From Save the Dates to Reception Fun, Couple Enjoys Photo Booth At Belle Meade Plantation Wedding
Friday, March 2, 2012
Photo booths are fun! Very few people would disagree with that statement, but Amanda and Nate wholeheartedly agree. While planning their wedding and deciding on how they wanted their guests to feel, this couple kept returning to one word - fun. They decided to create a small photo booth theme to help kickstart the fun at the reception. The key: Photo Booth Nashville. Between their save the dates, a wall of photos at the reception, props around the room and mustaches at the tables, plus Photo Booth Nashville on hand... Amanda and Nate's guests not only had fun, they had a memory to take home with them.
Many thanks to the photo booth memories from Photo Booth Nashville and the photos from Shuffield Photography, which captured Amanda and Nate's fun and very personal wedding.
Amanda + Nate
Wedding Date ~ August 13, 2011
Ceremony ~ Belle Meade Plantation Garden
Reception ~ Belle Meade Plantation Carriage House
Guests ~ 250
Budget
$20,000 – $50,000
Wedding Team
Planner | The Bride
Wedding Coordinator | Cande Cook
Photographer | Shuffield Photography
Videographer | Keith Holt with KHVisuals
Photo booth | Photo Booth Nashville
Bride's Gown | Leann Belter Gown
Bride's Accessories | Christina Garcia earrings from The White Room in Birmingham, Alabama
Groom’s Attire / Groomsmen Attire | Charcoal gray suits, black ties, and suspenders found at JoS. A. Bank
Bridesmaids Attire | Gray Chiffon Dress by WToo found at Sugar Drop Inc. in Brentwood, TN
Hair & Makeup | Kimberly Myers from Hair Envy
Save the Dates | I made them myself using photo strips from Photo Booth Nashville, paperbag cardstock, and my home printer
Invitations | Printed by William Arthur designed by Amanda (the bride) at You're Invited in Nashville, TN
Ceremony Musicians | String Quartet: Innocenti Strings
Singers/Performers | Brother and sisters of the groom, and Libby Hodges
Reception Musicians | Music City Party DJ
Valet | PMC Parking
Caterer | Two Fat Men Catering
Cake Artist | B. Jackson’s Bakery
Floral Designer | Melissa Broadwell with Vintage Florals
Rentals | Southern Events
My Wedding Details
How would you describe your style as a couple? How did you incorporate that style into your wedding?
When it came time to planning our wedding, Nate and I knew we wanted it to be a day of celebration and FUN with our closest family and friends. We decided that we wanted our ceremony and reception to be in one location to maximize our time enjoying the only time in our lives where we would get to have all of our favorite people in one place! I have always wanted to get married outside, so we then knew that Belle Meade Plantation was the perfect place to do just that and have the southern, rustic, and romantic wedding we wanted. We decided to have our ceremony in the garden behind the plantation and planned our reception to follow feet away in the Carriage house.
I stuck with natural colors: brown, ivory, gold, grays, and greens. I wanted to play off of the natural rustic and southern look of the plantation itself. Having such natural colors everywhere, I wanted the flowers to be my way of adding a pop of color to the decor. My (now) father-in-law married us under an arbor that my aunt and uncle built for us personally. It was the perfect addition and added the rustic feeling to our ceremony that I wanted! It was made of driftwood, decorated with jackson vine, grapevine, summer grasses, white wax flowers, roses, and dahlias. It was my dream arbor!
We wanted the reception to include cocktails, dinner, and LOTS of dancing. We also wanted it to include things that were significant to us, one of those being southern food...our menu included beef short ribs, mango chutney chicken, apple poppyseed coleslaw, mini stuffed potatoes, and more. For the wedding cake, I wanted a traditional 3-tiered vanilla almond cake with buttercream icing - iced like my grandmother had done it herself. In addition to the cake, we had 2 tiers of 3 different flavors of cupcakes, which was also a budget friendly aspect of our wedding. Instead of a groom's cake, Nate wanted one of his favorite desserts, Banana Pudding, which went right along with the southern theme.
Half way through the night, we requested there be a biscuit bar as a mid-night snack in honor of one of our favorite Nashville restaurants, Loveless Cafe. The bar included homemade biscuits with an assortment of homemade jams and butters accompanied by shots of milk!
We alternated brown and ivory tablecloths among the tables. Our centerpieces included birch vases holding the bridesmaids' bouquets and wrought iron stands holding the same combination of flowers with grapevine intertwined. Other tables had lanterns set on moss, accented with roses, and others had mason jars filled with flowers from the ceremony.
Being high school sweethearts, we have tons of pictures together. So we decided to clothespin pictures of us from over the years along the outside walls of the carriage house. The red "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" frame held a picture of Nate and I from our first prom together...you may notice we are holding baseball bats and have eye black on...this was in honor of the following story: I played softball in high school, and Nate played baseball. He never got to watch my games because of his own, but the first of few games Nate could watch me play, I hit my first and only homerun ever and he caught it! It was then known as the "Rainbow of Love".
Following the photo theme, we also had a photobooth at the reception. Copies of photo strips were placed in a guest book where people could sign by their picture.
There was a lot more planned and going on, but overall, our vendors and helpers made all these plans happen exactly the way we wanted! It was the most fun night of our lives and more than we could have ever dreamed of. It was definitely a celebration of our marriage and covenant to each other and we couldn't thank all who had a part in it enough.
What was the favorite aspect of your wedding?
How much fun it was! And how incredibly easy and wonderful all of our vendors were to work with and how perfectly they executed the celebration we had been planning for months!
Where did you splurge? Where did you save/DIY?
I knew from the beginning I wanted to spend the most of food, flowers, and photography, because those were the most important to me. Almost all of the decorations at the reception outside of the flower displays were personally made by myself inspired by DIY decoration ideas I found online or in magazines. Any sign hanging or on the tables were made myself. I found old mirrors and frames and made chalkboards out of them to use as additional signs. I also made our programs using a DIY template found online. We also saved money by using flowers used at the ceremony (i.e. mason jars on ceremony chairs and bridesmaids bouquets were used as table centerpieces at the reception)
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Why did you decide to have photo booth save the dates?
I decided to have photo booth save the dates once we decided to have the photobooth at the wedding as a "foreshadowing" for the fun that was to come at the reception :) and it was a different idea I could be creative with. Photobooth Nashville was great and offered it as an additional service as well.
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Why did you decide to hire a photo booth for the reception? Did it add to the reception atmosphere?
We decided to hire a photobooth because we had previously attended a wedding reception that had one and it was a blast. We wanted our reception to be fun and knew it would be a great addition. It definitely added to the reception, it was so much fun. It offered an additional activity for people to do especially if they didn't particularly like to dance. It was also an awesome favor for guests to take home, it's not everyday you get to take unlimited and free photobooth strips of yourself. I still see guests photo strips from our wedding on their refrigerators when I go to their house. We love looking at our book of all of the strips taken at the wedding, it will never get old. We are so glad we did it!
Now that the wedding day is over, is there anything about your planning process you feel you could have done differently?
I cannot think of much, but I definitely could have slept more. Planning a wedding yourself can be time consuming, but very fun!
In one sentence, what words of advice do you have for couples in the midst of their planning?
This is definitely one of the most fun seasons of life, so enjoy every moment possible from beginning to end and do not let the stress that may come with a wedding overshadow the celebration of your marriage.
About the Author:
Megan
I’m new to the wedding industry. Before getting engaged I literally avoided any websites for weddings only because I knew, once I delved in, I would become obsessed…. And it’s true. Once I got engaged, I did become obsessed and luckily, about that time, I started working in the wedding industry. So my interest increased on two levels. Now I am a newlywed and still enjoying the industry. I love writing, social media and connecting to people; happily, I get to do all of this with ABG.
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Posted on March 2, 2012 |
Filed under: Real Nashville Weddings, Reception Entertainment, Photo Booths
