Friday. It’s the day you where forgive the rest of the week for being really dumb and live it up cuz…well, it’s Friday. This Friday I thought we’d bid farewell to the silly work week with a sweet South Carolina wedding with blue details. Renee and Nathan are the classic Southern couple. If they were a food they’d be your favorite comfort food. They just look so wholesome, non?
Officially the wedding took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alisa and Christina from Charlotte Event Design are the design damsels behind this adorable shindig. Loving the door wreath! It may be the inspiration for a future La Belle Bride DIY project! Here’s our Belle Bride Renee with some details about her day:
Nathan and I have different styles, but I knew what our wedding should be like: clean and classic. Black and ivory are always elegant, and I chose an ocean blue as the accent color to be crisp and fresh. Because Belk Chapel is such a beautiful space and Bonterra has such a wonderful ambiance already, I wanted to use minimal flowers, make use of candles and let the spaces speak for themselves. The flowers we did choose had beautifully clean lines. I also really enjoyed being able to use my design talents to create our printed materials to fit this style, from our invites to our programs to our thank you notes. All included our black, ivory and blue colors, and a swirling scroll design that tied everything together.
Alisa and Christina of Charlotte Event Style were incredibly creative in helping me come up with budget-friendly ways to add little touches to make our day really special, like the wreaths on the chapel doors, the blue flower napkin rings and the photos framed at each table. Alisa used inspiration boards to help pinpoint what we liked, and we meshed our creativity together for some fun details, like the “Just Married” sign above our sweetheart table and the blue-water-filled vases with floating candles on the bar.
I also had a minor (surprise) theme going in that some details incorporated the South Carolina symbol of the palmetto tree and moon. Nathan is a die-hard lover of the South Carolina Gamecocks and the state of South Carolina, where he was born and raised, and having a South Carolina garter, SC ribbons on the guys’ boutonnières and engraved champagne glasses was my way of making him feel like it was his day too, even though weddings usually tend to focus on the bride! The rehearsal dinner was all about him as well, with a low country boil, more SC-themed items, and the best part…a surprise cake incorporating a mini Nathan and all the things he loves most!
The planning process was truly a pleasure once I found Alisa and Christina, and they did an amazing job of helping make our day even better than I had imagined. We were blessed with beautiful weather after having horrible cold and snow on several photo shoots, shower days and other wedding-related events, but the day of the wedding was absolutely perfect in my eyes. I had all my favorite people around me all day, no one was missing or late, we had wonderful hair and makeup people and everyone was relaxed and having fun. The best part of March 6, 2010, was seeing Nathan waiting for me at the front of the church, knowing that it was just the first day in our lifelong adventure together. I was so emotional that day, but we were just so blessed to have so many of our friends and family there to celebrate our love, and I believe everyone had a great time that night, especially us! It was over far too quickly, but luckily we had amazing photographers that documented it all beautifully so we can relive it any time we like!
Wedding Coordinator and Event Design: Charlotte Event Style | Venue: Ceremony: Belk Chapel at Queens University; Reception and Caterer: Bonterra Dining & Wine Room | Wedding Dress: Pronovias, from The Lily Rose | Shoes: Colorful Creations | Wedding Hair: Jennifer Nesbitt of Salon Cielo | Wedding Makeup: Who’s the Fairest | Bridesmaid Dress: WToo by Watters | Menswear: Men’s Wearhouse | Wedding Cake: Cake It Your Way | Florist: The Place for Flowers | Entertainment: One Stop Live! | Photography: Jere Dotten Photography | Entertainment: One Stop Live
