Southern Weddings

In honor of {Elizabeth Anne Design}‘s Southern Week, we wanted to share with you a little inside info on the creators of this fabulous site and a few of their favorite inspirations…

Southern Roots & Background on Ami (blogging as Elizabeth) and Rebekah (blogging as Anne) of Elizabeth Anne Designs

“We both spent our childhood in South Carolina and have known each other for longer than we care to admit! After being introduced at the age of 13, we became fast friends, a friendship that amazingly enough has blossomed and continued through to today, even while living many miles away,” explains Ami.

Ami (Elizabeth) lives in Chicago, but is a Southern girl at heart, a huge Atlanta Braves fan, and is in the midst of planning a tenth-anniversary vow renewal celebration in Atlanta. Rebekah (Anne) left the South at the tender age of 14 for Idaho but couldn’t stay away! She relocated to Alabama, where she fell and love and married a Southern boy, Birmingham born and raised. In 2006, the creative urge had taken hold for both Ami and Rebekah and it was decided that a partnership should be formed, focusing on inspirations and creations for weddings and events. {Elizabeth Anne Designs} was born recently thereafter!

Favorites from Southern Week

Rebekah: My favorites so far have been the menus. Not only have they made me crave Southern comfort food, but they’ve introduced my love of cooking and food to the blog.

Fabulous Finds

Rebekah: The photographers! I had no idea there were so many great photographers. Every day I find a new favorite, but I really have a secret crush on {Millie Holloman}. She (along with the rest of her company) capture events perfectly. An event designer that I recently found through Millie’s blog is Jennifer from {Salt Harbor Designs}. Her work is so beautiful and well thought out. We’ll be posting a profile on her this week.

Ami: First of all, I agree with Rebekah that the photography community is absolutely incredible. We’ve come across too many during our blogging days to list here, but let me just say that it’s not difficult any longer to find someone with true talent to photograph your wedding at all price levels. Secondly, we love being a part of the community of independent business owners, wedding professionals, and bloggers that we interact with on a daily basis. Each and every one of them are incredibly talented and it’s a privilege to be let into their worlds through their postings.

Inspirations

Rebekah: Blogs blogs and more blogs. I’ll note a picture and keep coming back to it again and again. What pops out first to me in an image might not be what I end up using it for. To truly find your style and taste, it takes time to soak it in. A (very) small selection of my favorite sites are {Frolic!}, {Design for Mankind}, {Sweet Paul} and {The Inspired Room}. I think it is also very important to surround yourself with inspiring objects. If you love a picture of a bouquet of peonies, go to your favorite shop and pick up a bunch. Style them at home. Just because you aren’t using peonies in a wedding (or the wedding planning has ended) doesn’t mean you can’t add these things to your daily life! Life is too short not to be surrounded by beauty.

Ami: For me, inspiration can come from anything. Usually it’s a salient idea or a color combination I see while moving through life. But other times, it’s a pop of an idea from something on another blog or in a photo that I expound on to build an inspiration board or a blog post. For invitation designs and other DIY projects I tend to be more of a “buy materials and play with them” kind of girl. I have to have everything in front of me and then I can tweak. We both love bringing in items into weddings that are unexpected and unique and believe that inspiration can come from anywhere!

Thank you, Ami and Rebekah for the inside scoop and fantastic details & sources!  Brides, add this site to your daily reads–such an inspiration!  Here are a couple of our favorite southern inspiration boards from the EAD archives… Enjoy!  ~Lara

(OK, there are my favorite macaroons again!)  This color scheme is perfection.  “Peachy Grey” conjures up images of long summer days eating peach ice cream and the antique feel of a southern antebellum home.  Lovely! {Details + Sources}

This board is a sweet as cherry pie.  I would love to be invited to a wedding with these delightful and feminine touches.  Beautiful! {Details + Sources} 

Anyone who knows me, knows I adore French macaroons. My mother is a Cordon Bleu Paris trained chef, so I grew up speaking French in the kitchen while I watched her cook. She is what I like to call a “pastry connoisseur” (ok, she loves good ole’ southern Krispy Kreme too) and introduced me to these fabulous mini pastries. Yes, they taste like a little piece of Heaven, but I love them more for their sheer designer beauty. The colors are just divine!  No matter your wedding color scheme, there is a macaroon for you.  And the flavor combinations they come up with (try Rose Petal, Cassis Violet, Caramel & Salted Butter, Orange Flower, Grenadine, Ginger Apricot, Muscovado, Champagne and Orange Saffron) are a gourmand’s dream. {Ladurée macaroons} were recently featured in the movie Marie Antoinette, but I discovered them on my now favorite foodie blog, {La Tartine Gourmande}. Béa–food stylist, writer, photographer, and designer extraordinaire of this food blog–is such a talent. Her images are as delicious as the food itself! Brides, you will discover a whole host of dessert options here that trump the traditional wedding cake a hundred times over. How about these instead of gooey butter cream? Enjoy! ~Lara

The perfect Southern treat: Chocolate, Pistacio and Pecan Muffins with mini milk jars.  This would be a lovely surprise breakfast for your out of town guests the morning after your southern soiree.

These rustic Rhubarb Ginger and Vanilla Tartlets would be a delightful addition to an outdoor garden wedding menu. 

All images copyright {Béatrice Peltre & La Tartine Gourmande}.