We’re always busy bees in the Southern Weddings office, but this week, the buzz seemed to grow louder. We’re wrangling up some V5 surprises for you and have some great features lined up for next week. In the middle of putting all of this into action, we still snuck in a few moments to celebrate four of our college graduating seniors. Our party was complete with an old school year book signing!

We had to start Monday off on a good foot, which is why Marissa’s Southern Delicacy post was the perfect fit. That is, if you like deviled eggs. I’m personally a fan, but with variations like bacon toppings and buffalo chicken, there’s bound to be an option that speaks to you.

You might remember that we overloaded the blog with some amazing giveaways over the past couple of weeks. We announced our lucky winners and we’re thrilled to hand them their fun prizes.

We love having Katie from Marriage Confessions on the blog. This week, she recapped how she and her husband rediscovered their happiness in marriage. The fact that it took a trip to Costa Rica to help them is just a bonus.

Really, y’all, it’s giveaway heaven on our blog! We had a blast looking through everyone’s entries for our first ever Pinterest Contest and we’ve picked our top three finalists. Y’all get to vote on who will win!

We thought some adorable and eco-conscious bridal shower inspiration was perfect for Earth Day this weekend! Plus, we share the ultimate Southern spa treatment: Sweet Tea Pedicures!

This week’s featured Real Weddings Gallery is Ashley + Ross. Their neutral palette brings attention to the personal details we love most.

Real Weddings are food to our souls

Stacy + Adam’s garden party wedding looks just like the “exuberant bliss” that was expressed on their invitations. See it here.

Jodi + Kurt’s handmade wedding from V4 continues to blow us away. Can you believe the groom catered the entire wedding? See it here and here.’

What are y’all doing this weekend? Tell us in the comments below!

As y’all probably already know (especially if you read this post!), estate diamonds and passed-down engagement rings are fairly common here in the South. Alas, not all of us are lucky enough to have precious heirloom baubles already in our families, which is why we love today’s sponsor, EraGem Estate Jewelry! If you’re hoping that your ring might one day become a family heirloom, it makes perfect sense to search for “the one” among vintage engagement rings, and EraGem has plenty of gorgeous options from which to choose.

I love that antique engagement rings already come with a story. Doesn’t that seem so Southern? I think there’s something really beautiful about wearing a ring that both symbolizes your future and has so much history.

I ALSO love these gorgeous colored numbers! EraGem’s selection of sapphire engagement rings is stunning, and if you’ve ever wanted to make like Kate, this would be the place to start your search.

Besides beautiful rings, EraGem has the back-end details down to a science, too: free shipping, and a full 60-day money back guarantee. Additionally, something that would set my mind at ease is that all of the photos on their site (and in this post) were taken by the owners, Michael and Weston, and are of the actual items for sale. They are also great with customer service via phone or email!

What do you think, ladies? Would you wear a vintage engagement ring? Is your engagement ring vintage?

When I first read Jodi + Kurt’s interview, I was blown away, y’all! Kurt, who has a background in the culinary arts, catered their entire wedding! He woke up early on the big day to put together a delicious family-style meal, keeping things light (but hello, delicious) with butternut squash soup, artisan cheeses, bread and a variety of toppings. The couple took “homemade” to another level, making their soup from squash they had grown on the family farm and serving home-brewed beers! We love how the vintage and shabby-chic details come together into a comfy family gathering. Thanks again to Stephanie Williams of This Modern Romance for sharing!

We love how simple but beautiful these leafy and wild arrangements look in vintage jars and tins!

Jodi + Kurt’s pie hutch is a favorite in the office. Since the newlyweds aren’t big fans of cake, their family and friends all contributed a pie to the dessert selection.

Aren’t those piggy-stamped muslin bags adorable as favors? They hold bacon gingersnap cookies that Kurt made using leftover bacon drippings instead of oil. Who else is hungry?

Describe some of the decorations or décor elements you used: Most of our decorations were handmade by our stylist, Lynn and me. Lynn hand-embroidered a lot of the details, including most of the signs placed around the wedding. She sewed all of the linens we used for our wedding, including table runners and napkins and made several chalkboard signs, including a large menu sign. Our favors were “Bacon Snaps.” Kurt basically made a gingersnap cookie and used bacon fat instead of butter. We placed them in muslin bags with a pig stamped on them. They were placed in old cheese boxes on top of my dad’s great-grandfather’s roll top desk. Being photographers, we had to have several photography-related sections of our wedding! One station was our “snapshot” station. We set up a tall shelf and placed several vintage cameras all over it for guests to pick up and take instant pictures during the reception. We also had a photo booth. We used an old bed sheet as the backdrop and hired one of our photographer friends to operate the booth. Our cheese table was also a labor of love! Kurt made the sawhorses for the cheese table and we found an old Johnny house door from the farm to set the cheese on. Lynn made embroidered tea towels with the words “jam & honey”, “bread” and “cheese”. Each cheese had its own sign. Another station we set up was our wash station! Since I wanted cleanup after our wedding to be as organized as possible, Lynn came up with the wash station for our guests to deposit their dishes in after they ate. We set up several galvanized tubs with signs specific to each tub and set out an old washboard found on the farm. We made a clothes rack that hung a “dirty dishes” towel and two Anthropologie dishtowels.
Describe your wedding cake: Since Kurt and I aren’t big fans of cake, we wanted to do something a little bit different and have homemade pies instead. We absolutely love pie and it was so special to have our friends and family help make some of our favorites. We had about 20 of them that were all placed on an antique hutch.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? Next, we are photographing couples in love and helping their day go as smoothly as possible. In the future, we’ll be waking up beside each other and loving each other every single day.
What advice would you give to someone planning his or her wedding? Book your photographer first! Stephanie and Isaac were the first vendor we booked. Actually, I contacted them the day after I got engaged. They were my dream photographers and I had to see if they were available. Lucky for us, they were! We absolutely adore them and their work. We knew having gorgeous images would really be the only thing that lasted from our wedding. We couldn’t have had a more perfect pair to photograph it!

Photographer: This Modern Romance // Videographer: Josh Gooden Cinematography // Designer: Sunshowers and Rainshine // Venue: Family farm in Mount Crawford, Virginia // Florist: JMFlora Design // Pie Baker: homemade // Caterer: groom // Bridesmaid Dresses: J. Crew // Bride’s Dress: Monique Lhuillier // Hair Stylist: bride // Makeup Artist: Erika Nixon // Bride’s Shoes: J. Crew // Bride’s Jewelry: earrings by Ten Things // Groom’s Fashion: J. Crew // Groomsmen Fashion: J.Crew // Rentals: Classic Party Rentals and Central Virginia Rental // Linens: Griffith Bag Company // Cameos: Poppy Loves Paris // Fabric: A Garden of Roses and Lonestar Quilting // Favors: groom // Officiant: Troy Pearson // Band: Shenandoah Travelers

Love this wedding? You might love these:
Sarah + Dan’s colorful barn wedding full of antique goodies here.
Jenn + Barret’s vintage and rustic wedding here and here.

Jodi + Kurt’s is one of my favorite V4 weddings. Like yesterday’s bride, Stacy, J + K are wedding photographers and constantly surrounded by ideas. According to Jodi, “I knew I wanted a vintage-inspired wedding with lots of handmade elements. We, as artists, wanted something created by us, to truly reflect our lives and our relationship. Once I got engaged, I created several inspiration boards to really narrow my ideas. I showed them to everyone involved in the wedding. Most people didn’t quite understand the ideas we were dreaming up, but they went with it!” We think their handmade wedding came together beautifully and we just can’t seem to stop looking at these images by Stephanie of This Modern Romance.

P.S. Jodi + Kurt actually shot another wedding that appeared in V4! Check out Katie + Max’s colorful wedding here and here.

Jodi + Kurt’s wedding invitations were a true labor of love! “We wanted our invites to be personal and completely handmade so we could give our guests something special. We worked on these invitations for several months going through prototype after prototype until we finally found one we loved. Our invitations were a burlap folio, constructed out of thick board, burlap, twine, and cameos. In the inside, we attached envelopes purchased from Paper Source, which were lined with part of a doily. Each pocket contained several inserts with specific information pertaining to our wedding. One of the pockets contained a DVD of a stop-motion invitation video that Kurt and I made.”

How adorable is J + K’s ceremony setup? Those hay bales were used on the family farm after the wedding and those quilts all came from Jodi’s family.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We actually met in high school, though we never had any classes together and barely even talked to each other. Kurt secretly liked me, but never pursued me until we reconnected when I was a junior in college. We ran into each other at a church we were both attending at the time and Kurt pursued me for about four months until we started dating. We dated for four years, got engaged in September 2009, and married in October 2010.
Describe the proposal: (From the groom) Jodi had always wanted to go apple picking, so we planned a date in September of 2009. I wrote down the addresses of three orchards in the area and thought I was set. Little did I know none of them allowed you to pick your own apples. At this point, the ring was burning a hole in my pocket and I was almost at the end of my rope. Jodi, on the other hand, was having a good time driving around in the country. Not having any more leads to follow, she called one of her friends who recommended an orchard an hour and a half away. After driving most of the afternoon away, we arrived at Carter Mountain Orchard, outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. It was absolutely stunning with an incredible view of the valley. We wandered around the orchard picking some apples and after finding a nice secluded area, I asked her to turn around. As she turned, I held out the ring and asked her to marry me. There were lots of hugs and kisses and intermittently, she found time to say yes. The rest of that evening she couldn’t take her eyes off her hand. Lucky for us, we brought our cameras and a tripod along so we were able to shoot a quick engagement session of ourselves.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Elegant, simple, and handmade.
How many guests attended your wedding? We had about 100 guests attend.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I loved my wedding dress! Before I got engaged I knew I wanted a lace dress for my wedding, preferably one by Monique Lhuillier. Since my sister got engaged about four months after I got did, we both had the opportunity to go dress shopping together, which was so special! We both found our dresses the same day and both were Monique Lhuillier
Describe your wedding flowers: We loved our wedding flowers! We wanted a mixture of flowers that reflected our soft, vintage color palette. Janie, our amazing florist, incorporated dahlias, ranunculus, peonies, garden roses, eucalyptus, fern curls, mint, ornamental cabbage, dusty miller, and more. All of the flowers tied in perfectly with our vintage aesthetic! The boutonnieres were one of my favorite details from the day! Kurt and I knew we wanted to do something different and non-floral for the boutonnieres. We also wanted to tie in something camera-related, since photography is such a huge part of our lives. Kurt did some research and found a small lens on eBay. Our stylist fastened the lens to a burlap leaf and it turned out fantastically! Lynn also came up with the idea of using old film negatives for our best man’s boutonniere. She cut and folded the film negatives into a small flower.
What was the most memorable or touching moment about your wedding day? The most memorable part of our ceremony was definitely our prayer at the end. Our pastor had approached us about doing a communal prayer where everyone prays over us aloud and at the same time. During the entire ceremony it was overcast and cloudy, but during this prayer, the clouds parted and the sun shined right on Kurt and me. It was such a beautiful blessing from God! We had never felt more loved than in that moment.

Photographer: This Modern Romance // Videographer: Josh Gooden Cinematography // Designer: Sunshowers and Rainshine // Venue: Family farm in Mount Crawford, Virginia // Florist: JMFlora Design // Pie Baker: homemade // Caterer: groom // Bridesmaid Dresses: J. Crew // Bride’s Dress: Monique Lhuillier // Hair Stylist: bride // Makeup Artist: Erika Nixon // Bride’s Shoes: J. Crew // Bride’s Jewelry: earrings by Ten Things // Groom’s Fashion: J. Crew // Groomsmen Fashion: J.Crew // Rentals: Classic Party Rentals and Central Virginia Rental // Linens: Griffith Bag Company // Cameos: Poppy Loves Paris // Fabric: A Garden of Roses and Lonestar Quilting // Favors: groom // Officiant: Troy Pearson // Band: Shenandoah Travelers

We think you might love these weddings, too!
Alli + Chad’s at-home wedding here and here.
Meghan + Chris’s colorful farm wedding here and here.
Audrey + Jordan’s sweet outdoor wedding here.

This weekend is Earth Day, belles! And with all the stunning natural beauty that surrounds us in the South, we thought it would behoove us to pause and take a minute to appreciate the majestic Lowcountry marshes, the romantic Spanish moss dripping from live oaks, and the endless fields of blue bonnets, to name just a few distinctly Southern gems.

We also have this eco-conscious bridal shower inspiration with which to celebrate! Photographer Sarah DeShaw partnered with Kendra from One Love Organics to put together this pretty inspiration. Wouldn’t something like this be perfect not just for a bridal shower, but for a low-key bachelorette or pre-wedding pampering session, too?

Love the idea of wrapping gifts in burlap – and of pairing the burlap with shiny satin ribbon to add a feminine touch!

If you’re ready for some Southern-style relaxation, we’ve got just the thing for you – a sweet tea pedicure!

Yum, don’t you think?

Sources:

Design and Photo Stylist: Sarah DeShaw // Photography: Sarah DeShaw and Brent DeShaw // Venue: Hampton Island // Flowers: Holley Jaakkola // Clothing: Go Fish // Products: One Love Organics // Hair & Makeup: Katherine Taylor // Paper Goods: A Darling Day