It’s an understatement to say how special November 14th was to me. I’m lucky. I truly found my perfect match, but it’s not like getting there was easy. My 20’s and even early 30’s were touch and go in the relationship category. So don’t lose hope if you’re in that same place, and the topic of weddings makes you want to die. But strong warning, if you are in that place, you might want to x out of this post now.
With that little bit of history, please know that I was planning on eloping when the big day came, but the guy in my life wasn’t having it. Instead I ended up with a wedding that “most girls” and some guys dream about. Here is the breakdown of my black and white wedding.
The Videos
Let’s start with the videos by Cardboard Films. If you’re in Nashville, you must use them. They did our rehearsal dinner and wedding videos. They are crazy talented and a blast to hang with.
Rehearsal Dinner
https://vimeo.com/145311918
Wedding
Continuing on with the video discussion, there was never a moment where the amazing video booth by Details Nashville was empty. They put this video together for us and it was so fun to witness all of our friends having a blast, since during the wedding we were being tugged in a million different directions.
Details Nashville Photo Booth
https://vimeo.com/146455182
The Bands
Now to the wedding and ceremony bands. We used Party On the Moon for the wedding. And they started the wedding off with a drum line. After that people literally rushed to the dance floor, and it was downhill from there. I CANNOT do this band justice. I just can’t. The ceremony band was a collection of friends who never play weddings. Josh Farro, Ian Keaggy and a few of their friends played songs by Explosions in the Sky, Bon Iver and Coldplay. They helped us select Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros for my entrance. I was so emotional walking down that I was physically taking deep breaths, trying to not to break down in front of 400 people.
Hair and Make-up
As most of you know, VE’s own Kelly is the guru of everything hair and makeup. She somehow convinced the owner (Cali Devaney) of Parlour and Juke (the most sought after salon in Nashville) and the genius behind my short haircut (Leah Hoffman) to do the wedding. They don’t do weddings, but I am forever grateful that they made an exception. My makeup was done by Brady Wardlow and the bridesmaids makeup was done by Stephanie Harrison and Marz Avila. Everyone was stunning. And the best part was that there weren’t a bunch of bridesmaids hanging out in the bathroom trying to fix their makeup and hair because they didn’t like it. Lori says, “I will never look better than I did on your wedding day.” Ha! Trumps Salon in Nashville also played a big part. They did the mother of the groom and my mom. They also did Olivia’s hair and makeup.
Space Design
As a designer, of course I had a vision for my ceremony and reception. Those visions were perfectly executed by my wedding planners Jayne Bubis and Debbie Lundy at Jayne Bubis Events. I can’t imagine what it was like trying to execute the craziness in my head. They outdid themselves, TRULY. I wanted the ceremony to be dark, intimate, elegant and I even used the word gothic. Try to execute those words. I asked for 20 foot tall lights made of ribbon at the reception. None of the pictures do either of the spaces justice. I think it was impossible to capture. (Cocktail area not photographed.)
My Look
I wore a dress by Monique Lhuillier. Kelly and I popped into The Bride Room in workout clothes one day. I tried on two dresses and walked out with the second dress. What can I say? They had me at high waisted skirt. I switched into a short Monique skirt and blue heels when the dancing started and quickly ended up in flip flops. I didn’t buy any jewelry. The morning of my wedding I thought, “Shit I need some jewelry” and went into my limited jewelry drawer and dug out anything that looked bridal. The hand piece and earrings are from Trumps Salon and my other ring was Vita Fede.
Bridesmaids Looks and Gift
I tried to take it easy on my bridesmaids. So Kelly and I picked out 25 black, long dresses from Shopbop, Revolve, and Reformation and had each bridesmaid pick the dress they liked.
Advice to brides: Don’t support the bridesmaids dress industry. It is a crock of shit. Why should a person have to go get fitted, pay $300 for a dress of poor quality, and then have to get it altered for an extra $100 when it finally comes in? I can purchase a dress online at Target in my size, without getting fitted, and guess what…. it fits.
For their bridesmaids gifts, I filled Free People totes with some Nashville candy, aka Moonpies, and let them wear whatever shoes they wanted. A typical response from me during the days leading up to the wedding:
Bridesmaid: What shoes should I wear? Me: I don’t care. Bridesmaid: What color do you want my nails? Me: I don’t care.
Second piece of advice to brides: Don’t sweat the small things. Nobody will notice and even if they did, nobody cares as much as you do. I enjoyed my entire wedding because I decided early on that the most important part was to enjoy the wedding, not agonize over whether the script on the napkins should be cursive or bold.
And in case you wanted to see the groomsmen.
Below are my bridesmaids dresses and gifts. There were two dresses that I could not link below. Find them here and here.
The Details
The food truck was one of my favorites. You can never go wrong with fried chicken sandwiches at midnight.
The flip-flops saved the night.
But I have to say, my absolute favorite thing was ANYTHING with our crest on it. Olivia, the VE fitness and food girl, and my new sister-in-law, designed our crest, hats and sweatbands. Those little graphics are my favorite thing and mean so much to me.
The invitations, napkins and programs were designed by You’re Invited in Nashville. Love, love those girls. You can see the graphics better on the invitation.
The Photographer
Everyone always wants to know about the wedding photographer. Because let’s face it, after the night is over you have your memories and the photos. As you’ve seen throughout this post Joy Marie Photography killed it. She is one of the best in the wedding arena, and it shows through every breathtaking wedding she shoots. She travels the world for weddings, so don’t worry—she isn’t limited to Nashville. She and her team are so chill and laid back. She put me at ease the entire time.
I’m happy and exhausted. Hopefully I will only have to do this once.
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