[section title=”The Planning”]
[field title=”Wedding Colors”]French blue and white as far as stationery. All white flowers and ribbons at church, bridesmaids and groomsmen were in black. Bridesmaids wore varying styles of black maxi dresses and groomsmen wore tuxes. We had a world of colors and flowers when we arrived at home for the party! Most of the color was seen in the florals, but we also had cocktail napkins with fun facts about George and me.
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[field title=”Design / Vibe / Vision”]Our wedding planner was Jonathan Parkey and I cannot say enough wonderful things about him and the process of planning our day. One of my favorite aspects of planning the wedding was bouncing creative ideas back and forth with Jonathan. We were always on the same page.
Prior to the wedding, I kept finding myself piecing all of the little snippets of projects together, but nothing compared to the feeling of seeing all of our plans, wishes, and people in one place! A lot of the inspiration has been around flowers. Flowers have always resonated with me always and it’s been incredible seeing them as a through-line for all of my “life moments.” My very first job was working in a flower shop in high school. I love to wear florals, Spring is my favorite season, and I now work in a women’s clothing store called Tulips. When I had my small business, Scribbles by Sav, flowers were always my favorite to scribble. When studying in London in 2014 I discovered my favorite store in the world, Liberty London. Flowers greet you when you walk up to Liberty, and right in front of those flowers is the very place where George asked me to marry him in June 2022. I couldn’t ever imagine my wedding day without flowers being the source of inspiration.
I’ve always been a little bit of a “paper princess”…I admire the high-quality letterpress, thick invitations, and liners that look like artwork. Always have, always will. Working with Erin at By Invitation Only was one of my favorite aspects of the design process because, “paper sets the tone” Jonathan reiterated. With the save the dates being entirely designed by me, I knew I needed quality paper for the floral outlined, handwritten text save the dates. I didn’t want this to look like a little home craft project gone wrong! The save the dates were the first introduction to our celebration, and I think they set the tone perfectly for our day. I knew I wanted a floral border, and then after I found my dress, I decided to use those florals as inspiration for my scribbles! The florals from my dress were scribbled all around the border. It was a really neat way for people to have a taste of what was to come, but nobody guessed that it was inspired by my dress. The same floral scribbles from the save the date were printed in a tile pattern on the dance floor at the reception, and I loved the way that the scribbly lines looked under my feet as we danced all night! The invitations were a dream to pick out and I am just tickled that they turned out even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined![/field]
[field title=”Proposal Story”]On June 23, 2022, I said yes to forever to my George for the first official time ever; right outside of my favorite store in the world, Liberty London in London, England. Liberty has the most charming entrance ever, a flower shop that has an assortment of blooms displayed in galvanized buckets layered up to make it feel like the flowers are a permanent fixture on the facade of the storefront, but the blooms disappear as purchased and change daily. I’ve loved this place since 2014, but never knew how much inspiration and meaning it would have to my life forever. The flower shop of Liberty and the site of our engagement was the inspiration to the entrance of our wedding reception! [/field]
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[board_carousel title=”Bridal Portraits”]
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[section title=”The Fashion”]
[field title=”Wedding Gown”]As someone who sells dresses and pretty much primarily wears dresses, I knew my wedding dress was going to be really special. I had so many different ideas of what I thought I might like, and THE dress was everything I never knew that I wanted!
I have always said that I knew I didn’t want strapless and then…of course, the unexpected was delightful! The Monique Lhuillier strapless ball gown has a draped bodice and a straight across neckline with a bold in color, but romantically light and airy floral design on silk. The dancing florals continue into the gown’s flowy skirt full of delicate organza layers and a hidden slit.
I have gotten to know Betsy, the owner of Unveiled, by helping her select dresses at Tulips, so it was fun to switch places and have her help in her shop for my wedding dress! I knew that I was most excited to try on the dress that I chose and strategically saved the best for last when trying it on! Delayed gratification always wins in my book![/field]
[field title=”Bridesmaid Dresses”]My bridesmaids all wore black Show Me Your Mumu dresses. I wanted everyone to look somewhat uniform but wanted them all to select their own silhouettes. All of my Bridesmaids and ladies in the family had blue floral Liberty London handkerchiefs. I always keep them tied around my purse, and they’re from the place of our engagement, Liberty London. [/field]
[field title=”Groomsman Attire”]George and his groomsmen wore tuxes. George had a handkerchief that I had given him at our first look from Liberty. It was part of the “something blue” and it matched ones that the bridesmaids and all the ladies carried![/field]
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[board_carousel title=”Cocktail Hour”]
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[section title=”The Details”]
[field title=”Food & Drink”]The catering was from Woods Place in Camden. My parents have been friends with James, the owner for such a long time and Mama has played Pokeno one Monday a month for years and years with his wife. One Saturday my dad walked out and found James sitting on the patio drinking coffee and envisioning the space. He said, “I think this is going to just be great!”
At the wedding we had a variety of cheeses, sausage, salmon, pork loin, different types of sliders, Italian pinwheels, dips, crackers, and the crowd favorite, chicken and cheese quesadillas. I wanted all of the food to feel like it was fresh from a garden or a market in Europe. Woods Place executed the presentation wonderfully![/field]
[field title=”Florals & Decor”]Pretty much every vendor that we used has a story attached, like most things in my life! For florists, we used two. One at church and one at home. At church, Four Seasons in Camden did the flowers for the ceremony. Everything at the church was white. This was Jonathan’s idea to have all ribbons and flowers white, even more so confirmed after I showed him my dress! Frank Wietecha, the owner of Four Seasons, was the florist for my parents’ wedding. It was so special to meet with him and have him be a part of our day! He created an intricate sketch of his vision for the altar with little notes on it. He didn’t mean for it to be a keepsake, but it is a masterpiece! I am looking so forward to having that framed and a part of our home forever!
The florist for the reception is David Goodman, who owns Mary and Martha’s in Arkadelphia. His daughter is my sister-in-law, and I can’t imagine his creativity and vision not being a part of my wedding! All along I was bringing inspiration from Pinterest, and Instagram and carrying in floral books with cut-up pieces of post-it notes that said what I liked and didn’t like about certain arrangements. I had a lineup of specific flowers that I loved and wanted to incorporate. A lot of these were in the variety of gathered vessels of varying heights and shapes along the king tables. I wanted it to feel like we had just gathered up flowers from a garden. I didn’t want too much structure and wanted each arrangement to feel similar but tell a different story.
The round tables in the center all had blue and white chinoiserie vases from Mama and Mimi’s houses. And the little bitty vases on the king tables and head table were so magical to see flowers dancing with the glow of candlelight. The florals were the best surprise and were everything and more than I had envisioned!! David perfectly executed my wildest dreams, especially with the Liberty London flower front entrance that was inspired by the site of our engagement which welcomed our guests into the reception at home![/field]
[field title=”Wedding Cake”]Tucked away in a little brick alleyway just steps away from Columbia Road Flower Market is a little twinkly place called Lily Vanilli Bakery. I’m not sure how I first discovered them, but I have followed them for years on Instagram and have watched their vintage-inspired creations bloom out of icing enough to make it feel like I was the cake decorator. When living in London in 2014, I knew that I had to visit while at the flower market on Sunday and it totally lived up to all of its hype. Nearly a decade later and it was no question what I wanted our wedding cake to look like. I took all of my favorite swirls and twirls from years of admiring their cakes and scribbled those elements into the little dream of a wedding cake that George and I would cut with the same cake knife that Mama and Daddy used for their wedding, and the one that Mimi had at her wedding with her initials engraved in the handle. As far as the maker of the cake, I wanted Ann’s cake to be at our wedding. @cosmos_cookies makes my very favorite cake and she’s from Camden! Ann came over one day when I was home and we looked through tons of pictures and took notes at the breakfast room table until we had our plan! It was so fabulously made and tasted like heaven! George and I are already looking forward to pulling the cake out of the freezer next March![/field]
[field title=”Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs”]A string quartet from the South Arkansas Symphony played a variety of classical music while guests were arriving.
Seating of the families was quartet only, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Bridesmaids Processional, quartet only was Lakme: Flower Duet.
Brides processional, organ only Clarke: Trumpet Voluntary
Recessional- Handel: Air alla Hornpipe from Watermusic Suite.
All of these songs were hand selected!
Be Thou My Vision was sung by the entire congregation. During the hymn, George and I were able to really look at everyone who was there and take a moment to soak it all in and remember it all. This very moment was one of the most precious moments of the entire day. I had to retreat to my handkerchief in my dress pocket for the rest of the ceremony. It was so overwhelming that all of the people that we had known came all the way to Camden, Arkansas to celebrate the beginning of our forever.
Reception
For a few weeks, George and I laughed about doing our first dance to “You Make Me Feel So Young” by Frank Sinatra. Hilarious because it’s a subtle nod to the fact that I’m older than George. And then our decision was made – that HAD to be our song. One of George’s only requests for the wedding was to take dance lessons for our first dance.
Our last dance ties into one of the most special moments. Bruce Springsteen is George’s absolute favorite musician and we knew we wanted to incorporate that into our day somehow. “She’s the One” by Bruce Springsteen was the very last song that our band, Fly By Radio, played and the very last dance of the night. We were the only ones left in the tent and spent the second half of the song spotting different things around the tent. We spied candle sticks that were slowly inching closer to the table, chairs that were left facing the floor, blinking rings that were left behind, and flashbacks from the night when we talked to different people. Then we walked out and were waved goodbye by all of our people with ribbons and tiny bells.[/field]
[field title=”Special Detail #1″]The first weekend in March was an entire weekend filled to the brim of being so overwhelmed by the time and effort from everyone who had a part in our day and every single one of our sweet people that showed up to celebrate the start of our forever with us. The added bonus of our wedding: being at home in Camden was just a sweetness overload that had me happy-weeping all weekend. From the first look on, my Liberty handkerchief was working overtime and conveniently living in my dress pocket! It only seemed fitting for the newest chapter to begin in this very place that is the foundation of who makes me, me. So, the chapter of becoming Mrs. Sellers began when I pulled up on March 1st and said to Mama and Daddy, “I’m home to get married!”
Our furthest travelers were my friend Tiffany and her husband Robin. They traveled all the way from Sydney, Australia. The last time that I saw them in person was in 2019 when I was in their wedding in Sydney! Tiffany and I met at London College of Fashion in 2014 and frequented Liberty London! George’s Aunt Lyn and her family traveled from London. They were the very first ones that saw us after we were engaged since we were staying with them at their house in London![/field]
[field title=”Special Detail #2″]The big scribble on the dance floor that was drawn by me, the bride, and was the same as the save-the-dates. It was inspired by my dress took a lot of effort!
We used a lot of Mama and Mimi’s blue and white chinoiserie ginger jars on the round tables at the reception. I love the idea of bringing the inside out, and having pieces that are so familiar to me (at home) filled with flowers and on the tables at the reception was just so special to incorporate! Brass candlesticks, lanterns, and glass hurricanes were all borrowed from friends.[/field]
[field title=”Special Detail #3″]I loved having our dog Hattie in pictures!! She is my soon to be eight-year-old Imperial Shihtzu that looks just like the dog emoji, and she is my shadow! She is usually in a t-shirt or a turtleneck, so she of course had to have a little pink dress with embroidered flowers for our wedding day!
The bridesmaids’ earrings and my earrings were made by Susan Standeffer. I had so much fun sending sketches back and forth of what I wanted the earrings to look like. A floral component married a statement earring that all of my girls could wear again and again was something that I wanted to create for them as a gift! I wanted my earrings to be similar, but not entirely the same. The mother-of-pearl zig-zagged edge was so playful and whimsical and the tiny gold ball detail in the center was the perfect finishing touch. My earrings were a two-tiered version with slightly thicker mother-of-pearl flowers. They were exactly what my dress filled with flowers called for!
My little ring box is a vintage red leather ring box that George bought from someone in England! I definitely wanted to have that in our detailed shots! [/field]
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Photography: Kati Mallory Fine Art Photography | Event Planning: Jonathan Parkey | Floral Design: David Goodman | Wedding Dress: Unveiled Bridal Collection | Cake: Cosmo's Cookies | Invitations: By Invitation Only | Ceremony Venue: First United Methodist Church | Reception Venue: Bride's Home | DJ: Fly By Radio | Beauty: Bride did herself!