Nashville Wedding Recaps: Post Ceremony

The last installment of wedding recaps left off with our ceremony, and today we're starting back up with the post ceremony. Photography was really important to us, so we made a point to schedule a 2hr block of time with Zach and Jody for pictures of us, our families, and our bridal party.

Immediately following our processional and all of our guests, we went back into the sanctuary for our traditional family portraits. As important as fun, creative photography was to Mr. SE and I, our parents were very interested in traditional portraits of our immediate and extended family. Here are some of our favorite family portraits:

FIL, MIL, ME, MR. SE, SIL, BIL

MOM, ME, MR. SE, DAD

UNCLE DICK, AUNT LINDA, MOM, ME, MR, DAD, AUNT SHARON

DAD'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

MR. SE'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

BRIDESMAIDS, MY CHOSEN FAMILY :)

MR. SE, COUSIN EMMA, ME

Once Zach and Jody grabbed these great shots, we hopped in the limos and headed to Centennial Park for the real fun. I'd like to note that my wonderfully fun (and always hungry) enjoyed a delicious burger and fries in the limo en route! I didn't mind as long as he didn't get any ketchup or mustard on my dress. Whilst eating his limo, my new husband got to open the 2nd part of his wedding gift. The album from my Sweets shoot was a sure hit- and he was so incredibly excited!

Honestly, this was the hottest I've ever been in my life. I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again- it was 100 degrees on our wedding day. Not like "omg, I'm so hot- it's 100 degrees in here". It was literally 100 degrees, and felt much higher! Also, being the traditional bride that I am, I opted for a ball gown and to wear my hair down. You don't have to tell me how smart I am-- the sweat sticking my veil to my back was enough of a reminder.

At Centennial Park, we hopped out of the limos and headed up to the Parthenon. It was the perfect spot for the high impact shots that Gray Photography is know for. Zach and Jody knew exactly how to keep everyone happy and upbeat. Included in my 12 page packet of fun, I asked all of our bridal party members to bring sunglasses. We knew it would be bright outside, and it also made for some fun shots.

 Once the group shots were complete, our bridal party hurried back to the limos where they were welcomed with air conditioning. Meanwhile, my new husband and I braved the heat to let Zach and Jody work their magic. Honestly, these guys aren't world renowned for nothing, I'm so happy that we were lucky enough to have them as part of our wedding day.

The shots within the columns are some of my favorites, especially the ones of Mr. SE holding my bouquet. My parents have a big print of that one in their house and it makes me smile so big every time I walk by!

After finishing up at the Parthenon we traveled to our second location, which was closer to War Memorial (our reception site). Since Mr. SE and I aren't from Nashville, and this was a destination wedding for most of our guests, I wanted some photos that were undeniably "Nashville". And the wall outside of Second Fiddle was just the ticket!

If you're still reading at this point-- thank you! This was a super long, picture heavy post for sure, and I appreciate you staying along for the journey. There are more posts to come in this series of recaps and I look forward to continuing to relive this wonderful day. Thank you for traveling with me- it means the world.

Other Recaps

Rehearsal Dinner

Girls Getting Ready

Boys Getting Ready

First Look

Ceremony

Meet the Deacon

Tonight we have our first meeting with our Deacon at the Cathedral. We're super excited to start our sessions with Deacon Faulkner, and they'll continue until August. Mr. SE and I decided early on that the ceremony was the most important part of the whole wedding experience. It should be the most important part- but oftentimes it gets overlooked in the craziness of wedding planning. We can't wait to begin this journey of the planning process. 68 days- it's really happening, friends!!

A Church Wedding

{Photo by the incomparable Jose Villa}

Want your wedding in a church, but also want to be outside? Bring in your own church pews. This extremely creative couple in California did exactly that. They rented vintage pews and brought the church to their wedding location. I love love this!!!

Finding The Church: II

I wasn't able to do my normal blog rounds, as I've been traveling for most of the day. Just saw this picture on Ashley's Bride Guide. If price, time, logistics weren't an issue- I could make my decision based on this picture alone.

Finding The Church

Mr. SE and I agree that the ceremony is the most important part of our wedding. There's no wedding without a marriage, right? He's baptized Catholic, and myself Christian. My church in Virginia has a super huge body (try a couple thousand), so that wasn't an option to get married in anyways. If you brought 600 of your closest friends the sanctuary wouldn't look partially full.

After many long conversations, Mr. SE shared that having a Catholic wedding was the one thing that he really cared about. Besides leaving in a Lamborghini (more on that later). Once I realized it was possible to have a Catholic wedding outside of a full mass, I agreed. I went to the Nashville Diocese website and looked up the parishes in Nashville. The list wasn't too long, seeing as the south is more Baptist and Methodist. I always love the steeples on Methodist churches *sigh*.

We're still trying to find a parish that will let us marry without being members. Since we're 1/2 in town, it's hard to become genuine members for long enough that it wouldn't be obvious it was just for a wedding. We don't want to "pretend" that we're members for a couple weeks and ask. A couple of the churches I've called have been super friendly and offered their location based on our situation.

Did you have trouble finding a ceremony site?
Top image: Nashville Cathedral
2nd: Assumption Catholic Church, Flickr
3rd: Assumption Catholic Church, Gray Photography

Worky Work. Busy Bee

There used to be a commercial for some shipping company (maybe FedEx Kinkos, UPS, or DHL) where the guy didn't know he could expedite projects. He was working frantically and would yell out "worky work- busy bee!". It always made me laugh hysterically. Most people don't think it's that funny though...

Things are super busy around here today. I have a midterm this afternoon, lots of meetings, and I'm trying to get everything rounded up before driving home tomorrow. I'll try and post a little later today.Photo from Weddingbee
In the meantime, how amazing is this ceremony setup? If we weren't getting married in a church, I would love to have the chairs like this. It would be so amazing to have our family and friends all around us, not just behind. Do you prefer something modern like this or more traditional?