Nashville Wedding Recaps: Cocktail Hour & Intros

Hello friends! I'm back with the 7th installment of our wedding recaps. Thanks to Gray Photography, Mr. SE and I have more pictures than we know what to do with! Our last recap left off with the "post ceremony gap" that we created to make time for those lovely pictures, as well as shuttling our guests around downtown Nashville.

This first set of pictures are from our cocktail hour. War Memorial was a perfect venue for our reception, since there was a separate hour for the cocktail hour and reception. I loved the columns and how it felt very "DC". A lot of our paper goodies were made by Amanda of Customized Stationary- referred by my lovely friend Tami. Amanda worked with our invitation, designed by Jessica, and created items that complimented our aesthetic.

Our guest book was out in the courtyard, and instructed guests to write well wishes for Ryan and I. The concept of our wish tree was a combination of several ideas: the wish tree was something that I'd seen a lot on wedding blogs, and the prompts were from Martha Stewart Weddings. Sometimes it's hard to think what to write, so I wrote sayings such as "Once Upon A Time..." and let our guests fill in the rest. You can see my planning post about it here.

The seating chart was a total labor of love, and I'm hopelessly obsessed with it. Right now it's residing in our bonus room, as a reminder of all our friends and family that were there to support us on this special day. We worked again with Amanda of Customized Stationary to create this ginormous poster that mimicked the layout of the room. More on our table names when I do our details post!

We had a surprise planned for my dad during the cocktail hour. He loves steel drum music, so I contacted Deep Grooves Steel Drum Band from Vanderbilt and had a two person steel drum band playing during the hour. It was a perfect touch for our cocktail hour, as we wanted the wedding to be formal but fun. I love how the guys wore tropical shirts- it was the perfect music for mingling!

Here's a shot of our cocktail hour setup. We had cafe tables scattered around the courtyard, with linens in either teal, royal, or navy satin. I loved the dynamic palette of jewel tones against the ecru courtyard marble. The simple arrangements by Brocade Designs really made the tables. When the sun went down, Hillary lit the candles to create a gorgeous glowing atmosphere for guests who needed a breath of fresh air.

At the top of the hour, it was time for our reception introductions. We both agreed that entrances set the tone for receptions, so we wanted ours to be lively and fun. As a nod to his baseball days, Mr. SE worked with Josh Rose of Cosmo Creations to have different intros for each group that was being introduced.

My parents with our flower girl

Mr. SE's mother and father

 Ushers. Mr. SE had them enter to "Yeah" by Usher, funny.

 And They Stay There!!

 Nicole knows how to work a room

 Down on the Chattahoochee

All smiles for my Matron of Honor and Groomsman Lance

 Sister in law (new mom!) Shannon and Groomsman Adam break it down

  Maid of Honor Dani and Best Man (Mr. SE's brother) get the party started

 Making our first entrance as Mr. and Mrs.

 Hoping those dance lessons paid off! First dance to Michael Buble's "Everything"

 *a dream*

 At the end of our first dance, Mr. SE gave me a big hug and kept holding me very tight. This trippy house music started playing, and the lights dimmed. Once I had a chance to wrap my head around what was happening the lights turned back up and my girl Miley (Party In The USA) started blasting. Mr. SE spun me around and I saw all of our wedding guests, friends and family, surrounding us on the dance floor! What a master of surprise-- he'd managed to inform everyone of this plan without me catching on!

Oh my goodness- who's that getting their dance on?!? It's Mrs. Smith and Little Miss Southern!

Since Ryan and I love to dance, this was such a fun way to start our reception. Everyone had a blast and it really got the party started! Next post-- reception time!

 Other Recaps

Rehearsal Dinner

Girls Getting Ready

Boys Getting Ready

First Look

Ceremony
Post Ceremony

Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest...

...Put our service to the test. Tie your napkin round your neck, cheri, and we'll provide the rest!

Okay too much Disney fun for Miss SE. When we first hit the ground running with planning, I was an incredibly ambitious bride to be. Pomanders? I'll make 100 to line the aisles of the Cathedral. Guest Book? I'll print all the hanging cards with cute sayings and tie the ribbons myself. Now there's 94 days until the wedding and this bride to be is feeling somewhat overwhelmed!

Today I'm looking for guest book inspiration. My wonderful florist Hillary, from Brocade Designs, will be setting up a gold manzanita tree on a bed of ivory hydrangea. We'll have cards with ribbon laying around the tree, and encourage guests to write well wishes and hang them. Martha had a cute article awhile ago about having prompts on the cards, such as"love is..." or "always remember...", in case some guests have writer's block. I love this idea- and we'll definitely be doing it! Now if I could just find that article...

Here's some alternative guest book options. How are you planning to do your guest book? I'd love to hear your ideas.

**Update** I found the article from Martha!

Weekend Update: Picture Edition

If you follow me on twitter (MissSE06), you know that I've been a little sick lately. Just what I needed for my first week of work- what a bummer! Mr. SE and I are continuing our house hunt today, so I'm just going to do a quick post. Here's some things that have been tickling my fancy over the weekend.
Love this use of Wonderful Grafitti or Uppercase Living for a shower. This vase could also be incorpoated for a wedding ceremony/reception, and use after the wedding in your newlywed home. Inexpensive, but defintely makes an impact.{jonathon campbell photography}

This veil from David's Bridal is exactly what I'm looking for. Simple and timeless. The length is perfect. I'm planning on designing mine online (for less than $50 thankyouverymuch), but this is definitely an inspiration picture.

Love this bar setup from Cedarwood. For those of you who I haven't met in person, Cedarwood is where we'll be having our reception. I'll be sure to do a post on it sometime soon. Mr. SE and I love their covered pavillion and grounds. This bar is incredibly inviting, and I love all the pretty cup arrangements. Look at the Cedarwood blog for more eye candy.

This Alvina Valenta dress makes my heart melt. I haven't tried on dresses yet- I'm waiting until I can do it with my Mom and Dad. I love how the dress is so light and airy, but it has the lace detail on the train. On August days like today, I'm questioning whether I should debut the "bridal bikinni" at our reception. I can't imagine wearing a wedding dress this time of year! Should I assign a bridesmaid to hold a fan under me at all times? I think so.

What's currently inspiring you? Please share a link to something that is really driving your planning right now.

Houston We Have A Date

{at least we'll have longer to practice our dance moves}

Mr. SE and I have officially set a date. Our first date (April 10th) encountered several snafus with Cathedral availability and a very short engagement. We're much more comfortable with this date: mama SE will be retiring at the end of next school year, so she'll be available to visit and help over the summer, Christmas and Thanksgiving won't take up 2 months of our engagement, and hopefully we'll be settled in our new house.

So for all of you ladies getting married so soon (I can't wait to see pictures!), you'll get to enjoy blogging from Chez SE for another year! Yes, I love you too!

*Louise kindly pointed out that I didn't specify the date...it's August 14th, 2010.

Something For Your Shoulders

{the knot}

Since we've changed our date again (it's official I promise- but more on that later) we won't be needing shawls anymore. But I'm still in love with this image. Perhaps other cool-weathered brides could use this for their guests.

Maps, Maps, Maps

{formal}

I was first introduced to the idea of maps and weddings by the lovely Laura Hooper. Seriously, who doesn't love her work?!? She takes something simple like a map, and turns it into an absolute work of art. Here's another company I recently came across in my search for fun wedding maps. This will definitely be an option for us, as we'll be having our wedding ceremony and reception at two different locations.

Ideally, we'd like the ability to have everyone walk from the ceremony to reception, so a guided "foot tour" of Nashville would be especially fun! Are you planning on using maps? I've also thought about making them myself- has anyone tried that?{fun}

Outdoor Chic

This single picture exemplifies the feel I'd like our reception to have:

• Outdoor cocktail hour and/or reception
• Southern (easygoing, hospitable), but Black Tie (formal) affair
• Little bit of me (DC), little bit of Mr. SE (Georgia)
• Fun for both young and older guests (lots of dancing)
  

A while back, Snippet and Ink did a great inspiration board called Back Yard Black Tie. I can't seem to find the board now, but I'll be looking around for you. There's so many locations around Nashville that would be great for an event like this: Sam Davis House, Cedarwood, Carnton, and Traveller's Rest. Did you have a vision for your reception? Or did you just start once you picked the reception venue? I want out guests to spend either the cocktail hour or reception outdoors, but the possibility of rain makes me nervous. It's one more thing I don't want to stress about!

*Update* I found the inspiration board in my OneNote binder.

Reception Vision: Can't Decide

Picture Michael Norwood
Today I have some inspiration bouquets to share with you. These pictures are old, and from all over, so I don't have links for very many of them. Please tell me if you know their origin. So I have two ideas for the type of event I'd like to have, both of these start off with a Catholic church ceremony (non-mass):

A. Plantation reception; possibly a barn involved; shades of green, blue, and white to complement the natural scenery; maybe a modified a-line, but with lightweight fabric; centerpieces in mason jars w/baby's breath; see example here (Bonnie & Trevor)

B. Downtown reception: rooftop terrace cocktail/ballroom dinner or tented at War Memorial; shades of pale peach, Tiffany blue, and ivory; champagne cocktails; fit and flare gown; modern centerpiece with pillar candles; see example here (Today Show & Martha)

Each of these styles would have completely different design elements. It's hard for me to narrow down which one is my favorite, and I think it'll determine when dates are available. Did you have a firm idea in your mind or did you take a design cue from your booked reception site?
Here's two more bouquets that I like. I'm loving baby's breath for flower girls too. It's cheap!

Drumroll Please...

Hot off the press: I just read on the Historic Cedarwood Plantation blog that their barn will soon be open as a wedding venue. What's that I hear? I think it's angels singing. I wanted to do a rustic/black tie barn wedding after seeing these pictures on Style Me Pretty (by Leigh Miller) There aren't any pictures of the barn as of yet, but I can't hardly wait until they're online. I've never visited Cedarwood in person, but the pictures are beautiful. I can only hope it lives up to the ideas in my head! Here's some additional photos for barn inspiration....
Image from Style Me Pretty, Samuel Lippke

Image from Snippet and Ink, Union Photography

Is anybody else excited, like me, about this new location?