I’m really touched by the generous spirit of today’s couple.  Not only did they prioritize paying for their guests accommodations (to make it as easy as possible for their guests to attend), they created a charity registry in lieu of traditional wedding gifts and offered their guests their own charity donation instead of favors.  Their kindness was, undoubtedly, felt by all of their guests.

Lesli & John |September 19, 2009 |College Grove, Tennessee

How he proposed
John proposed on Christmas night.  Being the car mechanic that he is, he somehow rigged my car to break down on our way home from his parent’s house.  He then preceded to climb underneath the car to see if he could figure out what was wrong.  Then, he asked me to get out of the car, that he had found something that we must had run over.  As I bent down to see what it was, he pulled out a big shiny ring and asked me to be his wife.  John has not always been the most romantic of men, but he made our engagement truly unique and unforgettable.

The ceremony
John and I were married in my parent’s front yard in College Grove, Tennessee.  The rain stopped literally minutes before the ceremony and the sun broke through as we read our vows. We wrote our entire ceremony from beginning to end.  Being that this is the most important part of the day, we wanted it to represent who we were and what we believed in.

The moment Lesli will never forget
Of course I would love to say the moment I walked down the aisle or when John read his vows to me, because they were unforgettable moments.  But, the moment that I will never forget is, while I was reading my vows, someones car alarm went off.  I don’t know if it was because I was so nervous, but I busted out laughing.  It was a true ice-breaker, and I believe it saved me from boo-wooing all the way through my vows.

The reception
For the reception, guest’s moved from the front yard, to the back yard.  We mixed and matched table sizes and shapes, with each table having a different centerpiece.  We used white roses and hydrangeas which we placed in clay pots.  We also had our florists create centerpieces made of wheat and lavender.  Candles were of course a must.  We wanted to create a casual feel, so we encouraged guest’s to wear whatever they wanted to.

Many opted to wear blue jeans, instead of ties.  Perfect attire to indulge on our menu of bar-b-que and beer.  After dinner, guest’s danced into the night to the beats of the Wooten Brother’s.  One of our few splurge’s was the band, and it was worth every penny.

The theme
Our wedding did not have a specific theme.  We tried to keep it simple and focus on things that were important to us.  We did try to make our wedding as comfortable for our guest’s as possible.  Having been to several weddings, we know how expensive they can be to attend.  John and I cut back on things that weren’t extremely important to us, like floral arrangements and food costs, and instead paid for all of our guest’s hotel rooms.  We also had our guest’s bussed to and from the hotel and wedding.  Also, instead of having a gift registry, we set up a charity website, where guest’s could donate money to our favorite charities.  In return, instead of doing wedding favors, John and I donated money to our charity.  I believe, if you do things that are true to who you are as a couple, your wedding will be special, theme or no theme.

What Made My Dress “The One”
I have to admit, I was the girl looking at dresses before we were even engaged.  Unfortunately, my dress was not the first dress I tried on, but the last dress I tried on.  I went to every store in town, probably trying on at least 100 dresses.  I was looking for that perfect dress, as every bride wants.  When I tried on my dress, “the one”, I knew it would be mine.  Actually, I knew when I saw it on the hanger.  To me it represents who I am, simple and romantic.  It was love at first sight.  I took very special care of the dress, knowing that another bride would someday where it again.

Advice For Other Brides
A lot of times, the bride and groom can get lost in their own wedding.  Your parents, in-laws, wedding planner, friends, will all have different opinions of what you should do, but in the end it’s your day.  Stand your ground and make your wedding a true representation of who you are as a couple.

Lesli’s Wedding Dress: Paloma Blanca 3858

Photography: Krystal Mann Photography

If you are thinking of a vintage theme for your wedding, you will definitely be inspired by the beautiful look of Kate and Alan’s wedding.  Starting with the perfect venue, the theme carried through all parts of the wedding. (Including Kate’s amazing birdcage veil)!

Real Wedding | Kate & Alan | Tipperary, Ireland

The venue
Alan proposed in November 2007, he brought me away for a weekend to a beautiful spa called Monart in Wexford, Ireland and proposed over dinner. We didn’t start planning out wedding for six months, and for a while we toyed with the idea of getting married abroad, in either France or Italy. In the end, we felt it would be too much pressure to organise a wedding in a foreign country and we really wanted Alan’s granny to be able to attend – she is 90 years old and a really fit for her age but a trip to France would have been a too much for her.

Once we made the decision to get married in Ireland, we started looking at venues. We are both perfectionists and we saw so many venues before one ticked all the right boxes! Once I saw Kilshane House, that was it, I couldn’t even contemplate anywhere else.

The magnificence of the house and the fact that its really close to my family home in Tipperary clinched it. Kilshane is a private house, which is available for hire for private functions. The fact that its private means that only you and your guests are in the house for the weekend of the wedding. We had our wedding on a Friday, and on the Saturday had an informal barbecue with closest friends and family. The whole weekend was really intimate and relaxed, we really couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding celebration.

The wedding
Alan and I were married in October 2009, in the Church of the Assumption Bansha Co. Tipperary, Ireland and our reception was in Kilshane House near Bansha. It was the most magnificent Autumn day, which was a miracle as the weather in Ireland is completely hit and miss even in July and August! I had really high expectations about my wedding day, as any bride does, but the day itself actually surpassed my expectations which i didn’t think would be possible. The most magical moment was walking up the aisle and seeing Alan at the top of the Church waiting for me. We held hands all through the ceremony and our  priest, who is a distant relative and family friend, made the ceremony really personal.


The theme
The theme of the wedding was vintage, Kilshane is an old Regency House and the vintage themes, which I had always wanted for my wedding, fitted perfectly with the venue.

I wanted stationary that was a bit different form the standard cream vellum, and I found a seller on Etsy who had exactly what I was looking for – beautiful art deco designs in colours which fitted with my theme. The design we chose was “Carnations and golden filigree“

Our car was a vintage rolls.

The dress
My gown was Monique Lhuillier’s Clementine. Ever since I saw Clementine in the Monique Lhuillier ad campaign it was my dream dress. From the moment I tried it on I knew it was the perfect choice, the silk was so rich and the latte really suited the vintage theme. I knew i didn’t want to wear a traditional veil, and I really loved the idea of a birdcage veil. I found a great milliner in Dublin and showed her my ideas for a headpiece and between us we worked on the design which incorporated lace from my gown which was left over from alterations.

Kate’s advice for other brides
My advice to brides would be to plan well and pay attention to every detail, we did and it really paid off – people commented on how beautiful the whole day was. Also, because we were so organized, on the day we just kicked back and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly! When the bride and groom are relaxed it really shines through and sets the tone for the day.

Also, remember the day is about the two of you, and don’t sweat the small stuff. My florist told me two days before the wedding that he thought my wedding was a day later than it actually was, so I was pretty afraid we would have no flowers! but it all turned out fine in the end.

Good luck all the brides out there, its the most amazing day enjoy every minute of it.

Kate’s Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier Clementine

Photography: Darren Purcell

This wedding is so fun with its nautical theme and vintage touches.  But what really makes me smile is the proposal.  How romantic and sweet is it that Robbie was “bursting with the ring” and couldn’t wait to put it on Jaclyn’s finger. What a perfect way to start their journey towards their big day.

Jaclyn & Robbie |August 8th, 2009 | Lake Minnetonka,Excelsior, Minnesota

How he proposed
Robbie had been scheming his proposal for months with his parents help. Everything was in place for that Friday night. Ask my dad for my hand: check! Have my favorite dinner ingredients ready: check! Pick up ring: Check! But on the way home from the jewelry store Wednesday night he couldn’t wait til Friday. He came home from work and we made sandwiches for dinner and went upstairs to get ready to go to the gym. When I was on the phone he quietly put the ring on our French bulldogs collar, Pearl, and waiting for me to end my conversation. When I hung up the phone he came over to me and started talking sweet and got down on one knee… I was so surprised I thought it could have been a cruel joke. By this time I still hadn’t seen the ring so with out that major investment confirmation I wasn’t sure he was serious. When I finally said yes he took the ring off Pearls collar and put it on my hand. It was so romantic and casual I couldn’t have asked for a more “us’ proposal.

The ceremony
We found an adorable white church with a steeple at the top of a hill overlooking the Lake Minnetonka. The inside was so fresh and light with a pale blue ceiling and large tea light chandeliers. The ceremony started at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and it started with a singer/acoustic guitarist playing some of our favorite John Mayer and David Grey love songs. Robbie and I wanted our ceremony to feel like a mini acoustic concert, not too traditional cause we wanted it to feel really personal and modern. It was by far my favorite part of the day.

One thing we did that I loved but wasn’t sure about at first was we faced the congregation during the ceremony. Seeing every ones faces smiling in support was really powerful and I’d highly recommend doing the same.

When it was time to exit the church we had handed out bells in little cotton bags to ring as we got into the convertible Corvette. We had the groomsmen adorn it with the traditional tin cans on the back and everyone waved us goodbye. We headed to the boat landing where a pontoon and the rest of the wedding party were waiting for us to take a boat cruise while our guests were enjoying cocktail hour.

The reception
We arrived at the reception site dockside with all of our guests outside waiting for us. As we de-boarded we mingled through the crowd and chit chatted with everyone instead of having a formal receiving line. I used old wood dock sections as signs to indicate where various important things were such as the Bar and Bean Bag Toss game.

The best part was the vintage inspired sunglasses I bought online at wholesale cost for favors. I had 80’s styles, retro, aviators and our guests had so much fun picking out the ones they wanted to wear the rest of the day. They all had their sunglasses on when we arrived.

I wanted to work with the décor of the venue so I guess you could say we had a “nautical theme”. My color pallet was mostly white with touches of red. For the centerpieces I used simple hurricane vases and wrapped them with rope to mimic the large dock pillars outside. Each vase had a simple arrangement of lemon leaf (very cheap) with a large 36” white balloon tied with bakers twine at each table. They were so impactful and reminded me of large buoys. Suspended mid string was the table numbers.

I bought cloth napkins from Ikea that had a red stripe on the bottom to give the tables a vintage look and filled black and white striped cupcake liners with trail mix. Half our guests were inside and half outside on the lawn in a white tent. We had about 200 guests.

I had vintage dessert plates I had gathered over our year and 8 month engagement from local Goodwill stores.  I used some of those to make custom cake tiers to put the Hoho’s, licorice and dessert bars on.

How Jaclyn knew her wedding dress was “the one”
I went wedding dress shopping probably 6 times and tried on around 60 dresses. I thought I wanted a Greek goddess dress at first and ended up buying one used on EBay. But after much thought and a few episodes of “Say Yes to the Dress” I wanted to be a little more sexy and slinky on my wedding day so I started over. When I went to the boutique where I found my dress it was between “the one” and another gown. My mom and friend were sure that this dress was it but I wasn’t ready to let the other one go. We took pictures of me in both and when I looked back at those pictures in the bridal boutique that’s when I knew with out a doubt that this beautiful Elizabeth Fillmore dress was the dress of my dreams. It was light, sexy and comfortable. I didn’t want to take it off then or at the end of the night after the long hot day.

The moment she will never forget
Our wedding day was 95 degrees and humid. The forecast had predicted a big storm and the clouds were looking uneasy. So many of our plans depended on good weather. We all got our hair and makeup done at my house and when it was time to leave my bridesmaids and mom were loading up the cars with goods. I hadn’t been outside yet but I heard rumblings that it was steamy outside. With a little worry in my voice I asked one of my bridesmaids, “Is it really hot out there?” She looked at me and said, “It’s perfect.” That moment will be burned in my mind forever and get weepy just thinking about it.

Her advice for other brides
First and foremost, disregard any traditions that you feel aren’t “you” and try to make your wedding day your own. There are no rules! If you don’t want to carry a bouquet, don’t! If you like cowboy boots instead of heels, where boots! Anything goes when it comes to your day and try to ask other people’s opinions only when you truly want them.

Jaclyn’s Wedding Dress: Elizabeth Fillmore Starlet

Photography: Leann Manning, Honeybee & Peony

I love love love a good wedding.  But I also think that the wedding ceremony is the whole reason for the party, and sometimes that seems to almost be overlooked.  That’s what a I really like about Stephanie and Bill’s wedding.  The ceremony, its meaning and how it was performed was so important to them.  And their memories of the day are as rooted in the ceremony as they are in anything else.

They chanced reaction from their family and friends to have the ceremony they really wanted.  And the positive reaction they got made it that much more meaningful.

Stephanie & Bill | October 24, 2009 | Atlanta History Center:  Atlanta, Georgia

How he proposed
Bill and I had talked about marriage, but not about timing. One day in early January 2009 he decided today was the day he was going to buy the ring. He went out that day, shopped around a bit, and ended the day with a beautiful ring in his pocket. He was so nervous and excited he considered going to my work and proposing to me right then and there. Instead, he asked me to stop by his house on my way home after I had dinner with a friend that evening.

“Oh, I’m really tired…can I see you tomorrow?” I said.

“What if I promise to be the best boyfriend ever?” he said.

Well, I couldn’t pass that up, so I stopped by his house. When I got inside the door we embraced in the foyer with a hug and a kiss.

“I made a really big decision today,” he said.

“What’s that?” I asked, thinking nothing of it. Then I noticed his chin was trembling, which it does when he’s nervous. I first saw the chin tremble the first day he told me he loved me.

Then he got down on one knee, pulled the ring out of his pocket, and asked me to marry him.

The ceremony
When Bill and I started planning our wedding, we immediately knew ours would be unique. Since we met each other, we’ve delved deeply into our spirituality together and it’s become an important part of our lives both separately and as a couple. Our ceremony, too, would be a spiritual one — but without the religious elements that many people are used to seeing in weddings.

We began our wedding day taking bride and groom photos at a beautiful hotel just a mile from our venue — The Mansion on Peachtree. The classical, almost vintage film look that this venue gave to the photos we took here lent a traditional feel to the beginning of a day that was, overall, very untraditional. We like to think of ourselves as a healthy mix of old and new, classic and offbeat.

Later that same day, our earthy, spiritual wedding ceremony was based on the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Three shamans who have become our spiritual mentors officiated our ceremony. Shamanism is a form of spirituality that is intended to work in conjunction with any religion. Our ceremony music was that of an African drumming group. Both Bill and I love drumming and it just seemed right for us. They played a variety of drums, a flute, and an African instrument called a balaphon (it’s similar to a xylophone.) Here’s how the ceremony itself was framed:

Earth: Bill and I washed each other’s feet to symbolize humility and dual servitude, as well as a mutual desire to serve others. This was an incredible experience. It was very humbling to wash someone’s feet in love, and very incredible to receive it in return.  It was more powerful than I imagined it would be. As the drums played we had a moment “alone” taking care of each other and promising to do that (symbolically) for the rest of our lives. This is the moment from my wedding that I will never forget.

Water: Bill and I shared wine from the same vessel to symbolize the two becoming one, the parts becoming whole…each separate, yet united in love.

Air: To symbolize the sacred nature of our words, one of the shamans read a Pueblo Indian commitment ceremony passage we had given her.

Fire: One of the shamans anointed Bill and me with oil on our feet, hands, lips, foreheads, and heads, to keep us always walking side by side, and connected to each other and to God. We also then shared our vows, which we had each written.

I designed our ceremony program using InDesign and had a local printer print and bind them for me. It was a simple, square, 12-page design highlighting each part of the program and what it represented. Part of this was done because I thought the more our guests understood, the more they might appreciate our ceremony. The other reason I designed our programs is because I simply enjoy this type of digital DIY project. We put translations of all the drummers’ songs in the program. They meant things like: “Thank you all for coming; we are so glad you are here” and “Thank you Mother for educating me and preparing me to live my own life, separate from you and with my new husband.” The drummers played and sang as the guests sat down and as our immediate family members and we walked to the beautiful altar at the front, complete with columns, ivy, and a trickling fountain. They also played as Bill and I washed each other’s feet (which helped avoid what could have been awkward time gaps as we were taking off shoes, etc.)

Most of the details of the wedding reflected our earth/air/fire/water symbolism. For example, my bouquet had all four elements in it (symbolically): deep orange roses and other flowers to represent fire, a moss-tied handle to represent earth, a seashell detail on the handle to represent water, and an air plant to represent air. Bill’s boutonniere was an air plant to correspond with my bouquet. Our ceremony itself was a powerful 15 minutes. People laughed and cried, and it just seemed to fly by (thank goodness we had it videotaped!). As soon as Bill and I kissed and were walking back down the aisle together to share our 30 minutes of alone time, I immediately was overcome with tears (for the first and last time of the evening). It was an incredibly joyous feeling!

The reception

Each centerpiece at the reception was designed to incorporate the earth/air/fire/water elements as well, using feathers, rocks, moss, and floating candles. Our florist used a mix of both tall and low centerpieces to create visual interest. My mom and I also decorated a birdcage with flowers, branches, other earthy accents, and feathers to hold our “guest book” (pieces of scrapbooking paper fanned out in rows in front of the birdcage and left for people to write wishes on) and for any cards. In lieu of wedding gifts we had asked for donations to a local school for mentally and physically handicapped children, so many of these donations were dropped in the birdcage as well. Many of our other accents, including our cupcake cake “topper”, an earthy bouquet of feathers, stone, and moss, were created by artists on Etsy.

One of my best friends made our beautiful and natural-looking ceremony aisle markers. For favors, we gave our family and friends Swarovski crystals wrapped in a deep purple tissue paper and stuffed inside tiny brown bags. That was a DIY project of sorts in that my family and I all sat around one day stringing the crystals on wire and including suction cups in the bags, so they were kitchen-window and rainbow ready! The whole night was laid back and fun, with four delicious food stations that encouraged mingling, an open bar, and lots of dancing. The night ended with a biodegradable eco-fetti send-off.

What was it about her wedding dress that made it the “the one”
I did a lot of research before I even tried on wedding dresses, and I only spent one day in two bridal shops actually trying on gowns. I found what turned out to be “the dress” at the first shop, and put it on hold before going to my appointment at the second. It was nothing I originally thought I wanted in a dress after my countless hours of online research. I had pictured a mermaid gown with romantic lace details. This was romantic, but was A-line with a simple skirt, and beautiful beading and unique criss cross details across an almost corset-like bodice. To me, it embraced the fairytale side of my personality without being costume-y, and it made me feel beautiful. And at the end of the day, when I’d tried on a dozen other lovely dresses after it, it was still calling my name. I decided to go back to the first shop and buy it that day.

Advice for other brides
Make your wedding yours, and don’t worry about what anyone else will think. I spent too much time and energy the day of the wedding wondering what some of our relatives would think of our spiritual wedding ceremony. In the end, while we had been a bit worried about what people might think of the ceremony, we got more compliments on it than we ever could have expected. People said that it felt so meaningful, so unique, and like nothing they had ever seen — in a really beautiful way. The people at your wedding are there because they love you and want to support you as you begin your marriage, so accept that and be yourself!

Stephanie’s Wedding Dress: Saison Blanche 3050

All Photograhpy: Eliud Matos Photography