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Enchanting Autumn Nashville Wedding at Drakewood Farm

March 10, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

What do you get when you combine autumnal colors, a woodsy ceremony, and a stunning Berta wedding gown? Megan and Scott’s fairytale wedding at Drakewood Farm in Nashville! Katherine Joy Photography allowed us to witness and fall in love with every moment of this special day, which started with three reveals to the bridal party, the father of the bride, and the groom and ended with everyone busting a move on the dance floor. But the highlight was, without a doubt, the enchanting ceremony in the woods that featured an overgrown greenery and floral backdrop and a perfect sunset peaking through the giant trees. Drakewood Farm was the perfect setting for this autumn wedding that was full of impeccable style, accented with charming details, and overflowing with the purest moments of love.

The Couple:

Megan and Scott

The Wedding:

Drakewood Farm, Nashville, Tennessee

My number one priority was the fashion. It’s not that I didn’t care about the other things, but I had dreamed about the fashion forever. Berta has always been my dream wedding dress designer, but I didn’t think I would actually get to get married in one! There is nothing in the world like a Berta gown. The craft of the beadwork, the elegance of the silhouette — it’s all just perfection. You know when someone is wearing a Berta. I had tried on dresses for months and never found anything that even could slightly compare to the feeling I had when I slipped on this dress for the first time. I wanted my dress to be a statement. I wanted the mix of sexy and classic elegance, and that’s exactly how my dress made me feel. My mom was with me when I tried it on for the first time and all of us, including the sweetest woman helping us with gowns, broke down when I put it on.

My Mom and Dad gave me a pair of beautiful diamond flower earrings as a wedding gift, and my something borrowed was the diamond necklace my grandfather had given my Mom on her 16th birthday. It’s very special to my Mom, and wearing it was an honor. 

Scott wrote me cards that one of my Maids of Honor gave me throughout the night before and day of the wedding. Scott had them scheduled to be delivered at times of stress and knew just what I needed to laugh and lighten a stressful day. Each card was very thoughtful. It was as if he was with me the entire day leading to the ceremony. The last card was delivered with a surprise: the most perfect dainty diamond necklace that he picked out himself. It was perfect and remains something I wear every day.

All the girls that stood next to me have been my dearest friends for a very long time. I had a range of best friends from elementary, middle, and high school, as well as friends from college and adult-life best friends. I felt like I really knew what would look beautiful on all of them, so I handpicked each dress for each girl. I wanted them to be similar shades but unique in either texture, neckline, or silhouette. So we had the perfect mixture of chiffon, lace, tulle, and velvet. They all looked stunning in their dresses, and the entire look came together better than I could have ever imagined!

Drakewood Farm was the first venue we visited in Nashville. I am from Texas, so we had looked at multiple venues there but never found anything that made us say, “This is it!” I really wanted to be surrounded by huge trees and woods for the ceremony. We had booked a full day of seeing venues one weekend when I was visiting Scott in Nashville, and our first stop was Drakewood Farm. The minute I walked into the wooded ceremony location, I knew it was the one. That was exactly what I had always dreamed of. It was a like fairytale come to life and just standing in it felt magical!

Our advice is to keep reminding yourself that your wedding is just one day. It’s one day before you start the rest of your life. Remember to prepare for the marriage, and not just the one day. I planned up to one week before the wedding and then I gave the control to the Lord. I knew it was going to be perfect and I didn’t need my hands in anything else. I spent that week preparing my vows, preparing my heart, and loving on the people that helped make the week so special.

Also, give your cell phone to your maid of honor and have her deal with all the questions from the people asking! You don’t need to deal with any of that right before your wedding. That was the best thing that I did that week, and it took enormous amounts of stress off my plate. Thank God for best friends!

The whole day was truly the most unforgettable day. We felt like we lived our very own fairytale. We watched our dream wedding play out in every moment of the day. One of my favorite parts, though, was the last dance Scott and I shared completely alone at the end of the night. Everyone had left the reception hall and were outside waiting for our exit. The room was still twinkling in lights, and we got to take a moment alone to just look around and soak up every little detail. It was such a special moment for us, and one we are so thankful we took the time for it! Then we walked out to the most epic and unexpected firework show, and that was the perfect ending to the most perfect day of our lives!

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Katherine Joy Photography
Event Planning, Floral Design, Catering, and Cake – Drakewood Farm
Venue – Drakewood Farm
Videography – Cannon Weddings
Stationery – Minted
Makeup Artist and Hair Styling – Marz Collins
Wedding Dress – Bridal Boutique Lewisville
Bridal Accessories – Betsy Johnson
Bridesmaids’ Apparel – Lulus, Norstrom, and BHLDN
Groom and Groomsmen’s Apparel – JoS. A. Bank
Rings – Genesis Diamonds
Transportation – Grand Avenue

 

A heartfelt congratulations to Megan and Scott, and a sincere thanks to Katherine Joy Photography for sharing this Drakewood Farm wedding with Junebug! Want to see more autumnal wedding inspiration? We’ve got the most beautiful autumnal apple orchard wedding at Clark’s Cove Farm and Inn that we know you’ll love!

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Urban Elegant Portland Wedding at Cooper’s Hall

March 10, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

Emily and Tom’s Portland wedding at Cooper’s Hall was not only elegant but was totally focused on community. While most couples opt for a private first look, they included their entire wedding party. During their ceremony, they had seven of their friends read and give seven blessings. Even during the planning process, their focus was spending quality time with friends and family as they shopped for and crafted the various elements and made sure to have everything planned one week early so they could go on a friends’ beach trip before the wedding! From beginning to end, the details and decor reflected the couple’s laid-back and cool vibe. We adore that florist Vanessa Schmidt placed greenery on nearly every surface, including the ceiling, to give the urban space a wildly romantic feel. And we love that they traded a wedding cake for an ice cream truck! Christy Cassano Meyer did a phenomenal job capturing every beautiful moment of this Portland wedding!

The Couple:

Emily and Tom

The Wedding:

Cooper’s Hall, Portland, Oregon

The most important part in planning our wedding was spending quality time with our friends and family. That was the number one priority in everything we did. We always asked, “How can each part of our preparation include quality time with the people we love?” We will always remember the backyard work parties with both our families, our trip to the beach with friends, invitation addressing and movie watching, dress shopping with all the ladies from both sides of our family, and so many other moments of quality time that we were able to soak up in the year leading up to the wedding.

We loved everything about the day, but the most memorable part was our ceremony. It was so full of love and community. We planned so many different aspects of our wedding that we absolutely loved and that we wanted our friends and family to enjoy, but without question the most important part of the day was saying the vows we had written for each other. We’ve known each other for a long time and committing to each other forever was such an amazing moment!

We had our dear friend Adam marry us, and we had seven friends share blessings for our future together. We found a reading of blessings from an unknown source that was based on the Jewish tradition of Seven Blessings. We loved the idea and the subject areas of the blessings so we asked seven friends who we love, admire, respect, and know will support us to share a blessing during the ceremony. Each of our friends then wrote their own unique blessing for us based on the subject areas we shared. We had a blessing for Love, Wisdom, Health, a Loving Home, Humor and Play, Art, Beauty and Creativity, and Community. They were beautiful, and we will always cherish them.

During the planning process, we sent notes to each other back and forth about the different type of wedding we could have. They included my Mom’s backyard, the Gorge, a vineyard, and Palm Springs — all of which have significance. The one that caught as we talked more and more about it was doing it somewhere in our city of Portland. What we wrote down to finalize the decision was this: “Somewhere in Portland that is cool, classy, and Portland-y to celebrate in the city where we both came and are building our lives together.”

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Christy Cassano Meyer
Event Planning – Mae&Co Creative
Venue – Cooper’s Hall
Floral Design – Vanessa Schmidt
Ice Cream Truck – Fifty Licks
DJ – Stumptown DJs
Videography – Joseph Campbell Wilde
Stationery – Kelly Schmidt via Minted
Makeup Artist and Hair Styling – Blush N’ Bride
Wedding Dress – Madison James
Bridal Jumpsuit – BHLDN
Bridesmaids’ Apparel – BHLDN
Groom’s Apparel – Strong Suit
Groomsmen’s Apparel – J. Crew
Rings – With These Rings

 

Congratulations to Emily and Tom, and a big thanks to Mae&Co Creative for sharing this gorgeous Portland wedding at Cooper’s Hall with Junebug! Trying to decide between a countryside or downtown wedding? Before you decide, take a peek these 47 urban wedding photos that will convince you to tie the knot in the city!

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Adventurous Stanley Lake Elopement in Snowy Idaho

March 9, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

After seeing Nicole and Justin’s epic Stanley Lake elopement, we’re holding ourselves back from dropping everything and hopping on a plane to Idaho! This adventurous couple started their day cuddling on the couch with their sweet puppy then made their way to the waterfront for a private ceremony with a spectacular view of the Sawtooth Mountains. After some playful and romantic photo ops in the snow with Maggie Grace Photography, they ended their perfect day with s’mores and hot cocoa by a campfire and a dip in an indoor hot tub.

The Couple:

Nicole and Justin

The Wedding:

Stanley Lake, Idaho

The most important part in planning our elopement was that it was an adventure. We wanted it to be somewhere beautiful that we had never been, and we wanted it to be just the two of us. We love our family and friends so much, but we believed that our ceremony should be a private moment that way we could enjoy each other more on our special day rather than dealing with the stress a wedding brings. It was also very important to us that we had a great photographer and a videographer to document our day so we could share it with our family and friends and have photos and a video to look back on and relive our special day.

So many parts of our day were so memorable! Waking up to a fresh snow and traveling to the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains for the first time was pretty memorable for us both. But our first look was such a beautiful moment. We originally planned to elope in September, but on the day we had booked, the smoke from the surrounding wildfires in the Northwest filled the air. So we decided to postpone the date to November. When Justin finally got to see me in my dress (it really felt like forever), it was an unforgettable moment, and one we will cherish forever.

Our ceremony was just the two of us, on the side of Stanley Lake, after a fresh snow. There was probably no one for miles around us, and it felt so secluded and peaceful. We hiked through the snow to one of the most beautiful places in Idaho with the Sawtooth Mountains as our backdrop. It was freezing but so beautiful! We wrote our own vows to each other, and our officiant Chris wrote a beautiful piece to say during the ceremony, as well.

We have a passion for traveling to places we have never been and sharing amazing adventures together. Justin proposed at the top of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park (which is a 5 mile round-trip hike, with a 1500 ft elevation change, rated as strenuous). After that, we knew our wedding day had to be just as adventurous and intimate! So it was just the two of us, in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, hiking around in the beautiful fresh snow.

My advice to brides who are planning their wedding day is to always remember what the day is truly about: you and your soulmate becoming husband and wife. I see too many brides get carried away in their big weddings, and I think they forget what the day should really be about. Justin and I were able to spend our day adventuring around in the mountains, celebrating our love, and I couldn’t be more happy about it! We didn’t worry about a schedule, or walking around socializing with guests, or if the wedding party was lined up correctly. All we worried about was where we would adventure next, and making sure we didn’t get hypothermia!

The Wedding Team:

Photography – Maggie Grace Photography
Event Planning – Emily Aitken Events
Floral Design – Wildflower
Videography – Goose Films
Wedding Dress – Essense of Australia

 

Congratulations to Nicole and Justin on the beginning of your forever, and a huge thanks to Junebug member Maggie Grace Photography for sharing this adventurous Lake Stanley elopement! Did this winter elopement speak to your soul? Then you have to check out Phillippa and Oliver’s Wanaka helicopter elopement in New Zealand!

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