Happy 30th Anniversary to my wonderful parents!

May 26, 1984

“The greatest marriages are built on teamwork. A mutual respect, a healthy dose of admiration, and a never-ending portion of love and grace.” -Fawn Weaver

I often tell people how great of examples that Brince and I have for marriage and family, primarily from our parents. Every marriage is different and no one would dare say it is easy all of the time. We are aware of these things, but we are so glad to have such glowing exhibits of love, loyalty, and faith shown to us on a daily basis. I thank you for your parenting, teachings, and leadership. 

A Nashville Wedding

Being the bride is so much fun, and for me, being the wedding planner is too! But, being an attendee at your best friend's wedding is SUCH a good time! A few weeks ago, we traveled to Nashville, Georgia for sweet Emily's wedding. Most people don't even know where Nashville, Georgia is located. If they do know where it is, they don't have much of an opinion of the place. We too were skeptical about how much would be "going on" in Nashville, but I must say, we were surprised with quite a fun Saturday (in addition to the awesome wedding and reception)! Emily's wedding and reception were so perfectly styled to meet her personality, and I'm excited to share some of her cool details.

Friday night, Sam's family was sweet enough to include us on the rehearsal dinner held at The Peach Barn in Tifton. The Peach Barn is gorgeous, and the dinner by Covington's Catering. Emily was just stunning - a glowing bride indeed!

Emily (the bride!) and myself

Me, Bethany, and Katie

Old Roomies - Katie, Emily, Me, Bethany

My birthday twin and sweet friend, Megan

On Saturday, we headed to Shadow Oak Plantation in Nashville for a brunch honoring Emily and Sam. This place was gorgeous! When we pulled up, we saw a large herd of cattle on one side of the road and a herd of buffalo on the other. Our interests were instantly peaked!

We saw a quail buggy parked beside the lodge when we first arrived...how do we get on that thing?? The property owners offered to take guests on a ride and we jumped at the opportunity. Us!!

Check out all of these fun animals we found on the plantation! What a fun little safari!

Zebras! In South Georgia!

Saturday afternoon we were off to the wedding. Here's Mr. and Mrs. Sam Drew, right after exchanging their vows!

Emily chose to have the reception on her family's land behind her parent's house. The setting under the oak trees with moss draping from the large branches was so elegant.

I was loving these statement arrangements in large cauldrons atop barn wood pedestals!

And these linen lanterns hanging from the trees above the cocktail area.

I loved the menu for the evening and thought the hors d'oeuvres were superb! For passed apps: butter bean hummus with vegetables, boiled shrimp with pickled okra skewers, cheese crackers with pimento cheese, and tenderloin sliders. Yum!

Emily's brother surprised her by playing and singing for her father-daughter dance. It was so so sweet! That's him on stage with the guitar.

We danced the night away and had a blast. At the end of the night,  we said our good-byes to the special couples as they rode off to their honeymoon on a tractor.

{Nailed or Failed}: A Menu Pallet

For our wedding, I wanted to display a menu board for our fantastic southern dinner that we put together with the caterer, BJ Smith Events. I must say, everything was delicious! I especially loved the passed hors d'oeuvres that we chose and I wanted to be sure guests knew what was being served...in case they needed to search it out! I wanted a menu that was easy to read for all guests, not too small, and was consistent with the look of the reception. This menu board found on Pinterest was the perfect inspiration. Since my Dad farms cantaloupes, I've been familiar with pallets around the warehouses since I was a little girl. 

Inspiration image from Style Me Pretty blog

I got Dad to pull me a good pallet that didn't have any broken slats but still had some colored "age" to it. With my background in art, this project was right up my alley. I set the pallet up in the kitchen and got to work. I outlined the words with pencil then painted them with a small paintbrush. I was really pleased with the turn out! This was such a simple project. It's a perfect option for a rustic wedding on a budget. The largest investment was my time - a couple evenings of painting.

My design, photo by VUE Photography

What do you think? Hit or miss?

Image (left) from Taylor Lord Photography via Style Me Pretty

Recently, my aunt was inspired to complete her own pallet project. Her oldest son, Asa, graduated from High School (congrats Asa!) last Friday. She was charged to do a display of photos and hobbies representative of Asa for the graduation service. I love what she did using a pallet to display a "definition" of Asa. How cute! And, aren't all of the photos surrounding the pallet great?!

Happy Birthday to our precious nephew!

Henry!

I just can't believe it was one year ago when we welcomed you to the world with joyful tears and lots of kisses.

We've enjoyed meals with you

Visits at the office

holidays ('merica!)

beach vacays

naps

weddings

 game days in The Classic City

more naps

shoulder rides (how presh!) and the first of many of your birthday parties!

 

He's the sweetest little guy we know and we love him so much! Happy first birthday sweet Henry!

Where Have We Been?!

It's May already?? I can't believe it! 2014 is FLYING by. We've been so busy having so much fun, I haven't had a chance to stop and blog. Here's a snapshot of our recent travels this Spring:

At the end of March, we attended Brince's cousin's wedding in Monroe, Georgia. John married his sweetheart, Katie Jo who was just gorgeous as a bride. It was a beautiful wedding with delicious food! Congrats to John and Katie Jo!

The next weekend, I worked a wedding on the James Farmer Design team. We loved the pretty pink floral palette for this sweet Milledgeville bride.

I also helped plan and worked a 80th birthday party for the hippest 80 year old that I've ever met. She was presh! Her daughters hosted her party at the family's plantation home and we were thrilled to design the event for them. She wanted an "Easter Bonnet" luncheon party, so that is what she got!

Here's the birthday lady herself in a fashionable birthday fascinator with her delicious birthday cake by Pat Coody.

(and proof that I was there working - cutting cake)

We spent our first married Easter with our families. Look how gorgeous these flowers are from my parents' Easter lunch.

We also squeeze in as much time as possible with this little nugget. Aunt LL loves her Henry time! I can't believe he is almost one year old!

A few weekends ago we attended my sweet, sweet friend Emily's wedding to her southern Romeo, Sam. What a fun weekend! I'll post more pictures from this weekend soon!

Among the weddings was a girls weekend celebration for another one of my sweet brides, Katie. I was so excited to put together a Bach weekend for Katie like no other! I'll be sharing more on Katie's "wild and crazy" animal print bachelorette in another post.

We spent this weekend at Katie and Paul's wedding at Gin Creek in Moultrie, Ga. It was a blast and simply stunning. I'll share more details soon. Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Hearn! I love you both!