Southern Weddings

Were we right? Did you love the first series of pictures from Jennie + Alec’s classic Southern wedding as much as Lara, Whitney, Emily and I all did? We just had to share a few more shots of this darling couple’s front-porch nuptials and picket fencebridal shots! It looks almost too good to be a real-life Georgia wedding, right? Photography by W. Scott Chester.

Describe your wedding flowers: I wanted rustic-looking flowers, so we put peonies on my bridal bouquet. There were white hydrangeas everywhere, which were so beautiful! We covered the feasting tables with a bed of moss and a large wreath which hung on the front door of the church where we got married.

Describe your wedding cake: I love wedding cake and wanted it to taste as good as it looked. For our cake, we choose one with a messy casual look. The bottom layer was sour cream pound cake with amaretto custard and the second layer was key lime cake with key lime filling. The whole thing was covered with wonderful buttercream icing. I can’t wait for our one year anniversary so we can dig into the top layer which is chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling!

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The food. We hadn’t given much thought to the food since my sister’s company was catering. When I eventually got a chance to eat, I realized I had never been to an event Colorful Palate had covered. The dishes didn’t just taste better than any other wedding food I had ever had, the entire spread also had loads of character. We had plenty of popular favorites, but instead of just throwing in some expensive shellfish for a fine dining effect (which they did!), there were also tons of traditional Southern dishes, including trout, black eyed peas, candied bacon, vidalia onions and okra.

More to come in part III….

It’s rare our editor-in-chief, Lara Casey, steps in to make an image board, but this down-home affair captured by the talented W. Scott Chester and designed by M&W Events blew all of us away!  Jennie + Alec were married in true Southern style at the bride’s family home, Magnolia Cottage, in Georgia.  After seeing the sweet vintage lapel pins and fresh wildflower bouquets from Flora Events}, I’m certain there’s never been so perfect a union of rustic and elegant. 

For these high school sweethearts, it seems especially fitting that the bride wore a modified version of her debutante gown from Marisa Bridals when she exchanged vows with her one true love.  We especially like how the bridesmaids’ teal Jenny Yoo} dresses highlight Jennie’s matching sash. Because we know how truly amazing this wedding is (and how you are going to fall in LOVE with it as much as we did!), we have not one but two more image boards for your to enjoy!  Happy Friday from Southern Weddings!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We’ve actually known each other since junior high when we met in youth group. We remained friends throughout high school and even kept in touch some during college, catching up over the holidays when we were both home. It wasn’t until our senior year in college when things changed. My roommate had friends that went to college at Hampden-Sydney, where Alec attended, and I would tag along with her on visits. One particular visit, Alec and I ran into one another and ended up hanging out for the evening having a great time. When I got back to UGA, we started talking on the phone on a regular basis for hours on end. After a few visits back and forth, we started officially dating and have been together ever since! 

Describe the proposal: I was hoping that Alec would propose before too long, and every time we’d be at a nice dinner or walking on the beach I was kind of holding my breath! He managed to totally catch me off guard! We were home for Thanksgiving and I had been out shopping for the day with my mom and sister. We returned home just in time to quickly get ready for Alec’s sister’s 30^th birthday party. As we were rushing around changing and trying on shoes, the doorbell rang. My mother basically pushed me down the hall to the door. When I reached the door, my father had already opened it and I saw Alec standing behind him. It was then that I started thinking something fishy was going on! When I asked why he was at my parents’ house when we were supposed to be leaving for his house, he pulled out a ring, hit his knee and asked if I would like to wear it and marry him! I pulled him to his feet and accepted his proposal with a huge hug. We ran inside to tell my family and then for an impromptu engagement celebration at his sister’s party, which she happily shared with us! 

What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I wanted the wedding to be rustic and casual but also to have some fancy elements to it. For instance, we covered hay bales with beautiful fabrics and turned the most casual seating arrangement into something more formal by adding silks and satins!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: My wedding dress was actually the same dress I wore for my debutante party about five years ago. When I first bought the dress, I told my parents that I would wear the dress at my wedding but wasn’t so sure I really would when the big day actually came. After Alec and I got engaged, I pulled the dress out of the attic and tried it on. It still fit beautifully and had a classic look that still spoke to me. We thought adding some detailing to the bust of the dress would really transform it and give a new feel for the wedding, so we took it to a wonderful seamstress who patiently worked with me to add lace to the top of the dress! She also added a beautiful sash that was the same color as my sister’s bridesmaid dress.

Check back shortly for part II…

I’m especially excited to share this week’s Southern Wedding of the Week, photographed by Leslee Mitchell, with you!  (I’m actually in love!)  As the bride would tell you herself, Mary Catherine + Les aren’t the average couple and this Alabama affair was anything but your average wedding!  After all, it’s not every day a couple in their seventies ties the knot in front of their closest friends and family while standing hand-in-hand at the altar with two of their adorable grandchildren.  What’s most unique about this wedding, of course, is that nearly everything, from the simple tin-can arrangements of handpicked garden roses and hydrangeas to the bride’s flowy eyelet skirt, was made by either the couple or their very talented friends.  We love how the many personal touches and family heirlooms (Mary Catherine carried her bouquet in the same antique tussie used by every bride in her family!) gave this wedding a distinctly intimate and timeless feel.  What DIY item does Mary Catherine + Les’ wedding inspire you to tackle?!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story: Les and I met through a blind date arranged by a mutual friend.  We dated for more than nine years before I accepted Les’ proposal of marriage.

What was the design inspiration for your wedding: My gardens and favorite oak tree.  My home is surrounded by beautiful gardens and we decided to have a seated dinner in the formal garden for family and friends.  Everything just came together after we made that decision.  The invitations set the tone by using an old-style printing technique called letterpress.  They were cream color Crane card stock with a rich chocolate brown ink.  I picked a nontraditional set-up with an old engraved oak tree design.  I really love that tree!

Favorite design element of your big day: The huge old oak tree is central to the house and grounds.  A can-do-anything family friend wired it for electricity and we hung 12 antique chandeliers of various sizes and styles from the branches that spread out over the circular drive.  They were fabulous!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I wanted something different and unique-looking because, being in our seventies, we are not the typical wedding couple.  I went up to my attic thinking about antique clothing and found a vintage cape I bought years ago from an antique mall in the Hamptons. It was a beautiful faded pink color and I had always loved the fabric. I thought the design of the fabric would lend itself to a cool skirt so I worked out a design and took it to a seamstress to implement. An artist friend brought over a scrap bag of ribbons and lace and I found the perfect ribbon in a beautiful moss green that perfectly complemented the pale pink color of the skirt. I added fabric roses from a jacket I wore to one of my daughters’ weddings twenty years ago. I remembered a pair of shoes from even longer ago that I thought would work well. They were a perfect fit and, amazingly, back in style. My granddaughter also wore a vintage dress I purchased at a flea market in France that fit beautifully after a few adjustments.

Describe your wedding flowers: I picked the wedding date when the gardens would be at their peak so we kept the arranged flowers very simple. I have many friends who are talented floral designers and gardeners so most of the flowers came from their own gardens. We ended up with a beautiful mix of garden roses and hydrangeas. Since the wedding was not in a church, we wanted a religious symbol for the ceremony. A friend created a free standing floral cross with the combination of garden roses, spray roses, hydrangeas, variegated ivy and smilax which served as the centerpiece on an old farm table layered with embroidered antique table linens and surrounded by sterling containers filled with smaller floral arrangements. The table stood in the timber arbor at the end of the formal garden and made for a truly striking backdrop and focal point for the ceremony.

Describe your wedding cake: The wedding cake was our favorite dessert from our favorite restaurant in Birmingham, Highlands Bar & Grill. It is a marvelously simple (but incredibly delicious!) Seven Layer Coconut Cake with Creme Anglaise. Truly: it’s to die for.

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Since we had a small ceremony for our family, the dinner was really the main event. We are both very passionate about the art of food and the feel of the dinner was especially important to me. When the weather turned bad, we rented a large tent at the last minute that fit exactly over the center of the formal garden. Since I didn’t want groups of round tables that would separate the guests, we decided on a banquet-style set-up. I was really pleased with the look of the long, narrow tables arranged end to end. We covered the tables with painter’s drop cloths I purchased online. The drop cloths were absolutely perfect; they looked like rough linen! To create an intimate look and feel, I borrowed (rather than rented) just about everything for the dinner. The chairs ranged from modern to old church chairs. I borrowed different plates that all had a unique garden pattern. We kept the table decorations simple, choosing simple pillar candles in glass cylinders and spray roses clustered in sterling mint julep cups. The wine and champagne bottles were placed on the tables for the guests to help themselves. (Trust me: they loved that!)

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding: The weather. I was determined to have a garden location but the weather was just not going to cooperate. We worked around the weather and, in the end, it did cooperate for us. In the middle of dinner a weather check showed a perfectly round circle of clear weather with Birmingham in the center surrounded by rainstorms. How lucky were we?

Were there any special family traditions you included in your wedding: I used the same antique tussie mussie to hold my bouquet that all the brides in my family have used in their wedding ceremonies.

Funniest moment: My two young grandchildren, six and seven, decided this was such a momentous occasion that they stood with us through the entire ceremony, held our hands and each other’s at the pertinent parts, even through the exchanging of the vows. I’m not sure, but we legally may all be married.

Hardest decision you made in planning: Deciding to use a tent. We really wanted to have an open sky over the tables with light strung between the trees, but the tent ultimately gave the dinner a wonderfully intimate feel we just loved.

What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Keep it small with family and special friends, and always be mindful of what is important to you and don’t skimp in that area. Whatever that may be, do it spectacularly. For me, as an artist and photographer, the photography was very important. I knew I would want pictures that were more artistic than typical wedding pictures. I wanted to have pictures that captured all the little moments and special details of the day. It was worth the extra effort to find a photographer I knew would be able to do that for me.

Any DIY items: Just about everything with tons of help from our many very talented friends.