Friday, May 13, 2011
Drumroll....Stephanie and Justin's engagement pictures received the most votes in our Spring 2011 Facebook Engagement contest! And based on the huge number of votes they received, it's no wonder they have a guest list of 330 people! Thanks to their photographer, Sara E Rose Photography, the two were able to tell their beautiful love story via their engagement photos, which do an amazing job chronicling their history and is a great idea!
Enjoy their sweet love story and the details of their quickly approaching wedding day.
Stephanie Lewis + Justin Hayden
Engagement date ~ February 12, 2010
Wedding date ~ June 18, 2011
How did you meet:
We met in the NICU at Baptist Hospital. I was a premature sick baby and he was a orange jaundice baby. We were there together even though I was born two months before him. Justin says this is where I fell in love with him. That I saw this tan hot baby with cool shades on and that I have been in love with him ever since. I don’t really remember it being like that but he swears by it. He says he had amazing “game” even then. We then happened to attend St. Edward’s together, K-8th grade. I don’t really remember him until the second grade. We were both in Mrs. Clinard’s class and I had a huge crush on him. In the third grade, he asked me to be his girlfriend and made me a valentine that said, “I love you and I hope you love me too”. Aww- so sweet! We were best friends all through grade school. We then attended high school together. We never dated, always dated other people but remained great friends. We always had a strong opinion on who the other one dated. People always told us that we would end up getting married but we never really believed them. It wasn’t until he went to Iraq that everything changed. Before Justin went to Iraq, he called my mother (which is like his second mother) and told her he thought he was in love with me and had to tell me before he went away. He did not get the chance to tell me before he left, but he let me know as soon as he got home. We wrote letters to one another and still stayed in close contact while he was away. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. I also realized while he was away that I loved him more than a friend. So, as soon as he got home from Iraq we started dating... and the rest is history! I feel like our whole lives have led up to this and that we are truly soulmates. He is my best friend, my past, my present, and will be my future.
This is the reason why I really love our engagement photos. They are not of us just standing by a random tree but they tell our love story. We went to our grade school and took photos. We took some by our lockers, in our 5th grade classroom, library, etc. He even sported his 8th grade football championship jersey- GO SAINTS!!! I would highly recommend to any engaged couple to let the photos tell your story! They are so much more meaningful and special. Sara Rose did an amazing job of capturing our story!
Tell me about your proposal:
Justin called me and told me that when I got home he had a small surprise to kick off my birthday weekend. He told me to come inside and sit on the couch, with my eyes closed. He then put in my lap the cutest yellow lab puppy (she is now the grown yellow lab in the pictures). I was so surprised and excited! Justin told me that the collar she had on belonged to his childhood family dog. I thought it was cool but didn't pay too much attention to the collar! He kept talking about the collar and finally he took the ring off the collar and got on one knee. I never even noticed the ring! I We named the puppy Lucy; we both love the Beatles and so we thought since she came with a beautiful diamond ring we would name her after the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
Who have you hired for your wedding team?
Wedding venue I Church of the Assumption
Photographer I Sara E Rose Photography - I would recommend Sara Rose to anyone and everyone! Not only is her work beautiful but she is so wonderful to work with. I was a bridesmaid in a wedding she shot and I loved her from the start. I asked for her card and once I saw her work and price- it was a done deal! She is fun, prompt, genuinely cares, and most importantly wants you to LOVE your photos! I cannot wait for the wedding pictures!.
Bride’s Dress I The White Room Too
Bridesmaids’ Dresses I The White Room Too
Groom's Attire I Men's Warehouse
Floral Designer I Phillipe Chadwick of Chadwicks. Phillipe is friend of ours since kindergarten! He is just getting started in the wedding business and does beautiful work. We feel so fortunate to have him as a friend and florist! :)
Rentals I Classic Party Rentals
Invitations I Target and then got them printed at Quick Print.
Reception Venue I The Fleming Center at The Cathedral of the Incarnation
Lighting I Nashville Audio Visual
Caterer I Ribbons of Chocolate Catering - so yummy and amazing price! Pam Hogancamp (owner) is so sweet and helpful!
Cake I Sam's Confection Connection - We cannot wait to eat this cake!!! The wedding cake will be strawberry cake with cream cheese icing.
Groom's Cake I A surprise for the groom! :)
Videography I Pureform Media, Brendan Donohue
Music / DJ I The Mad Dog Company. We are also having a friend, Shane McAnally, who is a very talented songwriter and singer perform a song.
I can honestly say, that all of my vendors have been so easy to work with and very helpful!
What's your wedding style? Traditional with a twist :)
What's your wedding budget? $20,000; We are inviting about 330 guests.
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Posted by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide |
Filed under: Engagements & Proposals, Real Nashville Brides
7 comments »
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Today's couple received the second most Facebook votes in our contest. So, not only are they our runner up, but we really liked their photos too, especially Meg {ABG's community manager}! Photographed by Wendy C. Photography, Becky and Mike are adorable! They did a fantastic job choosing great photo locations and Wendy truly captured their deep love connection + chemistry.
Mike Jarrell + Becky Aguiar
Engagement date ~ December 24, 2010
Wedding date ~ December 10, 2011
Our Blog: http://mikeandbecky.blog.com
How did you get engaged?
(I told him no holiday/birthday proposals but what girl is going to say “No, propose on another day” when her man has bling in her face on Christmas Eve? Not me!)
We got engaged after the Christmas Eve service at my hometown church in Louisville, KY. Our church lobby was decorated for Christmas and we decided to get our family picture taken in front of one of the trees. Mike took the picture of me and my family. Then my mom suggested that Mike and I get a picture together. He walked over, wearing his LARGE winter coat, and turned to smile at the camera. I asked him to take off his coat because I didn’t want him to wear it in our picture. He said he wanted to keep it on and I said “Fine, you’re going to look stupid in this picture”. About that time my mom said “smile” and I smiled and he got down on one knee. I honestly have no idea what he said in his little “Will You Marry Me” speech because I was so surprised (aren’t I the worst woman ever?!) but I saw the ring and freaked out. YES! YES! YES! It was so special to have my family there and to have pictures of the actual moment to show friends and family.
Who have you hired for your wedding team?
Wedding Ceremony I Eastland Baptist Church
Wedding Reception I The Belmont Mansion
Photographer I Wendy C. Photography (AMAZING lady and photographer! Love her). The site she put together for us to share with our friends and family is: BeckyandMike.WendyCPhotography.com
DJ I Irwin Entertainment
Baker I Doing a dessert table so we’re not getting a huge cake. Just a bunch of little things from a local store. I have one in mind but need to taste test (YUM!) before I commit.
Floral Design I Ruth’s Flowers (we are only getting flowers as bouquets for me and my bridesmaids…the church and reception hall are already pretty well decorated for Christmas and adding anything else would be overkill…or so I think.)
Caterer I NO IDEA! I have a small budget for this so it’s been tricky so far.
What's your wedding style?
The ceremony is going to be very small. We’re only inviting about 100 people so the style will be intimate and romantic. The wedding will be at 6pm so there will be tons of candles and rose peals. The reception will be a little different. Since we’re having our reception at The Belmont Mansion, we’ve decided to have a Williamsburg/Victorian reception to go along with the art and decor. We will be decorating with fruit, flowers and candles. The Belmont Mansion will be decorated with garland for Christmas so we’ll be using bold colors (purple, blue, teal, gold) to help incorporate the garland but not make the event feel like a Christmas event.
What's your wedding budget?
Small. Is that the correct answer? We are trying to do the wedding and reception for under $6,000. It has been a challenge but its fun to shop around and get a great deal.
Anything else you want to share?
We just got our Save the Dates together this week. I should have a copy of our invites to share sometime in August if you’re interested. We have a friend of ours who is a graphic designer creating them and who also created our Save the Dates. Our invitations will use a purple graphic element (also used on our Save the Dates) and will be very simple. We are using purple as our color since that is what the girls will be wearing. Lapis to be exact.
Our personal blog is: mikeandbecky.blog.com. We created this blog to keep our friends up-to-date on our planning and decisions…and talk about our dogs. (Sorry, we are THOSE people) Since we’re only inviting 100 people to the wedding a lot of our friends aren’t able to come to our big day. We set this up in hopes that people could read this and know what was going on with our planning. It also helps communicate some of our decisions to our friends and family since the majority of them don’t live in our state.
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Posted by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide |
Filed under: Engagements & Proposals, Real Nashville Brides
2 comments »
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sloane is a bride-to-be and a fellow blogger. She and her fiance Dave selected the talented Krista of Krista Lee Photography as their wedding photographer. They entered our Facebook Engagement Contest and I'm glad they did. Their photos are modelesque and super vibrant. That's why I've selected them as one of my favorites.
Meet them today...
Sloane Cavitt + Dave Logue
Engagement date ~ May 27, 2010
Wedding date ~ September 10, 2011 (a 9/10/11 wed!)
Bride's blog ~ blingblingcupcakequeen.blogspot.com
Tell me about your proposal:
I will tell this from my point of view...I am sure Dave has a completely different story :)
It was Thursday, May 27th and I had just gotten home from work! Dave came home shortly after me and asked if I wanted to go to dinner. Due to going to see the midnight showing of Sex In The City 2 the night before and working all day, needless to say I was a little tired. I chose to stay in for dinner and told him I would make pulled chicken BBQ sliders and we could go out to dinner on Friday night! Dave went upstairs to change as I pulled chicken from a rotisserie chicken for dinner. He came downstairs kissed me on the neck as he put a diamond princess cut solitaire in front of my face! With chicken all over my hands I started jumping up and down, screaming and crying. I finally let him get down on one knee to pop the question! There was chicken all over the kitchen, to which the dog managed to clean up for us. I was speechless, and that never happens. It was the most amazing night that I would never change anything about!
Ashley: They actually stood in the water fountain to capture these amazing shots.
Who have you hired for your wedding team?
Wedding Venue I Scarritt Bennett
Photographer I Krista Lee Photography
Floral Designer I Melissa Spaid
Band I Bueller
Reception Venue I WO SMITH School of Music
Caterer I Bacon and Caviar
Lighting I Nashville Event Lighting
Save The Dates I Magnet Street
Wedding Planner I Meredith Zeller of Bridal Blueprints
What's your wedding style? Classic/contemporary - black, white and crystal with a music theme
What's your wedding budget? $30,000
Would you like to share anything else about your wedding plans?
My centerpieces are mini chandeliers that I bought at Z-gallerie. Our guest books are 2 black guitars for people to sign. Our charger plates are vinyl records and we are giving those as our favors. We are currently trying to decide if we want a cake or mini chocolate chip cookies with icing in the middle because that is our favorite food. Our band is an 80's band and they are AMAZING! We got the most amazing lights to go over the dance floor from Nashville event lighting. They are 4 chandeliers. I LOVE chandeliers!!
I am so excited to get married!! Thank you so much for making us a finalist!!
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Posted by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide |
Filed under: Engagements & Proposals, Real Nashville Brides
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
I'm back to share another finalist / editor's favorite from our Facebook contest. I met Sarah and Scott at our wedding planning seminar in January. I've since bumped into them at bridal shows and I always enjoy chatting with them. Sarah's hilarious and full of energy and I just love watching them enjoy their engagement.
I hand-picked their engagement photos by Claudia Kay Photography because I found them to be great quality and filled with diverse shots, giving the couple many future uses (think wall photos to save the dates). More importantly, they look like they had fun fun fun! Remember, your e-pics should represent you - as Sarah and Scotts do. Make sure your photographer listens to you and is willing to capture you vs recreate you.
Enjoy their photos + wedding plans to date...
Scott Collier and Sarah Parker
engagement date ~ December 14, 2010
wedding date ~ January 14, 2012
bride's blog ~ ToBeMrsCollier.blogspot.com
Tell me about your proposal:
Sarah had been expecting a proposal before the end of 2010 and thought that their two year anniversary (or celebratory weekend) would be the time! The day after the anniversary celebration, still with no ring appearance, Scott and Sarah spent a normal Tuesday evening on the couch eating dinner in their pajamas. Starting in the summer, Sarah and Scott had been watching episode after episode of the entire series of "Friends" and December 14th seemed like any other night. Little did Sarah know that Scott was waiting anxiously through the proposal of Phoebe from Mike which had been serendipitously playing. After the episode, Sarah turned to Scott love struck and at that moment he slipped the ring onto her finger and said, "I have a question." With excitement and complete surprise she couldn't believe it was happening. And of course she said, "Yes."
Who have you hired for your wedding team?
Wedding Venue I Noah Liff Opera Center
Wedding Planner I Sarah Willard of Music City Events
Catering I Ribbons of Chocolate Catering
Cake I Sweet Face Cakes
Photography I Claudia Kay Photography
Invitations + Stationary I Vistaprint
Floral Design I Belles Fleurs
What's your wedding style? Classy comfortable
What's your wedding budget? $20,000
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Posted by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide |
Filed under: Engagements & Proposals, Real Nashville Brides
4 comments »
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
In January, ABG hosted The Smart Bride where Natosha, a recent Nashville bride at bridal blogger at Big Spoon, Little Spoon, shared her budget wedding tips and advice. The session featuring tips from budget brides was so popular that I asked Natosha to share all of the details of her $8K wedding and to answer questions from Nashville brides about her wedding - from who she hired, recommends to how she spent her budget to what she'd change about her plans. So, enjoy learning all about Natosha and Stephen's wedding below.
Natosha is our Facebook featured bride/blogger of the week so be sure to post any budget wedding questions on our Facebook discussion board where Natosha will respond.
The Wedding of Natosha and Stephen Benning
Bride ~ Natosha Haskins Benning
Groom ~ Stephen Benning
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Rose Mont Mansion, Gallatin, TN
# of Guests: 100
Budget: $8,100
Vendors:
Stationery: Little Spoon Designs (bride is a stationery designer)
Gown: Cherished Memories Bridal (purchased sample gown; no longer in business)
Accessories: Veil and hair piece by TruLu Couture (Louise Truett, the 30 Something Bride), shoes and necklace custom styled by bride
Groom’s tux/suit: Men’s Wearhouse
Bridesmaids/Groomsmen outfits: David’s Bridal and Men’s Warehouse
Hair: Leyla’s Hair Studio, Hendersonville, TN
Makeup: Princess Bride’s by Christy
Music: iPod/computer setup manned by friend of bride and groom
Caterer: Down South Delights Catering
Baker: Hermitage Bakery
Florist: Artisan Flowers (Jasmin Trenary)
Photographer: Epic Image Photography
Wedding Coordination: Details By Margaret
How would you describe your style as a couple?
Classic and timeless with a bit of vintage glam
How did you incorporate that style into your wedding
Stephen’s only request while planning the wedding was that he and the groomsmen wore traditional black tuxedos. Most of the style decisions made were based around this classic look. I chose whites, ivories and black as our wedding colors and paired it with lush red roses, ivy and fall foliage to complete the look. Simplicity and elegance were key themes and we could think of no better place to host our wedding celebration than an historic home.
What was the favorite aspect of your wedding?
My favorite aspect of our wedding was our personalized ceremony. We wrote the ceremony together as well as our own vows to each other. It was the most important part of the day.
Where did you splurge? Where did you save/DIY?
I feel like we did a great job planning a budget wedding and balancing each priority category. We both agree that our biggest investment was catering. Down South Delights offered us fabulous quality and service for the price.
I did all of the planning, research, stationery and décor myself, so there was a great deal of DIYing going on. My biggest savings areas were things like our wedding bands, our venue and we cut several corners. For example, we chose to have a dry reception, I purchased our linens and cake plateau instead of renting them and we decided to not use professional transportation because it simply wasn’t important to us.
Rose Mont Mansion was wonderful to work with and we were thrilled with our decision to move the wedding just a short way outside of Nashville.
We forgot to put wedding bands in our original budget, so by the time we got around to purchasing them, we had very little left to work with. I did a lot of shopping around and ultimately ordered Stephen’s band from Amazon and mine from an online retailer called Ultra Diamonds. We spent less than $300 on both rings.
Now that the wedding day is over, is there anything about your planning process you feel you could have done differently?
I could have devoted less time to planning the details and more time choosing vendors. I feel that if I had it to do over again with the knowledge I have now, I would have made different choices or at least put more thought into it in the very beginning. It wasn’t until I found Ashley’s Bride Guide that I began making more educated decisions.
In one sentence, what words of advice do you have for couples in the midst of their planning?
Base your wedding planning decisions on your priorities as a couple and you’ll end up with a wedding that reflects the two of you perfectly.
See more pictures and wedding details on our Facebook Page and ask any questions about planning a budget wedding that you might have.
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Posted by Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide |
Filed under: Advice & Planning, DIY & Budget Wed Finds, Real Nashville Brides
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