That’s right , y’all! Its our very own Mrs. Emily Thomas’s birthday today! We would love for y’all to help us send her some birthday love!

Here’s how: Since it’s the very last day of February, that also means it’s the last day to jump on board with our February #SouthernDoin Challenge. Our Emily is one of the best gals you’ll find around these parts and she’s got a heart of gold when it comes to giving back. We love this gal’s passion for kindness, love and community. We’d love for y’all to honor this lovely lady’s birthday with something sweet. Nope, not with a cupcake or some red velvet cake, but with a random act of kindness or a surprise sweet gesture for someone you love. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #SouthernDoin and wish this pretty girl the best birthday yet!

Happy Birthday, Emily! Lots of love and hugs, Marissa, Lara, Nicole + Kristin

This month, in honor of all things love, we’ll be sharing a valentine a week from an SW gal. Nicole is up today, and this is her love letter to her future puppy.

Image above by 1313 Photography from Victoria + Rusty’s wedding.

Have you caught the love letter bug? Check out More Love Letters, an organization after our own hearts. Their goal? To turn your best love letter into a lamp to light the path of someone who needs to read it. Find out more here.

As y’all know, I always read the story of each couple before beginning my intros, and it’s absolutely one of my favorite things about writing Real Wedding posts. Well, Kristin + Travis’ story had me smiling from ear to ear before I was even half way through! This adorable duo truly fell in love at first sight, and I can’t help but get a little giddy when I read about the power of love. Especially when Kristin describes herself as “one smitten kitten!”. I die over the cuteness!

Moving onto the gorgeous details that Rodeo & Co. captured, I still can’t help but smile: the love that these two have for each other is palpable. The interesting part is that this lovely day didn’t take place in the South (I know!). We so often get requests from you darling readers on how to translate Southern style above the Mason Dixon for the weddings of Southerners who find themselves up North, so we’re delighted to share Kristin + Travis’ sweet day as a fabulous example. With Travis from Texas and Kristin from Vermont, the two were looking for a way to combine both familys’ traditions into a true celebration of love. We’ll let y’all be the judge, but I’d vote that they hit the nail on the head.

Cowboy boots + monograms? Yep, that’ll add some Southern flair to any wedding!

Did you decide to do a “first look”?  Nope. I wasn’t opposed to a “first look” because I liked the idea of knocking out some photos (hence leaving more time for us to enjoy cocktail hour!), but Travis didn’t want to see me until I the moment I stepped onto the aisle, which I thought was really cute and romantic.

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: Soooo yeah, it was the very first dress I tried on! I always thought those girls were crazy because who wouldn’t want to drag out the dress hunting process?! I wasn’t even sure of the exact style, but I knew I wanted the dress to be simple, whimsical and have a little something that made it unique. And I did not want any bling. I saw it within 30 seconds of walking into the boutique – a ball gown (but not overly poofy), sweetheart neck, zero bling, and this gorgeous flower that made the dress both whimsical and unique (in my opinion)! Of course, I wasn’t certain it was “the dress” until I stepped into the waiting room and tears started to flow.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? The church we were married in was built in the 1800s and did not have air conditioning. It was unseasonably hot that day, so everyone was pretty toasty, especially poor Travis in his three-piece suite!  About half way into the ceremony, Travis is literally dripping sweat. It then occurred to me that my “something old” was a white handkerchief from my great grandmother, which happened to be in the pocket of my dress (did I mention the dress had pockets?! Amazing). Travis was grateful when I whipped out the hanky, and I have a feeling my great grandmother was looking down on us and smiling.

Describe your wedding flowers: I was obsessed with all of them. I love contrasting textures/shapes, so chose billy balls for my pop of color and had them hand-painted orange. I incorporated gorgeous white peonies into my bouquet as well as scabiosa pods to add the contrast. I kept the bridesmaids’ bouquets simple with just billy balls and dusty miller and LOVED how they came out — so simple, but still very quirky and unique. For the church flowers, I scattered antique teal jars throughout with one or two peonies. They were understated and beautiful, which added to the overall rustic feel of the ceremony.

What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration?  What was Southern about your wedding? There was quite a bit! In West Dover, Vermont, we have “The Moover,” which is a free bus that drives around town and is painted like a cow. You can’t get much more Vermont than that! I charted a Moover for the day of the wedding to transport the wedding party and drive guests back to their hotel after the reception. For our signature cocktails, we served a “Vermont Country Lemonade” for as “her choice,” and a “Texas Martini” for “his choice.” Also, all the groomsmen, including Travis, wore cowboy boots. I even busted mine out halfway through the reception!

OK, these little ones are so stinkin’ adorable! I mean the flower girl is having a full-on dance party!

Describe your wedding cake or dessert: We had carrot cake for the bottom layer and vanilla with strawberry crème for the top two layers. All of it was coated in a delicious cream cheese frosting. Everything is better with a cream cheese frosting, in my opinion! I incorporated peonies and billy balls in a cascade and added an adorable rustic topper from Etsy. The overall look was whimsical, playful and rustic.

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story. “We met at work” simply does not do our introduction justice. Not to mention, it’s very difficult to define our actual introduction…so bear with me! Travis and graduated from different colleges in 2007 and got jobs working for the same PR firm, Lois Paul & Partners. On my first day of work, I decided to hop on the company directory to look up some employee profiles and acclimate myself with the “who’s who” of the company. Well, during this quest I stumbled upon a profile (and picture) of one, Travis Williams. I stopped dead. “Helleeeww, Travis!” I said in my head (literally). It was only moments later that the HR head popped into my cube to take me on tour of the office and do introductions. Clearly, the first thing that popped into my head was, “I wonder where Travis sits!?”  After about 30 introductions and no Travis to be found, we had come full circle back to my desk. Disappointed, I hopped back on his profile and noticed a very important detail I had overlooked: “Travis Williams, location: Austin, TX.” I was in the Boston office, and he was in the Austin office. Fast forward seven months. LP&P was pitching a new video conferencing technology and Travis and I were both chosen for the pitch. As soon as I saw the roster, feelings from my first day at work came flooding back. Luckily, because the business we were pitching was a video conferencing technology, we actually worked on the pitch via web cam. Seeing Travis “in person” officially sealed the deal for me. I was one smitten kitten! But seriously, what could be in the cards for two people living 2,000 miles apart? Fast forward two months. We lost the pitch. Not going to lie, I was more disappointed that I wouldn’t be working with Travis than actually loosing the business. However, what a perfect opportunity to email Travis and say how great it was working with him! So, I made the first move (Travis may tell you different) and sent Travis a message via Facebook. After several casual (yet slightly flirty) Facebook emails, I was busy at work one day when our internal IM system popped up on my screen with a message from Travis. “Hi”, he said. I broke into a sweat. Grinning like a 12-year-old, I replied, “Hi.” Little did I know that this simple exchange was the start to something amazing. Fast forward (another) two months. Our IM-ing had eventually developed into a daily occurrence. He learned that I grew up in a small town in Vermont, and I learned that he was born outside Los Angeles and grew up near Dallas. We had a connection unlike anything I had experienced.  By this point it was around June 2008. One day we were chatting and Travis said, “What are you doing for July 4th? I’ve never been to Boston.” And so, Travis booked a flight to Boston (his first time ever to the East Coast) for the fourth of July. The first time I actually “met” Travis face-to-face was when I picked him up from Logan airport. I could go on for much longer than I already have about our official introduction at the airport (I may or may not have been so nervous that I lost my car in the parking lot and backed into a BMW). To sum it up, it was quite literally love at first sight. Travis officially asked me to be his girlfriend that first week on July 7th, 2008 (I don’t need to tell you what my answer was). To most, the idea of starting a relationship long-distance was crazy – and if the situation were reverse, I would have agreed – but we both knew that what we had only came once in a lifetime.
Describe the proposal. Travis and I were in Vermont over Christmas. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much snow on the ground, and Travis insisted on reminding me of this every hour. Travis: “When is it going to snow?!?!” Kristen: “Seriously, Travis? We’re not here just to snowboard, we’re here to be with family!” Little did I know, Travis had other reasons for wanting the snow. Finally, on the night of December 26, we got the snow storm that Travis had been waiting for. Once it started coming down pretty hard, Travis suggested we go outside to play. We got all bundled up, and trudged down to my frozen pond. After a few minutes and several snow angels, Travis got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. After I stopped crying and screaming “Are you serious?!?” my response was, “OF COURSE!” My second response was, “Can I see my ring now?!” (Unfortunately, it’s VERY dark in my back yard at night. Fortunately, we had a flashlight!) When we got back to the house, my parents were waiting with big hugs and a toast. It was perfect.
In what month did you get married? June
Did you decide to do a “first look”?  Nope. I wasn’t opposed to a “first look” because I liked the idea of knocking out some photos (hence leaving more time for us to enjoy cocktail hour!), but Travis didn’t want to see me until I the moment I stepped onto the aisle, which I thought was really cute and romantic.
Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding. We had an acoustic guitar player for our processional/recessional music, which gave a super intimate and rustic feel to the ceremony. I wanted to keep the ceremony music traditional. There is something about “Here Comes the Bride” that just pulls at my heart strings. For our first dance song, we wanted something personal (obviously), so we picked “16 Maybe Less” by Iron and Wine (an Austin-native band, which is where we live).
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? I planned the entire wedding from Texas! In the 18 months I was engaged, I only made it up to Vermont three separate times. My sister lives in Boston, and my parents are only in Vermont for the winter, so it was definitely a challenge.
What range did your wedding budget fall into?  $25,000-$50,000
What is the one thing you are most happy you splurged on? That’s easy – the photographer! The day of the wedding is such a blur already. I seriously wish that I could have been in 50 different places at the same time for every second of that day. I’m SO happy that I had an amazing photographer to capture all the details and hard work that went into the wedding itself, and also the many moments among family/friends that I couldn’t be a part of.
What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? My advice is two-fold. The first is to stay as organized as possible. I started the process with a strict list of what to do and deadlines to get them done by (theknot.com has a great list to reference). Part 2 is far more important. The day of your wedding, LET GO OF THE PLANNING AND HAVE FUN! No one will know if there was supposed to be a tiki torch lit at 8:30pm, or if the ring bearer was supposed to have a different color bow tie on. Everyone is there to celebrate your marriage, not your event planning skills.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future? 2012 was a busy year for us. We got married, but we also bought a house and got a dog! For now, we are just looking forward to enjoying our lives together, traveling, and being in love. Babies are definitely in the future, and we are looking forward to that next adventure, but not for a couple more years.

Are y’all familiar with my bridesmaid dress saga? Oh my, it went on and on! I agonized over the price, the color, the fit, the style, the lead time… pretty much every aspect of the experience. I think if I had only seen these happy images from Donna Morgan Bridesmaids sooner, my experience would have been a lot sunnier…

The Blaire in Lemonade and Spearmint and the Rhea in Orchid

One of my favorite things about Donna Morgan Bridesmaids dresses is that they’re perfect for mixing and matching. Each one is cut from chiffon, a wonderfully adaptable (and forgiving!) material, making it easy to pair silhouettes and even colors and still achieve a unified look. Each style is feminine and flattering, meaning you pretty much can’t go wrong no matter what you choose.

The Mary and Emily in Blush, and the Lauren in Sterling

Donna Morgan’s use of chiffon also means these gowns are particularly well-suited to Southern bridesmaids — the light and airy material is perfect for sweltering Southern summers (and springs and falls — y’all know they can be sweltering, too!).

Morgan in Hint of Mint, Hallie in Ocean Spray, Morgan in Candlelight, Morgan in Peach Fuzz, and Mary in Blush

Are you loving these pastel shades as much as I am? They mix and match in such a gorgeous way!

My final favorite thing about Donna Morgan’s collection? Immediate shipment! So much of my bridesmaid dress angst stemmed from the fact that I felt a ton of pressure to make a decision quickly and order the gowns as soon as possible so that we’d have the two month (or more!) construction time most lines require, plus enough time for alterations. And heaven forbid if the dresses come in and you don’t like them! With Donna Morgan, your ‘maids could even order one style, and if they don’t love the fit as much on them as they thought they would, have time to exchange it for another! Brilliant!

After all, with 13 core bodies, or styles, and 15 core colors, there are lots of great possibilities from which to choose, so I can understand if they’d want to try out a few options! You can check out the entire 2013 Bridesmaids Collection here, and take a peek at their darling Spring Lookbook here!

P.S. Those of y’all who’ve already chosen your bridesmaid dresses? Be sure to check out DM’s Little White Dress Collection! I personally love the Raven.

Photography by Trent Bailey and beautiful styling by Jacqueline Weppner for Merci New York!

Our February Southern Bride of the Month is squeaking in just under the wire! I know y’all will love Jen, and will enjoy as much as I did reading about some of the smart planning decisions she and Nick have made. (I especially liked their plan for setting priorities — see below!) Let’s give this lady a warm welcome!

Hi! What’s your name?
Jen Welch

What’s your fiancé’s name?
Nick Rueter

Vue Photography

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story.
We met during our freshman year of college at Vanderbilt University. My close friend from home joined the same fraternity as Nick. When I stopped by to hang out with him, Nick always seemed to catch my eye. We went on our first date the day before school started our sophomore year, and the rest was history. Our introduction has become even more meaningful, as that friend will be serving as Nick’s best man at our wedding!

Vue Photography

When’s the big day?
June 22, 2013 – four months to go! I always knew I wanted a summer wedding since my favorite flowers are hydrangeas, and I wanted them to be beautiful and in season for my wedding!

Blue hydrangea inspiration from Brian Kraft and Martha Stewart Weddings

Where might you two be tying the knot?
We are having both the ceremony and the reception at The St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta.

How did you pick your ceremony and reception venues? What do you love most about each space?
Nick and I have celebrated many special occasions at The St. Regis over the past few years, so the venue was already meaningful to us. We knew we wanted to have the ceremony and reception at the same location and wanted to keep things indoors to spare our guests from the brutal Atlanta heat. The St Regis was the first venue we visited after we got engaged, and while we considered a few others, we concluded rather quickly that the elegance of the St. Regis would be the perfect backdrop for our wedding!

The gorgeous lobby of the St. Regis Atlanta!

Tell us a little bit about the wedding you’re planning: style, theme, feel, colors?
I’ve always wanted a black tie wedding, so I knew the style and theme would need to feel very formal and sophisticated. At the same time, I want to give everything a contemporary edge. I love the color blue, so we have looked for ways to incorporate that with French blue bridesmaid dresses, navy ink for our invitations, blue hydrangeas for bridesmaid bouquets, and blue lighting for the reception. We also loved the idea of having our wedding ceremony in a dimly lit ballroom surrounded by candles to make the event feel very special and intimate!

Ceremony inspiration via Wedding Style

Who or what has been most helpful and/or inspiring in the wedding planning process?
I am very lucky to have my Mom in Atlanta with me to help with a lot of the details. She has an amazing ability to keep me focused on my vision when I get indecisive. My mom also was smart enough to hire us a wedding planner right away, and Lindsay Pitt of Toast has been very helpful with navigating and refining my hundreds of ideas. I am also very lucky to have eight wonderful bridesmaids, several of which recently got married and have been a huge help by sharing advice they learned from their big day.

What part of wedding planning, if any, has made you the most anxious?
We are so excited to see all of our guests during the wedding weekend, so we are trying to allow for as much time as possible with our friends and family. When we started working on the timeline for the weekend, we realized how quickly the whole day, and especially the evening, will go by, and we were worried we wouldn’t have a chance to talk to every guest. To try and alleviate some of that anxiety, we decided to try and get all of our guests together after the rehearsal dinner to celebrate the wedding weekend prior to the big day! We are also considering doing a first look so we can join the cocktail hour and start celebrating with all of the people who are so important to us as soon as possible!

What wedding-related decision have you been the most indecisive on?
Definitely the invitations! I always knew I wanted to do a calligraphy letterpress invitation, but I have been very indecisive regarding whether to stick with a traditional style or to incorporate some more modern elements. We are working with hi note for all our stationery and they have been fabulous at listening to our ideas and turning them into actual concepts, not to mention that they have been very patient with me considering I’ve changed my mind at least ten times! I am still going back and forth on this part, but have to make a decision pretty soon.

Calligraphy invitation inspiration from Bella Figura

Which part of your wedding have you been most intentional about planning?
Probably the most important aspect of a wedding, to us, and the one that we’re most excited about for our own wedding, is the food. We want the food to match the formality of the event, but also want it to be fun and to showcase some Southern ingredients. It was also important to us that the rehearsal dinner menu complement, but not duplicate, the wedding menu. We’ve worked very closely with the chefs at these venues to create menus that we are truly excited about.

Dressed-up Southern comfort food inspiration from Whitney + Clarke’s wedding (photo by Patricia Lyons)

Have you picked your dress yet? How’d that go? What will you be wearing on the big day?
Yes! I ordered it back in July and it should come in sometime in the next few weeks. I worked with Susan at Joan Pillow, who made the process as stress-free as possible despite how difficult a decision this was for me. I had always dreamed of wearing a Monique Lhuillier gown, so I went in to Joan Pillow right after we got engaged and thought I had found “the one”. Lucky for me, there was a Monique trunk show a few weeks later, so I went back to order it, but I ended up falling in love with a different gown from the new collection! It is the complete opposite of the gown I was planning to order the first day. I ended up ordering the gown from the trunk show and can’t wait for it to arrive in a few weeks, as I know that will make this all feel very real!

What do you love most about Southern weddings?
I have always admired the way a big Southern wedding can still feel intimate and personalized. While I always knew I wanted a big black tie affair, it was also important that the whole event reflected our personalities and that each guest would walk away knowing we were involved in every detail of the night. I think Southern weddings feel very special because Southern brides pay a lot of attention to the details, especially the delicious Southern food they usually serve their guests!

Tell us about planning with your fiancé. Has it gone smoothly? Is he more involved, or hands-off?
Nick has been very hands on and has made efforts to attend every wedding-related meeting, even if just for the support. Nick has also contributed some great ideas of his own, including an incredible idea for a way to personalize our cocktail hour. It will be a very fun surprise for our guests and make our cocktail hour very unique! I feel incredibly fortunate to have a fiancé who is involved and brings a different perspective than I have to every decision.

Reception table and lighting inspiration from The Studio B Photography and Ira Lippke Studios

What do you wish you would have known at the beginning of your engagement?
When we first got engaged, we focused on the venue and the photographer right away. We saved the band for later, and I wished I had known how quickly great bands can book up. We have a fabulous band, Simply Irresistible, but I wish we had booked them right away and avoided all of that stress!

What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?
I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but more than anything, I’m looking forward to getting married! I think it’s important to remember that a wedding and a marriage are two different things. While I’m ecstatic about the wedding we have planned, in the end, a wedding is just a fabulous party. What I am most excited for are the vows that we will say to each other on that day, and the fact that I will have my best friend by my side for whatever life throws at me – the good and the bad. We’re incredibly lucky that both sets of our parents have been married for over 30 years, so we have great role models for a successful marriage!

Any plans for a honeymoon? Where do you want to go and what will you do?
This is one of the most exciting parts, since Nick and I LOVE to travel! We’ll be spending our honeymoon in the Seychelles, with a few days in Dubai on the way back. A few weeks after we got engaged, Nick took me out to dinner and presented me with a slideshow on his iPad for two different honeymoon itineraries. I decided that Seychelles and Dubai was the combination I was least likely to visit outside of a honeymoon. We are so excited to relax at a gorgeous hilltop resort and spend a week hopping around to all the islands to visit beaches, scuba dive, and enjoy delicious food!

Vue Photography

Any advice you’d like to pass along to fellow brides?
At the beginning of our wedding planning, we all sat down and discussed what was most important to us. I wanted to make sure that Nick, my parents, and I all had the “final say” in the area of the wedding that was the most important to each of us. For Nick, that was the food, for my mom it was the calligraphy, invitations and desserts. For my dad it was the band, and for me it was the flowers and décor. It’s been nice to have set these priorities early and to have someone “in charge” of making the decisions for each of these categories.

Now it’s your turn to ask for advice – is there anything you’d like to poll the SW readers on?
Yes! We are really debating doing a first look. Nick and I both want to show respect for some of those “wedding traditions,” such as that moment when the doors open and the bride and groom see each other for the first time. However, the idea of a first look is starting to sound more appealing – we would have a chance to take beautiful photos next door to the St. Regis at the gardens at the Atlanta History Center, and more importantly, we could join cocktail hour and spend more time with our guests. What should we do? Is it more important to preserve that special tradition of not seeing each other until the ceremony and capture that moment around our friends and family, or should we have that moment in private and get the opportunity to take gorgeous photos outside and then have more time with our guests later? Help!

Thank you so much for joining us today, Jen! Readers, if you’d like to apply to be a Southern Bride of the Month, check out this post for all the details! If you’ve already emailed me, you’re still in the running for future months!