Southern Weddings

Now that I am officially a North Carolinian, I get so excited when I see a Tar Heel wedding! The {Bliss} girls just posted a really fun Tar Heel inspiration board this week… Be sure to check it out! For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Tar Heels, click here. I found this really fun vintage Tar Heel postcard that reads:

Here’s to the land of the long leaf pine,

The summer land where the sun doth shine,

Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,

Here’s to “Down Home,” the Old North State!

Here’s to the land of the cotton bloom white,

Where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night,

Where the soft southern moss and jessamine mate,

‘Neath the murmuring pines of the Old North State!

-Written by Leonora Martin and Mary Burke Kerr

If you don’t know what scuppernongs are, please make a trip to the South so you can experience them. I will have you over for scuppernong wine, pecan pie and boiled peanuts. OK, back to the wedding…

Shot by talented North Carolina-based photographer {Kellie Kano}, this wedding is pure southern simplicity and goodness. {Wild Bloom Flowers} played up the Tar Heel color scheme with fresh bouquets of peonies, roses and blue hydrangeas. We love the coordinating blue and brown polka dot ties on the groom and groomsmen. From Leslie… ” We had the ties custom made in NY at Seigo Neckwear. Here is a link to a New York Magazine Profile of the store: NY MAG.” Event planning by Samantha from {Emma Grace Designs}. For more of CJ + Leslie’s beautiful day check out Kellie’s {BLOG}. Happy Friday! Enjoy~

The weather was: Perfect at 79 degrees and mostly sunny.

What was the design inspiration for your wedding? We were going for North Carolina/Southern wedding. We wanted a traditional service and a fun reception. We are both from North Carolina and are now living in New York. We love, and are very proud of our southern roots and wanted to share that with our friends and family from all over the country.
What colors did you choose for your wedding? Carolina Blue and Chocolate Brown.
Describe your wedding flowers: The flowers were simple and elegant.
Describe your wedding cake : Delicious! It was Carolina blue icing with chocolate brown ribbons. The top and bottom layers were cakes and the three middle layers were cupcakes. Our flavors were lemon with strawberry filling, chocolate with peanut butter filling and red velvet with cream cheese filling.
How did the two of you meet? We lived in the same dorm at UNC.
Describe your engagement: We were on the beach in St. Croix, USVI. I was more surprised than I’ve ever been in my life. Everyone finds this surprising because we had been dating for 7 years. It was absolutely perfect, what I had always imagined!
What attracted me to my husband was: Initially, his legs and his smile! He has a caring personality and is always loyal to those important to him. We were friends for a while before we started dating and he always looked out for me and was always there for me when I needed him. He is so much fun and loves exploring, which always proves to be a fun experience.
What attracted me to my wife was: Her eyes, her smile and her altruistic personality.
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: C. J. is a great date planner which makes it hard to pick a favorite! One that I will definitely always remember was a romantic picnic in Duke Gardens.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: It is so hard to pick just one detail. Everything was so amazing and came together better than I ever could have imagined. If I had to pick I would say the food. It was a southern menu that included fried chicken, pork chops, green beans cooked with pork, cornbread, and banana puddin’.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? The biggest challenge was the distance. I was planning my Chapel Hill, North Carolina wedding from Brooklyn, New York.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? It was our reception that turned into a dance party.
Funniest moment? The funniest moment was when one of our good friends did his rendition of “Strokin’” by Clarence Carter. It was especially funny because we have seen it before but many of our friends and family had not. I was laughing very hard at everyone else’s reaction.

Why do you love your husband? I love my husband for a million reasons but one I’ll mention here is that he always brightens my day!
The most unexpected event on our wedding day was: Getting to dance to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston. Whitney Houston was one of my favorite artists growing up and this was one of my favorite songs. My brother secretly requested it and Kellie Kano, our photographer, got some great shots of us singing and dancing to that song!

How was your wedding different than the way you’d always imagined it would be? It was exactly what I had always imagined!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Classic, Carolina Blue, and Fun.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Make it a reflection of yourselves and have a blast. Definitely don’t sweat the small stuff, especially on your wedding day!

Congratulations, Leslie and CJ! We wish you a lifetime of love and joy!

Katrina + Matt’s Atlanta wedding, shot by awesome photography duo Jesse and Whitney of {Our Labor of Love}, is rich with delightful surprises, personal moments, and just pure fun!  Planner: Jeannine Kennedy of {FAVOR Events}, Flowers and Decor: {Carither’s}, Ceremony Venue: {The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception}, Hair and Make-up: {Scoobie West}.

From event planner, Jeannine… “Katrina was referred to me by her sister, Stacie Johnson, who is now an Assistant Planner here at FAVOR Events. Katrina lived and worked in D.C. at the time, and Matthew lived in New Jersey, but had taken an assignment in London. There were a lot of e-mails and late night phone calls in order to accommodate their work and travel schedules. Katrina and Matthew’s wedding was the first full service wedding for FAVOR Events. To me, it will be the wedding that I measure all other weddings against! Favorite things about Katrina and Matthew’s wedding, Part I: The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the oldest church in Atlanta and North Georgia. It was used as Union headquarters and later as a hospital in the final days of the Civil War. Floral choices – She incorporated mint from her grandmother’s garden and Georgia bushes (from when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games) in her bouquets. At one of our first meetings, Katrina said she didn’t want flowers – not even in her bouquets! She kept using the words, “clean and organic”. Oftentimes, the vendors and I would make alternative suggestions when it become difficult to find items, but I am so glad she stuck to her vision and wouldn’t be steered in another direction.”

From Jesse at {Our Labor of Love}: “Matt’s gift to Katrina was an “IOU” kitty. They are moving to London soon and when they get there they’ll get a cat. Katrina was very happy. Here’s the evidence…”

The weather was: Liquid sunshine in the morning followed actual sunshine in the afternoon.
What colors did you choose for your wedding? Black dresses for the bridesmaids and green in the reception.
Describe your wedding flowers: All cut leaves and other foliage, only a couple of white flowers in the bouquet. We tried to stay away from cut flowers. I loved feeling the Lamb’s Ear cutting! It served as the best relaxation device.
How did you meet? Our two friends arranged a “surprise” meeting. The meeting surprised me but Matt knew about it!
What attracted me to my husband was: His dashing good looks and his wicked sense-of-humor.
What attracted me to my wife was: Her kind and gentle heart.
A date we went on that we’ll always remember: Dressing up as Santa Claus and participating in the annual Washington DC Santa Stumble. Imagine 200 crazy people donning Santa outfits and running wild through the streets of Georgetown during the busiest shopping days of the year.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Matt lives in London and I travel continuously for work. Making plans over numerous time zones was extremely difficult. We struggled for the first few months without a wedding planner but then my mom encountered some major health problems. At that point Jeannine Kennedy with Favor Events came into our lives. She was a true blessing. She helped us through some very difficult times and never dropped the ball. She is an amazing lady!
Where there any special family traditions you included in the wedding? Our wonderful florists incorporated mint branches into my bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets. My grandmother loved mint. She was a wonderful Southern Lady from Alabama who used it in everything. Shortly after she passed away, my mother rooted some clippings from her expansive mint bush. So we took some branches from that bush and sent them to Carither’s Flowers. It was a hit!!! The mint smelled wonderful. It just filled the room! Although my grandmother was not physically there with us, her spirit was. In addition to the mint clippings, we were able to incorporate clippings from the UGA hedges. The ongoing joke was that by placing twigs from the hedge in my sister’s bouquet and the best man’s boutonniere, Matt and I were married ‘tween the hedges. Because Matt and his family are HUGE LSU fans, I kept this a secret until after the ceremony.

Check back later for Part II of Katrina + Matt…