Pretty Little Weddings

The writing was on the wall—literally.

Sarah walked into her unfinished and freshly-painted home to find that her boyfriend, Hunter, had scrawled the words “will you marry me,” across the wall, with dozens of candles illuminating the words. “It was so sweet and I was completely blown away,” Sarah said. “I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect proposal.”

Nine months later, Sarah and Hunter were married at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas, and celebrated with friends and family at the Phoenix Ballroom.

Sarah and Hunter incorporated how they met (at Baylor University) into the details of their winter-white wedding with a photo booth filled with university memorabilia, encouraging guests to snap a photo and leave a wish for the couple. Sarah also “asked one of our good friends from Baylor—who owns an old school bus that’s painted and decorated in Baylor—to be our ‘chauffer’ and drive the wedding party from the church to the reception, and also drive the bride and groom from the reception to our limo. It stalled only a couple of times!”

With the help of longtime friend and owner of A Stylish Soiree, Sarah and Hunter created what Sarah described as “a bit like ‘Old Texas Chic,’” with a “mossy green,” charcoal gray and white color scheme.

“We decided to theme our wedding based on locations and places in Waco that were special to us during our college years,” Sarah said, “such as bars or restaurants we used to love, local landmarks, buildings we studied in during college, etc. There were photos taken by my wedding coordinator on our planning trips down to Waco, and she designed them to look like old Polaroids. They were the table place cards, and each guest had a Polaroid card with their name on it hanging on a cool tree display upon entrance into the reception to denote which table they were supposed to sit at.”

Thanks to Cesar and Tanya of Perez Photography for sharing the gorgeous images of this wedding.

Brett Buchanan sent PLW this simple affair at the Inn at Wild Rose Hall in Austin, Texas. I absolutely love the herb centerpieces and the bride’s bright green shoes. Brett said of the couple, Joshua and Susan, “did an awesome job with their relaxed and naturally-decorated wedding.” I couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Brett, for allowing PLW to show off these photos!

And in case you didn’t see this morning’s earliest post, be sure to check out Brett’s new endeavor, Wedzu, an online marketplace for indie and handmade wedding creations!

After hours of trekking through Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains—after hours with nothing more than a power bar and her fiance’s coaxing to propel her along—Natalie reached a waterfall. There, Natalie was so captivated by the sight that she failed to notice that Brian had fallen silent and dropped to one knee.

“The rest,” she wrote on her personal blog, “I have zero recollection of, except the sheer joy I felt.”

Natalie, who is also a contributing writer to Elizabeth Anne Designs, and Brian were married last November at the High Hampton Inn and Country Club in Cashiers, N.C., and the fabulous Angela Stott photographed their sweet ceremony and reception.

“I really wanted our wedding to be a representation of us and even though I had a tough time making some decisions, I usually had a pretty strong gut instinct or gut reaction,” Natalie told PLW. “I really let that guide my planning process, with help from friends and my parents. Once Brian and I found High Hampton, we just knew that was the place. It has the great rustic elegance that was what we both wanted our wedding to feel like, so that made a lot of the planning easy. We wanted our family and friends to have a fun weekend in the North Carolina mountains and we felt we achieved that.”

Natalie’s rustic theme was carried throughout her floral arrangements and her favors, a collection of honey, apples and cornbread, which Natalie and her bridesmaids enclosed in DIY-boxes and decorated with fabric squares.

Thank you to Natalie for sharing the details of your wedding, and to Angela Stott for giving us these gorgeous images to ogle.

I’m in my hometown of Canton, Ohio to help my best friend wrap up her final wedding plans before her big day in two days! At the same time, my fiance and I are meeting with potential bakers and our caterer, florist, minister and photographer. Whew. What a busy few days we’ll have!

So, dear readers, I will not be posting tomorrow or Monday. But Tuesday afternoon, PLW will be back in full swing with some of the most beautiful weddings we’ve had to date.

Until then, I hope you enjoy this pink inspiration board I threw together with images from Martha Stewart Weddings.