wish-fulfilled. sally and kristi's wedding!

Last week boone and I were incredibly honored to officiate our delta friends' wedding ceremony in Oxford. The weekend was so celebratory and the brides looked beautiful...the best part of the whole weekend was the fact that these two friends began the rest of their lives together. consider this a wish-fullfilled. ;)

see more photos from the wedding here (and more to come).

ding dong the bells are gonna chime!

what are you doing this weekend, friends? 

i think we're going to beale street to hear the avett bros and wilco...or maybe we'll play in oxford or dig in the garden. what we WON'T be doing is watching the royal wedding. sure, i'll sneak a few peaks from CNN, just to see what they're wearing (but boone'll give me hell if he catches me)

...if these pictures are any indication, there will DEFINITELY be a hat involved.

 well, regardless, it's their day,  and i hope it's a wonderful one (for them AND you...whatever your weekend plans may be!)

photos from google.

such a special day...

in december i was honored to at officiate one of my dearest friend's wedding (or really, two of my dearest friends' wedding.) she posted some photos of the ceremony and reception last week and i've had the most fun remembering all the love and care she put into every detail... and it's been special to remember how incredibly humbling and electrifying it is to share in the blessing of a couple's decision to spend their lives together. i know that it wasn't me doing the blessing, but i got to be the vehicle. how incredible is that?

anyway, the photos are lovely...you should check them out here.

forever and ever...

here's another post from the road...
so boone and i are on our way to laurel for the wedding of a dear, beautiful friend i've had for FOURTEEN YEARS...megan. she's truly going to make the most beautiful bride and i can hardly wait to be her matron of honor since we've been talking about love, boys, and forever since we were 14 and 15. in celebration of megan and her handsome honey, here's one of her engagement photos. beautiful, right?

congratulations pretty girl!

left my heart in san francisco....

well folks, the wedding was just beautiful and full of so much love. every detail was perfect (what would you expect from snippet and ink's founder?) and i had the best time hanging out with the happy couple before the wedding and with dear friends the rest of the time. we danced, and ate, and walked around the city...but right now i can't wait to set foot in the 'sip.

it's been a looooong trip home.

apparently teeny planes that go to Memphis can't fly in snow, so we were stuck in salt lake last night, then sent to phoenix. we're currently on a plane to memphis and scheduled to land any minute, so the photo above is my vantagepoint.

cross your fingers for a safe return to our little hamlet!

image from imgspark.

marrrriage.......

so two of my dearestest friends are getting married this weekend... and about a year and a half ago they asked me to be the officiant. it's the most incredible honor and everytime i think about it i really just can't get over it. all week i've been remembering our own wedding and about the commitment that boone and i made to each other before our family, friends, and God. Then i remember that i get to stand there with kathryn and ryan while they say their vows and commit their lives to each other and i get teary and tingly and so, so happy for them.

any minute now we're going to get on the plane to head to see them, so if you don't mind saying some prayers that all goes well or crossing your fingers, or something else entirely for good measure and vibes, i'd be so incredibly thankful. my eposicopalian neighbor priests tell me (as did my divinity school preaching professor) that the holy spirit descends and gives the minister the words and authority to speak... so i'm holding out that that will happen on saturday. but until then, i'll have to keep taking deep breaths and reminding myself that although i have a big role on saturday, it's not about me at all. what happens Saturday is really between Kathryn, Ryan, and God...and i just get to be the vehicle. how humbling and beautiful is that?

one year!

can you believe it?

last board! i promise!

so, i had so much fun making my girls boards that i couldn't resist taking another look at our wedding photos and making a board with them. (plus i'm trying to pick out the pictures for our book) unfortunately you don't get the feeling of TOTAL F-U-N that was our wedding, but i guess that's not the goal of inspiration boards...

either way, i had fun thinking about all of our details and showing them off one more time (although not all of them are in this post) and am so thankful for the incredible work my mom did at making it all possible. (stay tuned for a pretty easter photo of her!)

photos by joe except the photos #2 of the R-G house, and #4 of the invitations. Those are by erin. and the photo of the flower girls is from esta. (thanks!)

introducing...sweet p flowers!

apparently all the creative people i know are in the wedding business...

my dearest friend kathryn is a super-famous wedding blogger, my new friend erin is the toast of the wedding invitations world, my mom is getting into calligraphy of all sorts, and now palmer and her pretty mama are kicking off sweet p, what promises to be a really successful floral endeavor! palmer's work has been shown in house beautiful and atlanta homes and lifestyles magazines and her mama has tons of experience designing lovely arrangements.


i'd be lying if i said i didn't feel a little bit of jealousy that i'm not in on the wedding-related action (although the plan is for me to help my mom a bit after graduation) if only i could sew well enough to make gowns or something...

anyway, if you're in the southeast and are looking for a totally talented floral team (they think to put thistles and hydrangeas together! who else does that?) check out sweet p's portfolio... you won't be disappointed.

have your cake and eat it too...

y'all, will you indulge me just a few more wedding photo posts? I know it's narcissistic and frivolous, but it's so FUN for me to have photos of all our stuff in one place. ;) anyway, don't worry.. there's can't possibly be too many more after this one... and now, for the cake!

i think that the groom's cake was one of my fav details about our reception...

so, boone wanted little apple pies instead of a traditional cake, and my parents (who are brilliant and generous) and this sweet lady, Tex (who's like a great aunt) made this incredibly huge apple pie from scratch plus a zillion teeny bite-size apple pies. they were fantastic...




and here's the wedding cake... i didn't want one at all, but i couldn't get off the hook about it. we had to go with a professional for this one which was disappointing, but in the end it was delish and v. pretty.


photos from esta and joe.

our flowers...

i realized that i never posted pictures of our flowers... they were gorgeous, y'all. we don't have a ton of direct photos of the arrangements and bouquets, but i'll share what i've got. basically i asked for everything to be loose in feel and classic in style... to be as locally-grown as possible. it was all perfect.
here's a two-for-one photo... the baby's breath wreath on the door where we stood to say our vows and the men's boutonnieres. one single gardenia and a leaf.

here's my bouquet... gardenias from my neighbor's garden, peonies, verbena, rosemary, and oak leaf hydrangeas. i think everything but the peonies were locally grown.



and my maid's bouquets (they were the same as mine, but a little smaller) and here you can see the rosemary garland that our flower girls carried... it was so sweet!

randy, our florist designed this incredible floral chandelier to hang above the dance floor... can you tell from the photos how INCREDIBLE it looked?


we had lovely arrangements on the banisters of the staircase.. the day before we went on a hunt around town for local smylax and elaeagnus, plus we had hydrangeas and baby's breath... We had similar arrangements on the dining room table and around.



and here are a few other images of arrangements... same flowers as before but we used small mirrored glass votives to hold the smaller ones on the tables and all the tables were covered in burlap and battenburg lace tablecloths. :)





photos from joe, abc, and esta.

before the service...

our ring-bearer... this got a little dicey, but all was well in the end and he had tons of fun under there...






isn't my dad adorable?


if you like these... go check out the rest of joe's stuff.

something borrowed...

so i don't have any grandparents who are living, but i was very close to the three that i knew. i thought about them and how i wished they could have been with me an awful lot during the wedding weekend. because i wanted to feel close to them i decided to wear something of theirs during the ceremony. my earrings had been given to me my my maternal grandfather, the brooch was my paternal grandmother's, and the bracelet was my maternal grandmother's that my mom wore at her own wedding. this way we relied on beautiful things that we already had.


my veil was my mom's and even my dress was old... come to think of it, most things i wore were borrowed or old. hmmm.



obviously not everyone have family members that that loved fancy jewelry like mine or a (ack! *cough*) debutant dress to wear, but i'd bet that everyone's friends and family can be resources.

i mean, i know that my college roommates shared a veil and one gal from my hometown wore her best friend's wedding dress a year or two later. i bet stuff like that happens all the time...i know i'd be really honored if a friend asked to borrow anything of mine when she or he ties the knot.

the point is, asking around means that you don't have to break the bank to look lovely on your wedding day. and if you think about it this way then the "something borrowed" is more than just an old superstition, but something that actually makes sense.

our programs...

so we made our own programs... it was kind of a giant ordeal and huge hassle since we stupidly waited until the week before to print them and put them together and then the office max copy machines ate tons of the only green paper we had and kept printing the wrong things. BUT, finally, we were finished and i think they turned out pretty well.




my favorite part was the quote on the back from where the wild things are that read "And now, cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!" this was supposed to signify the beginning of the party, but apparently some people thought it was an innuendo. (can't you just see my cheeks turning bright red at the thought of it...ack! eeek! yikes!) oh well.

the deets...

so my mom is really probably the most creative and capable person in the whole world.

i think i told y'all about all the incredible things that she made for our wedding and how special it was to me, but here are some bonafide photos of all her personal details.

for her first trick, my mom made this veil for me the reception! we were worried that her cathedral length train would get muddy and trip everybody up (especially me) so she just whipped this one up after seeing a much more expensive version of it in a bridal boutique.
not everyone can even cut toole straight, much less make a handmade veil out of feathers and silk flower petals!



next, my mom and i took aluminum flower buckets and attached green ribbon around them so they would hang "just so" on the backs of the ceremony chairs. since we were planning to be outside, we knew wouldn't need much to decorate the space (hello... nature?) but we wanted something. these looked simple and still really pretty when the florist filled them with gardenias and rosemary from a neighbor's yard, and a little baby's breath. they smelled just like magic and it was so easy.



now, the my favorite detail...
my mom made us a Quaker wedding certificate! really... she wrote it with her own two hands, and another friend who's also an artist painted a border of morning glories for it. if you don't know what it is here's the rundown: since Quakers don't have ministers, every member of a congregation acts as a witness to the couple's vows. by having our friends and family sign this, we implicitly expressed that they matter to us and that the support of a community is important for a marriage.


that's all for today, but i've got a few more details to share... if you get bored with wedding stuff, don't worry. i'll get back to posting other random thoughts and inspiration really soon!

happy weekend!

sweating the small stuff...

honestly, no one told me that i'd worry about the wedding MORE afterward than i did beforehand. everyone was amazed that i didn't fall to pieces when we had to move the ceremony inside or when my veil came totally out of my hair while we were saying our vows.
"eh!" I thought "who cares? we're getting MARRIED!" but then i started getting bent out of shape a week or so later when i realized i hadn't gotten a photo with both of my parents, and that i had hardly spoken to the guests who had been sitting at tables inside. seriously, i've been waking up in the night tied up in knots about it...

but (FINALLY) i've decided that rather than keep on fretting about it, i'll take a few days to just share with you all the beautiful, special things we made for the wedding and guests that made it extra personal for me. i mean, honestly... my first attitude was the right one: "who cares? we're MARRIED!"


i already mentioned the silhouettes and the homemade praline favors. Now, here's a fun fact about our ceremony site: we ended up getting married in the foyer of a beautiful historic home. we were planning to do it outside in the garden but then it poured down rain the entire day.
instead, we had about 115 or so guests seated around us, our parents and family sitting right behind us, and our attendants standing directly beside us. it was a tight squeeze, but it felt just right and really cozy. we had wanted the ceremony to be small so that those who witnessed our vows were the people who we loved most deeply and who we knew would support us in our marriage. being inside wasn't what we had planned but it felt so comfortable and personal that it turned out to be perfect.

plus, my dad had the brilliant idea to open the bar in the sun room for people who didn't get to sit down during the service. i don't think anybody minded. ;)

it was wonderful!

we're married! and we're back in the US.... things are sort of busy at my summer job, but i just wanted to share a sneak peak of the fun from our reception that the photographer sent over. i'm salivating to see the rest!


the ceremony was so special for us, and the reception was BEYOND fun, but let's be honest... married life is even better. can you imagine?!? the claim that i'm making here is that marriage is more fun than dancing to brick house while being surrounded by all of your favorite friends. :) whooo hoo! more updates and a play by play to come.

under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh eh eh...

guys, it might just rain. 50% chance on saturday.

the good news is that we have a backup plan for our outside garden ceremony should it pour buckets and buckets come 6 o'clock...

we're going to stand on the staircase inside the house, give everyone a glass of champagne, and have them gather around and stand in the foyer while we say our vows.

the crazy thing is that i feel really good about it... (and am actually kind of excited for the possibility) but still hope that the weather was as cool and pretty as it was today.

rain or shine, though, boone and i will be married!! :)

photo here

music and lyrics (the first dance)...

man, i loved watching this couple's choreographed first dance and the bridesmaids' rendition of beyonce's single ladies. i'm definitely not the first one to post about it, but if you haven't seen it, WATCH it now.

boone and i decided that we couldn't pull off anything choreographed (although i am obsessed with Jai Ho from the end of slumdog millionaire) because:
#1 well, it's just not us, and;
#2 we'll be so full of excitement and nerves that there's no way we'd remember it. not in a million years.
but we will being doing an impromptu first dance. here are the songs we've narrowed it down to, but we're not totally sold on any of them:

--At Last, by Beyonce
great, classic song, updated by one of my faves, PLUS it's a nod to the Prez since he and Mrs. O danced to this version at the inaugural ball
--If I could Build my Whole World Around You, by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
wonderful duet, perfect lyrics, and it's upbeat! if you don't know this one def check it out.
--You Are the Best Thing, by Ray LeMontagne
we heard this on the radio the other day think it's just perfect i mean with lines like "you are the best thing that's ever happened to me" what more could you want?

here are the ones that didn't make the cut:
- The Luckiest, by Ben Folds
- Better Together, by Jack Johnson
- Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straights
- My Love for You is Real, Ryan Adams
- I'm Gonna Love You, by Wilson Pickett
- True, Fine Love, by Steve Miller Band

what song would you want to/did you/will you dance to with your honey?