Life has been busy, and I’m a broken record. I’m also going to do something a lot of bloggers tend to do – an iPhone dump. I’m such a cliché, right? Yes, I have an iPhone and yes, I kinda love it. And I wanted to share a few pictures I had on the ol’ phone, so why not do a virtual iPhone dump? I hear it’s the cool thing to do.
This weekend I attended a family wedding in Asheville, NC. I don’t know about you, but a family wedding is basically the best thing ever. My family is wonderful and funny and entertaining – and really knows how to throw a party. The rehearsal dinner was at a great venue, The Barns, in Black Mountain, NC and there was a bluegrass band called High Windy that was. so. good. We even bought their CDs afterwards, and felt like groupies.
After a night of foot stompin’ and barbeque eatin’ (catered by 12 Bones barbeque in Asheville), we took a trip to a huuuuge antique mall (Antique Tabacco Barn) that my coworker recommended. I was unsuccessful in finding new night stands, but I did send my coworker a picture of this cute dresser for $99 big ones.
Love that mirror! This antique mall was 77,000 SF of pure antique bliss. We found some beautiful old doors with egg-and-dart moulding and beveled glass, a custom wood cabinetry/divider wall, and a campaign dresser for a whopping $950. I decided to pass on that one. But seriously, if you’re in Asheville, check it out! We were all quite impressed with the goods they had there.
The actual wedding was at another beautiful venue, The Farm, and everything was perfect. There were wild horses for the guests to pet and a bonfire for s’mores under the stars.
The best part, though, was the Photobooth. This is a big trend in weddings now, and I have to agree that it’s the best thing ever. So fun!
Oh, and while my parents were up in NC visiting us, my sister decided to have a baby. She’s really known for her good timing with childbirth. Meet Clara Elaine, my new little niece. So excited to meet her!
One more photo dump: here is a little something that I’m working on in the abode. We’ll see if it turns out into something blogworthy! Thanks for hanging in there with me, readers!
Freaking. Stunning. I loved my 
The bride did a great job of choosing simple yet unique centerpieces. She used the somewhat typical hydrangeas and cala lilies, but the way they were arranged for the centerpieces was really whimsical.
My parents were in town for the wedding, as well as for a Mother’s Day centered weekend. Just for good measure, check out a picture of the fam, drinks in hand. First order of business at a wedding is hitting up the free wine and gin & tonics, and soaking in the beautiful North Carolina weather. Nothing better, right?
Stay tuned for some fancy shmancy Charlotte garden crashing soon!
We definitely wanted our wedding to be an outdoor, laid back, relaxed event, where our guests could take their shoes off and enjoy the night – literally. We wanted a casual event, but also wanted it to be put together and cohesive. The jumping off point for our “theme” (for lack of a better term) was the tent. The tent provide the outdoor ambiance we craved, while protecting us from any unforeseen downpours from Mother Nature (which luckily we avoided). The string lights draped throughout the tent, the Spanish moss dripping from the big oak trees and the white folding chairs all added to our lovely little backyard vibe.
Our southern approach to backyard barbecuing was further instilled with our cute mason jar drinks during cocktail hour. The standard martini and champagne glasses was a bit too schmancy for our event, so our caterer served hard lemonade and sweet tea in these great mason jar glasses, which totally brought the theme to fruition. Who wouldn’t be relaxed when they’re drinking tea out of a jar? Genius.
Our table settings were downright quaint, but put together at the same time. My mom cooked up these amazing wheat centerpieces (which are still being used by in-laws almost 2 years later) with a woven table charger, a small terra cotta pot for the base, floral wire and some wheat and grasses. Slap a little ribbon around the bunch and call me Martha Stewart. Our homemade name tags and menus tied all of the wedding colors together, and the little pumpkin treats my mom made for every guest were that little bit of extra small town, homemade goodness.
Mmm look at that gooey goodness smashed between two mini pumpkin cakes. We spent a lot of time thinking of favors we could give to our guests that they wouldn’t eventually throw away, so we decided on the obvious – food. Who’s to turn down a little morsel of yumminess? No one we invited. These puppies were all inhaled before dinner was served, which is a sign of a great wedding favor.
Another great detail that added to our backyard barbecue feel was our music. We decided to forgo the standard DJ or band and instead used a laptop and Scott’s dad’s music equipment (he’s a DJ on the side – pays to have good in-laws!). We spent hours and hours before the wedding compiling our dinner and dance mixes and simply pressed play on iTunes once the reception started. The non-stop tunes and no interruptions from a DJ that’s craving some attention certainly led to some all night groovin. If you’re having trouble finding the right person to run the music at your wedding, seriously consider an “iPod” wedding. We got to completely customize our song choices, so every song that played was completely us. And completely awesome.
On a seemingly unrelated note, I have to show a picture of my flowers. Aren’t they purty? We didn’t spend a lot of our budget on flowers for the wedding (instead deciding to make most of our decorations from more affordable means), but the little bit that we did spend on flowers made all the difference. If you have a million dollar budget for your wedding, spend some money on the flowers. They’re absolutely gorgeous and can really bring a color scheme to life. We only had flowers for the wedding party and a few other strategic locations, but the impact they made on the whole event was remarkable. People are still talking about them! And by people I mean myself.
Our cohesive wedding extravaganza started off with the idea to use the fern as our mascot. We wanted to use fall colors since our wedding was in November (and because I have a slight obsession with the color green) and while messing around on photoshop in our early planning days, we found this fern brush that Scott had. Boom! The driving piece of our wedding was born. We decided to carry this green fern throughout all of our paper goods (along with chocolate and orange accents) so everything would tie together nicely. This started in our Save the Date cards (above) and carried into the creation of our “logo” in our invitations:
By the way, that was a carrot cake with butter creme icing. :::droooool::: Our food selection was a major pat-on-the-back to our wedding planning, but that’s another post. We did love our logo to bits, but for our rehearsal dinner, we decided to branch off of the design a bit and make that event special in it’s own rite. We still used a foliage graphic to tie the two items together, but it was a nice change of pace for us to bring in some different colors and cook up another swinging invitation.
We were pretty proud of our graphic design endeavors in wedding world. Any stationary/paper craft ideas you’d like to share? Or, if you’d like to just leave lavish comments on how awesome we are, that’s fine as well. :)
