Describe your favorite wedding day moment.
From Amy: My favorite moment from the wedding was the kiss after our introduction as husband and wife. I wore red lipstick and it got all over Bryson's lips, I had to wipe it off before we could walk back down the aisle; which had the entire sanctuary laughing.
From Bryson: My favorite moment was during our vows. I got so lost in staring at Amy that I wasn't even paying attention to the minister who was feeding me the lines of our vows. All the sudden I realized I didn't even know what I was supposed to repeat back next and had to scramble for the words which ended up with both of us going from crying to laughing. I'm not sure anyone really knew what had us so tickled but the rest of the sanctuary was laughing with us.
Describe how you felt when you saw your significant other for the
first time on your wedding day:
From the Amy: I was so nervous before walking down the aisle. I was standing in the back with my Dad but I refused to look at him (even though he kept talking to me) because I knew I would start crying. The processional music that we chose for all the bridesmaids and me to walk into was "Married Life" from the Disney Pixar movie "UP". The movie is very very special to us and we knew that we wanted to include elements of it in our wedding (we took pictures together with me holding balloons and my present to Bryson was an "Our Adventure Book" inspired from the film by Etsy vendor Slightly Embellished). I thought I would cry as soon as the doors opened because of the music but I was fine until I got about half way down the aisle and could finally really see Bryson. I started crying right away. I was so happy and so overcome with emotion. We spent the rest of the ceremony alternating between laughing and crying, which is so very us!
From Bryson: When I first got a glance of Amy in her wedding gown she was standing in the back of the church with her father waiting for her music to start. I remember wanting the music to hurry up so I could get a better look at her, thinking how amazing she looked and how lucky I was to be marrying her.
Which vendor was your highest priority?
Our biggest thing was picking the venue. We both had a very specific idea of what we wanted from the beginning and we thought we had found the perfect place that we could have both the ceremony and reception. However, that venue fell through and I was crushed. We had checked out Zen in the beginning and decided to go back to them. The venue actually turned out perfect because we could then invite as many people as we wanted whereas the other place would have been limited to 150. The flowers were also extremely important to me. My mom has always loved flowers and had instilled that love in me and my sister since we were young girls. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted my bouquet and all the other flowers to look like. We were also working with a very tight budget so I knew that it would be almost impossible for me to get all of what I wanted done for by a florist. We found a local florist in our small town that ordered the flowers wholesale for us and pruned them so that all we had to do was place them were we wanted. It was an incredible money saver and I still got the exact look I wanted. She did make some of the bigger pieces for us such as bridesmaid bouquets and the unity candle holder but we kept it very simple to keep the cost down.
Something meaningful to us...
Both of our families are very very important us. Both sets of my grandparents have passed away and both of Bryson's grandfathers have passed. We wanted to make sure we remembered them in some way. We had flowers set up at the front of the sanctuary for each of our grandparents. There was one bright yellow rose for my paternal grandmother whom I was very close to because it was her favorite flower. Bryson's maternal grandfather was a newspaper reporter in Florida during the 50s and we used his typewriter at the reception. The typewriter was placed on a table made for us by Bryson's great Uncle Tom.
Advice for couples:
Prepare yourself for the time you will spend, but have fun!!! I (and Bryson too) knew even before we were engaged (which was very much a surprise by the way) that I wanted to plan and do a lot of the details myself. I am very very detail oriented and knew that I wanted the entire wedding to scream us and not be cookie cutter at all. I think it is important for every bride and groom to have at least some control over a good portion of the details, it makes the wedding feel like "your" wedding and not some prefab "idea" of what a wedding is supposed to be.
What else would you like Le Magnifique readers to know about your wedding?
Like I said in the advice part I am very detail oriented. We got engaged at the very end of January and then got married in September which for a southern wedding is very very quickly. Therefore I started on the details from day one. I have had a love of vintage everything since I was a kid and knew I wanted my wedding to be full of vintage finds everywhere. I started at my mother's best friend Margaret's parent's house. My sister and I had grown up thinking of Margaret as our aunt and had spent time at her parent's house before they passed. Their house is in a very old part of Knoxville, TN and is filled with vintage goodies. My mom and I both knew that their house would hold much of what we would need and Margaret was so happy to see many of her mother's treasured things used in such a special way. We got tons of glassware and bottles that Margaret's dad had collected and kept in their basement for years, her mother's silver, an old mirror, her dad's magnifying glass, and an old bedside table that we painted yellow and used for unity candle holder. I found many other vintage accessories and furniture in thrift and antique stores from around where we live and from close friends. I also found a lot of great things like paper straws, all print type letters, scale, etc. from various Etsy vendors and BHLDN. All in all every aspect of our wedding was planned to the tiniest detail, it was all done on a budget, and it was all "US"
Vendors:
Photography: Sarajane Case
Ceremony Venue: Welcome Baptist Church
Reception Venue: Zen
Wedding Coordinator/Planner: Ashley Stone
Caterer: Tina McCoy
Florals: brides bouquet done by Dahlia's; unity candle florals, remembrance flowers, pew markers, and food table centerpiece done by Wildflowers, all other flowers ordered through Wildflowers but arranged by bride and friends
Cake: Buttercream Bakery
DJ/Band/Entertainment: Tracy Epps
Hair: Amberly Campbell
Wedding Dress: Jim Hjelm purchased at The Poinsett Bride
Wedding Shoes - BP from Nordstrom
Veil: handmade with fabric from the bride's dress by The Perfect Fit by Paula
Bridesmaids Dresses: J.Crew
Groom's Tux: Jos. A. Bank
Groomsmen's Suits: thier own
Stationary/Invitations: Vistaprint
Other: Flower pom poms for backdrop, letters, buffet table runner, BHLDN
Bike rental also from Wildflowers
