I remember getting engaged and immediately people asked me what the colors were going to be… and the theme, and the venue and my dress. AH! Talk about overload! Wow! I wasn’t one of those girls that had been planning her wedding since she was 5. I had no idea what type of dress I wanted, what venue I wanted or what our colors were going to be (well I knew one of them:). I was overwhelmed. As we started planning, I remember when I thought of Peacock! It was like the light bulb came on and the ideas started flowing. Without a theme, I was lost. I had no direction whatsoever! Every cute vase I saw, I wanted to use it… but it doesn’t work that way. Luckily I had a theme
decided about a month after we were engaged and I started collecting very specific things….. like peacock feathers, and vintage green vases from thrift stores. Every time target had their large vases on sale I bought them ALL. The cashiers must have thought I was CRAZY. But hey! When you have 42 TABLES to decorate…. you gotta buy in bulk! As the year went on, my vision of the wedding became clearer and clearer. The details that I had been building up in my head were finally starting to take shape!
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My biggest fear throughout the whole year of planning was that I wouldn’t be able to use all of this STUFF that I had been collecting. The old frames, the vintage vases, the bags of birdseed, etc. etc. What if my ideas didn’t work? What if this stuff was a huge waste of money? Luckily, I used EVERYTHING except one peacock wreath that the mice had gotten a hold of in the basement and 3 pillar candles. That’s pretty good! I was so pleased with myself that I came upstairs and made an announcement to the whole family about my accomplishment! You see, I set up EVERY single station in the basement and since the reception was in the field behind our house, all we had to do was transfer those stations out of the back door! I made labels and diagrams of where everything was supposed to go because the hardest part about the wedding day was knowing that I couldn’t set everything up! So I gave very specific instructions to a dear dear friend (Gayle Terry!) and she came at the crack of dawn to set it all up! It was perfect! Everything about the day was perfect! The only thing that DIDN’T go according to plan was that my fake eyelashes fell off! ….. really! That was it! 10.10.10 was more beautiful than I ever imagined and I can’t wait to share more!! But for today, we’ll stick to the details! … and beware… this is probably the longest Wedding Wednesday post EVER. Enjoy!!!!!
Before we begin! I HAVE to thank the wonderful couple who captured our day so perfectly! Jasmine and JD were absolutely incredible and they deserves so much credit for this post. Thanks to them, I was able to actually ENJOY my wedding day and not worry about whether or not details were being captured. It was wonderful! So be sure to check out her blog post and give her some love from the east coast:)
Ps. Great story about the Ralph Lauren Romance perfume that I bought SPECIFICALLY for 10-10-10… come to find out.. Michael is ALLERGIC to it! We found this out a few days after the wedding and now we know why he kept sneezing during the “first look”! oh. my. gosh. How funny?!This broach as well as ALL the antique furniture belonged to my great Aunt Margie! My Dad’s parents passed away when he was a teenager and so Aunt Margie and Uncle Alvin became my grandparents once I entered the world! It was so special to use her antiques and incorporate them into our wedding! (ps. that broach is REAL! I was scared to death that I was going to lose it!)
Jasmine have we told you that we LOVE our ring shot? Definitely a fav!
Thanks to the fabulous Janie Medley for our flowers! Love her to pieces!Ok, I KNOW this is an incredibly LONG post but let me just say… I have been working on this thing for over a YEAR of my life and so I’m going to show it off! There, I said it! I love love LOVE details and so the post makes me so happy to see how it all came together! What a relief!
So obviously I couldn’t afford to do place settings like this for 400+ people. However! I did do a place setting for the bridal party table! This table design was my baby… I was determined to set this up myself and so I arranged it all the night before and covered it with plastic until the morning! (I think there is a little bit of a Type A in me!)
This display was outside of the church!
The CANDY BAR! (One of my favorite tables!)
This was the “Farewell” Table (I named all my tables… I’m weird like that). Michael’s wedding gift was this globe! Before you judge my lack of creativity in gift giving… you should know that Michael has ALWAYS talked about wanting a real globe! He was a history major and so when I saw this, It was perfect and I had an idea of a way to include it in the wedding! We put an “x” on Italy and had people spin it to find our honeymoon destination!
The entrance of the reception! Momma worked so hard growing those flowers all summer!!!
We had the most AMAZING caterer! Mosaic’s WOWED everyone not only with their food but with the presentation of it as well! Look at this cool ice tea dispenser!
Peacock Lemonade! Our specialty drink!:)
The Legacy table was one of my favorites! Not because it was the prettiest or most detailed… but because it meant so much to our parents and grandparents. We displayed pictures from all of their weddings and even one portrait from Michael’s great grandparent’s honeymoon back in 1910! Crazy!
We had patio lights strung across our patio and had a lounge area underneath. This was the wall display on the side of our garage!
Gift Table!
Photobooth! (The money saving way to do a photobooth:)
This was another lounge area under the tent! How awesome are those suitcases that Mosaic provided?!
Last but not least… the “Love Notes” table….
And here’s a little shot that gives you an overall view of the reception…. next Wedding Wednesday is all about LIGHTING! Love me some lighting!
There has never been a year quite like 2020. It started off so normal, so simple and so carefree. Then, March/April hit and it felt like everything was turned upside down!
Another month. I had forgotten just how fast it goes when they are this tiny. One minute they are in 0-3 month clothes and the next you’re unpacking 6month options!
How is it MARCH already in 2021?! This year is flying by and we’re getting closer and closer to the beginning of wedding season! At least we are here in Virginia! It’s my honor to get to introduce you to some of our KJ Students who are doing the hard work of educating themselves and growing their businesses! My hope is that their stories and advice will be an encouragement to anyone wanting to grow and feel confident before wedding season picks up!
Welcome to a brand new installment of KJ Student Spotlight!! It’s always a good day on the blog when we get to introduce you to some of our students and share their wins and advice!!! These three students have taken courses, watched Youtube episodes, are KJ All Access members, use our templates and have invested in themselves time and time again in order to grow their businesses! They deserve this recognition!!!
Here it is! Post one of twelve! I’m committing, once again, to blogging my favorite images each month of Everett’s first year and I’m excited about it because I know from past experience that this is truly the BEST motivation and accountability to stay on top of family editing!!
It’s hard to believe I’m writing this… my fourth birth story in four years. I’ve given birth in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Just typing that makes me tired….. and so grateful…. unbelievably grateful. These last four years have been the best and hardest of my life. We cherish being parents and welcoming a new baby is hands down the most incredible thing we have ever experienced in our 18 years together. I’m so excited to introduce you to our newest member of our family and tell you the story of how he came into this world!