Tuesday, September 7, 2010
We love real weddings where pretty much all the vendors are ABG favorites. Why? Because we know they will deliver above the bride's expectations and create a spectacular wedding - from design to photography. Today's real wedding couple really made full use of the fabulous resources we have here in Nashville and had a wedding day that was just simply beautiful. Photographed by Kristyn Hogan, lifestyle photographer, here is a look into a lovely summer wedding at the Governor's Club. It's filled with the most delightful details. I LOVED the bride's shoes. Enjoy!
Real Wedding: Leigh & Mica's Southern Summer Wedding at The Governor's Club
Bride ~ Leigh from Madisonville, KY
Groom ~ Mica from Austin, TX
Aug. 7, 2010 at 6:00pm
Ceremony and Reception at The Governor's Club, Brentwood TN
Guests ~ 110
My wedding style? Casual and fun
My wedding colors and why I choose them? Purple and green. We were going for a colorful, summery feel.
My wedding theme? Southern
Wedding wow factor? Our venue - Pleasant Hill mansion at the Governor's Club is beautiful.
Wedding favors? Individually wrapped monogram cookies. Heba from Dream It Up Cookies did a great job designing them to match our invitations. dreamitupcookies.blogspot.com
Personalized touches? Mica and I have a pug. He couldn't make the trip with us to Nashville, but we found ways to include him in our wedding day. For example, instead of a traditional ring pillow, ourring bearer carried a stuffed pug with rings tied to its collar. Mica and I also used pug salt & pepper shakers to designate our seats at the reception instead of place cards.
We also personalized our ceremony music. Mica walked down the aisle to a string version of Don't Stop Believing, by Journey, and I walked out to a string version of Time After Time. Our recessional was In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. We love 80s hits!
Gift for bridesmaids? Bridesmaids - jewelry boxes from Z. Gallerie, sparkly bottle openers, also from Z. Gallerie, and metallic gold wristlets
Groomsmen? Beer glasses, personalized bottle opener/key chains, and coolers
Most special moment for me? Definitely the vows. We went with the traditional vows, and I'm so glad we did. It was by far the best moment of the day for me.
My wedding team:
Planner - Mary Alice from A Delightful Day did an awesome job!
Cake - The Bake Shoppe did our wedding cake and our groom's cake. Both were beautiful & VERY delicious.
Florist - Enchanted Florist. Caprice is amazingly talented and lovely to work with.
Caterer - In-house catering at the Governors Club. The food was delicious! I wanted a very Southern menu, and they did a great job fulfilling my requests for things like sweet potato casserole, mac 'n cheese, and fried okra.
Photographer - Kristyn Hogan, lifestyle photographer. The photos I've seen so far are beautiful!!
Invitations - Minted - minted.com They have great customer service.
Dresses - I bought my dress, the bridesmaid dresses, and the flower girl dresses at bridal boutiques in Austin, Texas.
Music - Cosmo Creations. Brent did a great job! cosmocreations.com
Draping - Blue Nova Designs
Specialty Lighting - Nashville Audio Visual nashvilleaudiovisual.com
Leigh + Mica's wedding team, including A Delightful Day + Kristyn, in action!
.jpg)
My favorite wedding vendors - I highly recommend all of the vendors listed above.
What I would do differently if planning again? I would send someone out the week before the wedding to drive the route from our hotel to the venue to make sure there were no last minute problems. All of our guests were from out of town, and we found out the night before the wedding that the road between our hotel & the venue was closed. I don't live in Nashville, so I had no way of knowing this in advance. Apparently, our venue manager had known about it for months but didn't bother to tell me. This caused me a LOT of unnecessary stress the day before my wedding, as I tried to figure out how in the world to tell 110 people that the directions I'd painstakingly written and mailed to them in their invitations were not in fact going to get them to the venue.
Also, if your venue has its own tableclothes, make sure they go all the way to the floor. We used the Governors Club's linens, and we didn't find out until the day of the wedding that they didn't go all the way to the floor. I don't think our guests noticed, but my mother was horrified.
Biggest waste of my wedding budget? I honestly can't think of anything that was a waste of time or money. Everything we put into planning this wedding was worth it. 
I will point out a potential waste of money that I avoided - rented table runners. I was quoted $345 to rent 16 table runners. I bought them online instead for less than $60. The quality was great and the color was perfect, so I was really happy with that decision.
Best value for the service/product? Definitely the lighting. The specialty lighting really added a lot to our reception, and the price was very reasonable. We used Nashville Audio Visual and they did a great job.
Neatest wedding find? I LOVED our invitations. I felt like they perfectly represented the theme and tone we were going for. We used a firefly & mason jar design by Minted.
Advice for Nashville brides - I have a tip for brides - Don't forget to pack flip flops to change into for dancing during the reception! I loved my wedding shoes, but towards the end of the night my feet were killing me! Other than that, my only advice is to enjoy it. It goes by so fast!
Thank you Kristyn Hogan, lifestyle photographer for the gorgeous wedding pictures and special thanks to Leigh and Mica for sharing your wedding day with us.
share
Posted by Ashley |
Filed under: Luxury Wed Finds
0 comments »
Friday, September 3, 2010
From September 11th through the 13th, The Vanderbilt Breast Center presents Brides Against Breast Cancer, a fund-raising event for the Making Memories Foundation which works specifically to help people who have Stage 4 breast cancer.
Brides, if you haven't found your wedding dress yet, plan to attend as you will have an opportunity to help others while finding your dream bridal gown (for less)! The event will feature hundreds of beautiful gowns including designer and couture gowns available at discounted rates.
Brides and breast cancer supporters will travel from all over the state to attend so be sure to tell your friends that the Airport Marriott is offering a special room rate of $99 for brides and guests on Saturday September 11th and Sunday September 12th. For more details visit our bridal events page or Brides Against Breast Cancer.
share
Posted by Ashley |
Filed under: Attire & Accessories
1 comment »
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Remember when you were little and you tried to make your own flip book of a stick figure walking or a plane flying? Ok maybe that's just me but I've always loved the concept of flipbooks. That's how cartoons were back in the day and I thought it was just the coolest thing!
When Ashley and I saw the Fantastic Flipbooks (FantasticFlipbooks.com) booth at the bridal show I (confession) squealed a little because it just took me back! What a retro adaptation of an old school innovation! It was high-tech back then and now that it's 2010 Fantastic Flipbooks has managed to take it to a whole new level.
Fantastic Flipbooks will transform a 10' X 10' space and electricity into a great activity that will keep your wedding or party guests happy. This is sure to put a smile on anyone's face and it's so easy to do. Plus, the cute books are a great momento that will serve as a party favor that will not get trashed! Ashley and her niece enjoy flipping through the books of complete strangers (because they are so much fun to just see) so imagine how much fun one featuring you and your bff would be!
They describe the process like this: "We start by taking sixty super-fast pictures of people being fabulous in our booth. They can dress up, perform a skit using our props, be silly or sweet or just flat out crazy. Then in less than two minutes, we print and assemble a cool take-home video (no batteries required) in a paper flipbook. You can even add a message or graphics on a custom cover."
The books can also be customized - They will "work with one of our designers to create a custom cover that matches the theme of your event. Include logos, names, dates or pictures - just about anything you want! We can also have a personalized message scroll across the bottom of the pages like a news ticker."
If you're interested in having them at your wedding, definitely give them a call or email them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Definitely visit FantasticFlipbooks.com to watch a demo video, and to find out more details on how it works and what your options are! This really would make an awesome favor that you and your guests can take home and enjoy for a long time.
share
Posted by Tabitha |
Filed under: Details, Design & Florals, Guests, Gifts & Favors
0 comments »
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Earlier this year, I learned that my friend Tori was engaged! I was so happy for her. We went to lunch and she shared her "how we met" story and all of the juicy details, including her plan for a Florida destination wedding. I don't know much about the Florida wedding scene so I hoped she was in good hands. But once she said she'd hired Photographix to shoot her wedding, I knew she'd at least have amazing wedding pictures! She was off to a great start.
I strongly encourage all Nashville brides who are planning a destination wedding to take your favorite Nashville wedding pros with you. One of the easiest to take is your photographer! If you are a destination wedding bride who has yet to hire her photog, you are in LUCK...
Photographix is giving away free wedding photography to a destination couple! The contest ends on 9/13 so visit their blog asap to learn more about the contest.
Florida Destination Wedding for a Nashville Couple, Tori and James
Wedding images + story courtesy of Photographix
Tori and James got married in Rosemary Beach Town Hall in Florida. The setting was perfectly perfect and couldn’t have fit them better. Christina Gshwandtner of Fete Weddings & Events, designed the whole event and it was beautiful!
The ceremony was small with only about 60 people in attendance. Most came from Franklin, but some as far as New York as well. We loved meeting everyone, they were all so nice and inviting.
The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, and the town of Rosemary is just adorable! We could have spent the whole weekend photographing them. Every nook and corner was different, it was really hard to choose just a few spots!
Wedding Planner: Christina Gshwandtner – Fete Wedding & Events (feteevents.com)
Photographers: Photographix
Flowers: Fisher’s Flowers
Catering: Dine by Design
Tori's Dress: Judd Waddell
James’s Suit: J. Crew
Tori's Shoes: Steve Madden
Location: Rosemary Beach Town Hall
Hair & Makeup: Two Fishes Artistry
Wedding Cake: Confections on the Coast
Tori's Pearl Necklace: Buki Designs
If you are planning a destination wedding and haven't hired a wedding photographer, run over to Photographix for their free wedding photography contest!
share
Posted by Ashley |
Filed under:
2 comments »
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Let's breathe a huge sigh of relief as we welcome in the days of fall. It's not here yet, by any stretch but if you close your eyes you can almost ALMOST feel it. With the kids off to school and the cooler evenings come the gorgeous colors of nature - rich yellows, reds and oranges. We're excited about the upcoming season change and if you are having a fall 2010 or 2011 wedding, we know you are too!
What are you planning for your fall wedding? We'd love to know why you chose autumn and what you're planning. Just leave a comment below and share all the details.
Need a bit of inspiration? Designs in Paper's blog on Fall Color Trends got us thinking about the vibrant, beautiful color themes of a fall wedding. We took their trend chart and pulled a few fall favorites from our Nashville Wedding Inspiration Gallery. Some may fit the vision for your wedding day!
Oranges, peaches, corals
There's something quintessentially fall about reds and oranges. Maybe it's the squash and pumpkins we're getting ready to carve or the color of the mountains as the tree leaves change their colors setting the hills ablaze. The deep hues give weddings a beautiful tone, a more relaxed feel that warm and inviting.
Ravishing reds
Fiery, passionate - red will always be a color or romance. Roses, sexy red lipsticks, red shoes peeking out from under the white dress ... a classic wedding color.
Perfect purple
Purple is a delicious pop of color without being too in-your-face. It's grown up, it's chic and it it's hot for fall. Goes great with browns and greys, it's also a great complement color to the other basic fall colors of oranges, reds and yellows.
Are you planning a fall Nashville wedding? We'd love to see what fun things you are doing with your color palette!
Still need ideas? Visit our Inspiration Gallery.
share
Posted by Tabitha |
Filed under:
1 comment »
