Rattan, Wooden Accents and Lush Floral at Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks

Lauren Megerdichian
November 13, 2024
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

[section title=”The Planning”]

[field title=”Wedding Colors”]Green & White with minimal pops of blue[/field]

[field title=”Design / Vibe / Vision”]Luke & I (Emma) would have loved to get married somewhere in Europe but we knew if we decided to go that route a lot of our close family members wouldn’t be able to make it so we did our best to bring old world, garden party elements to us in Arkansas! We had our guests dress in Garden Party Cocktail attire, brought in lots of florals, used floral patterns, rattan baskets, wooden chairs with aged character, and getting married in a botanical garden in May also ensured there were florals in bloom all around us. As a wedding photographer myself, I really wanted my wedding to be somewhat unique and not necessarily look like every I shoot. I worked closely with Katie McIntire during the planning process and she had some great ideas on how to make our wedding truly feel like us! [/field]

[field title=”Proposal Story”]We had been dating for about 3 years in the summer of 2023 and were set to go on a two week trip through Paris, London and Amsterdam so I just KNEW it had to be coming on that trip. Well, so I thought. I had told Luke months ago that the only thing I wanted was to be surprised so a week before this fabulous trip we were going on, he proposed on the beaches of Kiawah Island not 3 hours after we went ring shopping for the first time so I knew he didn’t have the ring yet so I was very confused & surprised. He proposed with a faux ring so I could end up picking out exactly what I wanted a month or so later. It was honestly so perfect because we got to enjoy our Europe trip as a newly engaged couple and it made it all the more romantic (plus I wasn’t worried at every turn wondering when he was going to pop the question). This also allowed me to hastily schedule our engagement photos in Paris & they are everything I could’ve hoped for!! Shout out to The Lockharts for squeezing us in last minute in Paris!! [/field]

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[board_carousel title=”Getting Ready”]

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[board_carousel title=”Bridal Portraits”]

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[board_carousel title=”Flat Lays”]

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[section title=”The Fashion”]

[field title=”Wedding Gown”]I knew going into wedding dress shopping that I wanted a Kate Middleton feel to it, very classic, some lace detail, full skirt. I ended up finding the lace bolero before I even found the dress so that helped narrow down what I was looking for. I intended to wear the lace top for the entire event but once I got closer to the wedding date, I ended up wanting to take it off after dinner and added some fun sleeves for the reception which completely changed the look and a lot of people thought it was a completely different dress. [/field]

[field title=”Bridesmaid Dresses”]I let my 5 bridesmaids have free reign when it came to picking a dress, I told them to keep it in the blues and greens family and they all ended up looking great together! A few of the dresses are from Reformation & Jenny Yoo. My favorite definitely has to be my sister/Maid of Honors, we picked hers out together and it perfectly matched what I wanted the whole wedding to encompass![/field]

[field title=”Groomsman Attire”]Luke also got to have free reign on what he wore to get married in & he chose a classic black tux from J. Crew paired with his Rolex Datejust, ever the classic groom. He even surprised me with a matching watch as a wedding present.[/field]

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[board_carousel title=”Wedding Party”]

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[board_carousel title=”Ceremony”]

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[board_carousel title=”Cocktail Hour”]

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[section title=”The Details”]

[field title=”Food & Drink”]We really loved the idea of a very intimate wedding so for our ceremony and dinner, we had 72 of our closest friends and family members join us. We had 2 long tables for dinner and decided to do a family style dinner since almost everyone knew each other and we were joining our two families! My father has worked in the beef industry his whole life and Luke is a big beef guy as well so we had steak for dinner, of course! Our catering team, The Sous Chef, absolutely exceeded expectations. You’ll even find “Beef, it’s whats for dinner” on our menu as a little ode to my family roots.

We had even more friends come to our reception after the formal dinner was finished and for them we had charcuterie cups and cocktails. For our late night snack, we had pretzel bites with beer cheese and they were such a hit, who doesn’t love pretzel bites!

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[field title=”Florals & Decor”]I am a huge floral lover so I knew I had to use Samantha’s Garden when it came to my wedding florals, Diana and her team are so incredibly talented and just amazing to work with. I really only gave her a rough outline of what I was hoping for which was lots of lush greens and bright white flowers, I wanted it to feel like some of the arrangements had just been freshly picked from the garden while others were more intentional arrangements and she completely outdid anything I had in mind! She created a beautiful horseshoe arrangement that Luke and I stood in the middle of, I especially loved this because it was so tall and framed us perfectly. Our table center pieces were a mix of smaller arrangements in white compotes and bundles of the same flowers in rattan vases which brought in more of the garden party element.

For decor I wanted to use lots of ornate silver trays to tie in the old world feel, so we had champagne served on these beautiful trays as well as our appetizers during cocktail hour. We decided to add some beautiful white umbrellas to the ceremony seating incase it was extra sunny and I love how it gave more height to the ceremony space.

My stationary and signage team with Dayflower Designs came up with the perfect seating chart. We found a floral background for it that came really close to matching the toile table linens and envelope liner we had and everything worked together so seamlessly. Other signage included a large mirror welcome sign and a custom bar decal.[/field]

[field title=”Wedding Cake”]Like the ornate details in the silver pieces, I wanted this to also be reflected in the cake! In addition to our classic almond flavored wedding cake, we also had single serving cups of cake in various flavors & the guests ended up loving these because it made eating cake and mingling much easier to do! [/field]

[field title=”Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs”]During our ceremony and cocktail hour we had Cello By Austin play with a violinist and it was just beautiful. We had them play all classical music during the ceremony and then during the cocktail hour they played more upbeat songs like you would hear in Bridgerton. [/field]

[field title=”Special Detail #1″]One of my favorite details from our wedding weekend was our welcome boxes we put together for everyone staying at the hotel block. In them we included, His & Her favorite snacks, waters, a timeline of the wedding weekend, a thank you note from Luke & I, a custom match box, a coozie, a cup, advil, bandaids, mints, and custom M&M’s. They were a hit with the guests and it was so fun putting them together with Luke a few days before the wedding.[/field]

[field title=”Special Detail #2″]My other favorite detail from our wedding was the Platt Parlour! I am a details girly through and through so I wanted to customize everything I could but I also wanted to prioritize being able to use anything leftover after the wedding. So instead of plastering Platt Wedding or The Platts all over everything, we decided on Platt Parlour, which if you look up the meaning of ‘parlour’ it says “a room for receiving guests” which sounds a lot like a reception to me! So the Platt Parlour was born and that was what we had on our coozies, cups, coasters, match boxes and more. I love this because we use leftover cups and coozies all the time at our house now and it doesn’t scream wedding! We also had our wedding date in roman numerals which I really loved. Full transparency, I did not coin the term Platt Parlour, @annawpage had it on her personal match boxes![/field]

[field title=”Special Detail #3″][/field]

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[board_carousel title=”Couple Portraits”]

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[board_carousel title=”Reception”]

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