Weddings by Jess

Here are the save the dates I designed for Jessica and Danny’s upcoming wedding. We printed them as postcards through Vistaprint, which is perfect for couples on a budget.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been so busy lately! Stay tuned for posts on Jessica and Danny’s save the dates and Robin and Seth’s upcoming wedding. But today I just wanted to share that Dawn and Joey’s wedding was featured on Ashley’s Bride Guide today! You can see some more of their gorgeous photos from Dove Wedding Photography and read about their day from their point of view.

I was commissioned by a bride in Louisiana to create their wedding invitations. She provided me with their monogram, which I used on the back flap of the envelopes and incorporated their fleur-de-lis theme on the invitations themselves. For privacy’s sake, of course, I blurred out all the private information, but you get the general idea!

I briefly posted about Dawn and Joey’s wedding a couple months ago, but I wanted to do a full recap with some photos from the great team over at Dove Wedding Photography. Dawn and Joey were both a delight to work with. They had an exact vision in mind, and I did my best to execute their well-made plans as their week-of coordinator.

The day started off well with a call from the groom saying that their DJ was bailing out and sending someone else in his place for the ceremony; the regularly scheduled DJ was supposed to still show up at the reception. I talked to the new DJ and made sure he knew what time to be at the ceremony location so that I could go over the cues that we had agreed upon with the previous DJ the day before at the rehearsal.

Luckily, this was the only issue the entire day. While we were all half worried that he wasn’t going to show either, he did. The ceremony prelude music wasn’t exactly what they had planned, but luckily I had a copy of the rest of their music to give to the new guy. The ceremony on the plaza started right on time, just as the bells begin to ring downtown to indicate the new hour.

The original DJ never did show, even for the reception like he said he would, but luckily his replacement stepped up to the plate and no one ever knew the difference. All the dances at the reception went off without a hitch, and you can see me here in the background (on the right) trying not to cry as I watch the newlyweds. I’m such a sap at weddings.

Dawn and Joey, I’m so glad I could be a part of your wedding day!

You can check out more of Dove’s photos of their wedding here.

I was out of town all weekend for my fiance’s brother’s wedding and thought I would share a few pictures!

I helped my future mother-in-law plan a shower for Ellen, the bride. She took care of the food (minus the cupcakes) and I took care of the decorations and the games.

I made a few of those Martha Stewart tissue paper pom-poms.

We put together some flower arrangements as well that the bride ended up using the next day for her bouquet!

Here you can see the recipe box I put together. I instructed all the guests to share some of their favorite recipes to put in the box.

As for games, we played the clothespin game (we couldn’t say the bride or groom’s names or the word ‘wedding’) and “How Well Does the Bride Know the Groom?”, which was a lot of fun.

Check out some of the delicious food. The cupcakes were from the Hermitage Publix, which I picked up right before I left town.

Now, onto the wedding. I didn’t have any part in the planning of the wedding, but I did act as a pseudo day-of coordinator and also their photographer! (Note: This is not a service I offer; I only have a little point and shoot, but they were having a very tiny wedding and just wanted someone to document.) Here are some of the pictures from their day.

Congrats to the newlyweds! I can’t wait till next year when I join the family.

I’ll be in Virginia for the next few days, so I will return all calls and emails when I get back Sunday night!

Here is an inspiration board for Jessica and Danny’s garden wedding at The Hermitage.

Top: Centerpiece from My Cleveland Wedding; gown by Jim Hjelm; bouquet from yoraflee on The Knot
Middle: Topiaries from The Knot; cake by Pink Cake Box; bouquet from Love and Splendor
Bottom: Drinks from Martha Stewart; bridesmaid dress from Alfred Angelo

My nephew Alex turned one a couple weeks ago, and today we celebrated at my house. I just wanted to share a few details with you all!

I put together a guestbook that he could look at when he gets older. Each guest filled out a page with stuff like what he will be when he grows up, where they traveled from, any advice they have for him, and then they could draw a picture of him. For the book itself, I bought a plain blue 8×8 scrapbook with a slot for a picture, then stuck a metal “happy birthday” sticker on the front and printed out a black and white picture of Alex. It turned out so cute! Here’s a picture of the blank pages and the book itself.

The theme was Winne the Pooh with blue and yellow as the colors. I got some cheap vases at Joann’s, spray-painted them a light yellow, and turned them into honey jars to use for the floral centerpieces.

My dad made some of his awesome barbecue.

His Nana set up this super cute cupcake tree.

And here’s the birthday boy!

Dawn and Joey were married over Memorial Day weekend. I’m so happy that I got to take part in their special day. Everything turned out perfectly, including the weather for their outdoor ceremony! On Friday night, the minute we finished the rehearsal, it started to pour rain, but it was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday, in the upper 70s with a slight breeze.

I’ll talk more about their details when the photos are up, so I’ll just do a quick run-down of their vendors for now. I want to say “thank you” to all of them for making the day as wonderful as it was!

Ceremony Venue: War Memorial/Legislative Plaza
Reception Venue and Catering: Uptown 162
Photography: Dove Wedding Photography
Florist: Dick’s Flowers
Cake: family friend
Rentals: Mid-South Tent Rentals
Trolley: FADDs Entertainment

Photo by Dove Wedding Photography.

It’s finally starting to get and stay warm outside, so here’s a summer picnic inspiration board. The Nashville area has lots of great plantations and mansions for wonderful Southern receptions.

Top: table from Toast and Tables; pie from Jehovah Jireh’s Bakery; drink dispensers from Pottery Barn
Middle: bridesmaid dress from Alfred Angelo; invitation from Relish; photo of Oakland Manor from One Source Weddings
Bottom: bouquet by The Bellevue Florist; Coca-Cola photo from Flickr; guitar photo from Kate Crafton