OUR WEDDING | BRIDAL BREAKFAST & GETTING READY

For our wedding weekend we stayed in large cabins which made it easy logistically and it was so fun to be all together. Jeremy and his groomsmen had a cabin as did me and my bridesmaids, and then there was a third cabin for friends. We booked Creekbend Lodge, Creekside Getaway, and Waters Edge Retreat. These cabins were all in a row and in a great location - in-between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and they were at the bottom of the mountain so it didn't take too long to go to and from.

BRIDAL BREAKFAST

I knew that I wanted to have a special bridesmaids breakfast the morning of the wedding and I knew just who to ask to help me with it - my Aunt Christie. Growing up every time my sisters and I would stay the night at her house we'd beg for Aunt Christie pancakes. She is very creative so of course she didn't stop at pancakes. She handmade place mats and napkins that would coordinate with the robes my mama made for us to wear. I hand lettered everyone's name and had them laser cut for place cards.

Photos by Heather Faulkner Photography

My sister had all of my bridesmaids make a scrapbook page for me and they gave me the scrapbook during breakfast. Needless to say there were tears and lots of laughs. I've been blessed with some wonderful friendships through the years and I was so thankful to have them all there with me.

GETTING READY

I had so much fun getting ready with all my best friends. My friend Haley owns an on location hair and makeup company (Simply Makeup) and she did hair and makeup. My friend Cory works at her family's salon, Images, and they did hair as well. Everyone looked so beautiful and I'm so thankful they shared their talent for our wedding day.

Before or wedding, Jeremy and I had discussed that on all of our trips and adventures we would buy little trinket souvenirs and display them in the antique letterpress drawer we have hanging on our wall. We said that our first trinket should be from our wedding weekend in Gatlinburg but with the hustle and bustle of everything I had forgotten until I opened my gift from Jeremy and he had included our first trinket, a Smoky Mountain bell.

I didn't end up wearing this necklace for the ceremony (I wore one of my Grandma Winnie's pearl necklaces) but Jeremy bought it for me from Stella & Dot and I love it so much!

I asked my friend Casey to pray for us, our day, and Jeremy and I's marriage before we left the cabin to go take pictures. These are some of my favorite photos from the day and I'm so thankful for this special moment.

The guys had a lot more free time since they didn't have to mess with hair and makeup so they played games in the parking lot and then smashed each other's hands with pool balls while they waited for pictures.😂

I'll be sharing our first look and bridal party photos next. You can see more from our wedding here.

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Bridal Breakfast Place Cards: I hand lettered them and had them laser cut at Little Touch of Heaven | Place Mats & Napkins: Handmade by my Aunt Christie | Robes: Handmade by my Mama | Hair & Makeup: Simply Makeup | Hair: Images | Wedding Date Bar Necklace: Stella & Dot | Wedding Dress: Kennedy Blue (the  Rosie in Blush) | Wedding Dress Flower Belt: David's Bridal (I can't find it on their website but it was actually a headpiece and I had it attached it to my dress.) | Flower Crown: Handmade by my Mama and Me.

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OUR KITCHEN PROGRESS

The kitchen was the first room we started making changes in. I love how it turned out and we get so many compliments on it. I also get a lot of questions about painting the cabinets and it seems most people are too scared and feel it's too big a task to take on yourself. My tips are by the cabinet paint (linked below) and a 4" roller and just go for it. It's so easy, the paint goes on so smooth and there is minimal prep work.

BEFORE, BEFORE

This is what the kitchen looked like (circa 2015) before the contractor who purchased the home took over. I show you this because I walked through this house when it was for sale in this state and still loved it through all the imperfections. It looks so different and feels much larger since he opened it up into the dining room and vaulted the ceiling. I do wish that second window on the left was still there...😉

BEFORE (HOW IT LOOKED WHEN WE MOVED IN)

I realize the kitchen was fine before we started making changes and some people don't understand why you'd paint cabinets but I am just not a fan of this style. Most everything was decided for the house when we came into the picture but I did get to choose butcher block counter tops for the kitchen and I'm so in love with them! They really warm up the space and are a beautiful (and affordable) alternative to laminate.

PROGRESS

So far we have added a classic subway tile backsplash, painted the cabinets, and added hardware. Eventually we'd like to trim out the top of the cabinets to upgrade them a little bit and we will replace the stainless steel sink with a white ceramic one as well as upgrade the faucet. I'd also like to paint the walls a brighter color and get a rug but for now we're happy with the progress and these updates make the kitchen much more our (my😉) style.

SOURCES:

Valspar Cabinet Enamel Paint (top cabinets: SW Alabaster, bottom cabinets: )

Drawer Handle Pulls* (3" in brushed antique brass)

Round Knobs* (7/8" diameter in brushed antique brass)

I actually purchased our cabinet hardware from DoorCorner.com and was happy with my purchase (large selection and much cheaper than local home improvement stores) but wish I had checked Amazon first because their prices are cheaper than what we paid.

STILL TO DO:

• paint the cabinet toe kicks
• trim out upper cabinets
• paint walls bright white
• window treatments
• new white ceramic sink and rubbed oil bronze faucet
• wrap bar/island with shiplap
• bar pendant lights (currently only one and we feel the space calls for two, maybe three)
• upholstered bar stools (three)
• built in pantry/desk area in current "breakfast nook"
• tongue & groove planks on vaulted ceiling

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OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS

I'm back with more details from our wedding! I loved working on our paper goods so much. It was probably my favorite detail to plan and I was so happy with how everything came out. (Here's a closer look at our Save the Dates.)

The first photo below (of the entire wedding paper suite) was taken by me on my iPhone and the rest were taken by our wedding photographer, Heather Faulkner Photography.

THE DETAILS

The entire invitation suite was wrapped in a blush pink belly band printed with our alternate wedding logo. For the main invitation I used the same watercolor artwork (purchased from Creative Market) I used for our save the dates with a blush pink gingham backer. I combined our RSVP and enclosure (one on each side) cards since we were having our guests RSVP online we didn't need them to send them in. The enclosure card had the reception details as well as what information could be found on our wedding website. The third card was probably my favorite and it not only included hand lettered lyrics from Alabama's Dixieland Delight but on the back it provided directions to the church and from there to the reception. Because our wedding was in the National Park there was absolutely no cell service and I wanted to make sure our guests knew how to get where they were going. I calligraphed the pink envelopes (that had navy gingham liners) with gold ink and considering I almost never pick up a nib and ink I was pretty proud of how they turned out.

Almost two years later and I'm still in love with how these turned out. Even had we had a larger budget there isn't much I would change beyond adding gold foil and letterpress details. I'm so happy I was able to design these for us and they're something I'll cherish through the years.

Below is a mockup I did of the invitation suite before I had it printed so I could make sure I liked how it all fit together. You can probably read the text better here but if you have any questions about how I worded anything just ask in the comments!

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OUR BLUSH PINK FRONT DOOR

*Edited to add: I used the color Romance by Sherwin Williams.

If you saw the before, before pictures of our home you know it went through quite a transformation. The first time I drove by it after the exterior was updated (and before living here was even a blip on our radar) I had to do a double take. It was so beautiful and I loved everything they had updated. When we moved in I knew I was going to paint the front door. Eventually we'd love a stained wooden door but those are pretty expensive so painting the brown/olive green-ish door was first on my exterior list. (This spring I want to add some flower boxes and eventually I'd love to add shutters.)

BEFORE:

It was such a beautiful and semi-warm day and Tucker had so much fun playing outside. He loves the outdoors and is happiest when we're outside so I'm thankful warmer weather is on it's way so we can take lots of walks to the park.

AFTER:

I love how it turned out so much and I think it compliments the gray/blue siding so well. I still have a few areas to touch up but it's been cold again so they'll have to wait for a warmer day! Spring in Ohio is unpredictable. You never know what kind of weather you're going to get and Tuesday was no different. Big, fluffy snowflakes fell down and covered the ground. Within an hour the snow had melted. Then it started coming down again. It was ridiculous and the perfect example of spring in Ohio. While I'm so over the cold weather I thought our new pink door looked so beautiful with the snowflakes coming down.

Here's a close up of my new wreath (ignore the paint I need to scrape off the window😂). I followed a tutorial by The How-To Mom and was surprised by how easy it was. I'm obsessed with it and have gotten so many compliments on it!

With every little change we're slowly making this house ours and I love it more every day!

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OUR WEDDING WEBSITE

We are coming up on two years of marriage in May and I had always planned on blogging the rest of our wedding details but life started moving faster and faster and it just kind of fell off my radar. I decided that I still want to share the details 1. because I did everything on a budget and if it can help or inspire a future bride in her planning it's worth it and 2. when I was planning a wedding in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park there weren't that many weddings online for inspiration. A lot of the weddings I saw at our venues were elopements and so I really was looking for help with the logistics! All that to say, I'm excited to be back sharing our wedding with y'all. Next up, our wedding website!

Before the invitations were sent out I needed to make sure our wedding website was complete since that's where we were sending our guests for more information and how we wanted them to RSVP. I tried out a few of the free options (The Knot, Minted, etc.) but they didn't have very much flexibility and I can't ever do anything the easy way. I also felt like we were asking a lot of our loved ones since we were getting married out of town and I wanted to set the tone for the event right away. I love that we went with this custom option and we got so many compliments from our guests.

I built the website with the Squarespace platform using the Montauk template and purchased a custom domain through GoDaddy.

HOME PAGE

The homepage was basically a simplified version of our save the date. I just wanted the main information front and center and then the details would be throughout the site.

OUR STORY

Jeremy and I had already met most of each other's friends and family but I wanted this place to be where our loved ones could learn a little bit more about our future spouse and how we met. We did not meet in a traditional way so I definitely wanted to have fun with that.

PHOTOS

We planned our wedding in 8 months so for our first round of engagement photos we had a mini session with Tara Lewis Photography so we could get our save the dates out quickly. Once we booked our wedding photographer, Heather Faulkner Photography, we also got an engagement session with our package so we had engagement photos in Cades Cove as well. I also wanted to share a few every day photos as well!

EVENTS

I wanted to make sure everyone knew where to go and what to expect. There's nothing worse than being over/under dressed for a wedding and I wanted our guests to be as comfortable as possible.

BRIDAL PARTY

I had originally thought I'd add photos and a little snippet about each of our bridal party but I realized it'd be much easier for me to pull together for my bridesmaids than it would be for me to get Jeremy to do the same for his groomsmen. In the end I decided to keep it sweet and simple!

FAQ

I knew our guests would have questions so I tried to answer ones I knew would come up. Looking back I also should have included a few places to stay. We did have a couple of guests ask for recommendations, which we provided, but it would have been a good idea to include that information on the website.

REGISTRY

It always feels a little weird to share registry information with people (we definitely did not include this information on the invitations) but we knew people would ask so it had to be included in the site. We had three different options and people could pick up our registry lists as the respective stores as well.

RSVP

I wanted to make this process as easy as possible and it all seemed to go smoothly. The only people who didn't RSVP were my grandparents who I knew were coming any way and knew they wouldn't be able to figure it out.😂

And that was it! I'm so happy with how it all turned out and I was so sad when I cancelled the membership but I'm glad I took these screenshots! If you have any questions about how I made this wedding website happen I'd be happy to help! :)

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