Nashville weddings

A Nashville Wedding Story: Beth and Ravi

Friday, December 5, 2008

I met Beth at an Open House for A Catered Affair at Events 1418 last year. After I introduced myself, she started telling me how much she loved ABG and I was super excited to meet someone who even knew about my website! Beth told every bride in the vicinity that they should check out ABG and I didn't have to open my mouth for the rest of the night! The more I learned about her wedding, the more I couldn't wait for her big day.

Beth is full of style and is super modern. She was a bride of my own heart - she wasn't afraid to be herself to ensure her wedding day was what she and Ravi wanted and not chock full of tradition. If you are modern bride, be sure to check out Beth's trend setting Nashville wedding.

Thanks for sharing Beth and Ravi! (FYI - Beth is also known as Sparkplug on our message board.)
 

Beth + Ravi
Wedding Date ~ Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. (just moments after sunset)
Ceremony + Reception Venue ~ Aerial
Guests ~  100

Wedding Style

The goal was to have a casual, yet stylish, event. Ravi and I both hate formality, so we wanted it to be a relaxed affair where we could just celebrate and have fun with our closest friends and family!

My Theme

Urban Chic

Wedding Colors

Ivory and brown with touches of bronze and pewter. I wanted something very simple and modern. It was important to come up with a look that complemented, not overwhelmed, the space. Aerial has the most amazing views of the downtown skyline and I didn't want to take away from that.

Wedding Wow Factor

The unique venue, incredible views of the downtown skyline and the food! My guests have not stopped talking about any of it!

Personal Touches

We wanted our wedding to be unique and very representative of us. With that said, I couldn't imagine anyone but myself planning, designing and shopping for all the little details to bring our vision to life, so I guess you could say pretty much everything had a personalized touch!

My Dress
My quest for the perfect wedding dress took me to almost every bridal store in Middle Tennessee, Chicago, and L.A. I lost count of how many I tried on, but none were exactly what I was looking for until I walked past a boutique in L.A. and a dress in their window caught my eye. It was gorgeous, and exactly the contemporary silhouette I was looking for, but there was one slight problem- it was red! I went into the store and tried it on anyway, and it was perfect! We took some pics of this amazing Angel Sanchez evening gown, and once back in Nashville, armed with those and a few sketches I made with slight changes to the original design, I went on the hunt for a dress designer.

Maria at Romantic Creations in Hillsboro Village brought my dream gown to life. The quality of the fabric, the workmanship, and especially the custom fit were more than I could have ever hoped for!

Centerpieces
Since the overall look I was trying to achieve was clean and simple, I didn't really want a lot of big flower arrangements. Instead I envisioned the glow of candlelight all around. So there were candles literally everywhere! Glass votive holders with ivory votives lined all of the window ledges and were also used as part of the table centerpieces.

For the larger dinner tables, the votives surrounded glass cylinders (in three varying sizes) filled with water and ivory floating candles. The family tables were given a special touch by adding orchids into one of the cylinders. On the bistro tables and coffee tables, we kept it clean with just four small votives on each. As night fell, the candles made spectacular centerpieces!

Flowers
Since I knew I didn't want a lot of big floral centerpieces, and I didn't have any bridesmaids in need of bouquets, I made a decision to not hire a florist. This was the one part of planning that I totally left to chance. I didn't pre-order anything and just played it by ear as to what I could find the week of the wedding. The only thing I knew I absolutely needed was a bridal bouquet, and I love calla lilies, so that's what I was hoping I would find. Two days before the wedding I found beautiful white callas at Sam's Club. I purchased 3 bunches to use in my bouquet for less than $15 total!

I thought it would also be nice to find some orchids for a few of the glass cylinders, so Friday morning I made a trip to Geny's Wholesale Florist on Charlotte Ave. There I found white orchids, and some huge callas, all for about $45. My friend Kandace and I then spent a couple of hours that morning creating my bouquet and playing around with arrangements. For the bouquet we used bronze ribbon and rhinestone buttons I purchased at Jo-Ann's for $12. If you're doing the math, you'll note that I only spent about $27 on my bouquet and I love the way it turned out!

Dessert Station
I knew from the start that I didn't want a traditional wedding cake. Instead my mom, sister, aunt, sister-in-law, and I made all of my very favorite family desserts: devil's food cake with whipped cream filling, rum cake, coconut cake, chocolate peanut butter balls, magic 7 layer bars, date nut balls, chess squares, chocolate and peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Next to each dessert we placed little cards with the name of the dessert and person who made it. It was a huge hit!

Custom Designed Invitations/Paper Goods
One of my best friends is a graphic designer in Chicago, so I called on her to create my invitations. She and I worked together to come up with an invitation that we loved and really fit our design aesthetic. We then carried that design through to the canvas banners used as our ceremony backdrop, the dessert cards, and the menu cards.

Most Special Moment for Me

When it was time for me to walk through the door toward the aisle, I could hear Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol playing (my processional) and I could see Ravi straight ahead. At that moment, this rush of happiness came over me as I realized, this is it!

Vendors

Venue/Coordinator | Aerial, Elissa Barfoot
Photographer | Inara Studios, Marcia and Cade Truitt
Caterer | A Catered Affair
Dress | Maria Elena Bishop, Romantic Creations
Hair/Makeup Artist | Mary Elizabeth Long
Minister | Ralph Griggs
Music | The Steven Clawson Band
Rentals | Music City Tents and Events
Ceremony Banners | Leanne Keirstead, Wonderful Graffiti - leanne.keirstead{at}wonderfulgraffiti.com
Invitations/Design | Libby Christopolous, Dew (Chicago)
Handwriting Services | Brandy Smith
Cake/Desserts | Family members and me!
Hotel Accommodations | Hotel Indigo
Hair Flower | Etsy shop, Mikiye Designs

My Favorite Vendors

Really, we loved all of them!! It's hard to pick just one, but need to give an extra thanks to these people:

Elissa Barfoot at Aerial was the one person who pulled together all of the last minute details and made sure everything ran smoothly on the big day. I absolutely could not have done it without her!

Cade and Marcia, our photographers. I can't say enough about them. They are genuine, wonderful people and are oh so talented!

Mary Elizabeth Long, my hair/makeup artist, works magic. Every girl wants to feel beautiful on her wedding day, and she did just that for me! She also has such a peaceful air about her that it really helped to calm me in the midst of all the chaos.

Wedding Rewind

Best value for the service/product
Inara Studios. Marcia and Cade are a dream to work with and I am blown away by the beautiful images they captured.

Neatest Find
Wedding and Design blogs. I spent countless hours on blogs to get inspiration. My favorites - ashleysbrideguide.com of course, stylemepretty.com and snippetandink.blogspot.com.

Advice

1) Pre-Ceremony Photos: See each other beforehand and take all of your photos! I am so glad that we did this, because we were able to relax and have fun and not be crunched for time. We took photos at Hotel Indigo where we both got ready, and it made for some great backdrops with amazing color! Then we loaded up and headed downtown for more unique photo ops before going to Aerial where our families awaited to take the family photos. It was a great feeling knowing that as soon as the ceremony ended, we could go straight into reception mode and not do any more posing, or keep our guests waiting!

2) Budget: Create a budget and stick to it. It's easy to go crazy and buy things that you really don't need. All of the little things really start to add up!

3) In the very beginning stages of planning, rank all aspects of the wedding by importance and then decide where to spend your dollars. I am a total foodie, so food was of utmost importance. Our caterer was actually the first vendor we booked before we even found a site!

4) I know it's easier said than done, but don't worry so much about what anyone else thinks. There are no rules as far as I'm concerned. It's your party and you can do whatever you want! The combination of taking photos before the ceremony and not including events such as a garter toss, bouquet toss, first dance, cake cutting, etc., made it easy for us to relax and enjoy. We were able to go with the flow and not have to watch the clock to see if it was time to do the next thing. It might not be the route for everyone to take, but it was definitely us! I encourage brides not to get sucked into believing that they MUST do certain things because it's a wedding. If you aren't feeling it, don't do it!

5) Enjoy each other, soak up all the love around you, and be happy! Our wedding was truly everything we wanted it to be and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!

About the Author:

Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide

Hey - I'm Ashley! I started AshleysBrideGuide.com to give Nashville brides, or folks planning a Nashville wedding, a local resource for inspiration and resources. Hope to see you at a bridal show soon! Happy Planning.

See more posts by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide »

send   Posted on December 5, 2008 | Filed under: Real Nashville Brides, Real Nashville Weddings