Nashville Couple Marry Destination Style: Virginia is for Lovers
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Here's a super fun wedding with a modern twist, courtesy of Lotus Blossom Photography, who always manages to capture such joyful aspects of a wedding.
What ABG loves about this wedding is that just because you're having a destination wedding doesn't mean that you can't hire {great} Nashville wedding vendors you love/trust...or still check out ABG for ideas everyday:).
Thanks Cathryn and Michael for sharing your special day with us!
Bride - Cathryn Renee Kelton of Nashville, TN
Groom - Michael Robert Formichella of Long Valley, NJ
Ceremony - Memorial Chapel, The campus of Emory and Henry College in Emory, VA
Reception Location - The Martha Washington Inn and Spa, Abingdon, VA
Guests - 100
My wedding style
I would say our wedding style was classic with a slight modern twist. I kept the color scheme simple, but elegant with black and ivory, and used classic cut A-line dresses. Our modern touch came from using tropical flowers for the arrangements. It added a sophisticated touch of color.
My colors and why I choose them
We used black and ivory. Black and white is such a classic combination, and everyone looks good in black. I chose ivory instead of white because my dress was ivory.
My theme
I didn’t start out with a theme, but it ended up being lace. My dress had lace trim, therefore I ended up choosing bridesmaid and flower girl dresses that incorporated lace in their designs to carry the theme throughout all the girls. It ended up looking gorgeous having the lace common to everyone.
Wedding wow factor
Our guests loved the candy buffet we had at the reception. We bought apothecary jars in various sizes and filled them with various candies we purchased at bulk warehouse stores.
Favors
In lieu of wedding favors we provided black and white organza bags at the candy bar for guests to take home their favorite candies.
Personalized touches
Other than the standard monogrammed cocktail napkins everyone has, our cake had our initials incorporated into the design.
Most special moment for me
It’s hard to pick a most special moment because there were so many, but I would have to say during our rehearsal dinner, Mike’s sister and her partner who are in a band called Driftwood Fire, dedicated a song for us and sang for everyone.
What I did for the kids in my wedding
I bought our flower girl two My Little Ponies for being in the wedding. She was more excited about her ponies than getting to wear her princess dress.
Gift for bridesmaids
I bought each bridesmaid a necklace with their birthstone in the pendant. I also ordered a tote bag set that I had monogrammed for each of them.
Groomsmen
Mike chose his groomsmen's gifts based on each one's hobbies. He bought his best man a nice pocket knife, one groomsman is into art, so he bought them a set of nice artist pencils. The other three groomsmen are his fraternity brothers, he bought them Max (from Where The Wild Things Are) bobble heads because Max is their mascot.
My wedding vendors
Photography: Lotus Blossom Photography
Dresses: The White Room
Hair: Hannah Young
Invitations and Bridesmaids’ tote bags: Exclusively Weddings
Cake: Brenda Maus (Rocky Mount, VA)
Reception and Rehearsal Dinner: The Martha Washington Inn and Spa
Ceremony: Memorial Chapel, Emory and Henry College
DJ: Grant Smiley (Abingdon, VA)
Bridal gown/bridesmaid dresses - The White Room
Hair - Hannah Young
Photography: Lotus Blossom Photography
The Martha Washington Inn & Spa
How I found my vendors – bridal shows, wedding planning resources, friends:
My sister bought her wedding dress from The White Room which is one of the reasons I decided to get my dress and bridesmaids’ dresses from them. The biggest reason though is they have an amazing selection, and the girls are wonderful to work with. It is worth the short drive to Lebanon to check them out!
Hannah Young has been a long time family friend, she did my sister’s and my hair for my sister’s wedding and our hair looked beautiful.
Amber of Lotus Blossom Photography and I have been friends since middle school. She’s been interested in photography as long as I’ve know her. I couldn’t think of anyone else I would have wanted to do our pictures. We have gotten so many compliments on the quality of our pictures, I HIGHLY recommend Lotus Blossom Photography to anyone.
Mike and I met in college, which is why we chose to get married at Emory and Henry College. The town of Abingdon, VA reminds me of Franklin, TN. It is very historic which beautiful old buildings dating back to the late 1700’s. We chose to have our rehearsal dinner and our wedding reception at The Martha Washington Inn because it is a beautiful Plantation home, and the service is amazing. The staff was easy to work with and the food was wonderful. If you are thinking about having a beautiful mountain wedding, please give them a call. Not only do they do receptions, they can also do weddings.
My wedding rewind
What I would do differently if planning again
I gave myself a lot of unneeded stress trying to make everyone happy. Everyone, especially your parents are going to have an opinion and will want something a certain way. While there are compromises that have to be made in planning any wedding, I finally learned that you have to put your foot down sometimes, because you can’t please everyone, and most importantly you need to please yourself.
Biggest waste of time or money?
Decorations at the church, you’re at the church for a short period of time, and no one really notices them. I’m glad we just decided to do pew bows, but we didn’t even need to do that.
Best value for the service/product
Lotus Blossom Photography, you get two photographers to cover your event, not just one.
Neatest find
We found beautiful inexpensive apothecary jars for our candy bar at Hobby Lobby.
Advice for other Nashville brides?
1. Don’t feel like you need to go to the big box bridal stores for your dresses. Independent boutiques have better selections, and you’ll be surprised that their prices are very similar to what you’d find at the chain bridal stores. Besides, you don’t want to have the same dress as 1000’s of other girls. Those of you getting married right after college, please think of this. I had 7 friends get married the summer after we graduated college, and they all went to a chain bridal store. A few weddings had the same bridesmaids’ dresses, but in different colors. The nice thing about an independent bridal store, if you don’t like one aspect of a dress’ design, you can have it taken off or you can have something added. They don’t do this at the chain stores.
2. Your bridesmaids, and groomsmen for that matter, are spending a lot of money for you. Get them something nice in return. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Go shopping after a major holiday and you’ll get great deals on nice things. I got my girls a diamond and birthstone necklace from Kohl’s as part of their presents. They were $100.00 necklaces on sale for $30.00. Shop around and wait for sales, I was able to pick up my girls’ tote bag sets from exclusivelyweddings.com on sale. They were normally almost $50.00 for the set, I got them for $20.00.
3. Give yourself at least a year to plan. You don’t want to be rushed, this process is stressful, and you don’t want to make yourself crazy. We picked one or two things to take care of a month, because we did that, two months before my wedding we had all of the planning finished. I had time to sit back and enjoy the last few months of being engaged.
4. Think about artificial flowers. They’re much cheaper than real flowers. The tropical flowers we used would have cost us a fortune if we used real flowers. Our artificial flowers looked so real, people at the reception tables had no idea the centerpieces were fake until we told them.
5. Lastly, have fun. Wedding planning can be a huge headache, but it doesn’t have to be. Stay calm, learn to compromise, and enjoy this period in your life. It goes by before you know it!
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Posted on February 16, 2010 |
Filed under: Destination Weds & Honeymoon , Real Nashville Brides, Real Nashville Weddings
