsville First United Methodist Church gave way to a citrus-colored party at the Historic Roundhouse Depot.  (Check out the exposed wood beams!)  I love the sea of Chinese paper lanterns, and is there anything more Southern than a lemonade + juice bar?  Here’s another SW first: a sequin-trimmed four-tier vanilla cake?  Thank you, Nikki Mason, cake baker extraordinaire!  And one more thank-you to Joy Marie Photo for sharing this deep South soiree. Be sure to take a peek at her blog post of Brooke + Nathan’s wedding here.

Describe your wedding flowers: The ceremony flowers were very romantic and Victorian. I adore peonies, but they were out of season, so I went for garden roses, hydrangeas, and callas during the ceremony. I glammed up my bouquet a little with netting, feathers and rhinestones. My bridesmaids carried light pink, peach, and green flowers, while my bouquet was mostly white. The flower girl carried a pomander and our ring bearer carried a pillow of green mums. For the reception, we spiced things up with orchids, brighter hydrangeas, and dahlias.
Describe your wedding cake: My cake was a four-tier vanilla cake, each layer with a different design. Chip at Gatehouse decorated the cake with bright-colored mums, orchids and roses. I went to a fabric store and bought some sequin trim to add some sparkle to the cake. I had friends calling the next day to see if we had any left over. Nathan’s cake was two layers of chocolate cake. Nikki Mason added reese’s peanut butter cups to give it a two-toned look. Our two attendants, my nine-year-old twin cousins, said that they liked Nathan’s cake even better than mine.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Nathan came down with the flu a week before the wedding. He recovered quickly, but then I got sick. I had taken off work the entire week to finish last minute details. Instead I spent most of the week in bed sick. Even at our rehearsal dinner I had a fever of 101. However, my prayers were answered and on our wedding day I felt wonderful. I couldn’t believe it! Luckily, during the week I was sick, so many people stepped in to help take care of the last minute details. I appreciated them all so much.
Were there any wedding traditions or new ideas you included in the wedding? Instead of wedding favors, we each donated to our favorite charities. We wanted to do this in honor of our guests and in memory of our loved ones who have passed. I also really wanted to let my bridesmaids know how much I appreciated them. They had gone above and beyond to help make this year the best of my life, so I wanted to make their gifts extra special. I gave my very favorite things to my very favorite people as a thank-you for participating in the wedding. I ordered monogrammed green bags with brown letters to go with our wedding colors and each bag contained my favorite book, movie, candle, pepper jelly, chocolates, CDs and earrings to match their dresses. Also, instead of bubbles or sparklers, we left the reception to our guests shaking Auburn pom-poms and singing the fight song since that is where we first met.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? When the reception ended, I hugged my dad goodbye and headed through the shakers in the crowd to get in the car. On our ride home, we talked about what a wonderful and perfect day it had been and how happy we were. I was just a little sad because my sister had to leave the reception sick and I hated that she has missed our goodbye. When we arrived home, I realized she hadn’t really left because she was sick but so she could decorate the house for us. It was filled with candles and there were rose petals everywhere and even champagne and chocolate covered strawberries just like the night of the proposal. I thought it was the sweetest thing that she really wanted to make sure we had the perfect ending as well.
Did you write your own vows?  If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? No we didn’t. We had a dear friend officiate the ceremony and it was very personal yet traditional.  However, we did include an unusual element. We used a hand ceremony. We held hands as the minister spoke: “These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it. And lastly, these are the hands that, even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.”
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?  We plan to do a lot of traveling. Nathan has traveled the world so I have lots of catching up to do. Soon we will go to Africa to take the trip he had planned for me before he got sick. (His illness brought him home one week before my plane was scheduled to leave.) We are also saving to purchase a home together!

Congratulations, Brooke + Nathan!  Enjoy your travels together!


Now that I’m engaged (and getting married in September!), little details like bridesmaid bouquets and the endless shades and types of roses are surprisingly interesting.  As Emily knows, I’m really picky when it comes to flowers, and usually gravitate to rose-only bouquets, but there was something about the Gatehouse Flowers bouquets at Brooke + Nathan’s Alabama wedding that made me do a double take.  While I love the eclectic mix of roses and greenery, what I really love is the sophisticated pinks and peaches, a nice alternative to the ever-popular all-white bouquet.  What perfect contrast to the attendants’ coppery Coren Moore dresses, purchased at Bella Bridesmaid in Nashville.  Naturally, I’m a sucker for the ultra-glam embellishments on the bride’s striking Melissa Sweet gown.  Photographer Joy Marie really captured the fun, carefree atmosphere of the couple’s wedding day, without missing any of the sweetly Southern details.

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story.  In the Spring of 2005 on the Auburn University campus I took a seat next to Nathan on a bench, and we had a long conversation.  I had seen him around campus and thought he was handsome. We even had a class together (along with about 300 other students), but we never spoke again on campus except for the occasional hello. I never realized I was often at his sister’s house and that he lived in the other half of the duplex, nor did I know he had asked a friend about me. Two years later, we ran into each other again one night in Huntsville, where I had just moved after graduation. Nathan had just gotten back into town from working in Africa.  He said, “Hey you’re the girl from the bench!” A month later on St. Patrick’s Day, we had our first official date and were inseparable from then on.  He left to work in Africa in April and, despite the distance we stayed together. He returned to the U.S. battling Malaria and a very serious autoimmune disorder. For quite some time, it was difficult for him to walk, but none of that stood in the way of our relationship. It just made us stronger.

Describe the proposal. Nathan has been dropping hints that made me start to think he would propose on my birthday. Although he made sure I had the best birthday ever, there was no proposal. I laughed about how silly I was to think that and decided it would be awhile before he popped the question. The following day, he offered to spend the entire day shopping with me and buying me a new outfit rather than hunting (his big hobby) on the last day of the season. I thought it was weird, but didn’t give it much thought. When we returned to my house from shopping, he went in first and came back out with a rose. I thought that was strange, but still hadn’t caught on, but when I walked inside to a room filled with candlelight, flowers, chocolate-covered-strawberries and champagne, I started to get it. He got down on his knee and told me the last two years had been the best of his life before asking if I would be his wife? He took me into other rooms in the house, where I found other things waiting for me, including an issues of Brides! He had a dinner reservation at my favorite restaurant and we headed out to celebrate.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Fulfilling, carefree and euphoric.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I wanted two different atmospheres for the ceremony and reception. I wanted the ceremony to be super romantic and to have an element of tranquility, which I felt the classical music really brought in. For the ceremony flowers, I used Victorian influences and our minister really brought our guests into the ceremony by asking them to be more than spectators but to be actively engaged as we committed ourselves to each other. When it was time for the reception I wanted brighter fall colors, music that would cover all our guests interests, and great Southern food. We served sweet and mashed potato bars, beef and pork tenderloin, and amazing shrimp and grits!
What was your favorite design element of your big day?  I loved that I did it all and made it all happen! Every single detailed was important and carefully planned out. From the Japanese lanterns to the ring bearer’s pillow of flowers and everything in between, I couldn’t have been more pleased. I also loved the branches on our table centerpieces and the orchids our florist attached to them. I picked the best wedding vendors and they all came through and did a phenomenal job.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Our first dance song, “Free” by the Zac Brown Band!  It hadn’t even been released on the radio so it wasn’t a common song, but it was very special for us since we had listened to it at several special moments in our relationship. Nathan actually picked the song and our band, Nationwide Coverage, learned it for us.  
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: The first time I looked for my dress, I took way too many people and went to far too many stores. I was so exhausted that, by the last store, I could barely focus. My sister fell in love with a dress there, though, and almost cried when I put it on, but I wanted to take some time to think about everything. A few weeks later, I selected another dress, but wasn’t really in love with it. I simply was trying to stay within my price range. I later went back to the store, Bella Couture, where my sister had fallen in love with the dress. I tried on the same dress and I knew it was the one. One of my bridesmaids was with me to help and we were both so excited. I couldn’t wait to call my little sister and tell her I had gotten “the one!” Ironically, the name of the dress was Brooklyn by Enzoani and my name is Brooke.

I don’t know if there is such a thing as thing as the quintessential down-home farm wedding, but I’m pretty sure this would be it.  There are so many unbelievable details at Jane + Pete’s Florida reception that, rather than trying to point them all out, I’ll just let you take a minute to take it all in and breathe a collective sigh of awe.  I will say that the overhead shot of the reception set-up is simply magical and the couple’s four-tier, flower-studded wedding cake from Creative Confections by Betty Weber fresh and appropriately rustic.  Be sure to check out Cook Images’ blog post on Jane + Pete’s Florida nuptials here!

Describe your wedding flowers: This was a very important element to me because I saw it as the detail that was going to make my dream of a perfect wedding come true.  I was fortunate enough to work with a great florist and wedding planner who brought my ideas to life. My inspiration was gorgeous wildflowers.  I wanted to make sure they seemed like they could have been picked out the field. I wanted the ceremony to seem like we were in a field of wildflowers! I wanted the flowers at the reception to have the same feel and make sure they were very bold and bright and to stand out in the field of green around all of us.   I also wanted each of my bridesmaids to carry a unique flower that represented her personality and that my bouquet include each of their flowers to represent the love I have for each of them.  I also included some charms in my bouquet that had belonged to those special people who have passed away so that they were close to my heart on the day I married my best friend.
Describe your wedding cake: I got the idea for our cake from a friend, who used the similar look in her wedding. I really had a hard time deciding on what type of cake I wanted, so when I saw pictures of hers I loved the idea of having a round cake with fresh flowers to make it stand out.
Pete’s groom’s cake was really important to us, as it was not only our favorite flavor (chocolate peanut butter) but it also included a deer which represented the location we were at as well as, Pete’s love for hunting. Pete’s cake was definitely the hit of the night.
Were there any wedding traditions or new ideas you included in the wedding? Our wedding ceremony was very special. Not only did we have a ceremony with both Jewish and Christian elements. The traditions included the handmade chuppah, breaking of the glass, special vows, reading of the apache blessing, a poem by E.E. Cummings and, most importantly, Don Livingston, a very special man to us who took his time to become ordained so that he could perform our ceremony. He was amazing and kept us calm and made the ceremony absolutely beautiful.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Every moment of the day was so memorable, but if I had to pick one specific moment I would have to pick the moment I saw Pete. We met prior to the wedding in a field we originally wanted to get married in and the moment our eyes met the day became everything I imagined and more. To get the chance to marry your soul mate and best friend is something so special and so memorable that nothing can take that away.
Did you write your own vows?  We did write our own vows. We went back and forth on this because the pressure of writing your own vows and making sure to try and remember them can be stressful, but we discussed it with the officiant and he reminded us the importance of making sure to remind each other of our love that day, so we went ahead and did our own vows.

What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future? We are enjoying being newlyweds and getting into the swing of married life. We are looking forward to the many memories we’ll make and starting a family.

Congratulations, Jane + Pete from all of us here at SW!