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Welcome to the third installment of our Southern Hospitality feature! Each month, we pick a Southern city and an expert host. Our host shares their favorite items custom to that city that would be perfect packed into a welcome bag for family and friends at a weekend wedding. Just one more perk of attending a destination wedding!

Pack your bags, y’all, because this month, we’re headed to Austin, Texas! Courtney Caplan and Sarah Miller of Caplan Miller Events were our guides, and together with the whole Caplan Miller team, they did a fantastic job of assembling a goodie bag as big (and beautiful!) as the Texas sky!

Do we have any Longhorns that love Southern Weddings?

A. Whole Foods Gift Card for lunch at the store. Whole Foods started in Austin, and their flagship store located downtown is the perfect place for guests to grab a bite to eat!

B. El Milagro Tortilla Chips. They’re made right here in Austin! ($1.95)

C. Guero’s Salsa. Guero’s Taco Bar is an Austin favorite for great food and live music. Their famous salsa makes the perfect addition to any Austin bag! ($2.69)

D. Tito’s Vodka Mini Bottle (50 ml). Tito’s Vodka is made right here and is a staple at all local bars and restaurants. ($7.59)

E. Austin Nuts Deluxe Nut Mix in the Texas Container. Austin Nuts is known for their unique dry roasting process and has a wide variety of delicious options! ($22.99)

F. Austin TX Button. An Austin button or magnet would be an easy add to a city-themed tote. ($1.00)

G. University of Texas H2Orange Water Bottles. A portion of all sales of this water go to scholarship programs at The University of Texas. ($12.99 for a pack of 12)

H. Texas Bluebonnet Seeds. Visitors to Austin can take a little piece of Texas with them! The bluebonnet is the Texas state flower, and a wonderful and lasting gift. ($1.44)

I. Sweet Leaf Tea. Sweet Leaf Tea is brewed right here in Austin, where the company began!
($19.44 for 12-pack)

J. Tiff’s Treats Two Cookie Box. This cookie delivery service started in Austin and is a favorite of locals and visitors! ($3.00)

K. Keep Austin Weird Tie Dye T-shirt. The Keep Austin Weird campaign supports local businesses and has become an Austin staple. ($19.99)

L. Tickets to Antone’s Nightclub. The first club that opened on famous 6th street in Austin still hosts a variety of live music acts. ($10.00)

M. Kerby Lane Pancake Mix. Kerby Lane Café is one of Austin’s most popular restaurants. Open 24-hours, they serve breakfast around the clock and are famous for their pancakes! ($4.99)

N. LiveStrong Wristbands. Austin is home to Lance Armstrong and his Livestrong foundation. All proceeds from the sales of this bracelet go to support Livestrong programs and services for cancer survivors. ($1.00)

O. Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook. No trip to Texas is complete without a little education in Bar-B-Q! This is one of our favorite cookbooks on the subject. ($12.97)

P. Longhorns from Lammes Candy Co. Local candy company Lammes makes these appropriately named Longhorns, a local favorite. ($29.65 for 12 oz. box)

Q. Salt Lick Original Bar-B-Q Sauce 12oz jar. Sauce from one of Austin’s most famous Bar-B-Q restaurants! ($19.95 case of 3 bottles dry rub and sauce)

The girls at Caplan Miller joined forces with the talented Lauren Cunningham of The Creative Parasol, who designed this adorable Austin tote for us! Simply download the overlay here and take it to your local screen-printer. Thank you, Lauren!

From the Austin area and have additional suggestions to add to our tote? What did you love about Austin if you’ve visited before? Have a city in mind for future posts? Comment below and let us know!

Check out past totes:
Nashville
Atlanta

Written with love by Sierra
14 Comments
  1. avatar Whitney reply

    I know you already did Nashville… but how about Memphis? I would love some creative ideas beyond Elvis and Graceland!

    • avatar Sierra reply

      Whitney, thanks for the suggestion! We’ll add it to our list. Visiting Graceland is on my bucket list though. Tennessee is a wonderful state!

  2. avatar Kelsey reply

    I really hope y’all do this for a North Carolina city (like Raleigh!)!

    • avatar Sierra reply

      Since we’re based in the area, there is a VERY good chance that we’ll be featuring a city from the Triangle. Might know a few good experts!

  3. avatar Emily Leach @ Bird Dog Wedding reply

    Go, Austin! Love the tote bag design – super cute!

  4. avatar Lisa reply

    OH MY GOSH!!! I love this so much!!! SO perfect for Austin and any of my fellow Longhorns! Amazing job, y’all! HOOK ‘EM! :)

  5. avatar Shannon reply

    I love this feature! Would love to see a South Carolina city to get some ideas for my Greenville, SC wedding gift bags!

  6. avatar Amanda reply

    I’m an Austin girl, born and raised! Every one of those items is truly “Austin”! Way to go! :)

  7. avatar Southern Hospitality :: Richmond Tote « Southern Weddings Magazine reply

    […] in mind for future posts? Comment below and let us know! Check out past totes: Nashville Atlanta Austin xo Sierra December 12, 2011 | view Sierra's blog 0 viewcomments hidecomments What […]

    • avatar Courtney reply

      Love the Austin tote… New Braunfels, TX would be a great one too! It’s at the heart of the Texas hill country! Gruene, TX is close by with antique shopping, the Gristmill (restaurant) and Gruene Hall (country dance hall). Also, tubing down the Guadalupe or Comal River are popular activities here!

    • avatar Sierra reply

      Courtney, thanks for all of the suggestions! Tubing sounds too fun!

  8. avatar Longhorns in Love – reply

    […] Eyes of Texas” cake: Carlea J Photography via Style Me Pretty| Austin welcome tote: via Southern Weddings| Ginger Basil Grapefruit Spritzer: via Joylicious| Peach flowers: source unknown–please tell […]

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Hi ladies! In our continual effort to offer the very best set of resources and Southern inspiration to y’all, we’re setting up a new page on the Southern Weddings site! It will be just that — a page — with links to our favorite blogging Southern brides. All that you have to do to be added to the list? Be a bride currently planning a wedding in the Southeastern United States that blogs at least two times a week! If you fit the bill, just leave a comment here with your blog address and a little about you and we’ll take a look at your site. We’ll also send you a lovely button designed by Sierra that you’re welcome to post in your blog’s sidebar!

Photo by A Bryan Photo

For those who are curious, this is separate from our Southern Bride of the Month feature. You’re welcome to apply to both, of course, but you don’t have to have a blog or be a Southern Bride Blogger to be a Southern Bride of the Month! To see how to become an SBOM, click here.

Can’t wait to hear from y’all!

emily Written with love by Emily
19 Comments
  1. avatar Kelsey reply

    southerninlove.blogspot.com

  2. avatar sarah g reply

    http://belleonheels.blogspot.com

    i’m a VA girl born and raised and getting married at the end of october. i love all things wedding-related {hoping to pursue a carrer in event planning} and have been blogging since january 2008.

    xx!

  3. avatar Allie Carswell reply

    I am full of southern pride, born and raised in Texas and currently living in Georgia. I am engaged to my fiance, Justin and planning our wedding while balancing my small business! I love all things wedding and started my own invitation company in Atlanta, GA. Separate from my business, I blog atleast three times a week about all different wedding inspirations and trends. I love expressing my ideas and plans for myself and for my readers! Oh, and I love Southern Weddings Magazine! :)

    -Allie
    thesecretlifeofinvites.com

  4. avatar Caitlin reply

    I recently came across the blogosphere after getting engaged and following my birthday in April I launched my own blog which highlights my life, wedding planning and cooking. We are getting married on June 9, 2012!!

  5. avatar Jeannine @ Small & Chic Home reply

    I don’t know if I fit…I’ve had a design blog for a few years and started blogging about my wedding planning back in November. Every post isn’t about the wedding…but many of them are. :)

    I’m in Charlottesville, Virginia.

  6. avatar Lisa reply

    I’m from Virginia, living in Texas, and proud to be a Southern belle! I’m not engaged (yet!), but I blog about weddings every day on http://something-pretty.net :)

  7. avatar Kelsey (from the first post) reply

    I didn’t read the part about “a little bit about you”…
    I’m a born and raised North Carolinian and couldn’t be happier living in the South. I love planning our wedding but even more that my fiance is a big help – he even posts on our blog sometimes! I love the idea that the inspiration I post for my own wedding can help other brides with theirs! :)

  8. avatar Veronica reply

    Hi! My name is Veronica, not engaged (yet) but I am sporting a beautiful promise ring on my left hand! I am from Fort Worth, Texas and just started a blog earlier this week called “Ring By Spring?” The future fiance and I are already planning our wedding and even have a date set! I plan on blogging every few days about my relationship with my boyfriend up until our wedding day which is exactly 709 days from today. In the blog I write about what we have experienced while dating, getting engaged and planning our wedding.

  9. avatar Anne Marie reply

    Hey! My name is Anne Marie and my blog is called “A Nearlywed in Nursing” it is all about my hourney through nursing school + wedding planning. I was born in Nashville, TN and grew up in Madison, AL. Now I am in Huntsville, AL with my fiance and we are both in nursing school…which is crazy sometimes! I have only been blogging once a month, but today marks one year from our wedding date, so I am going be making tons more posts!

  10. avatar JM reply

    I’m getting married in October and blog about all of my details:)

  11. avatar Brittany reply

    is it okay that I have my fingers crossed we get engaged soon so I can do this? :)

  12. avatar Kaitlyn reply

    My name is Kaitlyn and I am newly engaged southern gal. I am marrying my high school in August 2012 and started a blog ” The Engaged Life” to keep family and friends in the know:) I love cooking, decorating, and traveling!

  13. avatar Jamie P reply

    I’m from Canada, but my fiance plays professional hockey in Northwestern Florida, where we live from October to May. We were engaged last Christmas in New Orleans in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. We are getting married in Canada on July 14th, 2012. I am trying to add lots of Southern touches to my wedding – from bow ties to sweet tea, grilled cheese sandwiches and the Fleur de Lis to honor our NOLA engagement. I love living in the South, and my favourite blog of all time is the Southern Weddings Magazine blog!

    Maybe because I’m Canadian I don’t fit the profile, but I just wanted to leave a message to tell ya’ll how helpful this site is :)

  14. avatar Jamie P reply

    http://secretlivesofhockeywives.blogspot.com/

    Oops forgot to post my blog address :)

  15. avatar Kelsey reply

    I live and work in Virginia and am currently planning a southern and New England themed wedding. My fiancee is from the north and I’m from the south. :) I write a blog called Eat My Wedding with creative tips and tricks on how brides can save money on catering costs. My profession is an event designer for a Virginia based catering company.

  16. avatar Michelle reply

    Hey!
    My name is Michelle and my blog is Delightedblog.wordpress.com! Although I live in sunny South Florida, I’m busy blogging about our November wedding in Myrtle Beach, SC as well as some of my personal graphic design and southern lifesytle. As I’m wedding planning I’m finding tons of great resources through you ladies at SW Mag :) Thanks for all y’all do!

  17. avatar Kourtney | 7 Centerpieces reply

    Hi! My name is Kourtney and I am former Texas bride who started a blog that features exclusively Texas weddings. 7 Centerpieces is a wedding design blog dedicated to showcasing chic and stylish Texas weddings. I would love to be added to your blog roll page – http://www.7centerpieces.com.

  18. avatar Ashley reply

    I’m from the south and my fiance is from the north. We’re planning a southern-themed wedding in VT this fall (everything from magnolia leaves to bottled Coca-Cola, cheese straws to gardenias, and shrimp and grit cakes to mason jar centerpieces). I’ve been documenting the wedding planning process on my blog: ashleymorganarts.wordpress.com.

  19. avatar Madelynne Miller reply

    Hey! I am getting married in less than 1 month – but I started a blog last week that goes all the way back to the beginning documenting my planning, from ring shopping, to shoes, to planning the ceremony, to money. I have found that hindsight is serving me well writing about my experience planning an Alabama wedding in April :) This will be a scrapbook of memories for myself and little tidbits of advice for all the brides out there planning a budget-conscious, stylish wedding!

    http://threembride.wordpress.com/

Southern Weddings reserves the right to delete comments which contain profanity or personal attacks or seek to promote a business unrelated to the post.  And remember: a good attitude is like kudzu – it spreads.  We love hearing your kind thoughts!

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Howdy! July’s Southern Bride of the Month is our first from Texas (yeehaw!). Lauren is also notable for her adorable dating history and the fact that she’ll be walking down the longest aisle in Fort Worth. Let’s get started!

Hi! What’s your name?
Lauren Ashley Hunt… soon to be Lauren Hunt Brogdon!

What’s your fiancé’s name?
William Blake Brogdon, but he goes by Blake

Engagement photo by Perez Photography

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story.
We both began kindergarten at Fort Worth Country Day School in 1992 (when asked what he noticed first about me for a bridal shower game, Blake said, “Probably her lunchbox or something”!). Things really started to take off for us in sixth grade. At carpool one April day, Blake asked me to be his girlfriend and we stayed together for five months, talking on instant messenger all summer and going bowling with our other twelve-year-old friends. We finally broke up in September, when I decided that Blake didn’t talk to me enough!

Engagement photo by Perez Photography, taken at Lauren and Blake’s high school!

Fast forward to ninth grade, and we were together once again. On the night of the freshman Howdy Dance, Blake asked me to be his date to Homecoming and I said yes. Very soon thereafter we realized how much we loved one another, and we have been together ever since! Our relationship continued to grow and change as we went through high school, then graduated from Country Day and moved to Houston for college, then graduated from Rice and moved to New York!

Now tell us alllll about the proposal.
Blake’s parents were in town for the weekend, so we went out to dinner with them at one of our favorite Italian restaurants in New York, Caffe Cielo. We had our favorite dishes and some great wine there, and then Blake’s parents went to a Broadway show. After they left for the show, we tried to figure out where we should go since we were already out and about. Blake suggested we go sit on the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sitting on the steps on the Met at dusk was something I had mentioned very early in the summer, after reading an article in the New York Times about how romantic and beautiful it is at that time of day (not to mention that it’s a New York City icon!). So when Blake oh-so-casually mentioned going there, I jumped at the chance!

Our cab pulled up in front of those huge steps and we started looking for a place to sit. It was just as wonderful as the article had described- the sun was setting, there were not too many people around, and there was a saxophone player on the street serenading everyone with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I had only climbed up one or two steps, when I felt Blake pulling at my hand, so I turned around and he was down on one knee! The moment I had been waiting for for almost a decade was finally here. I’d like to say I held it together, but I was crying like a baby as Blake gave the sweet speech he had prepared.

When’s the big day?
August 20, 2011- the ten year anniversary of when we first started dating in high school!

Where might you two be tying the knot?
University Christian Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Our reception is at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.

How did you pick your ceremony and reception venues? What do you love most about each space?
We both grew up going to church at UCC. My great-grandfather was the head of the art department at TCU and actually painted the designs on the rafters when the church was first built. It is such a beautiful space with so many memories for us. I’ve also heard it has the longest aisle in all of Fort Worth.

Not Lauren + Blake’s ceremony spot, but a long aisle nonetheless! Photo by A Bryan Photo.

Were you totally that girl who planned her wedding from age 5, or not so much?
Absolutely! It didn’t hurt that Blake and I met at age 5. When we got engaged, I pulled out a box of magazine clippings I had started when we began dating in high school.

Has your vision for your wedding changed or evolved over the course of your engagement? If so, how?
Not really! I have been much more decisive than I originally anticipated, and I’ve pretty much stuck to most of my original decisions. The only thing that seems to keep changing is I keep adding people to the guest list!

Have you picked your dress yet? How’d that go? What will you be wearing on the big day?
I have! I only tried on four dresses, and I definitely had that “Oh my goodness, this is it!” moment. I had planned to take advantage of living in New York and go shopping at all those boutiques you see on TV, but I also wanted to share the experience with my mom and future mother-in-law, so I made an appointment at Ocone’s Bridal in Fort Worth for a weekend I would be in town. The first few dresses I tried on weren’t quite right, but I ended up choosing a Maggie Sottero gown that fit my personality so well and brought tears to everyone’s eyes. I also have a “getaway” dress I’m changing into to go to the hotel after the reception. It’s by BHLDN and looks like a more casual version of my gown.

A lovely, lacy Maggie Sottero, photographed by Meredith Perdue

Who is your favorite vendor you’ve booked so far?
Chrissie Stuntz of Chrissie Stuntz Events has been my fairy godmother and guardian angel through this whole process. There is no way I could have done any of this without her.

What do you love most about Southern weddings?
I think the two most important things in life, God and family, are also the two greatest things about Southern weddings. There’s nothing like going to a wedding in a Southern church, big or small, and listening to hymns and Scripture about love. People always do such a great job of honoring their families in the South too, and I love seeing family heirlooms incorporated into weddings. At our wedding, I will be wearing a headpiece that my great-grandmother made for my grandmother to wear at her wedding in 1951. My grandmother gave it to me before she passed away last November. I’m so thankful I will have a part of her with me as I walk down the aisle.

Do you have a favorite Etsy store you’d love to tell us about?
Alter Designs makes beautiful monogrammed jewelry (great for gifts), and Woomi has absolutely gorgeous headpieces and ring pillows.

Gorgeous country club reception inspiration Lauren found on The Knot!

If you had to pick three top priorities for your budget, what would they be and why? Are your fiancé’s priorities different?
The most important things to me were the location, the dress, and the photographer, Perez Weddings. I just love how the engagement pictures and bridal portraits turned out. The engagement photos were taken in downtown Fort Worth and at our old high school, and the bridals were taken at Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth, where we are having our rehearsal dinner. Cesar Perez has such a great eye for a beautiful photo, and we love his style of working with couples, which isn’t too posed. He just puts you somewhere and tells you to “interact” while he snaps away!

Blake has been pretty laid-back with the planning, but we did end up budgeting quite a bit for our groom’s cake (a model of the Met Museum where Blake proposed) and on a scotch and cigar bar at the end of the night, which Blake and his groomsmen are very excited about! We’ll even have mint juleps for the ladies.

Tell us about the one that got away.
Peonies are my absolute favorite flower and they won’t be in season for our wedding! Our florist, Bridal Blooms by Kelly Norvell, was so great, though, and was able to get me a peony bouquet for my bridal portraits, and is making a bouquet to resemble peonies for the big day.

Gorgeous white peony bouquets, a favorite of brides everywhere! Photos clockwise from top left: Jose Villa, Generation Photography, Brian Adams Photographics, Next Exit

What has been the biggest challenge so far in wedding planning?
It was difficult figuring out how to incorporate NYC, where we live now, while still having a Southern wedding! We decided to have our groom’s cake made to look like the Met where we got engaged, and our favors are mini black and white cookies served with coffee in those famous blue NYC paper cups.

What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?
Becoming Mrs. Brogdon! I have doodled that name on notebooks and things for so long that I can’t believe it is actually finally happening!

Now it’s your turn to ask for advice – is there anything you’d like to poll the SW readers on?
I would love to hear sweet ways people have honored their families on their wedding days. Our moms, dads, grandparents, siblings, and extended family have done so much for us through this process, and we are looking for cute and creative ways to show them our appreciation.

Thank you so much for playing along, Lauren! Readers, if you’d like to apply to be a Southern Bride of the Month, check out this post for all the details! If you’ve already emailed me, you’re still in the running for future months!

Love meeting our Southern brides? Check out these ladies from past months:
Alison, planning an outdoor wedding in Georgia with cotton bolls and milk glass
Katie, planning a garden wedding in Charleston with a pie bar
Kelly, planning a destination wedding in Savannah with an adorable and sentimental favor

The Southern Bride of the Month header was designed by our Assistant Art Director Sierra, with illustration by Curious & Company!

emily Written with love by Emily
5 Comments
  1. avatar Amanda R. reply

    Lauren, awesome “love story”! Here a few ideas I have come across or thought of along the wedding-planning-way:

    If you have a favorite family recipe (i.e., your grandmother’s cobbler), you can have your caterer re-create that recipe and name it something to let everyone know what it is. “Granny Brogdon’s Blackberry Cobbler” or whatever… Then handing out those recipes on cards as part of the wedding favors/gifts. And definitely the fact that your grandfather painted the church ceiling! That is super cool and needs to be known. Don’t know how to do that necessarily, but cool nonetheless. Maybe you could have one of his paintings be the background of your wedding program…?
    There’s always the classic framed family portraits incorporated into the wedding decor, at the guest book, at the entrance to the church, or by the wedding cake. Or honor a loved one who has passed by adding a family heirloom to your bridal bouquet. Selecting a first dance or father-daughter dance that has some significance to yall’s family traditions. Play a family slideshow during a part of the reception. These are all pretty non-original ideas, but if you make them special to you and the hubs, it will be evident that yall value your family and family traditions. And you are already wearing your grandmother’s headpiece on the big day, and that is really cool in itself. Oh ya, it is so cool that yall have been together since high school, so you need to give a nod to that aspect of your relationship! Like……….play your alma mater or your high school fight song or something. That isn’t necessarily a “family” tradition, but it is a big part of your love story. Good luck!

  2. avatar Pam Archer reply

    What an adorable couple and sweet story!

    FYI – Peonies are available year-round now. I have some contacts for them. Please tell the bride to have her florist contact me and I will pass along the information.

  3. avatar Emily reply

    Love your story, Lauren! One of the ways my sister honored family at her wedding was to ask two special relatives — my aunt and her husband’s godmother — to sign their marriage certificate as witnesses instead of asking the best man and maid of honor to do it. Since those two were already recognized in other ways, it was a great way to involve and honor a few more loved ones!

  4. avatar Jillian reply

    This is so weird! My fiance and I are getting married on August 20 too, and we’ve been dating for ten years– since Freshman year of high school too!

  5. avatar Weekly Round-Up « Southern Weddings Magazine reply

    […] had sooo many great things appear on the blog this week! First up was one of our favorites, the Southern Bride of the Month! Bride-to-be, Lauren met her fiance in kindergarten and is now planning her dream Texas wedding! […]

Southern Weddings reserves the right to delete comments which contain profanity or personal attacks or seek to promote a business unrelated to the post.  And remember: a good attitude is like kudzu – it spreads.  We love hearing your kind thoughts!

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