WEDDING BLOG

Georgia Fairytale Wedding at the Rivermill Event Centre

July 1, 2017 | Junebug Weddings

Between the fairytale vibes Sara and Danny created and the emotional moments they shared with their children, this Georgia wedding at Rivermill Event Centre gave us all the warm fuzzies! What we loved most were the special details they incorporated for all of their guests. For their children, they had four cakes made and decorated to match each of their personalities. The bride also had a sweet first look with their daughter before the ceremony, and the groom had an emotional father-daughter dance at the reception. For their friends and family, the couple had whiskey and cigars to enjoy as they were wrapped up in handmade afghan blankets, enjoying the cool Georgia night. Love Stories by Halie and Alec did an incredible job capturing every heartfelt moment and sentimental detail of this gorgeous wedding!

The Couple:

Sara and Danny

The Wedding:

Rivermill Event Centre, Columbus, Georgia

We knew the most vital thing was having a day that felt authentically “us.” So what became higher on the agenda than a list of wedding rules was being relaxed enough that our daughter could run around in a flannel shirt up until minutes before the ceremony. For our sons to have memories of doing magic tricks in old top hats for guests. For the bridal party to have time to laugh over a vegan noodle lunch with an old record player playing Postal Service in the background. Time for bourbon and Beirut to set the perfect mood in the groom’s room. Investing in moments to leave pages of Spanish poetry for guests to find, light wild honey candles, and make sure afghans made by our grandmothers or brought from Mexico by the groom’s mother were in the perfect places for when the night air grew chilly.

For my bridal look, I was inspired by the fairytales I’ve been pouring over my entire life to create a look that was timeless and also a bit ethereal. After looking for months for the right dress, I knew the second I tried on my Hayley Paige lace dress that I had found The One. It was comfortable, twirly, and just enough fairytale without being ridiculous.

My sweet husband gave me a vintage book of fairytales and little star pins to wear in my hair (I don’t know if its possible for him to know me any better). I gifted him a sterling silver feather tie pin.

We found our venue by accident! My best friend and I happened to stop in at a bridal event and were so taken with the venue where the event was held that I brought my husband back to see what he thought. It just felt like we had stepped out of time when we visited the ruins there and we looked at each other said, “This is it. We can stop looking now.”

Meeting our photographers through this wedding process was actually one of the best parts. I feel like we have made friends for life! Halie and Alec are the SWEETEST most genuine souls who took two people who are notoriously awkward in front of the camera and made us feel like we could just be ourselves. The pictures we have a testament to their talent and grace.

Everyone chipping in on the details gave our wedding a heart and left us all feeling at the end of the day like we’d caught two lungs full of fresh air. Like we had written something out in the Georgia skyline that would last forever.

One of our favorite parts of the day was surprising our four kids with little wedding cakes of their own decorated to match their personalities (a chain of handmade gold stars for our oldest son, a moon for our middle son, pirate ships for our youngest, and little swans for our daughter).

Processional – “Your Hand in Mine” by Explosions in the Sky
Recessional: “Home” by Alexander Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s
First Dance for Couple – “Deep in the Woods” by Jude Moses

Another favorite moment was finishing the night out with a cigar and whiskey bar. Our best guys and gals were able to wrap vintage blankets around their shoulders and feel like fairytale badasses with hand cut cigars.

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Love Stories by Halie and Alec
Venue – Rivermill Event Centre
Floral Design – Victory Blooms
Catering – Jamie Keating Culinary, Inc.
Officiant – Rob Kaple
Live Music – Jude Moses
Videography – French Film
Invitations and Ceremony Portraits – Evane Williams
Makeup Artist and Hair Styling – Lauryl Estelle
Wedding Dress – Hayley Paige via J. Andrew’s Bridal + Formal
Bridal Accessories – Anthropologie
Bridesmaids’ Apparel – Anthropologie
Groom and Groomsmen’s Apparel – J. Crew
Groom’s Ring – Digby and Iona

Our heartfelt congratulations to Sara and Danny, and a big thanks to Love Stories by Halie and Alec for sharing this gorgeous wedding with Junebug! If you want some more fairytale wedding magic in your life, this Louisiana wedding is the rustic fairytale of your dreams!

This Couple Broke All the Rules With Their Beautiful Elopement at The Foundry

June 30, 2017 | Junebug Weddings

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Before Betina and George head down to Miami for their traditional with all their friends and family, they decided to have an intimate elopement at The Foundry to celebrate their love for their New York home. The planners at The Creative’s Loft helped bring the couple’s vision to life, which included a ceremony in the venue’s greenhouse and a cozy picnic for two. The bride also put a spin on traditional bridal style with a convertible Laure De Sagazan dress and 1920s inspired accessories. Photographer Jean-Laurent Gaudy did a brilliant job capturing this intimate, off-beat, and totally unique elopement!

The Couple:

Betina and George

The Wedding:

The Foundry, Long Island City, New York

We are planning a big wedding to share with all our friends and family in Miami next year, but we wanted to do something intimate, just for ourselves in New York. We are childhood friends who met as kids in London, and then reconnected over a decade later here in the city. We started dating here, fell in love here, and now live together in Brooklyn. The city has a lot of meaning for us, so it felt important to have a celebration here. We get to have our cake and eat it, too. (I also get to wear two totally different dresses!)

SHOP THIS LOOK

The most memorable parts of the day were getting ready together and breaking the usual wedding “rules.” The day was really just about the two of us, so we didn’t feel like we had to follow any of the usual wedding day conventions or answer to the expectations of others. We got to do whatever we wanted, and really just be ourselves.

Working with Jean-Laurent Gaudy was easy and fun. He had a calm and quiet energy that helped us relax in front of the camera and be ourselves. Most of his work is done in a spontaneous manner that doesn’t feel too staged, so it was a fun surprise to see the moments he captured when we saw the images for the first time. When he did pose a shot, it came out feeling elegant and timeless, which is what we wanted. We also love that he told a story with his camera. In addition to the photos of us, he captured details of our neighborhood and first home together that really add texture to the documentation of the day.

SHOP THIS LOOK

I wore a beautiful and versatile Laure De Sagazan dress that could be worn two ways. I guess there’s a theme here – I love having the opportunity to explore two sides of one coin, and try things different ways. The dress is a two piece that includes a low-back slip and a removable lace top with 3/4 length sleeves and a delicate button closure in the back. I wore the vintage style top at first, and then removed it later for a more glam twenties look. I wore my hair short with a slight curl and I wore minimal makeup. I chose simple, modern accessories to contrast with the throwback look of the gown. I wanted to feel comfortable and natural, and I wanted a more laid back, easy look than what I am doing for the wedding in Miami, which will be a more dressed up affair. In general, I was inspired by the modern elegance of the 1920s, and I wanted to give that era a contemporary spin.

SHOP THIS LOOK

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Jean-Laurent Gaudy
Event Planning – The Creative’s Loft
Venue – The Foundry
Floral Design – Ava Flora
Cake – Martha’s Country Bakery
Invitations – Ettie Kim
Makeup Artist and Hair Styling – Bellelite
Wedding Dress – Laure De Sagazan
Bridal Accessories – Lia Terni, Catbird, and Sézane
Rentals – Little House Originals

Congratulations to Betina and George, and a special thanks to one of our newest Junebug members, The Creative’s Loft, for sharing this lovely elopement with us! Are you planning an elopement and looking for more inspiration? Check out all the dreamy details and adventurous portraits in this candlelit Columbus Gorge elopement at the Skamania Old Stone House!

Whimsically Romantic Wedding at The Tucson Country Club

June 30, 2017 | Junebug Weddings

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Hannah and Tyler’s wedding transported guests to another place and time with its naturally romantic vibes with whimsical details! The couple’s wedding at Tucson Country Club placed an emphasis on warm, personal touches like a refurbished family dinner table used as their sweetheart table, as well as eclectic DIY accents such as brass details, free-flowing fabric, and tons of vibrant blooms. Timothy Eyrich Photography captured every stunning moment of Hannah and Tyler’s wedding, including their incredibly emotional ceremony processional!

The Couple:

Hannah and Tyler

The Wedding:

Tucson Country Club, Tucson, Arizona

Our wedding colors were ivory, gold, fuchsia, pink, burgundy, and of course green with all of the foliage surrounding us. When wedding planning I asked Tyler if he had a preference for colors and he requested that we stay away from traditionally pastel wedding color palettes. I loved this idea! We chose these colors because we wanted to add vibrancy through use of flowers around the grove and ceremony site. Our florist, Tanya, with In Full Bloom florals definitely delivered!

With regards to design, it was most important that our wedding facilitate a sense of closeness and warmth as a reflection of Tyler and myself. We wanted our wedding to feel inviting to our friends and family as well as be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

There were so many memorable moments from our wedding day but the moments which have most impacted me were the ones in which Tyler and I connected with eye contact: walking down the aisle to meet him, saying our vows, and our first dance. If that was all I had on our wedding day it would have been just as special.

Our favorite photo was the one taken of us wrapped up in the ceremony fabric near our altar. We love this photo because it captures the way we feel completely enraptured with one another, not paying attention to time or place. It conveys the love we feel in our hearts towards one another and the intimacy we experienced on our wedding day.

If the details are really important to you, be sure to arrange for a few friends to help move, set everything up, and tear down decor on your big day. Don’t forget to thank them later! This is more cost effective than hiring an out of venue wedding planner and equally fun too. Just remember that the most important detail is that you’re married to the love of your life! This is your chance to celebrate! If something is forgotten or you couldn’t complete everything you had planned, don’t stress.

I didn’t realize a project I had made to hang from the trees around our cake table was forgotten until we were home from our honeymoon! I guess it didn’t matter that much since I never noticed it was missing. Realizing this brought me great joy because it showed me how swept away I was on our wedding day. Revel in this!

We chose a romantic vibe with a touch of otherworldly whimsy for our wedding. We wanted to feel like we were transported to another time and place during our ceremony and reception. During the evening we were encompassed by trees and glowing lights from hanging fairy light jars surrounding the grove and a chandelier over our table.

Our sweetheart table was not only important to me design wise, it was also a very sentimental piece. I grew up eating around this table and it carries a lot of special memories. Tyler and I lovingly refurbished and repainted it three years ago. We found the chairs at a foreclosed house and refurbished them to go with our table. We loved the slight old world Spanish influence they brought.

For our table decor, we scoured to find brass vintage candlestick holders and uniquely shaped tea light containers. It was important to me to have something individual and different from what I’d seen at other weddings. We also used glasses and dinnerware with elements of brass from World Market, free flowing fabric, Mexican candles, and lots of flowers and foliage to create ambiance.