Meg & Jack Incorporate Family & Friends From Different Walks Into Their Nashville Wedding Weekend
Friday, January 9, 2015
How do you host 250 guests at your wedding and still manage to create a sense of intimacy? We're not quite sure how, but Meg and Jack sure made it happen. Focusing on family and friends, they celebrated over several days, making time for friends of different walks of life while giving them a taste of Nashville. Their wedding culminated at Loveless Cafe with our city's signature fare. Beyond the decor and food, their big weekend was all about one thing: family.
Enjoy our first featured wedding of the year!
Meg & Jack
Wedding Date: June 14, 2014
Ceremony Venue: Westminster Presbyterian Church
Reception Venue: Loveless Café Barn
Guests: 250
Budget: $20,000 – 30,000
Wedding Team
Photographer | Nyk and Cali Wedding Photographers
Videographer | With This Ring
Gown | The Ultimate Bride (St. Louis, MO); designer was Mikaella. My dad insisted on dress shopping with me and helped me to pick the dress!
Bride’s Accessories | Pearl earrings from Etsy, my late mother’s pearl bracelet, lace, Tom’s shoes
Men’s Attire | Jos. A. Banks
Bridesmaids’ Attire | Various dresses of their choice from Bill Levkoff
Hair: & Makeup | One10 Makeup
Stationery | Wedding Paper Divas
Calligrapher | The Lyrical Pen
Caterer | Loveless Cafe
Cake Artist | Anne’s Cakes
Floral Designer | Cary Allyn
Ceremony Musicians | Polly Brecht, organist
DJ, Lighting & Photobooth | Irwin Entertainment (dj)
Transportation | Grand Avenue
Wedding Details
How would you describe your style as a couple?
I would say that we are relaxed, family-oriented, and fun-loving, so we tried to create our wedding around those feelings.
How did you incorporate that style into your wedding (e.g. décor, colors, details or even picking the venue)?
We turned our wedding day into a wedding weekend, really. Both Jack and I are very close to our cousins, so to welcome everyone to town, we had a cousin’s night out on the Nashville Pedal Tavern the Thursday night before our wedding! That led in to family showers, a beautiful bridesmaid luncheon hosted by Jack’s aunts, and on the morning of the wedding, all of the men attending the wedding were invited to a Miami Merger-themed brunch hosted by the Hudson’s friends! (A Miami Merger is a couple who both graduated from Miami University in Ohio). It turned out to be a great event for the men to be able to meet, spend time together, and share anticipation the morning of the wedding. It was amazing how many of our friends and family were involved and able to be with us. The southern hospitality even convinced some of our friends to look for new jobs in Nashville!
We had welcome baskets at all of the hotels that our guests were staying in stocked with some more personal touches: Nashville postcards, Goo Goo Clusters, and mini bottles of personalized Miami Merger wine!
The morning of the wedding, I had a first look with my dad before going to the church to have a first look with Jack. Since I was small, my dad has always had a handkerchief in his pocket, ready to wipe runny noses, clean scraped knees, or to dry tears. I gave him an embroidered handkerchief during our first look to add to his collection.
Our wedding party consisted of people from each stage of our lives, which was so much fun. Our siblings, childhood friends, high school friends, and college friends all agreed to stand by our sides as we said, “I do!”
All of our siblings were in the bridal party (my brother and sister-in-law, as well as Jack’s two brothers and sister). I wore my late mother’s pearl bracelet and used the lace from her wedding headpiece to wrap my bouquet. We used more of her lace to create a beautiful corsage for my maternal grandmother to wear. We displayed our parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos in the entryway of Loveless Barn and had thank you notes at each seat. The flowers used in the centerpieces and decorations around the church and barn were all types of flowers I had around my childhood home (Jack proposed to me in front of my childhood home in CT the August before).
We chose to have family-style serving at the reception, further encouraging the feeling of togetherness with our guests, while eating classic comfort foods: fried chicken, green beans, and macaroni and cheese.
Reverend Ben Kane was the Hudson’s youth pastor since Jack was young. Just before our wedding, Ben took a job in North Carolina but was incredible and flew all the way back to Nashville for the weekend just to marry us!
What was your (or your guests’) favorite aspect of your wedding?
Our favorite aspect of the wedding was getting married! We spent a lot of time writing wrote our own vows and choosing just the right words. Both of us were very emotional during the wedding ceremony which made it even more special. Jack and I are also big dancers! We took ballroom dancing lessons together in college, so we hardly left the dance floor all night!
We really felt that everyone was genuinely enjoying celebrating love, family, and friends. Friends from different walks of our lives had the chance to meet and had a blast sharing stories and getting to know each other.
Where did you splurge? Where did you save/DIY?
We decided to splurge with the photography and videography, as well as the reception site and food. Those were the most important elements to us, so we spent the majority of our budget there. It took a little convincing to sell Jack on the idea of a videographer, but now after seeing the finished product, he and I are both incredibly happy that we had one!
We decided to save on the cake – neither of us are big cake people but Anne’s Cakes were incredibly delicious at an affordable price. Jack also hand-made cornhole boards that were used at the barn. My dad and I painted them – it was a fun personal touch! Jack’s mom has an incredible friend that really stepped in and acted as our day-of coordinator. Judy Rice was able to be at the reception site with our family that was helping to set up and add in her artistic touch to the whole venue!
We also were challenged with limiting our guest list. Both of our families are HUGE, so we had about 150 people just counting family! We had a hard time going through our guest list and cutting where we had to in order to be sure to stay within our budget.
Now that the wedding day is over, is there anything about your planning process you feel you could have done differently?
Planning from a distance was hard – I was living in St. Louis finishing up my graduate program and Jack was in Nashville. He, thankfully, was eager to get involved and ended up taking care of a large portion of the planning! There were many trips back and forth between St. Louis and Nashville (I could make that trip in my sleep now!) and everything would have been much easier with a wedding planner. We had chosen to forego a planner for the sake of the budget, and everything turned out perfectly, but I imagine that a planner would have saved us a few (dozen) headaches along the way!
Also, we were engaged for exactly 10 months. We think that was the perfect amount of time to plan a wedding and get everything ready for the big day. Any longer and I think we would have been at risk of losing our minds! It’s a long time to be thinking about the tiniest of details of one day!
In one sentence, what words of advice do you have for couples in the midst of their planning?
There are ups and downs of wedding planning, just as there are ups and downs in everyday life, but stick it out. It really will be worth it!
About the Author:
Ashley King
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! Until then, Find me on Google+.
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Posted on January 9, 2015 |
Filed under: Destination Nashville Weddings!, Nashville-Style, Real Nashville Weddings, Wedding Style - Rustic, Farm ,
