A Quirky, Fun Wedding to Kick Off the Year!
Friday, January 7, 2011
We couldn't end this first week of 2011 without sharing a Nashville wedding to remind you to make your wedding a reflection of you as a couple. For instance, you can just tell that Lissa (today's featured bride) has a great, bubbly personality and that she and her new hubby, David, created a really cool, quirky wedding to express their one-of-a-kind style. And who better to capture this than the uniquely humored Donald Yeager Photography? Enjoy!
Bride ~ Lissa Hershey (now Lissa Evans!)
Hometown: Bloomington, IN
Groom ~ David Evans
Hometown: Lawrenceville, GA
Wedding Date & Time ~ November 13, 2010 – ceremony at 6pm, reception at 7pm
Ceremony & Reception Location ~ The Red House, Franklin, TN
# of guests ~ 62-ish.
The proposal:
David and I had been dating for over 5 years when we got engaged, so while I knew it was coming sometime soon, I had no idea when for sure…and it was driving me nuts. One morning, unbeknownst to me, I walked right in to his engagement plan! We had made plans to go to Mellow Mushroom that evening for dinner. We were being lazy, lounging around in bed and I was teasing him by saying, “Are you *excited* to go to Mellow Mushroom tonight for dinner?” since it’s his favorite spot but we hardly ever go. “Yup. It’s where we went out our first date,” he replied. At this point I had rolled over and was contemplating going back to sleep and said, “That’s right! It was!” Snuggling into my pillow completely oblivious to what was going on behind me David then said, “And I think it’s the first place we should go once we’re engaged too.” It didn’t even click then…”Uh…okay?” I said. He pulled me over and he had the ring out (and which point it clicked!) and asked me to marry him! I’m pretty sure my answer was something along the lines of, “Uh, YEAH!” It turned out he had planned to do it later in the day after bringing up Mellow Mushroom somehow, although he didn’t know how…but I accidentally set it up perfectly for him!
What was your wedding style? Without a doubt, FUN! I was aiming for something modern, fun, and unique.
What were your colors? Why did you chose them? Gray, merlot, and some white thrown in to keep it from getting too dark. We sort of stumbled into them, honestly! We knew right away we wanted the guys to wear gray suits instead of black tuxes, so that was easy. From there it was a matter of picking another color that we both liked. I’m big on jewel tones, but merlot ended up being our compromise…and it turned out great!
Did you have a theme? What was it? Other than “fun”? ☺ The Red House, where we had the ceremony & reception, is very music-oriented, so we ran with that a little. The map on our invitations, for example, showed where The Red House was located with a little guitar instead of just a dot or star or something.
What did you use for inspiration? Oh, geeze…I scoured the internet and magazines for inspiration for just about every detail! I used Real Simple for some of the basic guidance, then a lot of blogs (Ashley’s Bride Guide, Big Spoon + Little Spoon, The Broke-Ass Bride, to name a few) for inspiration on the more fun details. I also checked out the “DIY Bride” books from the library and made copies of projects I liked and wanted to either do or modify.
Wedding Scoop:
What was your budget? $20,000, and I came in under budget…one of my proudest accomplishments!
What was your wedding WOW factor? The band, easily! We hired Bueller Band, an 80s/90s cover band, which everyone – regardless of age or if they “liked” to dance – LOVED!
What did you give as favors to your guests? Instead of doing favors at the reception (because (a) we didn’t do a seated dinner so there was no good way to hand them out, and (b) most of the time they just get left behind anyway) we put that money towards making awesome hotel gift bags. Because *everybody* was coming from out of state we really wanted to thank them, so our hotel bags included bottled water, sugar cookies, mints, an 80s CD, candy, peanuts, granola bars, and breakfast bars.
How did you personalize your wedding? There were a lot of personal details, both big and small, since I really wanted to make sure the wedding felt like “us”. I made all the invitations and printables myself (this included our program with a “Get to know your wedding party” crossword puzzle on the back). My mom made my garter which had the Red Sox team logo on it (David’s favorite team). Our cake topper was a set of zombies, personalized to “look” like us. We had a firepit outside where people could make smores. We personalized our vows so that we each promised to do something for the other…I promised to watch football, and he promised to take me to Ikea.
What did you give your bridesmaids and groomsmen? The bridesmaids all received hooded sweatshirts (which I encouraged them to wear at the reception, since it was cold!) that said “Bridesmaid Extraordinaire” as well as a custom-made clutch that matched their dresses. The groomsmen received flasks engraved with their initials and little bottles of Crown.
What was your most special moment of the day? That’s hard, but probably our first dance. It was to a song we both love (“Book of Love”), and for those 3 or 4 minutes it was just David and I…it was like everybody else seemed to disappear (although they were all there watching!). My favorite place to be is in his arms, and it was the perfect moment of “holy crap, we’re married!” and relaxation. Singing and dancing on stage with the band comes in close second…. ;-)
Did you have kids at your wedding? What did you do for them? We had a few kids…we didn’t discourage people from bringing kids, but most of our guests either chose to get a babysitter or don’t have kids yet. I did have a large basket of kids toys (coloring books, puzzles, glow wands, etc.) that they could play with.
Did you Do It Yourself? Or, did you leave it to the professionals? Both! There was a ton of DIYing going on, but I recognize my limits! Some things – flowers, cake topper, etc. – I left to the professionals, or called in reinforcement on (my mom making the garter, for example). I guess most things were DIY though, which was stressful, but fun, and really helped make sure the wedding felt like it was ours, instead of a cookie-cutter event.
If you did DIY, what was your favorite project? Why? The invitations! I love doing design work like that, and since I think the invitations really help set the tone of the whole event, I had fun working in unique wording or details that said “fun” but still “wedding”. They turned out amazing, if I do say so myself!
Wedding Vendors:
Planner: Kelly Spalding with Perfectly Placed
Cake(s): Stephanie Felts with The Sweetest Day
Caterer: Rita Rowland, Down South Delights
Photographer: Don Yeager, Donald Yeager Photography
Stationery: I designed everything myself but had invitations printed by Cards & Pockets (cardsandpockets.com) and programs printed by Office Depot
Bridesmaid Dresses: Jordan Fashions
Rings: Jared
Music: Bueller Band
Decorations/Detail: Either DIY or the fantastic Kelly Spalding
Bridal Gown: Allure, purchased from Posie Patch Bridal Superstore in Indianapolis, IN.
Tuxes: Michael Kors Suits, which we purchased online through DeCalo Fashion (decalofashion.com)
Accessories: Expressions costume jewelry in Indianapolis, IN
Flowers: Hillary Robson with Brocade Design
Transportation: Platinum Limousine
Gifts: For the girls, sweatshirts were DIY, clutches were from Etsy seller syl2830; groomsmen flasks came from Things Remembered
Who were your favorites? Everyone I worked with was fantastic…the food was delicious, the flowers were beautiful…even the limo company was super nice! Bueller Band was, without a doubt, the highlight of the night! They sounded fantastic, and were so incredibly nice, too! I would book them again in a heartbeat! I loved working with Don (photography)…he’s such a funny guy and we had a blast taking pictures! Dan Rosemergy, who married us, did a stellar job. We never met him, but somehow through our phone calls and emails he really got to know us and made the ceremony exactly what we wanted! Finally, Kelly, whom Red House pointed me to, got me through everything and made sure every tiny detail was taken care of…she was amazing!
Wedding Rewind:
What would you do differently if you could start back at the beginning? Make the reception longer, maybe? I didn’t want to leave! Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything I would change.
What do you consider the biggest waste of time and/or money? I don’t think anything, actually! I am a bargain hunter and used all resources I could, including Groupon, Etsy, and eBay. Generally when I did think something was a huge waste of money, I either cut it out completely, made it a DIY project, or looked elsewhere to get a better deal.
What do you consider the best value for the service and product? Bueller Band! They weren’t much more than a DJ, and really…I cannot emphasize enough just how amazing they were. We even had random people on the street stop to dance and ask who the band was! Our reception was rockin’, all thanks to them!
What was the neatest thing you found for your wedding? The cake toppers, probably! The search for toppers actually became a huge ordeal as we couldn’t agree on anything. I wanted something very unique, but David wasn’t sold on most of my suggestions. We finally agreed on zombie cake toppers that had some crystal garland around them, which were hilarious and awesome!
What was your biggest {and best} splurge? The venue itself. It was a little more expensive than some of the other places we had looked, but we fell in love with it the minute we saw it! It had the right vibe for what we wanted and was totally worth it.
Thanks to Lissa and David for sharing their experience with us, and thank you to Donald Yeager Photography for giving us a closer look into their wedding! For more of Don's work, visit the Donald Yeager Photography website.
About the Author:
Tabitha
Blogging is something I’ve enjoyed doing for years. My interests lie mostly in lifestyle related topics like fashion, style, design, food and weddings. When I heard Ashley was looking to bring on new members to the ABG team, I jumped at the opportunity - I can’t think of a better way to stay involved in weddings than to write about them and to stay in touch with the trends and new ideas. Lucky for me, Ashley likes my blog and trusts my experience to bring me on and so far, it’s been a blast.
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Posted on January 7, 2011 |
Filed under: Real Nashville Weddings
