Jessica and Kyle had a stunning southern wedding in Tennessee, in a gorgeous modern space with great blue accents. I love the weddings that are full of romance, and end with one heck of a party. Jess and Kyle’s wedding party looked sytlin’ and check out the awesome ring bearer and flower girl. So awesome.
From the bride, Jess: Banners – I wanted to define the different spaces of the venue to create an easy experience for the guests to navigate (“Eat” on the buffet, “Drink” on the bar, etc.). I ordered some black chipboard pennants online and strung them together with twine. My aunt used her Cricut to make some die-cut letters for the banners. I wanted them to have a chalkboard look to go with our other signage and I love how they turned out! We also made a “Just Married” banner to string across our altar for the reception.
Happy Tears – I always boo-hoo at weddings so I wanted to add a special touch for guests by placing tissue packets with a custom seal on each of their seats. These required very minimal cost and effort to put together but I thought they ended up so cute.
Glass Slippers – I wanted a very specific look for my shoes – low wedge heels with a little bling – but after scouring the internet I came up empty. Actually, the exact shoe I wanted does exist, but it was Jimmy Choo! I. don’t. think. so. I found a great tutorial on how to “glitter-ize” any shoe by creating a mixture of mod podge and glitter and applying several coats to the shoe. I found the exact style of shoe I wanted on Amazon for $11. They went from black velvet wedges to gorgeous Cinderella slippers! For the finishing touch I added sparkly shoe clips that I got from Etsy for about $30. For under $50 I got my dream wedding shoes and it felt even more special since I made them myself.
Mossy Monograms – I wanted something on the door to create a personal experience from the moment people arrived. My mom and I got some large paper mache letters – J and K for Jess and Kyle – from Joanne’s and used spray adhesive and moss sheets to transform them into custom monograms to adorn our venue doors and match our garden wedding theme.
Wedding Wishes – I didn’t want a typical guestbook since they usually end up gathering dust in a storage box somewhere. I had seen some photos of wishing trees and thought were so beautiful. Our centerpieces all incorporated branches so it also worked well with our theme. I ordered manzanita branches and let our florist work her magic to set it up. My aunt stpeed in again with her magical Cricut machine and cranked out some kraft paper tags. We added twine to the tags and voila! Custom wishing tree. For a special twist, we decided our guest book tags would become a regular addition to our Christmas tree. We saved the box of personalized tags and read them each together as we put them on our tree a few weeks after the wedding. It was so meaningful and I can’t wait to get them out and read them every year!
Going Old “School” – I am in LOVE with the latest chalkboard trend so we bought some frames that matched our mercury glass accents and converted them to signs using chalkboard spray paint. We had smaller signs on the guest book and favor table and used a large sign to display our ceremony “program” (saving trees in the process!).
Once Upon an Altar – As much as I love our venue, the wall space behind where we would stand to say our vows was blank and a little boring. I wanted to have something special to create a more traditional feel, and a rustic iron garden screen found on sale at Hobby Lobby did the trick. We dressed it up with moss, fresh flowers, and string lights and, in my opinion, it made the ceremony seem magical. I have seen a ton of great ideas on Pinterest for DIY altars – I think it is such a great touch for the less traditional wedding venues out there.
Couple: Jessica + Kyle Fessler
Date: November 10, 2012
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
Photography: JoPhoto
Venue: Emporium Center
Florals: Sassafras
Dress: White Lace & Promises
Cake: Daisy Cake Company
Rentals: All Occasions Party Rentals
Calligrapher: Evonne Ink
