We've been published!! Sweet Love in Southern Weddings Magazine!

Hello, dear readers!! I have many, many beautiful weddings in queue to share, but have to wait because some are being submitted for publication. In the meantime, I wanted to share our shoot from earlier this year. YAY!! It's finally here!! Now that the V3 issue of Southern Weddings Magazine is out and available to the public, we are able to share our story behind the gorgeous images and inspiration.

First, here is a peek at two of the three and a half spreads we were given in the magazine! I couldn't be more thankful to the beautiful editors over at Southern Weddings Magazine. Emily and Lara are so sweet and it was such a pleasure to work with Amelia Lyon again! I can't think of any photographer who could have better captured the details of our shoot. She really outdid herself!

Photography by Amelia Lyon, as featured in Southern Weddings Magazine V3!

These are a few of my favorite shots from the day. It was a long time coming, but designing and styling the shoot along with Melissa Huber from The Loveliest Day was too much fun. No joke. We totally vibe and make such a great team! Plus, the other vendors that we hand-picked and asked to be a part of the shoot were just PERFECT for capturing our vision and bringing it to life.

This shot below, along with the one featured above of the couple (sitting in the custom-upholstered settee from FOUND vintage rentals) are my absolute favoritest from the shoot. Aren't they simply amazing? Isn't the blue just perfection? Jeni from FOUND searched high and low for the perfect blue textured fabric for our settee. There was plenty of picture/text messaging back and forth with Jeni in order to get the exact fabric colors we were looking for. I can't thank her enough! She also custom-made the table runner and napkins for us. She is amazing and if you have not already been to her studio, stop what you are doing and go right now. Seriously. Right now. This post will be here when you get back. The inspiration you will gather just from visiting her shop will be invaluable!!

 The gown above was custom-made by Vivian from Tomato Weddings, just for our shoot! We had a very specific style in mind and I can't tell you how many times I visited Vivian's shop to make sure this was juuust right. Aren't the puffed sleeves gorg?! And the way it flows?? I melt... It kind of reminds me of Anne of Green Gables - anyone know what I am talking about? ;)

The two projects above were total labors of love. I have to give a BIG shout out to my assistant, Bonny. She worked on that peach flower garland for two days straight! It may not look like much, but it takes a lot of flowers to make a substantial garland. :)

Melissa and I made the chrysanthemum poms (while watching South Park on Netflix!), which served as escort cards. There was yarn fuzz all over my living room floor, but it was so worth it, don't you think?! I will definitely have to post a tutorial soon. They were time-consuming but so simple to make!

We collected tin cans for months and those two vases are from my own collection. Eddie spray painted all the cans and we covered some with beautiful lace to add texture. The picture of these against that sky line makes me feel so happy. Amelia is seriously a rock star! I love her unique and artistic take on everyday things! Sometimes I wonder what the world would look like through her eyes!

 Sweet, sweet Melody from My Sweet and Saucy provided us with the lovely desserts and baked goods. How she got the macarons so perfectly peach tinted is beyond me, but they were also delish! The custom logo sugar cookies with the couples monogram was also a special treat. I am DYING for one of my brides to order them for their wedding dessert bar or as favors!

And the FLOWERS!! Megan from Honey and Poppies was a dream to work with. She is a great collaborator and is spot on about capturing the essence of what you might be envisioning. We provided her with a list of flowers we love, inspirational images and storyboards and her result blew me away. I was fixated on the idea of having a lush, floral headpiece that incorporated peach garden roses and other romantic flowers, and she went above and beyond my expectations. She also showed up with the berries to fill some of our tin cans because we wanted to incorporate some fruits and berries - I love that we didn't use typical peaches even though they would have been the obvious choice for our peach and navy blue color scheme. :)

Obviously, I can't post the picture above and not mention the spectacular hair and makeup job done by the oh-so-talented Nicole Deanne. Okay, so you may be noticing that several of these vendors are from my own wedding. ;) What can I say? I love these ladies and they are my go-to gals when I know I want something fah-bu-lous! I work with Nicole so often, but she never ceases to amaze me. Don't you love the color lipstick she chose for our model?! Genius!!

 

And last but definitely not least! The lovely Megan from Mae Mae Paperie. If you know my work, you already know that I have collaborated with Megan before for this project. Megan and I totally click and she just "gets me" - there is really no other way to explain it! For both projects, we never even had to meet in person! Everything was accomplished online or over the phone and our conversations are entirely filled with excited gushing of ideas, squealing and ooh and aahs! I love how she translates the ideas in my brain into real-live paper goods that are even more beautiful than anything I could imagine on my own! ;)

I have to give another shout out to Bonny here because while Megan did the design, Bonny worked tirelessly on the printing, cutting and assembly of all these paper pieces. The large signs, as held by the flower girl above, are another idea that I have been dying to use for a wedding. Bonny is the crafty-bee who assembled these signs and she added the yummy peach silk ribbon for that special added touch. Melissa found the ribbon online and I have to say, she is the queen of online research/purchasing!! If there was ever an item we couldn't find, Melissa would find it!

Finally, I have to include these two images above because the first really shows how amazingly talented Amelia is. That is some legit photo-journalism because the model wasn't posing for a shot, she was crouching on the ground as I was changing her head piece for a different shot. She had to crouch because she is waaay taller than me! ;) But that is besides the point. Anyways, the birdcage veil and millinery flowers are two separate items, so I was placing and pinning them when Amelia snuck in and grabbed this shot. Isn't she magical? And the second one of the couple with the horse is SO exactly what I was hoping we would be able to take away from this shoot. I love everything about it - the draping of the dress, the flower head piece, the boots peeking out and the flower hills against the great expanse of the sky. ah. I'm in love.

I can't believe this all started with Melissa and I randomly meeting over coffee to chat (since we had been following each other's blogs) and me buying some mercury glass hurricane jars from her... they have already SO come in handy in 3 of my weddings this year! Melissa - I love you! You were the perfect partner in crime for this shoot. I miss our chats, emails and flea market shopping excursions. I miss Mamasita and your sweet hubs. You know what this may mean... I think we need to work on another shoot together!! ;) LOVE all of these ladies to pieces!

In case you need a round-up after all of the information overload above, here are the awesome people who made up our team. Thank you for being you!

So Happi Together, Nancy Park – Event Design and Coordination

The Loveliest Day, Melissa Huber – Event Design and Styling
Amelia Lyon Photography – Photography

Honey and Poppies, Megan Gray - Florals

My Sweet and Saucy Shop, Melody Brandon – Baked goods

Maemae Paperie, Megan Gonzalez – Stationery and Paper Goods

Tomato Weddings, Vivian Lee – Bride’s wardrobe

H&M – Groom’s Suit, Hugo Boss – shirt, Burberry - tie

The Ruby Closet – Flower Girl’s wardrobe

Nicole DeAnne – Hair and Makeup

Found Vintage Rentals, Jeni Maus – Furniture and rentals

Classic Party Rentals – tabletop rentals