It’s so great to have Charlottesville wedding photographer Jamie Kay of JMK Photos on the blog today with Sarah & Shooter’s lovely and recent Spring wedding at the Clifton Inn. The last time we had Jamie on the blog she shared her Best of 2011 with us, please check it out. Scroll down slowly and enjoy Jamie’s pics but I’ll let you know that the last photo is ah-maze-ing and will definitely make you smile! Here are a few words from Jamie:

Sarah and Shooter had a super sweet spring wedding at the Clifton Inn (who did catering and cake as well) on May 12, 2012. Their details were made up of neutral colors, including blush colored bridesmaids dresses, and beautiful white florals (checking on vendor). The couple did a first look in front of the lake, followed by an intimate private legal ceremony preformed by the local Sherrif. For the ceremony in the courtyard to which their guests were invited, their fathers stood with the couple and told the story of how they met and are now living their lives together in New York City. The reception was rocked by the band Attraction, and fun was had by all!

JMK Photos ~ Clifton Inn ~ Josh Gooden Cinematography ~ Attraction ~ Pat’s Floral Designs ~ Marquia Kinard of Blend ~ Judy Hayward of Bristles ~ NJW Calligraphy ~ Goosefish Press

Although it’s still Spring in Charlottesville, many couples are already planning Fall weddings so I thought it would be a great time to share Andrea & Chris’ wedding photographed by Rob Garland at Montfair Resort Farm last Fall.  They had some great DIY details and it sounds like they really focused on having a great time with their family & friends.  I love the ‘fingerprint’ guest book & bonfire!  What a fun idea for a chilly Fall evening!  A big thank you to Andrea, the beautiful bride, for sharing a few favorite things about the wedding along with some advice for other brides.  Enjoy!

~ Rob Garland Photographers ~ Montfair Resort Farm ~ Catering by Nancy Dudley  ~
~ Flowers by Kroger ~ Cake by a Family Friend ~

What inspired you while planning your wedding?
We both wanted a wedding that was simple, a good time for everyone, and nothing too formal.  We had some traditional aspects about our wedding but the majority was unique to us and our families.  We preferred the country style so we had various country themed accents that we feel really set the mood for a good-time sort of wedding.

Favorite wedding details?
It is difficult to pinpoint favorite details about our wedding because there are so many wonderful pieces.  The location with the country decorations was one of our favorite details of our wedding.  The location was in the woods, overlooking a small lake, with fall colors and lots of leaves, weather was perfect.  It couldn’t have been a more beautiful setting to share our special day.  The decorations and set up added to the overall country appeal, to the custom made centerpiece for the bride/groom, arranged by the mother-of-the-bride (it was an arrangement of leaves, mason jar candles, berries and deer antlers).

Favorite wedding memories?
There are so many wonderful memories made on our special day, we are lucky to have captured most of them with photographs thanks to Rob Garland Photographers.  One of our favorite memories was the fact that our families met for the first time on this day.  It was a great time to come together as the families are joined by marriage and love.  We made memories along the way leading up to the wedding, considering we worked together to make everything happen the day of the wedding; from making the wedding favors, to cooking the venison BBQ, to hunting for the venison for the BBQ, decorating until the wee hours of the night, and many fun laughs before, during and after the wedding.

Any DIY (ie: do it yourself details) from the wedding you’d like to share?
There were a lot of DIY items from our wedding.  We made our own wedding favors: tea light candle holders.  The groom cut down a small tree, cut it into small sections, drilled a small hole in the top to fit a tea light, and coated them.  The bride, her mother and sister wrapped the candles with twine, sewed a couple leaves to the twine, and burnt A & C into the bottom of the candle.  This was a neat way to share what we thought was a nice gift for the guests and they were fun to make.  We also decorated everything ourselves from the mason jar centerpiece candles to the curtains hung, to the small personal touches of pictures around the room.

Any advice you’d like to share for future brides?
The day comes and goes so quickly, try not to stress so much about making sure everything works just right because it’s the moments that don’t quite go as planned that make for the best memories.  There may be a lot of people that helped make the day possible and it is important to thank them for all of their help.  Things might get overlooked, and even people, but appreciated everyone that was involved in your special day is important whether it was a guest that made a long drive for a short visit to see you walk down the aisle to the people that stayed and helped clean up.  There are so many things going on that it may be easy to overlook the main reason for the day, try not to lose what the day is all about to you and yours. For us, it was a day for our families to join and become greater in number with love, it was a wonderful memory that we get to live each and every day together.

Today we are so happy to have a current selection of the work of local artist Tavia Brown of taviametal to share with you. Tavia creates beautiful, unique jewelry that she describes as “…industrial and delicate… edgy and sweet”.  Many couples commission Tavia to create special one-of-a-kind pieces, reflecting their unique style for their wedding: engagement rings, wedding bands and bridesmaids gifts. “Tavia designs and creates each piece of jewelry herself using lost wax casting, cold and hot fabrication, die-forming, etching, raising, and stone-setting.” Tavia works with many materials including sterling silver, gold, titanium and steel, as well as with all kind of stones.

Enjoy these beautiful examples of wedding jewelry from taviametal:

"Allison": 18k Yellow gold double layer ring with vines texture and Mild Steel ring with 18k yellow gold liner

"Amy": 14k White Gold with titanium rivets and diamonds

14k White gold engagement ring re-do with diamonds from her original setting

"David and Anne": Titanium bands with 14k yellow gold reclaimed from old family rings

"Gregory": This is a titanium "duck band" wedding ring - so it is in the style of a band that is placed on a duck's leg with all of its information. These wedding rings contain the information of the couple, such as when they are "banded", where and whom.

"Jamie": a Sterling silver and titanium ring with the titanium in the middle with a hammered texture.

LEFT Jason and Jean's anniversary: 14k yellow gold necklace with four vines with diamond blooms to represent their four kids with a sterling silver tag with the number 10 on it to commemorate their 10th anniversary and RIGHT Matt and Jo's anniversary: Titanium and Sterling Silver pendant with vine textures and with the birthstones of their two boys set as blooms. It is also stamped on the reverse side with a quote from him to her

"Libby" is a 18k Peach gold ring with organic hammered texture on the front and back with the diamond set in a slope. 815 is a special number to them and therefore we included it on the side of the ring.

TOP LEFT: "Loren and Hillary"- Titanium rings with 14k yellow gold liners reclaimed from family rings. His has a cognac diamond flush-set on one side and a diamond on the other side; and TOP RIGHT: "Rachel and Philip"- These are rings I made for friends of mine, inspired both from my Fringe series as well as Rachel's hands. Sterling Silver wedding bands, double layers and grooved, AND an 18k yellow gold engagement ring that slides into the wedding band fringe it has a few grooves to hint at the wedding bands and there is a black diamond flush-set; and BOTTOM LEFT: "Shannon and Kelly"- Titanium and Sterling Silver bands - his has the roman numerals of their wedding date and her has a vine texture with 14k rose gold rivets; and BOTTOM RIGHT: "Tyler and Andrew"- Titanium rings - one with a sterling silver liner and one without. They chose to have one section of design match that included having a family diamond flush-set on each ring.

"Meg" is a 14k White gold engagement ring in a modified version of Tavia's "Hidden Atmosphere" series, with a vine texture and diamonds.

"Robyn": This is an 18k Peach gold engagement ring with a 14k white gold liner. This ring has my "grasses" texture on it and we included 4 white diamonds flush set as blooms throughout the design to represent their children and one cognac diamond to represent the two of them and their two families coming together.

"Michael"- Titanium band with an organic linear texture and a curved groove with a blue patina and a sterling silver liner.

LEFT: "Spencer"- Titanium and 14k rose gold engagement ring with vine texture, white diamonds flush-set as blooms and a chocolate diamond as the center stone; and RIGHT: "Will"- Titanium ring with a Sterling silver liner with a grapevine motif on the exterior.

This is a new wedding set idea Tavia had, so she decided to make it to show clients. It is an 18k yellow gold engagement ring with chocolate and white diamonds and a 14k white gold wedding band that mimics the shape of the engagement ring and has a grooved texture all around.

This is one of the most beautiful wedding readings I’ve heard lately and I wanted to share it with you today.

Charlottesville has become quite the destination for weddings! Even couples who are lucky enough to call C-ville home want to share everything that it has to offer with their guests while they are in town for the wedding festivities.  I came across a new local website the other day and although it wasn’t created to be wedding related, it’s a great resource for sharing information about downtown restaurants, shopping, nightlife, history, art and more with your guests.  The site is called ‘The DTM‘ and I love their tagline: ‘they unpaved main street and put up a walking mall’!  It’s a great site to include on your wedding website or in an out of town packet for guests.  Happy Friday!

It’s always so much fun to have images from Aaron Watson Photography to share.  Aaron is a prolific Charlottesville wedding photographer and seems to have an endless supply of great ideas when it comes to finding wonderful places to photograph his couples.  Here are a few words from Aaron on Becca & Steve’s e-session:

Becca and Steve are coming all the way from New York to be married at Keswick Hall in May. Fortunately, they were able to come down earlier to have their engagement session at the same place and it was so fun! From the beginning of their relationship, Becca and Steve have been joking around and laughing together. They first met at a restaurant where Becca was bar tending. Steve and a buddy went up to the bar and asked her who she thought was more attractive. Becca, however, pointed to the guy standing behind them. As you may have guessed, Steve didn’t give up hope. A few months later they went on their first date and now they are getting ready for their big day!

I recently did a post on local beer, wine, cider and kombucha options for your wedding but don’t forget to think about non-alcoholic options as well! Bottled beverages such a old fashioned Coca-Cola or Orange Crush are fun or think ‘outside the bottle’ and have your caterer come up with some seasonal ideas.  Whatever you decide, adding a straw that compliments your wedding colors is always a fun option.  I recently learned that custom paper straws are available right here in Charlottesville.  What a great way to shop local and save on shipping costs!

Lauren Boggs Meslar at Beve started making paper straws after falling in love with them but realizing that there just aren’t many design options out there.  She offers a wide variety of colors and can even add custom tags to them featuring your names & wedding date.  Here are just a few of the styles & colors that she offers.  Visit Lauren’s website for the full selection or contact her for custom orders.  Happy Sipping!

If you’re interested in adding a pop of color to your wedding beverages, you can reach Lauren HERE.

It has been way too long since we’ve had one of Lucy Taylor of Lucy O Photography‘s weddings to share with you here on the Charlottesville Wedding Blog… in fact, it has been over a year!  Lucy, let’s not let that happen again!!

Today I’m happy to share this very sweet little wedding with a few words from Lucy to set the scene for you…

“Meredith and Sean were married in a peaceful, beautiful ceremony on the dock at a family lake house near Charlottesville, VA. After the ceremony, they celebrated by cutting a cupcake and having a short dance in the rain. It was a perfect day!”

I remember from my wedding planner days that assigning guest seating is never fun.  Your RSVP’s come in at the last minute and then you have the daunting task of figuring out who should be seated where while taking into account  a range of factors from how many people can physically fit at a table to family & friend dynamics.  It can be very stressful and that doesn’t even account for the last minute changes that always seem to pop up!

When I saw this creative (and easy to DIY!) idea for assigning seating that Will Walker came up with, I wanted to share it here in hopes of helping others who aren’t looking forward to staring at spreadsheets full of names & table numbers.  Some of you may recognize Will as a local photographer but he and his fiance Jessica also in the process of planning their own beach wedding for this June!

Will basically created a ‘model’ of their reception tables on foam board and then made little ‘people’ with nails and strips of mailing labels.  This allows he and Jessica to physically place guests at tables and then move them around until they are happy with the final product.  Will said that he’s a very visual person and knew that they would need the ability to move guests around up until the last minute so much prefers this option over a spreadsheet.  So far, it’s working great for them and here is a photo overview (photos by Will Walker, of course) showing how you can make one of your very own.

Will describes himself as a ‘DIY kind of guy’ so he just happened to have all of the supplies around the house.  If you don’t have them already, he estimates that it will cost less than $10 to pick them up.  You’ll need: small nails, mailing labels (cut into thinner strips), foam board and a few minutes to create and print circles, squares or rectangles to represent your reception tables.

The Supplies

The 'people' created with nails and strips of mailing labels

The tables were printed, cut out and attached to foam board

Let the seating begin!

Will suggested leaving a few seats open for last minute additions.

Will shared a few of their wedding details with me and it is going to be awesome but I didn’t want to give away too many of their plans before the big day so in the meantime, here are a few of their engagement photos taken by Jen Fariello.  Congratulations Jessica & Will and thanks for letting me share your genius seating idea here on the blog!

A lovely and wise passage, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, that makes a beautiful, heartfelt reading for a wedding. Good advice for a long and healthy love.