Archive for the ‘wedding’ Category

Ditching the guest book for more creative options…

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

As Philip and I were planning our wedding, we really focused on thinking outside the box and creating unique keepsakes from the wedding day. As I was looking for guestbooks, I kept asking myself why we were even doing one. I found several I liked. Even made it to the checkout with one…but could never bring myself to buy one because I kept asking myself what we would do with it. I just knew it would end up stuck in a closet or collecting dust on a bookshelf. I know it’s a nice way to keep track of who was in attendance for our special day, but I knew there had to be a more useful, aesthetically pleasing way to keep track of our nearest and dearest friends and family members.

One idea I’d come across was a wedding wish jar. I initially found the idea over at the Marsha Stewart blog, however, the jar we ended up using was an adorable little “wish pot” I found at Swoozie’s in Green Hills (which is now closed).

This adorable little wish pot now sits in our living room on a shelf. It’s full of paper hearts upon which friends and family wrote sweet words of wisdom and encouragement. I love lifting the lid now and then to read a few of them. :)

Another idea I discovered thanks to Natosha over at Big Spoon, Little Spoon is a wedding tree print. She found it on etsy and shared it with me. There are a variety of “wedding tree” posters there which you can customize to your heart’s extent. I just did a search for them and here’s what I found. Here is what ours looked like:

This was a super-cool way to personalize our guests’ signatures and create another memento to enjoy for years to come.

Are you doing a guestbook? Have another unique idea for capturing guests’ signatures in place of the guestbook? Please share! :)

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Celebrating the Royal Wedding of Will & Kate with a tea party at Lulu’s

Friday, April 29th, 2011

In case you were wondering…no, I did not get up at 3am to catch Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s Royal Wedding. Ya’ll know I LOVE weddings, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy this morning!

Thanks to technology, however, I got a front row seat!

The British Monarchy has an official YouTube Channel fittingly called TheRoyalChannel and I was able to catch the entire ceremony  in one clip! I’ve uploaded here for your enjoyment:

Kate was absolutely stunning. Simple, elegant and breathtaking.

I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the Royal Wedding than meeting up with my girlfriend Suzanne, who is a wedding planner (and actually woke up at 3am to catch the wedding in real-time!), and meeting up for a Royal Tea Party at Lulu’s in downtown Franklin. Here we are enjoying lemon tarts, petit fours and tea, of course:

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Did you catch the wedding? Were you up early like Suzanne this morning? Or were you a straggler like me, coming in late to the party? :) What was your favorite part?

My favorite part was the vows. You could sense a bit of nervousness…(as I can only imagine…being on a world-wide stage!) However, I loved the way the seemed to gaze at each other. It’s the way I remember Philip and I looking at each other almost a year ago, when we were encircled by our closest family and friends. So hard to believe it’s almost been a year! Time sure flies!

In honor of the Royal Wedding, I’ve created a clip about how you can give your skin the Royal Treatment…but you’ll have to head over to my other blog, The Skin CEO, to see it.

Wishing you much love and joy on this beautiful Spring day!

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Posted in events, inspiration, love, wedding |

Wish Upon A Wedding launches Nashville Chapter

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Hello friends! Several months back I shared that I’m on the board of a wedding-related non-profit organization that is launching a chapter in Nashville. I’m thrilled to share that our launch party has been scheduled. You’ll find all the details in the news release below. Specifically, if you are a wedding/event services professional OR a medical/health care professional, we hope you’ll make time to learn how we can all work together!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Health issues shouldn’t get in the way of someone’s dream to marry his or her best friend. That’s why Wish Upon A Wedding is expanding to the Volunteer State and launching the state’s first chapter in Nashville. On May 18 at 6pm, all are welcome to attend the chapter’s launch party at Wedding 101 at The Factory in Franklin. Professionals within the local wedding and event industry and the medical and health care community are invited to learn how this organization will positively affect lives across the region.

This is a free event, however, the new chapter welcomes any donations. All contributions will go directly towards helping the chapter grant wishes to deserving couples. Reservations are required. RSVP by visiting www.wuwlaunchpartynashville.eventbrite.com. Light fare will be served.

“The outpouring of volunteerism we’re already seeing is very encouraging to our board,” says wedding planner and chapter president, Courtney Hammons. “With the amazing Nashville wedding professionals and the sizeable medical and health care population we have, I know this organization will be embraced and will touch many lives.”

The chapter is currently compiling a database of “wish granters” based on 20 different wedding vendor categories. When a wish is received, the chapter’s volunteer coordinators will call upon the wish granters to donate their professional goods and services, enabling Wish Upon A Wedding Nashville to grant the wedding wish, from simple to more elaborate, depending on the wish recipient’s health condition.

Wish Upon a Wedding is the world’s first nonprofit wish granting organization providing weddings and vow renewals for couples facing terminal illness and serious life-altering circumstances, regardless of sexual orientation. Often, couples facing such situations do not have the energy, time, money, or resources needed to plan their wedding. Our organization takes care of all the details, offering couples a chance to relax and enjoy a very special day while surrounded by the love of their closest family and friends. To learn more, visit www.wishuponawedding.org.

cablezap@nashvillecable.org
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Posted in events, inspiration, wedding |

Dial wedding recap! Our venue and decor…

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Okay. So it’s been two weeks and I’m just now getting back to you. :( Life is still moving full steam ahead. You blink and a week goes by!

So back to my wedding recap. As many of you know, we chose Journey Church (our church home) at The Factory in Franklin as our ceremony AND reception venue. Journey Church leases Building No. 8 at The Factory. It’s SUCH a neat building with exposed brick, large wooden beams, super-high ceilings and all of these incredible wrought iron candleabras we placed everywhere. My favorite part about our venue was that it didn’t call for much decoration. It has so much character…it’s naturally decorated. :) Covering it up is just wrong to me. Here’s a look at the inside of Building No. 8:

This wall is inside our church and it was painted by my incredibly talented artist friend Deeann Carson. The wall reads “We dwell in soul environments, knowing, living and telling the love story of Jesus to the world…” I LOVE this!

This is the gigantic wall of old, distressed windows and doors you see as soon as you walk in the front door. It creates the most perfect walkway/divider from the door to the rest of the large room.

Here you can see the opposite side of the door/window wall, where my handsome father is greeting our family and friends as they arrive for our wedding. Just look at the beautiful lit branches everywhere. I mean, this building is just naturally beautiful!

You may recall the wedding wish jar idea I’d found over at Martha Stewart Weddings last year. Well, we DID incorporate a wish jar and our guests loved it! Not only was it a part of our sign in process, but it’s also made a wonderful keepsake which we now enjoy seeing every day in our living room:

Thankfully I’d hit a fantastic sale on scrapbook paper at Joann Fabrics and purchased 2 full books of beautiful scrapbook paper at a buy 1 get 1 free discount! Plus, my adorable little wish jar was 50% off from Swoozie’s in Green Hills.

Another thing I loved about our venue was that our guests didn’t have to drive somewhere else for the reception. See, our ceremony was “in the round”, meaning our guests encircled us, on one side of the room and our reception was setup on the other side of the room. We covered our tables with purple linens and were VERY creative and frugal with our centerpieces. We collected a large box of wine bottles from friends and family, borrowed 2 sets of Ball jars from wedding coordinator Emily Humphries and then used scrapbook paper beneath the bottles and jars. Easy peasy:

Thanks to Bridesmaid Megan who has lovely, calligraphy-like handwriting, we had simple, easy to read signs for our “in memory of” candles:

The following image allows you to see just how large Building No. 8 is. Note the incredibly high ceilings, the candles placed around the room and the gorgeous lights strung across the center of the room:

Here we are surrounded by our friends and family, sharing a moment of quiet prayer before we vow our lifelong commit to one another:

And here we are coming down the aisle:

*sigh* SUCH a magical day! I still get teary thinking about how beautiful and perfect it was.

There’s more where that came from, folks. STILL so many things to share and tell you about! I’m ESPECIALLY excited to tell you about what I’m up to this Thursday. And I’m going to get to treat a few other local Nashville brides and brides-to-be too! Woohoo, I’m pumped! Stay tuned, friends. I promise to focus and dedicate more time with you! You will NOT want to miss what I have brewing. :)

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We are featured on Classic Bride!

Friday, August 13th, 2010



I’m SOOO excited and honored to share that Sarah over at the Classic Bride blog is featuring our wedding today! PLEASE head over and check out her sweet post about our nuptials. :)

If you haven’t bookmarked Classic Bride…go add it to your blog reader now. This is one of my ALL time favorite wedding blogs. Sarah really bridges the gap between all things vintage and modern. You will love following along with all the pretties she posts.

Stay tuned for my blueberry buttermilk muffin recipe. Mmm.

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