Real Nashville Wedding: Two Cultures, One Love with Alexis and Abdul
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
On Sunday, I attended the Williamson County Weddings and Events Invitation Showcase held at CJ's Off the Square. I really love CJ's - the venue and the staff - and each time I visit, I love it more. If you are seeking an intimate, outdoor garden soiree for your wedding day, you've got to check out CJ's.
Don't take my word for it - check out this real wedding - Alexis, the bride loved every aspect of her special day, including CJ's and her other wedding vendors... (Note - CJ's Off the Square and Williamson County Events are owned by CJ Dickson. Williamson County Weddings and Events (Wilco Wed) is operated out of CJ's. CJ's is a garden venue and Wilco Wed is an event planning / invitation company.)
About us:
Bride - Alexis L. of West Lafayette, IN
Groom - Abdul A. of San Diego, CA
Our wedding details: November 1, 2008 at 5pm
Ceremony and reception location - CJ's Off the Square in Franklin, TN
Guests - About 65
Wedding Style: My wedding style Elegant and intimate My colors and why I choose them Red and cream- the rich red of a Japanese maple in spring (we just planted one at our first house! It's our favorite tree.)
My theme Asian! We met in Japan so we wanted a tribute to the country where we fell in love (thus the kimonos, ikebana style to the flowers, Japanese maple leaves on the cake etc.)
Wedding wow factor I think that our guests loved how personal and different our wedding was. Since everyone there knew us fairly well, they were able to understand how meaningful every aspect was for us. Favors Bubbles! Personal touches We pulled together a bunch of traditions from our families and our pasts to create something uniquely us for the ceremony:
*We did a ring warming ceremony- where the wedding rings were passed around to all the guests to warm them/bless them/share their joy and love with us and hopes for our long and happy marriage. *A family friend in Europe made a large wedding certificate (like in the Quaker tradition) with calligraphy and gilding for us with our vows written on it and space for all the wedding guests to sign as witnesses. *We had Abdul's brother ordained so he could perform the ceremony for us, so that it would be more personal. He was a little rough, but that made him all the more charming. We got so many compliments on how much more meaningful the ceremony was (of course, I wrote it out from beginning to end so it was more work, but so worth it!).
*My sister and cousin played their euphoniums during the ceremony, playing "Panis Angelicus," a song that has particularly special meaning to my mother's family.
* Abdul's friend and boss played guitar and sang "Why do we marry?" (originally by Lucinda Williams) as well, which was also really meaningful for us. *The best man read a love poem by Rumi, a Sufi poet. *We had a curry faction station for dinner, complete with Halal meat so that his family could eat- how amazing were our caterers!?! It was so nice to have food cooked fresh right before you instead of the more usual buffet.
*We sewed kimonos for the bridesmaids dresses (whoah- that was some work!) and matching ties for the groomsmen.
*We made our invitations, also kimono-like, and my sister drew our monogram which were on the invitations and our cocktail napkins. * Our cake was decorated with Japanese maple leaves from my mother's tree.
* I made all of my jewelry, excepting my hair combs which my sister made for me. I also made cufflinks for Abdul with engraved symbols that have special meaning to us. My jewelry had calla lillies (matching my flowers!) and a Tennessee pearl drop(did you know that some of the highest quality pearls in the world are grown right here in Tennessee?!). * Halfway through the reception, Abdul and I changed outfits from traditional American to traditional Indian/Pakinstani type garb. * In following with the traditions of Abdul's family, his mother put together a tray with henna, candy, and she sewed a lot of wraps to go over the henna on people's hands. So at some point after cutting the cake a small table was brought out with the henna and everyone present participated in getting henna on their hands. The spots lasted for about 2 weeks so everyone had a small reminder of our reception.
* About half way through the reception, our photographers put together a little slide show and set it up so everyone could see a few of our pics- they really enjoyed that. Gift for bridesmaids & groomsmen Bridesmaids - I made silver earrings with calla lillies for them. Grooms - Handmade ties of same fabric as bridesmaids kimonos
Most special moment for me Turning towards my husband after being declared husband and wife for the first time. So many years building up towards us being married, and that was the first moment of a long life together. For the kids in our bridal party umm..the photographer took some cute pictures.. My Wedding Vendors: Wedding planning, vendor coordination, day-of organization - Amy Parman with Williamson County Weddings Cake - The Bake Shoppe Catering - A Catered Affair Photography - Gray Photography Video was taken by his sister Invitations - Adornments!! (us!)
Attire - Bridal Gallery of Franklin - for bridal gown and mother of bride dress Tuxes- we bought a new suit for Abdul and had the guys all wear their own black suits Custom engagement ring and wedding band - Adornments! Reception music - Blue Tone
Flowers - Enchanted Florist Lighting - Nashville Event Lighting
Table decor - we did our own How I found my vendors Gray Photography and Amy Parman at CJs!! Also Blue Tones - only they could have gotten EVERYONE at our party to get up and dance!! My favorite vendors Most of them I found through Amy of Williamson County Weddings. When we couldn't find what we wanted through her recommendations- we made it ourselves! I did hit up a bridal show, but it was so overwhelming that I didn't feel like I got the chance to make a connection with any potential vendors at all, so I really just ended up relying on my wedding coordinator's advice and online searches. My Wedding Rewind: What I would do differently if planning again? Plan our honeymoon for a different location. New Orleans was a bit of a miss for us. Biggest waste of time/money? Our honeymoon in New Orleans Best value for the service/product What we did ourselves- if we'd had to pay someone else to do it for us, we couldn't have afforded to have as nice of a wedding. Best find CJ's Off the Square!! Advice for other Nashville brides - It seems like there's always going to be one big issue that your families are going to have problems with during your wedding planning.. For us, it was the clash of our families' religions. We had to play it very carefully to strike the right balance between a Christian and Islamic/ religious yet secular ceremony so that everyone felt comfortable, yet included. That way everyone could just support us and be happy about our getting married. That's also why we included certain aspects (ie. playing "Panis Angelicus" and having the outfit change and henna) so they could see themselves in us and as a part of our future. It couldn't have worked out better, despite the rocky times during the planning, our wedding was perfect. So my advice to other brides is to just be aware that there is going to be "something" that will be difficult for people to get onboard with- whether it's why you're not choosing the traditional church wedding, why you're not getting married at your hometown, or even something smaller like who you choose as your bridesmaids, or who you invite. If it's something that will be critical to making your wedding right for you and your husband, feel free to stick to your guns, they'll come around if you explain it well. But if it's something you know will make everyone feel a little bit easier, more a part of what you're doing, to do it that way then you should seriously think about it. You don't need to make every little thing about you, yes it's your wedding, but no one like's a bridezilla in reality. And really, you'll enjoy your wedding so much more if you know that everyone there is really happy. I know that one of the moments when I was finally able to take a deep breath and relax was when I looked around during the reception and realized that everyone was having fun and getting to know each other. My parents-in-law were even dancing. -After doing my wedding, we decided that we really enjoyed taking care of all those fun, personal details that made my wedding so special- so we decided that the business we were opening should include that so we could help other brides have those special details too.
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.
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Posted on February 24, 2009 |
Filed under: Real Nashville Brides, Real Nashville Weddings
