Southern Weddings

I think the best way to describe spring in the South is “enchanting”—the days grow warmer and longer, flowers speckle the landscape (don’t get me started on Texas blue bonnets or North Carolina dogwoods, y’all!), and front porches that have been empty for the winter begin to fill with sweet tea and even sweeter conversation. It’s the season to dust off coconut cake recipes for Easter and pull your favorite seersucker pieces out from the back of your closet. It’s a time for celebrating the end of winter, and enjoying the beautiful outdoors before the heat of summer.

For many of you, spring also marks the last few days, weeks, or months before your wedding day. Thanks to all of the above and more, March through May is one of the most popular times for weddings across the South, and if you’re a spring bride, turning this page of the calendar yesterday may have come with an extra dose of excitement—plus a little twinge of nerves.

Our seasonal themes often focus on how to cultivate your relationships while enjoying the best of the season, and while that is something we’re hugely passionate about, we also realize that for all of you spring brides reading this, “Take a break from wedding planning to go on a date night!” may be more discouraging than a pick-me-up. I know because a year ago, that’s exactly where I was! I was proud of how much Dave and I had focused on our relationship throughout our engagement, and we were SO excited to be married on May 2….but if we took a night out in those last few weeks before our big day, it meant that the escort card board we had dreamed up together wouldn’t be assembled and our guests wouldn’t know where to sit for dinner. It meant that our programs wouldn’t be finished and our guests wouldn’t be able to follow along and participate in our ceremony as much as we wanted them to. It meant I’d be giving my dear bridesmaids their gifts without letters to tell them how much they mean to me and how grateful I am for them.

We know that in the thick of wedding planning, sometimes, you just need to get things done. You’ve put a lot of work into choosing meaningful details to include in your wedding, and we want you to be able to finish them! But what we don’t want is for you to get so wrapped up in the last minute to dos that you forget to enjoy these last few weeks of your engagement. Delightful Spring is our challenge for the next few months, and it’s not about checking off a seasonal bucket list or fitting in every spring activity. Instead, it’s about doing the little things that will make your to dos and obligations just a bit sweeter. We know you need to finish up that seating chart—but why not do it on the porch with a glass of lemonade by your side? (Store-bought or Chick-fil-a drive-through lemonade totally counts!) Instead of doing your pre-wedding workout routine alone at the gym, how about calling a friend to meet you for a long walk outside? Why not pick up a bouquet of fresh tulips from the grocery store to brighten up your desk while you’re emailing with your vendors?

It doesn’t take a lot to have a Delightful Spring—all it takes is open eyes to the little ways you can make a busy season brighter. Even if you’re not planning a spring wedding, we encourage you to take part–we’re in a busy season ourselves at the Southern Weddings office, thanks to the beginning of our editorial shoots and lots of big projects in the works. We know our vendor friends are gearing up for their busy seasons too, while our college friends are working hard to finish their semesters strong, and so on and so forth. We’ll be sharing the little delights we add to our days via the #DelightfulSpring hashtag on Instagram, and we hope you will, too. We’d love to be inspired by the ways you make this season delightful!

P.S. Thanks so much to our Blue Ribbon Vendor friend, Faith Teasley, for these lovely photos!

Written with love by Lisa