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My heart fills right to the brim thinking about the Texas Sweethearts editorial in Southern Weddings V8. The story we dreamed up for this shoot–an undeniably charming Texan wedding uniting a pair of high school sweethearts who fell in love under Friday night lights–was one of our first ideas for V8, and we immediately knew it would hold a special place in our new issue. Everything came together so naturally, from the tremendously talented team who came onboard to help us bring our vision to life, to the too-perfect-for-words venue, Star Hill Ranch, to our incredible group of reader models (including a bride and groom who are real life Texan high school sweethearts–the journal in these shots is really hers!), to even the weather, which was as lovely of a Texan spring day as you can ask for. I’m the SW office’s resident Texan, so I had fun helping to bring the Lone Star State into this shoot in really unique ways–frito pies, a nod to homecoming mums, and the colors of the flowers (inspired by the magical Hill Country sunsets), to name a few. We hope y’all loved seeing the results of this meaningful editorial in V8–here are a few more of the beautiful photos by our Blue Ribbon Vendor Kristen Kilpatrick!

P.S. If there are any fellow Friday Night Lights fans out there (the SW gals are obsessed), see if you can spot a few nods to our favorite show! FNL played a big role in helping us hone in on this shoot’s feel and aesthetic :)

It was a only fitting for these high school sweethearts to include a few details from their dating days into their wedding–her journal and their class rings, to name a few. As a wedding gift, she gave him a dapper pocket watch engraved with his former jersey number!

We wanted our bride, groom, and bridal party to look stylish, but still right at home in the Texas landscape. A dapper blue suit and chambray for the gents, plus a gown and bridesmaid dresses with great texture were just right…paired with cowboy boots across the board, of course!

This was one of our favorite details from this shoot–as a nod to the oh so Texan tradition of homecoming mums, our groom gifted his bride with a single bloom to add to her bouquet. Homecoming mums originated as single chrysanthemums, so this sweet twist on the tradition (perfect for couples who are former homecoming dates!) was both appropriate and elegant.

The chapel at Star Hill Ranch is too adorable for words, and we jumped at the chance to stage an indoor ceremony for an editorial! Katy of Without Wax, Katy gussied up the space with candles, gorgeous greenery, and a few statement blooms.

Does it get much sweeter than this? We tried to rein ourselves in when it came to literal Friday Night Lights details, but this tugs-at-your-heartstrings catch phrase was too perfect to pass up–Southern Fried Paper did an amazing job creating the chambray signage for us!

Like many corners of the South, Texas claims a few culinary specialties, and we knew we had to include them as a tribute to our bride and groom’s Texas roots. Cornbread, pimento jalapeno Texas toast, and even an upscale take on frito pie were on hand, many thanks to Pink Avocado Catering.

We loved working with Without Wax, Katy on this editorial, and her styling eye really shined as we set the table! Exposed wood, chambray, pewter, blue glass, and navy velvet created a gorgeous, rich tablescape that fit in so well with the Hill Country landscape. The colors of the flowers were inspired by the vibrant sunsets in Texas–we were even treated to a sunset that matched the blooms perfectly as we wrapped up our shoot!

Y’all, don’t you want to dig right into that luscious chocolate cake? It was the perfect pairing with yet another Texan favorite: Blue Bell ice cream, made right down US 290 in Brenham, Texas.

This shot is one of our absolute favorites from the shoot, if not from the whole magazine–it’s definitely one for the SW history books!! It almost didn’t happen, since we couldn’t get a hold of the perfect truck ahead of time, but turns out, they had one that was just right on hand at Star Hill Ranch. It was meant to be!

Stay tuned to see the behind the scenes photos from this shoot day next! And be sure to pick up a copy of Southern Weddings V8 to see the gorgeous spread–it’s now on news stands across the Southeast, as well as online here.

Photographer: Kristen Kilpatrick Photography | Film Processing: PhotoVision | Designer, Stylist, Props, and Florals: Without Wax, Katy | Venue: Star Hill Ranch | Caterer: Pink Avocado | Cake: Polkadots Cupcake Factory | Paper Goods and Fabric Signage: Southern Fried Paper | Calligraphy: The Left Handed Calligrapher | Hair Stylist: Andrea Juarez | Makeup Artist: Makenzi Laine | Rentals: Loot Vintage Rentals | Pewter China: Match | Bride’s Gown: “Indigo” by Modern Trousseau | Veil: BHLDN | Bridesmaid Dresses: Eva Franco for Lover.ly | Ties: Noose Neckwear | Pocket Watch: RC Personalized Gifts

Kristen Kilpatrick and Southern Fried Paper are delightful members of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

lisa Written with love by Lisa
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  1. avatar Kelly reply

    Oh I just love Victoria! Seriously the sweetest and this editorial was hands down my fav! I’m also a FNL fan and loved the touches! Great editorial ladies! Y’all knocked this out of the park!! Xoxo

  2. avatar Kristina reply

    I love all things Friday Night Lights so this editorial is hands down my favorite! Y’all did an amazing job as always :)

  3. avatar Southern Weddings Magazine Feature – Texas Wedding Calligrapher reply

    […] is always a joy working on content to be featured in the Southern Weddings Magazine.  Those girls have a keen eye and know how to organize a thoughtful, inspirational event for […]

  4. avatar Maureen reply

    So cute and love seeing Victoria’s smiling face!

  5. avatar Abby Opersteny reply

    Completely swooning over all the FNL-inspired details! One of your darling reader models is a sorority sister of mine, and we have just raved over this shoot. Job well done!

  6. avatar Dana reply

    obsessed with all of this!

  7. avatar Tomasz reply

    amazing style!

  8. avatar Southern Weddings Magazine Feature – Texas Wedding Calligrapher | Left Handed Calligrapher reply

    […] is always a joy working on content to be featured in the Southern Weddings Magazine.  Those girls have a keen eye and know how to organize a thoughtful, inspirational event for […]

  9. avatar Darek Novak reply

    Great colours. love the analog feel.

  10. avatar Happy 10th Anniversary Southern Weddings! My 10 Favorite Editorials – Kyla Mary reply

    […] The blue, the florals, the small-town setting, and the inspiration are so dreamy! The SW gals pulled their inspiration from Friday Night Lights, and a sweet fellow blogger modeled with her husband. I guest posted for Victoria earlier this year and she and her husband Ben are the perfect Texas couple for this editorial! View the original post here. […]

  11. avatar Happy 10th Anniversary Southern Weddings! My 10 Favorite Editorials – Kyla Mary reply

    […] The blue, the florals, the small-town setting, and the inspiration are so dreamy! The SW gals pulled their inspiration from Friday Night Lights, and a sweet fellow blogger modeled with her husband. I guest posted for Victoria earlier this year and she and her husband Ben are the perfect Texas couple for this editorial! View the original post here. […]

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Every time I sit down to write a Real Wedding post, the first thing I do is read the interview. Somehow, the details of each wedding feel so much more meaningful when I know why the couple in the images chose each one. When reading Jessica + Troy’s interview, I was so taken by how Jessica used each detail to show who she and Troy are as a couple, and to honor their family traditions. As just one example, she said, “We loved how all the details came together to tell our story. The bouquet I carried had a single green button on the back because the night Troy and I met, he caught one of his buttons on his chair and it ripped a hole in his shirt. He held his shirt closed the rest of the night, hoping I wouldn’t notice.” I love how a single button can represent a moment in their relationship! There’s much more where that came from, so read on!

Big thanks to our friends at Bamber Photography for capturing J + T’s big day!

Neither my mom nor my sister lived in Atlanta, so for my birthday they both came to visit and took me dress shopping. I planned a whirlwind weekend, getting appointments at every store I had heard of in effort to find the dress while they were with me. But by the end of the weekend, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t keep the dresses straight in my mind. I waited about a month and by that time there were only two dresses from the same store that I just couldn’t forget. When I went back with my bridesmaids, we couldn’t decide between the stunning lace of one dress and the flattering shape of the other so I combined the two.

Y’all, this may be one of my favorite details I’ve seen recently. I wish I’d done this for my sweet groom!

Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding. Troy’s brother is a musician so it meant a lot to have him play the music during our ceremony. I walked down the aisle to “In Christ Alone.” It is my favorite hymn and really says everything I wanted about entering into marriage. We also had him play “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz as we took communion. As corny as it may sound, the lyrics are really poignant about the sacrifice and commitment of marriage. We did our first dance to “Moon River.” It’s such a romantic song and reminds me of the ones I used to listen to on the radio at my grandmother’s house when I was little.
Describe your wedding flowers: A mix of ivory garden roses and ranunculus with olive branches.

I attended the wedding of my Godbrother last weekend, and they chose to do a moment of prayer around the bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner. It proved to be an incredibly emotional and powerful moment, and I love that Jessica + Troy chose to do something similar at their ceremony.

Stunning portraits from Bamber Photography! Oh my!

I think the fact that we wanted to emphasize family most reflected Southern tradition in our wedding. We chose to get married in Rome because Troy’s family has lived there for more than a century, and his grandfather owned a farm there for nearly 30 years. Our pastor was Troy’s cousin who is a good friend of ours and who spoke amazingly personal words to us in our ceremony. We had a small group of family and close friends so we invited all of our guests to stand around us and pray over us at the end of the ceremony. My mom found wedding pictures of our family from six generations back which we used to decorate the reception. We also had our dinner served family style so that our guests could share good food and conversation with each other and take the evening at its own pace.

Mini grilled cheese – yum! I know Emily would love that!

What a magical setting for the reception!

These little “did you know” cards popped up throughout the celebration, cluing guests in to why Jessica and Troy chose to include certain meaningful details. I love this idea so much!

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Our first priority for planning our wedding was making it about us. We really wanted the day celebrating our union to emphasize who we were. We loved how all the details came together to tell our story. For our first Christmas, among other things, he bought me a jar of buttons in my favorite color so that I could replace it and we would both remember that night. Even our decorations were meaningful. We used railroad lanterns among the vintage furniture because my grandfather was a train conductor on the Seaboard railroad.

Describe your wedding cake or dessert: I don’t like cake so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a traditional wedding cake. Every year on my birthday, my grandmother used to make me a pound cake and it’s still the only cake I’ll eat. It’s unbelievable. My grandmother isn’t with us to make the cake anymore so my dad, whom I’m very close to, spent the day before the wedding making her recipe for us. Troy’s groom’s cake was a big chocolate cake from a bakery in his home town. Troy loves chocolate, so every year on his birthday I make him a cake like my grandmother did for me, but this year his birthday was the week before the wedding. We also had all of our favorite pies. There’s just something about pie that reminds me of fall and being close to family.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We met at a birthday party. Troy and I were both invited by a mutual friend. Our friend picked me up first so all Troy could see when he got in the car was my hair. He says it was love at first sight. When we got to the party, Troy tried to sit next to me but kept getting stuck between a couple of guys with tattoos and facial piercings. We still managed to talk across the table all night but he never asked for my number because he thought I was dating our friend. He moved in with that friend a few weeks later and after not seeing me come to the house, he asked if we were dating. He called me about five minutes after finding out we weren’t.
Describe the proposal. Troy’s family spent one Thanksgiving at Cumberland Island and it has become one of his favorite memories with them. Knowing that I would love everything about it, he had been telling me about the island almost as long as we’d been dating. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so we spent it with my family in Jacksonville and took the short trip up to Cumberland Island while we were there. We got to the island early in the morning and spent the whole day hiking and watching the wild horses. At the end of the day we got to the ruins of the old Carnegie plantation. I’m an engineer, so Troy knew I would love how the shell of brick walls tell the story of the beautiful house that once stood there. The house overlooks a marsh and onto the ocean so we laid out a blanket to rest and watch the sun go down after our long day. I had only just gotten comfortable when he made me get back up for a picture. After a lot of resistance, I stood with my back to him overlooking the water while he got the camera ready. When I turned around he was on one knee and the automatic timer on the camera went off just as I started to cry.
In what month did you get married? November
How many guests attended your wedding? 100
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? About six weeks before the wedding, Troy was offered a promotion in another state and had to move quickly. Just being without him for that long at that time was difficult, but I also had to finish planning the wedding, transfer my job, and pack up all of our belongings mostly by myself.
What range did your wedding budget fall into? $25,000-$50,000
What is the one thing you are most happy you splurged on? Photography, it’s the only thing you will have left when the day is over.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Coming over the hill and seeing Troy waiting for me at the end of the aisle.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? Settling down! We had to stay in a hotel for a few weeks after we moved, waiting for our apartment to be ready. So more than a month after our wedding, we are just now getting to unpack and set up our home.

Bamber Photography is a fabulous member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

marissa Written with love by Marissa
17 Comments
  1. avatar bridalbride reply

    great photo shoots thanks

  2. avatar Lisa reply

    Oh my goodness, I LOVE her dress!! Great style combined with endless sweet, sentimental details is the perfect Southern wedding if you ask me! :)

  3. avatar Ashleigh reply

    I love everything about this wedding and Jessica’s dress is stunning! So sweet how they incorporated all of the personal details into their big day – love the “did you know?” cards!

  4. avatar Dee Shore reply

    That lace gown and horse barn are ridiculous! Just lovely.

  5. avatar Negative Nancy Needs to Die | Bess Wess reply

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  6. avatar Dixie reply

    So thrilled to have Jessica and Troys wedding at our farm! They have such an amazing love for each other! All of the vendors were an absolute delight to work with, and we LOVE Southern Wedding Magazine.

  7. avatar Published | Southern Weddings Blog » Bamber Photography | Husband. Wife. Creating Art. Together reply

    […] are always honored to be featured, but Southern Weddings is one of my favorite blogs! They featured Troy and Jessica‘s gorgeous wedding at the Farm. […]

  8. avatar Carla reply

    Where did you have the programs printed? They are beautiful.

  9. avatar Secrets of Wearing a Bridal Veil – My Gorgeous Wedding reply

    […] Waltz – http://iloveswmag.com/2013/01/21/elegant-georgia-barn-wedding-by-bamber-photography/ […]

  10. avatar Janice reply

    Do you mind sharing how you combined the two dresses? It looks like the “Bianca” dress without the strap and fuller at the bottom. I tried on that dress this weekend and absolutely love it except for that I felt is was a bit too sheath-y. Yours is absolutely stunning – how did you have them alter it to make it more trumpet shaped?

  11. avatar Stacey Glasgow reply

    Here’s a link to the band Troy & Jessica chose for their fabulously fun wedding dance party in the historic barn, which followed the ceremony that evening:
    https://www.facebook.com/LowDownSires

  12. avatar Sage reply

    My Aunt is in love with this dress and she is getting married in 9months. It would be a great if I could find what store this was purchased at or what brand!

    • avatar Lisa reply

      Hi Sage! The gown is by Anna Maier. Congratulations to your aunt!

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