A few delicious morsels from around the wedding world today:
- Planning a destination wedding? Win free destination wedding photography! Here’s another fun contest for you St. Louis brides who love the thrill of the hunt.
- I posted on Twitter that we are looking for charities to feature next month. What causes do you think people need to know about?
- French Macarons in a wedding are divine–as favors, gifts, dessert, or just pure eye candy. I love these (from the wedding of one of our new editors), these, these, these, these, these, and especially these! Don’t hate me for starting any massive cravings with those links.
- I am in love with these simple wedding details that I found via one of my new favorite blogs, {In This Instance}.
- Have you seen {Style Me Pretty}‘s new site design? Fabulous! Check out SW in the Little Black Book of Wedding Blogs. We are honored to be asked to guest blog on this uber-stylish site this month. Stay posted for details…
- We have a new Editorial Assistant, Laura Eastes (yes, we have similar names… and she’s a redhead too, so I like her). Welcome! Follow Laura on Twitter.
- If you need a really good laugh today, here is a site that is sure to do the trick. This site is swirling around the blogsphere. Sasha Souza posted about it on her fabulous blog, {Sparkliatti}, too. (Isn’t Sasha’s blog fantastic, by the way!?) I found Cake Wrecks through {Masterpiece Weddings} who is organizing a fabulous charity event called {Let’s Eat Cake}. We will be sponsoring the event and the lucky winner will be featured here on Southern Weddings!
- OK, we have another fabulous contest…
I am thrilled and honored to feature one of my favorite invitation boutiques, {Hello!Lucky}. Their L’Oiseau invitation suite is one of my favorite designs of all time. {Hello!Lucky} was founded by two very talented sisters, Eunice and Sabrina Moyle. Eunice Moyle is the creative director: a talented illustrator who began designing birth announcements and party invitations for friends and printing them on her antique Vandercook press. On a whim, she sent her card designs to Kate’s Paperie in New York City in 2003, and they immediately placed an order. Hello!Lucky was in business! Sabrina Moyle, an experienced art gallery manager and Stanford University Business School graduate, wanted to start a creative, women-owned business. She teamed up with her sister Eunice and forms the business brains behind Hello!Lucky. The Hello!Lucky team also has a beautiful {BLOG} full of gorgeous designs and inspiration.
The very lucky winner of this contest will receive 100 Letterpress Invitations from {Hello!Lucky}. (1 ink color with plain envelopes; reply set not included. Retail value of $600) Wow! I really wish I was a bride for this. Thank you to Eunice, Sabrina, and the Hello!Lucky team for such a fabulous contest prize!
To enter: Tell us your vision of the perfect dream southern wedding. Leave as many or as few details as you wish.
Contest ends Wednesday July 30th at midnight. Have fun!
(And don’t forget to check out the Sex and the City Design Carrie’s Wedding Contest finalists. Let us know which is your favorite by Monday!)
My fiance and I got engaged at the Pineapple Fountain in Charleston, SC. A perfect southern wedding for us would be held outside, on a family estate in Charleston, with the entire town invited. There would be local foods (nothing from more than a 100-mile radius), the drinks would be stiff, banjos would be played. It would be a weekend gathering of friends and family, warm weather, cool drinks and fantastic music.
hmm – i think this comment is probably in the wrong place, but it goes with the top portion of the post. Charities to feature – The ALS division of MDA.http://www.als-mda.org/ALS is Lou Gherigs disease, and runs in my family.I am assuming someone has already pointed out the mass of people in the wedding world who are for supporting Breast cancer research. Those are wons that obviously, you need to donate money to to really help. On the flip side, I just featured 2 charities that don’t cost a penny to help out. FreeRice.com and http://www.theanimalrescuesite.comCheck out my post for a little more explanation.. and then go click!!http://barefootstargazer.blogspot.com/2008/07/just-cause.html
My heart is in Louisiana so my perfect dream southern wedding would involve traditional Louisiana cuisine. It would be on a plantation setting with with moss hanging from the huge oak trees. The wedding on the front porch and the reception in the court yard. There would be jazz, blues, and zydeco music played all night, with lots of dancing and laughter all night long.
Starry-eyed Barefoot Bride: thanks for the charities! You can post comments for charities and the contest here. No problem… we will sort through them : )
My fiance and I are both from New Orleans and are in the process of planning our wedding. Unfortunately, his family lost EVERYTHING in Katrina, so we see our wedding as an opportunity to both gather the entire family together again (as we’re all spread out now) and celebrate this amazing city that we’re so fond of. That is our idea of a perfect Southern Wedding, and we plan to include a venue that is characteristic of New Orleans, and special touches such as Roman Candy, fresh hot beignets (donuts) and Sazaracs (New Orleans’ official cocktail).
A perfect dream southern wedding would feature a historic mansion set on the water. Waiters would pass mint juleps and sweet tea served in mason jars along with martini glasses filled with pulled pork and a dollop of cole slaw. Bridesmaids would wear pink dresses with green sashes, accompanied by men in blue blazers and khakis. A group of flower girls with wreaths and baskets would add extra fun to the celebration. Guests would dance the night away to a motown band and end on a sweet note with a good humor truck!
My Southern Wedding would be at a beautiful estate strung with clear twinkling lights and full of fireflies. We’d drink mint juleps and iced tea from mason jars and take photos on the porch swing. We would gather all of our family together for a slow, relaxed weekend of socialization full of Southern comfort and hospitality.
Aw- thanks for the shout out! I love the Southern Weddings blog and am so glad to have found it! You ladies put up such gorgeous & inspirational posts.
When I think of southern weddings, I think of my South Carolina and Louisiana background. I think of white tents on green lawns that back up to the bayou. Large oak trees with hanging moss in front of a big white plantation. Fireflies dancing in the night and mason jars and candles providing the slightest flicker of light as it turns dark. Camellias and cotton in the centerpieces. I think of gospel choirs and soul food with a twist. Crawfish etouffee, shrimp and grits, peach cobbler, pecan pie, and beignets. The jazz music would play during the cocktail hour before leading into the huge band that provides hours of entertainment and shag dancing and zydeco. I think of having a little bit of SEC football featured with the groom’s cake and lots of debate around the whiskey bar about who will have the best football season. The bride and groom don’t leave the party because the southern hospitality embedded deep down inside them knows that they need to stay because they’re gracious hosts and because they’re having the time of their lives.
Imagine an evening affair taking place on the grounds of a historic mansion. There would be candle chandeliers hanging from the trees. I would be outfitted in a gorgeous all lace gown and my groom would be in a vintage skinny suit. There would be a local band playing music during cocktail hour were we dined on mini creations including mac and cheese. This would be an intimate affair and there would be lots of color. The main colors would include green and chocolate brown. My chocolate labrador would trot down the aisle as the ring bearer. There would be blue and green hydrangeas hanging from crystal candle holders on every table. It would be just fabulous.
Charities to feature:I am on the organizing committee (in charge of gown collection) for Brides Against Breast Cancer in Orlando.you can find more info here: http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/I know there is a lot out there for breast cancer, but here too you do not have to spend a penny: anyone can donate their wedding dress to be sold on our tour around the country.. Some brides-to-be find their dream gowns at our sale!! All the proceeds are used to grant wishes of terminally ill patients.If you hear anyone who wants to "trash the dress"… please refer them to me!!!!
My dream Southern wedding would (will?) take place in the tall grass in front of my Mother’s house between two tall trees that have slowly begun to grow together. Their newly-intertwining branches will be the perfect backdrop for me to intertwine my life with my love’s!
I wanted Texas to be represented for Southern Weddings! Our wedding will be placed in Dallas, Texas at Marie-Gabrielle gardens. We’re Asian-American but we love to the beauty of the family-oriented and the all-get out nature of the Southern wedding. We’re going for a "Modern Vintage Garden Party" full of nature/lovebirds/butterflies with a little bit of bling. We’ll be getting married in a grove of trees under a chandelier surrounded by all of our close family and friends. Our colors with be robin’s egg blue, rose, and champagne. We love the lushness of pink peonies, garden roses, ranunculas and hydrangreas. We’ll have a cocktail hour with a spanish classical guitarist where we’ll hang floral fabric for a photo center… b/c oh do we love pictures! The indoor/outdoor reception will have a combination of southern and asian food. We’re going to have a beautiful cake with flowers and butterflies and the groom’s cake will be chocalate cupcakes. Our favors with a be tea/book of our favorite love poems. Our dance floor will be outside where we’ll be dance the night away. I have always love Hello Lucky’s L’Oiseau invitation suite… the feeling and whimsy is perfect for our southern wedding!
I can make a laundry list of all the ways I’d like my home state of Texas represented in our choice of food, music, and decor, but ultimately it’s going to be the things we don’t plan for that will make our wedding day the most memorable. The unexpected toast from an old friend, the adorable spill my niece will take on the dance floor, the charming little moments we never saw coming. Details constantly dance in my head–mason jars with sweet tea, walking down the aisle to the strum of my brother’s guitar, standing under the topiary arbor in my Daddy’s backyard–but I’ll be bored to tears if everything goes off without a hitch. I don’t really want a "perfect" Southern wedding. I want a memorable one.
The perfect Southern Wedding…Beautiful, antique lace dress. Pitchers of sweet tea and lemonade, spiked with springs of fresh mint. Julep cup-style vases overflowing with magnolia blossoms and peonies. Soft candlelight pouring from hurricane lanterns. Massive, ancient oak trees providing the backdrop, sun sinking into the ocean behind. Dapper groomsmen in simple black suits. Bridesmaids carrying soft white paper parasols. A ceremony path strewn with white gardenia petals. Gold Chivari chairs adorned with garlands of greenery, tied with ivory ribbon bows. Passed tapas-style Southern food – mini pulled-pork sandwiches, biscuits with country ham, single-size pecan pies. A barefoot bluesgrass band. A Red Velvet groom’s cake. Dancing until the moonlight streams between the trees. A vintage getaway car.
Does Southern California count?!!? =] I have been ogling letterpress invitations ever since I got engaged so I thought I’d give it a shot! I already have my invitation designed and I’ve been engaged only a month :D. My perfect southern wedding would be on a bright grassy lawn overlooking the pacific ocean and taking our vows as the sun sets…sigh…sharing the moment with family and closest friends. I absolutely love good food and fun, so that is a must for the reception. I would love to have performers who can sing and dance beautifully as well…let’s see if I can make that happen :D.
My dream southern wedding involves family, friends and lots of kids. Sweet tea is a necessity and BBQ is required at some point during the wedding weekend. Fall is the perfect time for a southern wedding because it’s warm enough that all of your northern friends are jealous but your hair should stay under 3 feet across because the humidity has improved since August. You need at least one aunt or grandmother to be scandalized because you’re serving beer and wine. Someone at some point needs to tell the bride that she’s "as pretty as a picture". A dream southern wedding needs at least one mother asking the newlyweds when they’re going to finally give her some grandchildren. After choosing the date that conflicts least with most of your guests favored football team, you still hear plenty of discussion that this year could be the year if only the coach was replaced. A southern wedding wouldn’t be complete without someone telling the groom they remember when he was knee high to a grasshopper. A dream southern wedding means wearing your Mom’s pearls and wrapping your MaMaw’s handkerchief wrapped around your bouquet. Most importantly, a dream southern wedding needs lots of love, tears, laughter and joy.
My perfect dream Southern wedding is happening next spring, and it is a return to my roots. I wanted so badly to leave the South and its complications and strictures when I was younger, and I did. After some years away I realized I was freezing in beautiful practical yankee New England, and then after a few more years in New York City I realized I felt like a perennial misfit no matter where I looked. Mostly I missed slow time and gentle faces. I spent a year in Baltimore next, gradually moving closer to my family in Memphis and Birmingham. Finally I found a happy balance of new and old Souths and friends and family in Charlottesville, Virginia. And when I found my place I found the love of my life too! The magnolia and sweet tea visions that other people are writing about appeal to me—I remember my own time swinging on porch swings, eating tomatoes and figs from the side yard, “visiting” with my grandmother’s two spinster sisters who lived together in white linen and silver decorum until their late nineties. But our southern wedding will informal and pretty. We’ll marry in a small, simple chapel and hold the reception in the Peacock Lawn at Ash Lawn. We’re talking about cutting dogwood branches and laying the tables under the old ash trees in the open air. There will be plenty of time for talking and storytelling, since that’s what my Southern family does best, and there will definitely be a dance floor set up beside the boxwood hedge. My early idea of a picnic reception in the Blue Ridge Mountains was roundly denounced by fiancé and family alike—no one but me wants to sit on the ground!—so we’ve settled on this formal setting made friendly and casual by picnic food and lawn games. There will be barbeque to honor my Memphis roots, and croquet to fancify ourselves enough to play in James Monroe’s side yard. Thank you for considering my entry! Your designs and papers are calm and beautiful.
The ceremony would take place in a small chapel with a floral wreath hanging on the door. Afterwards, guests would make the short walk from the chapel to a historic mansion with ivy growing up the side. The reception would be outdoors, in a garden underneath the magnolia trees. Beautiful urns containing flowers will be positioned throughout the lawn. Music would be provided by a four-piece jazz band and everyone would dance under the stars.
Recipe for the perfect dream southern wedding:1 beautiful Southern Belle (sister of alpha alpha alpha)1 charming young gentlemen (brother of beta beta beta)2 overly involved mothers1 laid back dad1 overprotective father not really happy about giving his daughters hand to the boy that reminds him of himself when he was youngHer brother and his girlfriendHis brother and sisters7 Brides Maids but, only one can hold the title of “Maid of Honor”7 Groomsmen… his dad will be the “Best Man”8 grandparents who wouldn’t miss this wedding for the world1 Flower girl with curly hair and the cutest dress you have ever seen1 Ring Bearer with a little pillow to carry the ringA few great grandparents if you’re luckyAll her aunts, uncles, and cousinsAll his aunts, uncles, and cousinsAll her sorority sisters All his fraternity brothersAll the friends from back home1 preacherChicken wings, ham, shrimp, mashed potato bar, green beans, fried okra, mac n cheese, corn, squash, the list goes on and on (all the bride and grooms favorites)An abundance of pink flowersA DJ that could play any song requestedA dance floor for the 1st dance and the father daughter dance1 four tier white wedding cake1 chocolate groom’s cake shaped like a football (Roll Tide) with a side of homemade ice creamThe best photographer money can buy1 credit card with a very high limitAnd most importunately… a whole lot of LOVE
My idea of the perfect Southern wedding is an event where guests feel transported to another time and place…truly, a “destination” wedding. We are having our wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, “where there’s a little bit of grace and charm left in the world” (Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind), next May. None of the close friends and family that we have invited reside in the South, and we can’t wait to show them all of the whimsical wonders of the city and surrounding environs. We are planning a leisurely weekend of activities, all designed for guests to relax, experience the hospitality of the city and soak up the historic setting. From a welcome reception featuring a Lowcountry boil on the lawn of a carriage house on the Battery, to the horse drawn carriages that will transport guests from the ceremony at the 18th century church through the city streets to the reception at dusk, and on to the shrimp and grits and biscuits with honey butter at the brunch the next day in a secret garden, we hope that our guests will feel the same sense of romantic wonder that we felt on our first trip to Charleston nearly six months ago. It was as if we’d stumbled on a secret city made just for us, and we hope our guests will feel the same way. The perfect Southern wedding will be timeless and classic, and most of all unfurl at a luxuriously slow pace.
"Tell us your vision of the perfect dream southern wedding."Beside me, my own true love.Warm night, waves and windmix with heady gardenias.
My dream wedding would be almost exactly what I’m having. A beach sunset ceremony, a beautiful reception and lots of laughter, dancing and celebrating into the night. Oh and since I’m dreaming big, I’d also love a Kristie Kelly wedding dress
Although I’ve relocated to CO, my heart’s true home will always be Arkansas. My dream southern wedding has blue Ball mason jars as vases, is held at the local botanical gardens, has wildflowers galore and lacy dresses. The decorations will include softly hued paper lanterns strung between trees and flip-flops and seeds as the favors. But the ultimate desire is to have my love next to me while friends and family enjoy the celebrations.
My fiancé and I relocated from New York City to Nashville, Tennessee just over six months ago. When we became engaged in March, we immediately knew that we wanted to celebrate our wedding in this beautiful city so that we could share with all of our family and friends that southern charm that drew us here. When our guests arrive in Nashville for our June 2009 wedding, we will welcome them on Friday evening with a picnic of southern barbecue and outdoor yard games. Since my fiancé is a dedicated runner, the morning of our wedding we will be holding a one-mile walk/run around Nashville’s landmark Parthenon. Our afternoon ceremony—for us, the very heart of the weekend—will be at a beautiful, historic chapel, and immediately following the ceremony we will invite our guests to join us for fruit-flavored lemonade on the lush grounds surrounding the chapel. Our dream reception would be at a fabulous restaurant in a Civil War era home—front porch swing included—that overlooks the lights of downtown Nashville. The choices we have made for our wedding reflect our understanding of the perfect southern wedding: a wedding weekend that takes its time to unfold, that welcomes its guests with graciousness and hospitality, and that imbues each moment with the feelings of love, intimacy, and joy that a wedding celebrates.
Perfect Southern Wedding? Outdoors in a lavish, beautiful location, in the springtime while it is still cool at night and before the mosquitos get too large. Lots of lush greenery – Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss for accents. I see lots of pink too – lots and lots of pink. Beautiful, soft, spring colors. Ladies in hats. Mint Julep being served, or maybe some cool margaritas. Just a divine social occasion, with lots of mingling, candlelit and laughter.
Charities to feature: The Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and research for Women based cancers. Their main slogan is "RUN LIKE A GIRL" 20,000 people run this every year in which 95% of the runners are women. On top of that 90% of the runners take part in this event with team in training and raise $2500-3000 minimum for the cause. Since the run is based around women. Tiffany & Co not only donates a lot of money but they also give every finisher a custom Tiffany necklace and they have lots of cool stops a long the way. It is a fun way to do your part in the fight against Leukemia, women cancers (breast, ovarian, etc) and surrounding yourself with great women including amazing SURVIVORS! I took part in this marathon last year and was so touched by the survivors, family members, and ladies still fighting that I know I will take part every year until I can’t run any more! It was an amazing experience and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is an amazing organization to be a part of! http://www.teamintraining.org/firsttimehere/sportprograms/destinations/joinusatthenikewomensmarathon/?OTC-08NikeFall&attr=NationalRedirect
My fiance and I met by chance as I was in Florida (where he was living – I am from Texas) on vacation with my best friends (now MOH). He courted me, and we dated for about 8 months long distance when we realized that we could not live another minute so far away from one another. He packed up his car and moved to Austin, and he has been here for over two years. He proposed last October in the same place we happened to meet in Florida.Our wedding is set for November 15th of this year in Austin, Texas where we now BOTH call home. We are getting married outside at 11 am under an old oak tree in front of a cross my father, a carpenter, is building for us. The reception will be held on the same property in a victorian house built in 1885. The colors of the day will be plum purple, robin’s egg blue and silver. I am using all family silver pieces and Fenton robin’s egg blue milk glass vases filled with white blooms for the centerpieces. Each female guest will be handed a vintage handkerchief before the ceremony, and my attendants are carrying handkerchiefs with their monogram with their bouquets.After cocktail hour featuring milk punch and mimosas and the sit-down lunch, dancing, bocce ball and croquet will take place; danincg in the ballroom and the other games on the lawn of the estate. We are having a caricature artist available to do drawing as the guests favors. And to top it all off, that afternoon, my fiance and I will leave in a 1963 white Bentley!It is going to truly be my dream Southern wedding!