How was everyone’s week? I’m still thinking about Mother’s Day – my sister and whipped up a delicious (if I do say so myself) lunch for our mom. On the blog, we celebrated with some of our favorite mother of the bride/groom photos. Y’all know, we love Southern mamas! (And not-so-Southern mamas, like Emily’s, too!)

Monday rolled around and we decided it was a good time to take the V5 train down to Florida! In the Boca Raton area? We think you should join us for a photo shoot.

Y’all, we’ve seen many memorable ends to weddings. Just check out our V4 editorial dedicated to it! One thing we haven’t seen, though, is a tractor getaway.

Springtime means bridal shower season! When the bridesmaids of one of our Southern Bride Bloggers threw her a monogrammed bridal shower, we knew we had to share it with you. Who doesn’t love a good monogram?

Emily broke out her etiquette genius to walk us through another dilemma: The Church Bridal Shower. Read up on it here, we’d love to hear if you’ve had a similar experience!

We love having our friend Katie from Marriage Confessions on the blog. This week, she reminds us to separate our practical needs from our relationship needs, especially in gift-giving.

Sierra took us through Savannah with this week’s Southern Hospitality Tote. (Paula Deen lives there, y’all!)

It’s been a season of change in the Southern Weddings office. Last week, four of us graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (GO HEELS!), which means lots of celebrating, but also a few goodbyes. We’ll miss Sierra, who’s heading off to take over Nashville!

We love pretty details. We know you do, too. But after years of posting on the Southern Weddings blog, we hope you see that we believe marriage is always more important than the wedding. We created The Sweet Tea Society to help remind us. Read our manifesto here.

This week’s featured Real Wedding Gallery is Jamie + Dan. Their outdoor wedding looked like the epitome of summer ease and relaxation.

Real Weddings make our hearts sing!

Annie + Jimmy’s V4 wedding was one that we keep finding new details in. Their wedding was a testament to their “deep Southern roots.” See it here and here.

Before you go, can we swoon over this engagement photo of Maria + Spencer together? Kate Benson took such adorable photos of them. See more on her blog here.

Have a splendid weekend, friends!

When Annie + Jimmy planned their wedding, they simply wanted a design that would reflect their “deep-seated Tennessee Southern roots.” From homemade elements like numerous family quilts and pillows to the late night snack of Krystal burgers, there ain’t nothin’ more Southern than what the newlyweds put together. (Y’all just read about their getaway truck, Earl!) Of the numerous details, some of my favorites include the hanging kites and wildflower arrangements. Scroll down and you’ll see a gorgeous quilted chair back that will make you want to break out your sewing kit. Even better is the adorable ring bearer trying to make his getaway, but I won’t give it all away. These images from Jonathan Canlas will do just the trick.

For Annie, her best advice to brides is to “make it yours.” I can’t tell you how special it was to have meaning in absolutely everything.

We used all types of flowers for the wedding. I wanted it to look like we had gone out and picked our favorite flowers. We used tons of wildflowers as well as peonies, hydrangeas and sunflowers. We used all different types of containers for the flowers – from mason jars to vintage Cracker Jack tins.

The wedding cake was made to look like a quilt. It was square with three tiers. Each square was made to look like it was quilted and had various quilt square patterns going around it. The cake topper was composed of two handmade fabric birds made to look like us. The groom had Jimmy’s exact plaid pocket square, tie and linen suit (in miniature, of course!), and the bride was made using the actual lace from my wedding dress. It was a strawberry cake with buttercream icing, and it was delicious! I didn’t want a traditional cake with fondant icing. Jimmy’s groom’s cake was a surprise. It was made to look like a stack of his favorite books: “All the Pretty Horses” by Cormac McCarthy, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, and “All the King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren.

We left the ceremony in Jimmy’s green ‘52 Ford pickup truck, affectionately known as “Earl.” It was an engagement gift from my dad to Jimmy, and they plan to restore it over the next few years together. Before the wedding, they managed to cut and build mahogany rails for the bed. My mom stitched the phrase “Just Hitched” onto a burlap banner attached to the tailgate, which was also lined with ribbon streamers strung with yarn pompons. Our guests tossed—or in some cases, hurled—birdseed that was tied up in squares of old floral flour sacks and kitchen twine. My aunt is making us a Double Wedding Ring quilt as our wedding gift using the flour sack fabric from the birdseed toss—something we will cherish forever.

What was the funniest moment? What was the scariest? The cake cutting was one of the funniest moments, I think. I had already warned Jimmy that I was going to smash the cake in his face, but I wasn’t expecting him to strike first! He served the slice delicately toward my mouth, then smeared it straight up my face. While I stood there in shock, he drew war paint on my cheeks with the icing, and grinned wickedly. I was breathing strawberries and butter cream the rest of the night! But I got him back with a great forehand to his face. We kissed and made up, coated in icing. The scariest moment for me was being in front of everyone at the ceremony. I am very shy! It was likewise for Jimmy, but mainly because he felt a little overheated in his suit and had to stand at the altar during the full processional of bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearer before my entrance. He was very excited to grasp my hand and stand beside me!
Were there any family traditions you included in the reception? I used pictures of my grandmother and my mom on their wedding days, as well as lots of family antiques and quilted elements – which are part of my family heritage. My family owns a Krystal franchise. It’s a Southern-specific burger chain that has been a big part of the South since 1932. As a surprise, we served Krystals as the late night snack in custom made Krystal boxes Jimmy and I had designed months earlier.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? I’m looking forward to being home as a married couple and using the different objects from the wedding to make a home for us. I am very excited to start our life together here in Chattanooga! We hope to learn something new about each other every day, and we are certain that whatever the future holds, we can enjoy its blessings and endure its hardships as long as we stand by each other.
Best advice or most memorable comment someone made to you during the wedding celebration. One of Jimmy’s fraternity brothers shared some advice that he was told at his own wedding, and Jimmy found it really moving: “Marriage isn’t about keeping score, because you already owe the other person everything.”

Annie + Jimmy’s V4 wedding is one that I keep finding new details in. Their Tennessee nuptials bound their love of the South and all things vintage with a dedication to tradition and family. Their ceremony was packed with nods to Jimmy’s love of literature and the couple’s relationship, with a reading of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven.” The reading was extra special since it was the poem that Jimmy included in his first love letter to Annie (aww!). Just looking at these images from Jonathan Canlas makes our hearts melt.

I found my wedding dress at a little boutique in Nashville called B. Hughes Bridal. I was set on having a Vera Wang dress, and B. Hughes had the best selection. They were also incredibly nice and made the whole experience so much fun! My best friend and mom went with me to help – along with my dog for some of my fittings! My dress looks like a mixture of vintage lace and couture fashion. Fashion is my other weakness – so it fit the bill perfectly! I knew it was my dress, because it was the one that best made me feel like a bride. Surprisingly, the style was opposite of what I always thought I would have, but I absolutely love it! I felt so beautiful in it.

For the groom, the vintage handkerchiefs in the wedding program held extra importance. In just the seven months prior to our wedding, I’d lost the two most influential men in my life. Without Annie sticking by me, I would have fallen beyond salvation. Our wedding was thus shadowed by, and saturated with, their presence. We acknowledged their loss in our programs: I wrote a brief message thanking our guests for supporting us through the loss of my best friend in the fall, and then my dad in the winter. I quoted my father’s speaking points for his engagement toast—one he was unable to deliver, and in our program message, I wrote: “We cherish his words, and have smiled through our tears at the legacy of love left to us. Along with our gratitude, please accept these handkerchiefs: though they may aptly wipe away tears of sorrow, we pray they may only catch tears of joy today.”

We had a spring wedding on May 28. The ceremony was at 5:30pm on Signal Mountain, TN. Signal Mountain is where Jimmy grew up, and the church is where I have wanted to get married for years. It’s affectionately referred to as The Little Brown Church by locals, and for obvious reason. It’s a quaint old church surrounded by pine trees that was built in 1908. Our reception was at Lindsay Street Hall in downtown Chattanooga. It used to be an old church built in the early 1900s that has been restored into a beautiful event hall. Both of these venues seemed like the perfect spots for our vintage wedding! Our rehearsal dinner was at the River Inn, also known as The Old Catfish House, situated on the Tennessee River with a sunset view of the River Gorge. We thought it had a perfect laid back Southern atmosphere with a view to match!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. We met through close mutual friends. Jimmy is an old friend of my best friend’s husband. She and her husband schemed to get us together, thinking we would be perfect for each other. Once we were acquainted, a friendship slowly grew into a relationship that neither of us expected. We seemed so different, but had all the important common interests (faith, family, hair metal and country music, and plaid). In the end, our friends really knew what was best for us!
Describe the proposal: We had planned to go for a short vacation to my family’s beach condo in Clearwater, Florida. I have been going there since birth; it feels like a second home to me. Jimmy had schemed to propose while on this getaway. He hid the ring in his carry-on bag and sweated his way through security. Unfortunately, we arrived to a heavy rainstorm, so we decided to nap after unpacking. Later, after showering for dinner, Jimmy saw the skies beginning to lighten and suggested we take a walk on the beach before eating. He sent up a little prayer for the rain to stop, and the Big Man upstairs was listening! The rain cleared just in time for a beautiful sunset. There was hardly anyone on the beach due to the weather, which was perfect! We walked down the beach a little ways until Jimmy was too nervous to wait any longer and got down on one knee. Of course, I said, “Yes!” We then went to eat dinner at a beachside restaurant that used to be the hotel where my family stayed for years. Jimmy had a table waiting with champagne, and we called our family and friends to share the good news!
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Vintage, warm, loving
How many guests attended your wedding? I think we had just over 200 guests attending.
Bride’s favorite detail of the wedding: There were too many details I loved to choose just one. I loved that we had bluegrass music rather than standard classical music, and each song in our processional was meaningful. We didn’t chose standard wedding songs. My favorites were the Tennessee Waltz for the groomsmen processional and the song for the mothers’ processional. I chose the song “May The Lord” which is to the tune of Edelweiss. It was the lullaby my mother used to rock me to sleep to every night when I was little.
What was your favorite design detail: The programs were one of my favorite aspects of the ceremony. We used handmade and craft paper for the various paper announcements, so we carried the theme over with the programs. I wanted to use an old wax seal on all of our various invites, so we had a seal made that looked like the drawing of the pine tree from the hymnal of The Little Brown Church. The lady who made all of our paper goods also added our initials at the base of the pine tree to personalize it. We used a similar pine tree for the front of the program. Jimmy loves literature, so I wanted the programs to look like a book for him. We made a thick cover out of craft paper backed in an old floral print we used throughout the paper goods. The pages were made from handmade paper we used for our various invitations, and we bound the book with boucle linen thread. We tucked a vintage hanky that my mom and I had collected in each program and tied it with an aged-looking silk ribbon. They were so special and beautiful. My family and friends helped me assemble them all a few days before the wedding.

We’ve tapped the Southern transplants and Southerners-at-heart in New York, then we moved the party back down to Richmond, Virginia. Today, my friends, we’re bringing the V5 goodness to Florida!

Image credit: Corbin Gurkin. See more of this shoot here!

We’re looking for a few bridesmaids to grace the pages of Southern Weddings V5. If you’re free on June 5 and 6 and near the Boca Raton/West Palm Beach/Palm Beach area, email us at howdy@iloveswmag.com!

Image Credit: Bryan Johnson. See more of this shoot here!

In your email, be sure to include a recent headshot (no need for professional photos, here, we just want to see your lovely face!), a few candids and your height. We promise it’s going to be a blast!

We can’t wait to hear from you!

We really couldn’t tear ourselves away from the Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby celebrations once Monday rolled around. (I may have had a harder time with this. I’m sure I made chips and guac every day this week.) Did anyone do anything spectacular on Saturday?

A fun Fiesta Celebration in honor of Texas’ independence was the perfect way to ease the transition.

Emily’s getting pumped for her trip to the National Stationery Show in just a few weeks. As a paper prelude, we featured four Southern spring invitation suites from Kristy at Momental Designs.

April shower bring May flowers, you say? We thought it was the perfect time to show off the beautiful bouquets that graced the pages of V4.

One look at Emily’s visit to the Inn at Palmetto Bluff might make you a little green with envy. Charming cottages, wonderful food and 20,000 acres of natural beauty make it an ideal honeymoon getaway.

We were all ears when Emily told us about what accessories she’ll be donning at her wedding in September. Lovely shoes, simple jewelry and a gorgeous veil? We’re big fans. Bonus points to Em for taking the “borrowed” in “something old, new, borrowed and blue” to the next level!

We’re bringing our model call back down below the Mason-Dixon! We know we’ve got some gorgeous readers, so if you’re free on June 20 and near Richmond, Virginia, join us for a V5 photo shoot!

Southern Stems never fail to make us fall in love with them. This week, Texas’ state flower, the bluebonnet stole our hearts with their vivid color.

Real Weddings are the bees knees!

Gabrielle + Paul attributed the warm Southern atmosphere of their wedding to their gorgeous venue. We think the addition of pink peonies and luxe linens are the cherry on top! See it here.

Good news for the weekend!

Sperry Tents have arrived in Charleston! You might be familiar with these pretty sailcloth tents (Emily’s using them for her own wedding!), and we’re thrilled that they’ve expanded their original Charlottesville, Virginia office to Charleston. The new office will also offer lighting, flooring, furniture by request, and other rental accessories! See their site for more details.

Before y’all leave, we had to share these adorable engagement photos of Sherry and her beau. How sweet is it that she included a copy of V4 in her session? Thanks Sherry and Epic Photography!

Finally, happy wedding weekend to one of our Southern Bride Bloggers, Tina!! We’re sending lots of love your way!

Have an amazing weekend, lovelies!