Friday, March 30, 2012
Today is Part 2 of Jessica and Gordie's wedding coverage - we're focusing on the photo booth aspect of their reception!
According to Elaine of Picture This Nashville, Jessica played a big role in customizing her Picture This guest book and as a result, "It's amazing." We agree! Because her guest book turned out so great and everyone enjoyed the photo booth aspect, we wanted to share more photos of just that. Now, you can get a feel for what Picture This Nashville offers.
Why did you decide to hire a photo booth? Did it add to the reception atmosphere?
Picture This Nashville was part of a wedding contest we won – and it was INCREDIBLE! Gordie and I love taking photos and thought it would be a cool touch to the wedding – and it was!
See the Picture This Nashville booth set up right behind the bride and groom.
What does a typical Picture This printout look like?
Below are photos from Jessica and Gordie's own photo booth, with simple photos pages. Of course, the backdrop varies according to the brides choice to where she chooses to place the Picture This computer/camera. Part of the Picture This bonus is being able to place it wherever you want (providing there's an electrical outlet!).
Beyond winning a photo booth with printouts, you were also given options to upgrade your Picture This package?
Yes! And we chose one of their upgrade options to incorporate the photo booth as our guest book and we are so happy we did. Not only do we get a cool message from our family / friends, we also get a photo of them on our day.
We saw everyone from my grandmother to nieces/nephews in the booth enjoying themselves. I think it gave ‘something different’ for our guests to do in-between eating, drinking and dancing.
ABG Notes: Besides capturing fun moments with their guests in Jess and Gordie's guest book, Picture This Nashville also included photos of key moments to make it a true wedding photo album.
All photo booth photos by Picture This Nashville. All other photos by Jonathon Campbell Photography.
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Posted by Megan |
Filed under: Real Nashville Weddings, Reception Entertainment, Photo Booths
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Jessica and Gordie won the Her Nashville wedding contest last year and their wedding has been featured in many publications, but we were all too happy to feature it ourselves with all the incredible details! We have already spotlighted their board game cake as one of favorites from 2011, but the whole affair is worth seeing.
We hope you enjoy their lovely outdoor ceremony and indoor reception with a game board theme. The theme came from Gordie's proposal with a game of Pictionary!
All photos by Jonathon Campbell Photography.
Jessica + Gordie
Ceremony & Reception Venue ~ Cellar One
Guests ~ 85
Budget
$10,000-$20,000 out of pocket – plus winning the Her Nashville contest
Wedding Team
Venue | Cellar One
Planner | Sarah Willard, Music City Events
Board Game Design | Something Detailed
Photographer | Jonathon Campbell Photography
Photo Booth | Picture This Nashville
Videographer | Truepix Cinematic
Weddings Gown | White Room
Bride's Accessories | Borrowed from family and friends
Groom’s Attire | Groom wore a tux he owned
Groomsmen Attire and Groom’s vest | Street Tuxedo
Bridesmaids Attire | Chosen from various stores (whatever the girls wanted) in different shades of brown
Hair | Lauren Henry from Fierce Salon
Makeup | Katie Russo Makeup
Stationery | Designs in Paper
Ceremony Musicians | Friends
Reception Musicians & Lighting | JD’s Music
Caterer | Chef’s Market
Cake Artist | The Cupcake Collection
Floral Designer | Branching Out
Rentals | The Premiere Event
Guest Accommodations | Hotel Indigo, Hilton Downtown
Event Guidance | Wedding 101
My Wedding Details
How would you describe your style as a couple?
We are pretty laid back and wanted our wedding to be a casual fun celebration that everyone could enjoy. We wanted everything to focus on us celebrating our love and our family / friends that took time out of their busy lives to join in the weekend.
How did you incorporate that style into your wedding?
Since we’re laid back, our friends like to party, and they know we love board games we tried to set an appropriate tone in a number of ways. The groom was the only guy in a tux. We opted to keep the groomsmen in tux pants and matching vests but with differing ties. The bridesmaids were asked to choose a dress that they’d be comfortable in, as long as they kept within our color range.
Jessica’s dad is a huge fan of Maker’s Mark so our signature drink was just that, Maker’s Mark. We also had board games and brainteasers spread around the cocktail area to keep our guests interested while we took our pictures. The Cupcake Collection provided amazing cupcakes on an amazing cupcake stand that was built out of board game boxes like Monopoly, Cranium, with the edible cake topper made to look like the board game Apples-to-Apples.
Our lighting and music was super fun with lanterns hanging over all our tables, up-lighting around the room, and a playlist that included music we handpicked to insure we’d enjoy the music, and our friends got onto the dance floor.
What was the favorite aspect of your wedding?
We are thrilled that we made the conscious choice to have as many of our friends and family involved in the entire weekend as possible. From the rehearsal dinner to the brunch on the day after, it really allowed us to connect with everyone that made the journey to Nashville to see us. On the day of the wedding our favorite aspect was seeing all of the elements we’d planned on and worked hard to assemble come together to be so much fun for our guests. The interactive photo wall that featured pictures of our guests with us over the years, our DJ and the lighting he accomplished, the puzzles, games, and brainteasers spread around the space, and the photo wall were all such a thrill.
Where did you splurge?
Our two biggest splurges were with a photographer and our venue. We wanted to be sure we were comfortable with our photographer, and since we both love photography, we felt it should be a priority for our big day to be captured properly and in a way that suited our taste and style.
Where did you save/DIY?
Winning the Her Nashville contest gave us a bit more leeway in our budget, but we still tried to stay affordable where we could. We created an interactive photo wall in our ‘game lounge’. We also made a lot of the paper items ourselves including menus for the rehearsal dinner with fun puzzles for our guests, and goody bags, and placemats for our brunch.
To continue with our board game theme we looked for a lot of inexpensive board games and old school wooden brainteasers and used them as centerpieces where we couldn’t afford flower centerpieces. For our guest favors Gordie and I took mock-photo booth pictures of ourselves thanking our guests from joining us. We bought frames off eBay and put these photos in them.
Now that the wedding day is over, is there anything about your planning process you feel you could have done differently?
For the most part we were super happy with everything about our wedding! We’d advise that you always read all of the fine print on every single contract that you see so that you understand what all of the costs can be. Also, come up with a detailed photo list and make sure you have enough time scheduled on the day of the event to get all the pictures you want. Make sure that everyone knows where your priorities are.
In one sentence, what words of advice do you have for couples in the midst of their planning?
Keep your wedding theme, goal and budget in mind and as you plan and ask yourself if the things you are incorporating add to the desired end product.
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Posted by Megan |
Filed under: Inspiration & Trends, Real Nashville Weddings, Reception Entertainment, Photo Booths, Wedding Venues and Locations
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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.
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Posted by Megan |
Filed under: Real Nashville Weddings, Reception Entertainment, Photo Booths
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