Southern Weddings

Today we have a treat for you!  Brooke + Thor really wanted to introduce the South to their guests.  They started by having their Save the Date’s (created by {Hatch Show Print}) and other paper items made to resemble Ol’ Opry style posters. Brooke + Thor treated their guests to chicken fingers, shrimp, deviled eggs, ham biscuits and 200 {Krystal Cheeseburgers}. Catering by Tia Grady of The King’s Table Catering. Two fabulous florists worked on this wedding: Flowers by Marie Rippy and Cindy’s Garden Shop. Special thanks to Tiffany Hughes and Stacey Little of {Lucky Photography} for submitting this fun wedding. They also put us in touch with Brooke + Thor who filled out this hillarious interview. Brooke even added in this bit about her photographers, “Tiffany was the first vendor I met with, and I instantly loved her. I had gotten to know her by reading her brilliant blog, and I knew she had the kind of charisma that I’d want around me on my wedding day. I have gotten nothing but rave reviews of our photos from our friends and family.”  Now check out what the ladies of Lucky had to say about Brooke + Thor {here}.

How did the two of you meet?  Brooke: I was living in Los Angeles and my oldest friend was a Naval officer stationed in San Diego. He called me and told me he was being sent to Afghanistan. I told him I wanted to see him before he left, and I bought three tickets for a Pat Green concert down in San Diego; I thought he could bring his wife and we’d all have a good time and keep our minds off his deployment. On my drive down there, he called and said, “My wife is a nurse at Sea World, and there’s been some kind of emergency and she can’t come.” I said “Well, I’ve already bought the tickets, so you need to bring a date for me. They were expensive, so make sure he’s a good one.” He showed up with Thor. To this day, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to whatever fat man had a heart attack at Sea World that day.
Describe the proposal: I can’t believe the government ever trusted Thor with classified information, because every time he has a secret, he starts acting squirrelly. We were on a Christmas vacation to Colorado, and Thor suddenly wanted to drive me out to the Colorado National Monument. After winding up and up and up those snowy roads, we stopped at an overlook. I saw the temperature on the dashboard: 13 degrees. We looked at the view, and Thor got down on one knee and asked if he could spend the rest of his life with me. I cried and immediately agreed, but I would have said anything to get back in the heated car.
What attracted me to my husband was: When I met Thor, I had been living in Los Angeles for 9 years, and I had given up on ever meeting anyone with substance. Thor just seemed so real, and solid and unlike anyone else I knew. If he told me he was going to do something, he did it. On our first date, I went to Thor’s house and met his dog, Ella. While I was in the restroom, I heard Thor tell her, “I know! I’m excited she’s here, too. But we have to calm down.” I thought, “I could really love a man who has that kind of conversation with his dog.”
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: Brooke: For his birthday, I took Thor to see Eric Clapton – his favorite – in Las Vegas. As the lights were going down, I said, “I really hate guitar solos.” You should have seen the look on his face.
Were there any special family traditions you included in the wedding? We were blessed to be able to use wedding rings that were handed down to us. I now wear my great-grandmother’s ring that has her wedding date inscribed on it – 1913! And Thor’s grandfather, who is thankfully still with us, graciously handed his over to Thor. It made a nice moment in the ceremony when we were able to announce that our rings represented over 100 years of successful marriage.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Brooke: Instead of the classic “Who gives this woman…” we wrote a portion of our ceremony to include a response from our gathered friends and family. Our officiant asked the assembly, “Do you offer this man and woman your blessing as husband and wife?” And everyone yelled “We do!” It was such an enthusiastic response that we knew for sure everyone there supported our union a hundred percent. Thor: Seeing Brooke for the first time in her wedding dress.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? While my family is from Alabama, I knew that most of my Los Angeles and New York-based friends had never been to the South, and neither had most of Thor’s family. I wanted a wedding that would be fun and casual and would feature elements that were uniquely Southern. When our guests checked into the hotel, they were given a welcome bag filled with Alabama pecans and Moon Pies and my grandmother’s famous almond cookies. At the wedding, we served ham biscuits and chicken fingers and boiled shrimp. I wanted to create an environment that felt like a really great party, and I wanted everyone to leave thinking about how great Alabama is. For a little extra insurance, we passed out 200 Krystal cheeseburgers at the end of the party as a to-go gift.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I took my bridesmaid Amy along; because she has two small children, I figured she would be very good at dressing other people and dealing with temper tantrums. I knew I wanted a casual, fun wedding, so I was looking for a dress I could dance and eat devilled eggs in. I’m sure if I were one of those tall, skinny brides, I would have approached this differently, but I bought the second dress I tried on, because I knew when we were done, I could go have lunch.
Describe your wedding flowers: We used a mix of real flowers and handmade tissue flowers. I had seen crepe paper flowers on Martha Stewart’s website, and I knew there must be some way to use them as centerpieces. With the help of friends (who I will owe forever,) I ended up making about 400 tissue paper flowers. The project started out as a way to save money – I knew I was going to need about 15 centerpieces, but didn’t have the budget to buy them from our florist. I made several prototypes and ended up using this one. Including the mason jar, sticks and ribbon, these centerpieces cost less than $10 apiece. We had enough tissue flowers left over that on the morning of the wedding my dad and bridesmaids started putting them in the trees, as if they were “blooming.” This spontaneous bit of creativity turned out to be one of my favorite details from the wedding.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: We got an amazing response from our guests when they received their invitations in the mail. I’m a huge country music fan, and when I was working in Nashville on the first few seasons of “Nashville Star,” I fell in love with Hatch Show Print. They’ve been in business since 1879, and they print the concert posters for the Grand Ol’ Opry, etc. I called them up and worked with a designer over the phone and we created poster-sized wedding invitations that Thor and I sent out in mailing tubes. They ended up costing less than most “normal” invitations, and they’ve become a great keepsake – it’s so cool to think that the little letterpress elements they used on our poster could have been used on a poster for Hank Williams or Patsy Cline. I love visiting our friends and family and seeing our poster hanging up on their walls.
Funniest moment? I decided not to discriminate when choosing bridesmaids, so I ended up with my two best male friends in the world as “bridal attendants.” It turned out that Will, my macho, John-Wayne-loving friend was my most high-maintenance bridesmaid. “Can I wear a top hat?” “Where is my bouquet?” “How’s my hair?” “If we were the ‘Sex and the City’ girls, which one would I be? I think Miranda.” He kept us laughing all day.
The most unexpected event on our wedding day was: This would involve bridesmaids and keg stands, which is probably not the kind of thing you want to print in your lovely magazine. My grandmother was appalled.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding?  My aunt told me early on in the process, “The only things people really remember after a wedding are: ‘Did I have a good time?’ and ‘Was the food good?’ Looking back on the weddings I’ve attended, I have to agree. I can’t remember what most brides were wearing, but I can tell you who served up the dry chicken.
What’s next for you as a couple? We’re going on a ski honeymoon in Banff this December, because Thor swears the snow in Canada is COMPLETELY diffe
rent than the snow in Montana. We’re looking forward to remodeling our house. When that’s done, we’ll probably start fighting over what to name our children, since I don’t share Thor’s view that they should be named after other Norse gods.

Congratulations to Brooke + Thor! We wish you a fun ski trip and a lifetime of adventures to come!