Southern Weddings

When it came to Griffin’s favorite detail of their wedding, he chose the custom mix-n-match bow ties that Shannon’s mom made for them. I’m definitely on his side – especially his houndstooth one! So dapper! Along with the bow ties, this wedding was truly a labor of love. Shannon + Griffin’s big day was full of sweet handmade details like the burlap, lace and vintage button boutonnieres, the bridesmaid’s pearls, and my personal favorite their non-traditional guest book. They had guests sign quilt squares that will be sewn into a quilt, so they’ll have a lasting memory of their celebration. What a sweet idea.

Big hugs to Shannon from Vine & Light for sharing such a lovely wedding with us!

Now those are some fine dancing shoes!

I had a vision of my perfect wedding dress and looked at probably 1,000 dresses online to find something that fit my vision, but none of them would do! When I started to try on dresses, I still had no luck. Then after a few days of trying on dresses, I walked into a bridal store and saw it! My vision! I tried it on and it was perfect! Come to find out, the designer said the dress had been discontinued, but they happened to have one left in my size and sent it the next week. It was definitely meant to be.

Describe your wedding flowers: I wanted my flowers to look very natural, like I picked them myself, nothing too structured. I also love it when a bouquet is a mixture of a bunch of different flowers. For my bouquet, I had a mixture of garden roses, dusty miller, baby spray roses, dahlias, scabiosa, ranunculus, stock, and astilbe. For the bridesmaids bouquets, I had a mix of light pink and white asilbe tied with lace. For the centerpieces, Rachel Kasie Designs took all of these flowers and made every table look different! They did such a wonderful job of making my vision a reality!

Did you write your own vows? No, we had a traditional Catholic service so we used the traditional vows.
What readings, if any, did you have at your ceremony? Tobit 8:4b-8, Psalm 33:12 and 18, 20-21, 22, 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:8a
Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding. Since we had a traditional Catholic service, I walked up the aisle to Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel and the bridesmaids walked in to Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring by J.S. Bach. It was beautiful. Our first dance was to Otis Redding “That’s How Strong My Love Is.” It kind of sums up our relationship. At the reception, we had so many different age ranges and I wanted everyone to like the music. During dinner, I did classic oldies like Frank Sinatra, Odis Redding, Elvis, mixed with some newer music like David Mathews Band, Michael Buble, and Jack Johnson. After dinner though, that’s when the party started!

Okay, this spunky little girl is too funny! She looks like she is quite the sassy little thing!

We had a dessert table with an array of a small cakes, cup cakes, cake pops, cream puffs, éclairs, and cannolis. I wanted something simple for the cake and had it resemble milk glass, since I used a lot of milk glass for the centerpieces, along with a simple pink garden rose. The cupcakes were my favorite part! Paradise Cheesecake made beautiful cupcakes with roses, ribbons and pearls in lace cupcake holders. To top it all off, everything was delicious!!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We are high school sweethearts. We met our freshman year when we had almost every class together. We instantly became best friends! I always knew Griffin had eyes for me but I didn’t want to risk our friendship. I finally decided to give it a try our junior year and I am so happy I did! We have been inseparable ever since. We moved to Orlando together to go to college and both got jobs in the area after graduating. We always knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and after seven years of being together, he popped the question!
Describe the proposal. We went on a mini vacation to visit my maid of honor, Lindsey in New York. We had the best trip! We spent time to the city doing the touristy things, shopped, and went to see Cirque du Soleil. On the last day of our vacation, we went wine tasting and apple picking in the Hamptons. Right before we had to leave, Griffin asked me to take a walk with him around the vineyard. After a beautiful walk, Griffin got down on one knee and proposed! The setting couldn’t have been more perfect! When we walked back, the band at the vineyard dedicated a song to us! Our vacation couldn’t have ended any better!!
In what month did you get married? August
How many guests attended your wedding? 135
Did you decide to do a “first look”? Yes. Getting beautiful pictures was definitely important to me and we didn‘t want to have to rush. It also got rid of a lot of nerves! Even so, I don’t think anything could change the feeling I had at the moment of walking down the aisle. It still felt like it was the first time I saw him!
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: (From the bride) Its hard to choose! I really loved all of the flowers! Also, the many DIY details we incorporated throughout the wedding! (From the groom) My favorite detail was my and the groomsmen’s bowties and pocket squares that Shannon’s mom made. They were all different so it gave everyone their own individuality.
What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? My favorite Southern touches were the handmade burlap, lace, and vintage button boutonnieres, the weedy bouquets hand-tied in lace, the bridesmaid’s pearls, the groomsmen’s bowties, the milk glass centerpieces and burlap runners. Also, we didn’t do a traditional guest book. Instead, we had a quilt guestbook. We had all of our guests sign a quilt square so we will have a beautiful quilt with lasting memories of everyone that came to celebrate our big day!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Doing everything ourselves! A wedding planner wasn’t in the budget, so we had to design, find vendors, and budget everything ourselves! Luckily. my mom and mother-in-law are kind of amazing!
What range did your wedding budget fall into? $10,000-$25,000
What is the one thing you are most happy you splurged on? Definitely photography! It was the one thing I knew I wanted to spend a lot of our budget on because that is how you will remember your big day! Shannon with Vine and Light photography couldn’t have done more of an amazing job!! It was totally worth it!
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? Walking down the aisle as a married couple surrounded by our friends and family!
What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? Make sure you give yourself enough time to plan, especially if you don’t have a wedding planner. The months fly by! And try not to get caught up in the excitement and over-spend! You don’t want to be in debt the first years of married life. You can save by doing a lot yourself.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We just bought a house together and are in the process of making it a home! We are super excited for what God has in store for us in the future and look forward to doing whatever it is together!

Written with love by Marissa