Southern Weddings

A bright spin on Virginia fall colors make Megan + Joe’s wedding stand out on a computer screen, but what’s special about this wedding is how much of the details were brought to life with the creativity of the bride and the helping hands of dear friends. Little hints of family and that good ole Southern charm were planted all over M + J’s wedding — in the handmade signage (made by the bride’s grandfather!), the monogrammed flower girl sashes and the burlap details. I love that Megan’s gown was a custom creation — designed and sewn by the same woman who made all of her homecoming and prom dresses! Big hugs to Kate Triano for sharing this day with us!

My dress was designed and made by a family friend (Kim Trombly) who also made my homecoming and prom dresses when I was growing up. When I got engaged, I knew she had to make my wedding gown! We spent about three months trying on dresses and getting an idea of what I liked. She sketched an endless amount of dress designs and once we were happy with it, we set out looking for fabric. We traveled to New York City in August 2011 in search of lace and fabric. We found both at the very first store we walked into! Kim worked on my gown for a little over 100 hours total and it was worth every bit of that. The lace was all hand sewn and cutout, so there were no gaps of empty space and she even had my wedding date embroidered in blue on the inside of my train! She also made my headpiece, which was a flower made from my dress fabric with my lace cutout and placed around the flower! I absolutely loved it! Throughout the whole process, I had total faith in Kim and knew the end result was going to be perfect!

Describe your wedding flowers. 
They were absolutely amazing! I wanted our wedding to have a rustic feel with slightly modern details all brought together by Virginia fall colors. I had the hardest time finding linens that I liked and I happened to stumble upon the yellow chevron fabric and napkin fabric while at the fabric store. I immediately texted Kim and asked, “What if we make table linens?!” With arms wide open, she dove headfirst into my crazy idea no matter if it meant sitting at her sewing machine for additional hours. The florist fell in love with the colors and patterns of our linens and did a fabulous job with my flowers. I wanted flowers that were loaded in texture and had unique elements. We used dahlias, red James story orchids, orange and green coxcomb, yellow billy balls, succulents, ranunculus, amaranthus, scabiosa pods, celosia tips, gerbera daisies and fiddle head ferns. My bouquet featured burlap ribbon that Holly found in Holland! All of the flowers were so full and luscious and completely embodied the theme of the wedding!

Did you decide to do a “first look”? Yes. After debating back and forth, we did decide to do a first look. We wanted those special first look photos between the bride and groom without an audience, even though we had an audience watching us from inside the estate!

What readings, if any, did you have at your ceremony? 
Colossians 3: 12-17 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, 13

Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding and why you chose them. 
We had a local string quartet during the ceremony and cocktail hour. Since our ceremony was traditional, we had them play very traditional ceremony wedding music. Cannon in D played during the seating of the parents and the bridal procession. Bridal Chorus played during my entrance, and the Wedding March during our recessional. We had a nine-piece band for the reception that was awesome! They played everything! We sent them a CD of our first dance, father-daughter and mother-son dances and they learned the music in a month for our wedding! Our first dance was to “God Gave Me You.” From the moment I first heard this song, I always told Joe that it would be our wedding song. It has the most perfect lyrics! The father-daughter song was to “I Loved Her First.” I told my dad the day this song came out years ago that we would dance to it at my wedding. He absolutely loved it. He even used it at the end of his speech, telling Joe, “as the song says, always remember I loved her first!” For the mother-son dance, we played “A Mother’s Song.” Joe’s mom had searched forever for a song because she wanted it to be special and finally found this one. So cute!

Did you have something borrowed, something blue, and something new? Yes! My something borrowed was Joe’s grandmothers’ wedding ring that I wore on my right hand. She passed away seven years ago and left it to him. It was supposed to be my engagement ring, but Joe decided that he didn’t want to alter the ring at all, so he got me something different. To this day, I wear his grandmothers’ ring on my right hand—it fits perfectly! I also had a borrowed pearl bracelet to wear, too. My something blue was a pair of earrings as well as the wedding date embroidered on the inside of my train. My something new was a pair of Jimmy Choos! They had the perfect amount of sparkle and made me feel like a princess the minute I put them on!

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: 
The burlap and chevron runners along with the napkins were our favorite detail. With the Kim’s help, we cut, frayed and sewed all the runners and table napkins for the wedding. Even though it was a fairly simple part of the wedding, it’s something we were able to do together that completely changed the look of the otherwise plain white tablecloth and white dish setting for the table. The napkin fabric was so unique we were sure no one would have a table setting quite like it!

We had SO many Southern details! We had lots of burlap draped in the barn, on the tables, on the candy bar, on the lounge area and in the burlap balls! We included our signature drinks served in mason jars with red stripe straws. To tie in with our rustic feel, my dad brought in old fence boards that had fallen down on our farm. My 86-year-old grandpa is very artistic and he actually hand painted all of our signs for the wedding. I LOVED this detail. In addition, Kim put monograms on my flower girls’ dress sashes and she made bowties and suspenders for the ring bearers out of the bridesmaid dress fabric! Our wedding was very Southern as it was held at an old stone estate on the bluffs of the Potomac River. In addition, the reception was in a barn draped with burlap and Edison lights! It made for a Southern, yet intimate venue. The menu was truly Southern, as we did not want a traditional chicken/steak dinner option. We decided we wanted to do something different and ended up doing a Southern barbeque. Our guests absolutely LOVED it. Everyone raved about the food. To this day, we still have people say to us that they have never had barbeque that tasted as good as it did at our wedding. Lastly, we had a cigar bar that was revealed about two hours into the reception. They were hand rolled on-site and everyone loved being able to enjoy them outside the barn, while still enjoying the band. Kim and I created a hay bale lounge area for people to sit and enjoy their cigars and drinks. It was a huge hit!

We wanted to do something different than a traditional wedding cake. Since we both love cupcakes, I thought it might be a fun and unique idea to have a giant cupcake as our cutting cake! I found a local baker who, with my help, came up with the perfect design for our cupcake! We had a giant cupcake placed on top of a small square cake that featured a yellow chevron pattern. She then made a burlap pennant banner that read “Mr. & Mrs.” and hung from two sticks above the cupcake. We actually cut the square cake and saved the giant cupcake for our one-year anniversary! For guests, we had four different flavors of Georgetown Cupcake — our favorite cupcake bakery!

How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story. 
We met through mutual friends at a local restaurant called Magnolia’s at the Mill. We both had moved back home from college. Joe was studying for the CPA exam and I was back in school for nursing. Despite having gone to rival high schools within 10 miles of each other, we had never met. Joe had told our mutual friend he had a crush on someone and I actually got mad until I found out it was me! The rest is history from there!

Tell us all about the proposal! 
Joe planned to propose outside at our favorite Loudoun County vineyard, Sunset Hills. Unfortunately, while we were inside tasting it started raining outside and his plans for an outdoor vineyard proposal were ruined! After enjoying some wine, we planned to head to Joe’s parents for dinner. He had already let his parents and mine know his plans, so when we arrived they would all be there, expecting us to be engaged. Joe ended up pulling the car over on a country road on the way to his parents and asking me to get out to look at something, he got down on his knee outside in the rain to propose!

When did y’all get married? 
September 22, 2012

How many friends, family, and loved ones attended your wedding? 
175

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Letting vendors take over and trust that they would design something that matched my vision.

What range did your wedding budget fall into? 
$50,000-$75,000

What is the one detail or vendor that you were so happy to have as a part of your wedding? 
If you ask Joe, the band. If you ask me, I’ll say Kim and the florist. Without Kim, I wouldn’t have had a wedding gown or headpiece, table linens, flower girl dresses, ring bearer outfits, burlap balls, and so many other small details! Without Holly, I wouldn’t have had the beautiful flowers that tied the wedding together.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? 
The moment when Joe and I were standing at the alter saying our vows to each other. We were making a commitment of a lifetime and nothing made it more special than being surrounded by our closest family and friends on a beautiful day in a beautiful setting.

What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? 
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can always make it. Never give up. It’ll all be worth it in the end.

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? 
We just bought a house and are finally starting to settle into it. We look forward to traveling different places in the world before we have kids. We’re going to Italy for our first anniversary! Within the next five years, we hope to start a family and have them baptized in outfits made by Kim! We have extra fabric and lace from my gown left over and she said she would make me baptism outfits when we have little ones!

Atrendy Wedding and Holly Chapple are delightful members of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

Written with love by Nicole