A True, Charming, Southern Wedding For These Childhood Sweethearts!

Samantha Melei
October 26, 2019
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog

OK….this story completely melted my heart, when I read it; from the fact that the groom asked the bride to be his girlfriend when they were just 13 years old, to the utterly romantic proposal story! And, it just kept going once the wedding planning started! Meredith and John had THE most charming, Southern wedding at The Capital City Club with overflowing florals by Jackson Durham and a variety of perfectly paired linens by La Tavola! Chancey Charm Wedding Planning & Design brought the bride’s vision to life and Dear Elouise created the dream, custom invitation to set the tone for the day! To top it all off, Amy Arrington Photography was behind the lens, capturing every special moment from details to dancing! Check it out below, and be sure to read their story!

From the Bride…Our story began when I was thirteen years old and John asked me to be his girlfriend. His mom loves to tell the story of when he came home one day from school and told her “I am going to marry her one day”. Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2017. We were up at Lake Burton with my family and everyone was getting ready to go to dinner at the Waterfall Club (little did I know that the club was actually closed for the holidays). We pull up and there were rose petals and candles everywhere leading to the entrance of the club. I remember thinking to myself “this is very romantic for a Christmas dinner”. We open the front doors to the biggest Christmas tree, a band and all of our family members anxiously waiting for our arrival. John got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I was so excited I started hugging and kissing him and all of our family before I could even remember to put the ring on! We went on to have a beautiful dinner with our families and danced the night away.

Growing up I loved looking through my mother’s wedding album. I knew that I wanted to have a wedding that would never go out of style and that would be classic. I immediately started searching for the venue and the perfect planner. Thankfully I found Shelley Legg for Chancey Charm Weddings who helped me bring my vision to life flawlessly. Picking a planner was one of the hardest decisions for me to make and the second I talked to her I knew she was the perfect fit! It took a little while to find our venue but we landed on Capital City Club in Brookhaven. We decided to have a sailcloth tent out on the driving range lit up with twinkle lights. Green is my favorite color so I incorporated that as much as I could and stuck to neutral colors. One of my favorite parts about planning our wedding was designing all of our paper goods. Brent Fraim at Dear Elouise completely made all of my invitation dreams come true. You think about your wedding day since you were a little girl and being able to hold your invitation in your hand is one of the coolest parts leading up to your big day.

Our dogs mean everything to us and because we couldn’t have them there with us we decided to have Dear Elouise design specialty cocktails after them. We also wanted to have something different than a place card so we wrote everyone’s names on the leaf of a pear. We wanted to make the entrance a statement so we hired Jackson Durham to build a beautiful arch of flowers around the entrance of the tent. They also designed a beautiful champagne display. Sitting in each champagne flute was an acrylic table assignment. We really enjoyed The SlowMotion Booth. We decided to have them there instead of your typical photo booth and it was such a hit! Our guests couldn’t stay away and it was such a treat to be able to go back and watch everyone’s videos after our wedding day.

One of the most fun parts of our big day was the trolley ride that we took with our wedding party and family from the church to the reception. We popped champagne and laughed until our knees hurt. It was a really special time we got to spend with our best friends. Our wedding planner pulled us aside once we got to our venue and let us have a little meal together just us two before we went into cocktail hour. It was a time I will cherish forever. Looking back on our wedding day we appreciate having all of our friends and family together in one place…because at the end of the day that’s all you have! I cannot stress enough to brides that your wedding day is about you and your husband. Enjoy it, relax, have fun and don’t worry about anything else!