Our August 21, 2010, outdoor evening wedding at the Southern Tree Plantation in Blairsville, Georgia, should be chosen to be a featured in The Knot because we have creatively incorporated personalized details into every aspect of our wedding! Like so many others, I am a budget bride but I don’t feel as though I have had to compromise on anything.
Tyler and I met three years ago while we were working at a summer camp in GA. Tyler didn’t even notice me during the summer, but I caught his eye at his going-away party before he moved up to NYC for an internship in television. Two months later, I visited him in NY, determined to come home with a boyfriend. Well I didn’t, but two weeks later we decided to date even though we were miles apart and didn’t know where I would be living. (I had recently graduated and was searching the country for an AmeriCorps program that was involved with water quality work.) Two weeks after we started to date I got a job in NJ, where I was only a two-hour train ride away from Tyler. After dating for two years and only seeing each other on the weekends, Tyler proposed in the same place where we first held hands, on a bench in Battery Park. A month later I moved to VT to get my master's degree and Tyler moved back to GA to get a job closer to our families before the wedding. We have never really lived in the same place or have been able to date like a normal couple so our wedding will really be the start of a whole new life! Planning a wedding that will take place over 1,000 miles away has been a fun and very interesting adventure!
The ceremony is at a gorgeous area surrounded by the beautiful North Georgia Mountains. Our guests will be greeted with handmade program fans and iced waters to cool off with. I am wearing a beautiful Sottero and Midgley gown that I fell in love with from the moment I saw it! The bridesmaids are wearing dark red full-length, one-shoulder gowns and each carrying their favorite flower. The groomsmen’s boutonnieres will match the flower of the bridesmaid they will be escorting, and my bouquet will be made of one flower from each of the bridesmaids bouquets surrounded by red roses (symbolizing that they each make up a part of me). We are having a unity ‘flower’ ceremony (where we arrange a vase of flowers on a table), that my father is making for the wedding and our future house. During this time, our groomsmen will be performing an acoustic version of a Coheed and Cambria song. We do not have any younger family that we are close to, so our flower girls and ring bearer (carrying the groom's childhood stuffed dog dressed in a tuxedo) are teenagers. The girls are wearing Chucks with their dresses and the RB is wearing a fedora to top off his look.
The reception will follow on-site in a converted barn that will have lights hanging from the rafters and a view of the sunset over the mountains. The celebration will be kicked off with cocktails, including two signature drinks: The Spangs Splash (after my nickname) and a nonalcoholic drink, The Flowers Fluff (named after Tyler). The toast will be with our favorite dessert wine, which is actually from a local vineyard. The chairs are white, so we choose black table linens decorated with red rose petals and white tea and votive candles. In the middle will be a reused wine carafe with a single red rose inside illuminated from the bottom through waterpearls. The favors at each seat will be in silver tins tied with a bow and filled with pretzels hand-dipped in chocolate and M&M’s (our favorites).
Our favorite details: In place of a monogram, we have a drawing of Tyler in a tux holding a video camera and myself wearing waders under my wedding dress to highlight our two passions (water and film). This is featured on our programs, menus, and favors. It is also being made out of sugar to be the topper to our cake, which will be covered in white homemade fondant, with a hand-painted black ‘river’ flowing up the three tiered, multi-flavored cake with red roses to add a pop of color.
When Tyler proposed, he had a friend who is a professional photographer take pictures without me knowing. They were taken in such rapid succession that they can be flipped through and you can see the whole proposal like it was on film, him putting the ring on me and all! At the guest book table we will have a flipbook of the proposal and a scrapbook of our relationship. Guests will then be able to help continue our story by signing pages that will be added to the scrapbook as our wedding pages. The table numbers also highlight our relationship and are places that mean the most to us as a couple. Pretty much every detail mentioned has a DIY component and has been designed by Tyler and myself to make this a truly detail-oriented, personalized, and fun affair.
The night will end with a sparkler exit, and our new lives together back in Georgia close to our friends and family will begin after a trip to Disney World! We hope that our details stand out and that you choose to feature our wedding!
May 13, 2010