Southern Weddings

After their fashion-forward ceremony, Alison + Manny treated their family and friends to a low-key reception at the Hermitage Hill Farm and Stables that brought all the comforts of home to the burlap-covered guest tables. The newlyweds decorated the space with their favorite books and handmade chalkboards that doubled as table assignments, and Flowers by Rose repurposed Mason jars with white tulips and daisies. I’m in love with the bride + groom’s sweet, made-for-two wedding cake, courtesy of Carrie Hampton Ashton. For those of you who can’t get enough of Alison + Manny’s big day, hop on over to Katelyn James’ blog post for more fun!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: This was the first dress I ever tried on! I didn’t have a very specific picture of what I was looking for, except that I would have loved to find a dress with a sweetheart neckline. I love pockets, too, but wasn’t too convinced I would find a wedding gown with them! I had visions of removing the large bow that was originally on it and adding a sash of flowers to make it fit my personality more, but when my mom and I removed the bow to make the changes, it looked perfect to me the way it was!
Describe your wedding flowers: I loved our flowers! Many of our decorations were sort of mismatched and pieced together in fun ways and so I knew I wanted some variety in the types of flowers. We placed a few stems of some tulips, some gerbera daisies, some hydrangeas, etc, in a mason jar wrapped in twine and a great shade of green ribbon! My parents found the jars at thrift stores in Harrisonburg and my mother in law had a friend with a farmhouse give her crates and crates of them They made adorable (and cheap!) vases and votive holders!
Describe your wedding cake: I had NO idea what the cake was going to look like. I had given the baker a few pictures of some ideas, and she created the most beautiful cake! Manny had expressed early on that he would like to have cupcakes at our wedding. I agreed and loved the idea! We just wanted a two-tier wedding cake in addition to the cupcakes, just large enough to be a centerpiece on the cake table. Our baker used ivory butter cream frosting on a chocolate fudge cake with peanut butter filling! The design was adorable and fit perfectly with our theme – she piped the middle of the two tiers with icing that looked just like the twine, adding an adorable little brown flower to the center.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Staying within our budget while planning a wedding with 250 guests! We had a budget of $10,000 we needed to remain under, and as such, it was a daunting task to figure out how to accommodate this large number of guests while still achieving a wedding day that was distinctly “us.” Planning the wedding for the “off-season” at our reception venue and using a local favorite barbecue place as our caterer were two things that really helped to off-set some costs! All of our centerpieces and decorations were basically homemade, as well!
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? Manny was offered a full time job on staff with Young Life AT our wedding!! We’ll find out in April where in Virginia he will be placed, and we will move at the end of July.