I'm loving the emergence of Nashville Food Trucks. Although I'm from Nashville, I went to college in Washington DC and spent summers in Philly and NYC so food truck dining nearly kept me alive. Back then, they weren't branded. They all looked the same but you just knew the right ones, with the salsa you loved or the fresh buns. Now, they've gone gourmet!
When the Mere Bulles Food Truck debuted at a bridal show earlier this year, Tabitha (a foodie) and I immediately recognized the enormous potential food trucks could have on the Nashville wedding scene. We're predicting that many non-traditional brides will consider trucks for their wedding and we wouldn't be your favorite go-to resource if we didnt do a full rundown of the food truck options to help you sort through your options:). We'll share our full guide to Nashville food trucks in a few weeks. For now, here's what I learned from Megan about the Mere Bulles truck and how it can be used for your wedding day.
The Truck:
Mere Bulles food truck is in daily service, so you can experience it anytime you want (just about). On Thursdays, I see it in the 100 Oaks, when I take my niece to the pet store:). It also serves East Nashville on other days. You can find their truck location by following them on Twitter @merebulles. Whether you want to grab lunch or want to consider them for your wedding, check out the food truck while it's around town.
"The Mere Bulles truck has a massive kitchen (by food truck standards) and can churn out piping hot food right there and then so everything is even fresher and tastier." ~ Tabitha
The Food:
Ok - what I've learned is that some food trucks specialize - say ham and cheese or asian cuisine, which is great. Mere Bulles and a few others are full mobile kitchens which means they can offer a highly custom menu, from crab cake sliders to sit down, prime rib. Mere Bulles can simple dishes or can serve up to 5 courses for up to 500 people. Being a mobile kitchen makes them extremely flexible and allows them to offer a very versatile menu.
The Staff + Experience:
I love Mere Bulles restaurant - from the food to the staff. I've said it over and over. I've never had more remarkable service. Megan assured me that the mobile staff is the same staff that has served me and brides/grooms for years. These folks are experienced with weddings, restaurants, and service in general; so whether they are in their restaurant or off-site, the service is consistent, which is important.
Over the next few weeks, we'll share our interviews with other food truck providers but few will have the reputation or years of experience of Mere Bulles. I'm very excited about a Mere Bulles food truck and think it could be a great addition to your casual engagement picnic or even your whimsical wedding reception.
Contact Mere Bulles (615-467-1945) and ask for Carlin or Meg of Mere Bulles to learn more about their restaurant or food truck for your wedding, rehearsal dinner, or other bridal event.
For your weekend reading, check out today's list of our ten favorite September wedding blog posts from blogs across Nashville. You can't be everywhere so we try to check out as many as we can to ensure you're getting the very best advice and inspiration for your big day. In the event you missed them, you'll see we've included a few our our own must-read features.
Food is always a detail your guests remember so for your Fall-inspired wedding, Chef's Market has given us some great ideas to complete the overall feel to match the colors and the season. Hope you're not terribly hungry right now because we're about to whet your appetite right here.
This wedding at Cedarwood was pretty awesome! From the Ghostbuster Proton Packs to light sabers for guests to use in the send-off, I really enjoyed looking at the photos! This must have been such a fun wedding to plan and even more so to attend! More Hollywood inspired goodness here.
The fabulous Rhonda Patton Weddings designed gorgeous bouquets and details for bride and groom, Jennifer and Armad. The gold Swarovski crystals on the bride's bouquet are an exceptionally glamorous touch which we just love! Click here for more bespoke goodness from the wedding.
Do you want a vibrant, Asian inspired look? Or maybe an elegant, glittery winter wonderland? Or maybe you'd like to celebrate Fall with its beautiful oranges, yellows and browns? We share what we saw at the Legacy Farms Open House and the amazing designs that Enchanted Florist came up with throughout the entire venue. There's so much to love about Legacy Farms and you can find out more here.
It looks like the start of 2012 could bring us some very pretty, pastel weddings. For those of you who prefer to work with what's hot in wedding colors per season, Designs In Paper has provided us a quick tip in picking the various shades for Spring 2012 here.
#5 - Re-use, Recycle
September's Green Wedding post was chock full of ideas on how you can use your wedding to give to the less fortunate. Whether it's donating leftover veggies or your gown to a bride who can't afford her own, Ashley Currie of iHospitality gives us the scoop on what you can do here.
Southall Eden Paperie gave us some stationery eye candy with a slew of great design ideas for 2012. From whimsical to nature to garden-inspired, you'll find a design to fit your style. Check out the rest of what's in store for 2012 on Southall Eden Paperie's Blog.
#3 - No Membership Required
Not just one but three comprehensive lists of churches in Nashville that do not require a membership to use for your wedding ceremony. And in case you didn't realize that you had to be a member at some churches, well, we've saved you the trouble of looking up the ones that welcome all couples. Here it is!
Nashville Event Lighting showed us lots of examples of how creative couples in Nashville have customized their own gobo lights for their weddings. This is a wonderful way to really put your signature on your wedding with all sorts of designs from ones that reflect your stationery to classic monograms. Here are some more great ideas on their blog.
While we do stress that your wedding day should always be about you and your soon-to-be-spouse, we also enjoy seeing weddings where the couple doesn't only make it about them, they make everybody involved feel at ease as well. When Ellie and Nick got married they had their bridal party wear what they wanted, and they had their guests donate food and toiletries to Second Harvest Food Bank. Check more from the charitable wedding here.
Two weeks ago, I hosted a wedding planning workshop with the super talented ladies of Kerried Away Couture and Love Bird Style. The event was extremely informative.
The evening started with a walk through of two real weddings by Jessica of Love Bird Style. Not only is Jessica a planner/designer but her own wedding, which took place at Historic Cedarwood, was featured on Style Me Pretty. She shared her wedding which was inspired by a quilt. She walked us through the color selection, theme and overall design. She then shared a second wedding and a mock inspiration board. Brides had a lot of questions about how to create their own inspiration board, which you can learn about via the video below.
Next up, Kerri and Lane of Kerried Away Couture. Kerried Away Couture offers custom bridesmaid dresses (locally and nationally). They discussed how custom bridesmaid dresses are designed, how to select appropriate styles and fabrics for your party and mothers.
Joy of Joy Chambers Photography was on hand to grab great photos and I manned the video camera to capture some great advice for you!
If you are a bride and were not able to attend the event, please take time to watch the videos below or reach out and contact Kerried Away or Love Bird Style for a consult for custom dresses or wedding design/planning.
Kerri (left); me (middle); Lane (right). Both ladies wore Kerried Away designs.
Video: Determining Your Wedding Style
Video: Creating Your Inspiration Board
Custom clutches by Kerried Away Couture
Custom bridesmaid skirt options by Kerried Away Couture
Video: Choosing Your Wedding Color Palette
Custom Kerried Away bridesmaid dresses for a fun, outdoor wedding
Video: Choosing Your Bridesmaids Dresses
Custom mother dress by Kerried Away Couture
Video: Choosing Colors for Your Mothers Dresses (Mother of Groom or Bride)
The Kerried Away Couture studio
Lane (left); Kerri (middle); Jessica (right)
It was great to meet Adrienne (left) a Nashville bride.
Fall is one of my favorite times of year where the weather is almost perfect and the trees are changing colors and becoming a fiery dance of yellows, reds and oranges, colors that are such a beautiful backdrop for weddings, especially those that are outdoor. As we've mentioned before, Cedarwood has had some stunning weddings both because their venue is great and their design team even more so. We look at a few of their fall themed weddings for inspiration and hopefully you'll be able to find some ideas that catch your eye for your own wedding!
Trick or Treat!
First up is a whimsical, fairy-tale come-to-life Halloween themed wedding. It combined the most fantastic parts of halloween (twinkly lights, bright colors and candy) with the wonders of weddings with beautiful table arrangements and a decked out cake covered in hand-shaped pumpkins, leaves and fall flowers. The matching lanterns hanging over the tables were also a nice touch, adding color from every angle. More from this three-part Halloween Themed Wedding here.
It's hard to not think of UT whenever you hear "orange wedding" here in Nashville. Thankfully, the shades of orange used in this wedding are akin to the orange you see the leaves become in the Fall and are much more pleasant and chic. From the metalic orange monogram to ribbons and flowers, the outdoors flowed into the reception area to create a seamless Fall feel. There are a lot more pictures to be seen - if this is what you envision your wedding day to look like, definitely click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.
Some of the more vibrant colors that go well with Fall wedings are the jewel tones like teal and purple. This wedding complements those colors with bright pinks/fucshias to really give pops of color. Using an orchid for a boutonniere is a rather classic look but the contrast of the rich purple against the navy suit lends a more contemporary look and feel. Definitely not for the faint of heart, the purple and bright pink combo isn't as popular as the classic orange/gold/yellow for fall but it's always fun to see and such a treat for all. More from this wedding here.
Cedarwood has done tons of gorgeous weddings on their grounds with all sorts of color shemes and themes. Be sure to check out more of Cedarwood's Fall Weddings, or look at our Inspiration Gallery for more great ideas for your wedding! All the best!
Just because your wedding venue is a plantation or a farmhouse doesn't mean you are limited to just "country chic" or "rustic" or even "vintage" looks. Especially in a location like Legacy Farms where you can choose from a few different settings both indoors and out to create a look and feel that is right for your wedding. At their recent open house, I had a chance to see each space decorated in a certain fashion from (of course) country style to a fall-inspired table to a gorgeous Winter Wonderland. When Enchanted Florist is involved, you can expect floral and event decor that's nothing short of phenomenal and once again, the guests and I at the Open House were wowed by their imagination and design skills which seem to know no limits.
The covered bridge at Legacy Farms is my personal favorite area. They turned it into a ceremony location with chairs lined up on both sides and flower petals that match the suspended Asian umbrellas strewn on the ground. It's such a fun, festive look but the bridge looks like it could be transformed to be a wonderland of any sort.
Front of the Mansion
What greeted me as I arrived at the venue was a gorgeous fall-inspired ceremony and reception dinner table set up. Rows of wooden pews with an the aisle flanked by pumpkins and leaves faced the house where you could exchange your vows on the front steps. For the dinner, there was a beautiful long table decorated in oranges and yellows. This would be perfect for an October or November wedding or, really, if you're just that into fall and are over summer!
Inside the Mansion
Set by a French window overlooking the front lawn, a long, elegant dinner table was set. Candlesticks, votives, silver chargers and serving pieces sat with shimmery silver ornaments and votives and a luxurious center arrangement of roses and flowers sat atop beautiful linens.
Main Event Hall
The main area (which we've seen set up for a wedding here) was used to accommodate visitors with a live band and buffet. Upstairs, there was more great design to be seen. There were audible gasps of delight as you entered the barn loft upstairs in the main event hall. Upon entry, there was a table set up in a Winter Wonderland theme with sparkly ornaments, cool purples and blues and silk and satin fabric. It was exquisite.
The table was but an extension of the ceremony area around the corner where twinkly lights, frosty tree branches feathers and more floral arrangements completed this Winter Wonderland and if not for the fact that it was in the high 90's outside, it would have felt like we were actually at a winter wedding.
How's this for winter wedding inspiration?
Courtyard
Every usable area at Legacy Farm was decorated - even outside there were antiques set up to show what they have on hand for decor. The courtyard between the Event Hall and the Mansion also had tables set up and tucked away, in a sheltered area, was a country style section. There seemed no limit to the design capabilities of all the vendors involved that day and I'm glad I was able to visit!
Thank you to Legacy Farms for hosting a beautiful Open House, we look forward to seeing more weddings take place there. Big thank you as well to Ace Photography, who has shared their style shoot at the Open House in three parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
At Ashley’s Bride Guide, we’re always on the lookout for innovative and exciting wedding ideas.
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