This Couples’ Southern Wedding Was Inspired By The Colors Of Spring And Whimsical Wallpaper

Melissa Hammam
July 27, 2022
Categories: Real Weddings, Seasonal Wedding Trend, Spring, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

This wonderful wedding design was inspired by the colors of springtime in Charlotte and a whimsical wallpaper design the bride fell in love with. The Bloom Room brought our couple’s Big Day vision to life with lush white blooms and a reception ceiling dripping with live greenery. Every moment was lovingly captured in a way that only Demi Mabry Photography can, see every detail from this southern charmer in the full gallery.

From the couple… Austen and I started dating in college seven years ago while I was a sophomore at the University of South Carolina and he a junior at Appalachian State University. We met through a mutual friend that he had gone to high school with and who was one of my good girlfriends in my sorority. She set us up for the last sorority function of the year and the rest is history! We continued to date and do long distance for roughly three years of our relationship and then finally both settled down in Charlotte, NC, my hometown after I graduated. We eventually made the move up to Raleigh, NC, where he is from, a month before Covid hit, and quickly settled into the quarantine life in our new home.

In December of 2020 Austen popped the question… and let me tell you I had no clue it was coming! Right after Thanksgiving, Austen began asking if I would like to go up to the mountains for a little getaway weekend with just us and our dog, Henry, one weekend in December. Knowing that we were going on a big trip to Colorado for the holidays, I was hesitant to add on one more trip the weekend before we left. I was also convinced he was going to pop the question on this family trip. It took some convincing, but eventually, I said yes and we booked our Airbnb. That Saturday we took off bright and earlier for a very, very cold hike. I knew I should’ve been suspicious that Austen wanted to get out before the crowds, but I honestly didn’t think twice about it at the time. It was a long, straight, uphill hike, and there were many moments that I almost made him stop and turn around, but thank goodness I didn’t. We finally made it to a lookout spot to sit down and relax. Once we settled down, before I knew it, Austen was next to me, pulling a small box from his bag and asking me to be his wife. I was in pure shock! Not only because he did not seem nervous the entire time, but because I jokingly told him never to propose while I was in hiking boots. When we were in college, he told me that he wanted to ask me to be his girlfriend on one of our hikes but go too nervous and couldn’t do it. He always knew that he wanted to ask me to marry him in that same way, and it could not have been more perfect. Not but five minutes after Austen asked me to marry him, my parents and their dog popped out of the woods for the best surprise ever. We celebrated with lots of happy tears, champagne, and the small weekend getaway became one of the best weekends of my life!

I always knew that I wanted to get married in my hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina, so selecting our venues was an easy process. We were able to have the reception at Quail Hollow Club and the rehearsal dinner at The Duke Mansion, two venues that have been a part of my life growing up. The ceremony location holds sentimental value to me as it is the same church where my parents were married in 30 years ago. Having a picture of the two of them, walking back up with the same aisle, hand in hand, will forever be so special for all of us. When Austen and I got engaged, we were in the middle of Covid and we knew we could no logistically have the wedding reception that we wanted in 2021, so we looked straight into March of 2022. We wanted our wedding to be a celebration and a gift for all of our friends and family to be together and have a weekend filled with love and a wonderful time. The overall look and feel of our wedding was clean, classic, and sophisticated. The inspiration for the color scheme came from the colors that we see in Charlotte at the beginning of early spring. Hues of whites, shades of greens within the trees, and pale neutrals were incorporated throughout the whole weekend. With this inspiration, our wedding planner, Katrina Hutchins Events, had the perfect idea to customize our bar front with a Schumacher wallpaper that incorporated all of these beautiful colors. We were able to match many of these colors into items such as our invitations, bridesmaid dresses, and flowers to name just a few.

In addition to the overall design of the wedding, we wanted to include personal touches that were meaningful to Austen and I. We included our dog Henry by having a watercolor painting of him placed on our cocktail napkins and drink menu. We also wanted the food to represent my family’s love for southern fare. The majority of Austen’s family are from the west coast and up north, so it was fun to have them experience a taste of the south. Shrimp and grits pulled pork sliders, and a late-night chicken and waffle bar were some of the main hits. One of the best personal touches was my dad surprising us, wearing his family Scottish kilt attire, greeting us at the end of our sparkler exit. Everyone loved it! We then hopped into my grandfather’s silver vintage 1967 Mercedes convertible and my dad drove us away. It was the perfect ending to the best weekend of our lives!

From Demi Mabry Photography… Ginnie and Austen were truly a dream couple – all things gracious, kind, and fun! Katrina of Katrina Hutchins Events always creates true masterpieces for her clients’ wedding designs and this one was no different. With a design plan inspired by the colors of spring in Charlotte and a Schumacher WALLPAPER the bride loved, this wedding designed by Katrina Hutchins Events channeled the colors and patterns of a traditional southern soiree.

The wallpaper, featured on the front of Ginnie and Austen’s custom bar made by Dan Lanning, served as inspiration for their invitations also, with a coordinating pattern designed by Olive Paper being reflected in their envelope liners. Beige lounge furniture with lush, green pillows and overhanging chandeliers with natural greenery woven throughout was the perfect ode to the original wallpaper design.