This Atlanta wedding is truly the best of both worlds. Elegant, heartfelt, and stylish to boot. But when it came time for the reception, this couple wanted to break the “rules” with food that reflected their Southern roots. The groom’s request? Varsity cheeseburgers and Coca Cola. Not to mention apple cobblers in the cutest mini skillets you’ve ever seen. Head to The Vault gallery by Amy Arrington and see why we can’t get enough.
From The Bride…We really wanted everyone to enjoy our neighborhood in Midtown Atlanta, which was the reason we chose the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. We had a design made of the midtown skyline and included that on their invite and the welcome bags and personalized cocktail napkins. My best friend owns a gluten free bakery in Atlanta, so we included some pumpkin bread in the welcome bag. We also included their favorite local coffee, Blue Donkey, and a koozie from our favorite brewery.
It was important to us to get married in the Catholic Church but we struggled with the mass times and the “Catholic Gap.” We chose to get married in an intimate ceremony on Friday night with wedding party only in lieu of a rehearsal. Then we had a traditional wedding ceremony on Saturday with all wedding guests at the reception site. Getting married on Friday took some of the pressure off Saturday and we got to say our vows twice in one weekend.
I wanted to include some sentimental items. My “something blue” was my maid of honor’s late mother’s wedding band, I borrowed a bridesmaid’s veil, and I affixed a compass to my bouquet which is a tradition among my friend group.
Chris likes to spice up formal wear with fun socks, so he found some special “All You Need is Love” socks. A big fan of Clemson football, Chris gave groomsmen embroidered cufflinks with their college team’s logo.
Our string quartet for the ceremony and cocktail hour was amazing. They wrote the string music for “I Will Wait for You” – a special song to us.
We really wanted to show off our southern roots with the food. Chris’ main request for the wedding weekend was to have Varsity cheeseburgers and Coca Cola for the late night snack. Our signature bride and groom cocktails were Cider Mule and an Old Fashion.
We wanted to incorporate the city where we met, Austin, TX. There’s a famous graffiti sign there that we made for the backdrop for our photo booth.
One piece of advice for couples planning a wedding…We did pre-marriage counseling through our parish and found the focus on the marriage made wedding planning a lot easier. It also helped that we had an amazing wedding planner in Marilisa. We picked the things that really mattered to us and let her take on the rest. Relinquishing control over the little things helped us spend a lot of time personalizing the day and making it special to us.
Photography: Amy Arrington Photography | Event Planning + Design: Chancey Charm | Floral Design: Amy Osaba | Wedding Dress: Sarah Seven | Cake: Sweet Creations | Invitations: Mattie Tiegreen, Green Tie Studio | Rings: Good Stone | Catering: Bold American Events | Calligraphy: Mandi Scripts | Venue: Atlanta Botanical Gardens | Ceremony Musicians: Cobalt Strings | Draping: Unique Event Elements | Gown Boutique: The Sentimentalist | Lounge Rentals: Blue Eyed Yonder | Rentals: Peachtree Tents and Events