Classical Gas is your wedding song?

My absolute favorite thing from Rebekah’s wedding was her ceremony.  When the chapel doors opened, and she appeared to live music, it was impossible not to cry.  So I knew the second I started planning that I wanted to find an acoustic guitarist in Atlanta for our ceremony.  The style of music was very important, as we definitely wanted non-traditional songs for our event.

If the ceremony part of the wedding can be a bit restrictive (at least if you’re going the traditional route), the reception is your chance to show everyone what you are about as a couple, and what constitutes a good time to you. I mentioned before that Jon and I wanted the celebration to be an introduction to the South for those of our guests who had never been to Atlanta; one way we did this was through the food. That’s what most occasions are built around down here, anyway!

Because we had our wedding in a church, and a church with lots of rules at that, much of our ceremony – order of service, traditional vows, prayers – was already set. I didn’t really mind this; I’ve always loved and found comfort in traditions. Where we could put ourselves in the mix was in the readings and especially in the music we chose for the service. As it happens, Jon and I are both writers and musicians, so these were the perfect ways for us to personalize the ceremony.

While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

Out of all of the undertakings for the vow renewal, there was one that I spent by far the most time on and was undeniably the most nervous about….

…have quickly become my biggest wedding pet peeve. You know the ones, the bride and groom are dancing romantically for their first dance when all of a sudden this beat comes out of nowhere (gasp, “what is going on here??” says the look on the bride’s face), and then all of a sudden, SURPRISE! The new Mr. & Mrs. are doing a full-out “running man” into the “robot”… Sigh.

I danced for ten years: ballet, tap, jazz … you name it, I did it. So I can count music, and I pick up steps quickly. I’m also inherently a coordinator, a motivator, and sometimes an over achiever. This combination makes me a natural leader on the dance floor. Enter: the issue.

Considering that the whole entire purpose of a wedding is… (wait for it)… to get married (!!! who knew, right?), it was shocking how little focus there often is on planning the ceremony that actually binds two people together.  Of course, we were no different – waiting until what felt like the last minute to really get down to the nitty-gritty of our ceremony.  But once we began talking about what we wanted said – to our guests, about our idea of marriage, and to each other – it really sank in how monumental those 20 minutes were going to be… the first 20 minutes of our lives together.

FINALLY… the reception!  You read awhile ago about the process of choosing my floor plan, and saw the layout of my reception.  As you may recall, we chose two 24′ estate tables, and here is how the centerpieces shaped up!  I was pretty much in love with them, so excuse the gratuitous amount of photos…

Two small details from the vow renewal that you haven’t yet seen are the reserved signs for the ceremony chairs and the embroidered hemstitch cocktail napkins.

After deciding to hire a DJ over a live band (mostly due to our budget), we started asking around for recommendations. Hiring a DJ is unlike hiring other vendors. You can taste food prepared by your caterer and look at pictures taken by your photographer and even see bouquets arranged by your florist, but what qualifications do you use to measure your DJ?

Along with my hair trial and DIY bouquet trial a couple of weekends ago, I also met with a good friend of mine from college who will be our DJ at our Saturday evening reception. We went over the basic flow of the evening including which formalities we’ll be including (toasts, first dance, father/daughter dance), which formalities we’ll be skipping (bouquet/garter toss, dollar dance, any unecessary cake smashing), what songs I’d like to avoid (ALL group dances including but not limited to the electric slide, YMCA, and the macarena) and what songs I’d love to hear. For the last few months I’ve been bookmarking YouTube videos of songs as I hear them and get excited. My collection is completely random, but these songs are always guaranteed crowd movers among the party animals in my family. I’m hoping our playlist will include at least some of these sure crowd pleasers.

Let me set the scene: a canopy of trees shading the August sun; guests seated on either side of a circular fountain; the groom in a khaki suit waiting for his bride to walk down the stone staircase. And what do you hear? A musician strumming melodic chords on an acoustic guitar, of course.

So you know all the details of our ceremony now…lets get to the party!!

Now that I have walked you through the planning process to the day of the wedding, I know what most of you are thinking: Can we get to the details already?!  I will start with the vendors who made it possible:

In an effort to take you through my planning process, I will attempt to narrate in the order in which things actually occurred.  After getting engaged and determining that the wedding would take place in Atlanta, we knew we had to start by choosing the ceremony and reception locations.  Neither Ryan nor I was currently a member of any church, but we knew that we wanted a Catholic ceremony.  Therefore we did what other lazy couples do on Saturday night – map out the closest Catholic church!  And the first church in our search, amazingly enough, was the Cathedral of Christ the King.

During our cocktail hour, we not only had the time capsule room open, but we also brought in two blackjack tables and dealers from to entertain the guests.  If I had to pick one thing that our guests overwhelmingly loved, this would be it.

After we had finished up taking [intlink id=”6419″ type=”post”]portraits[/intlink], everyone, including Charlie, got ready to walk down the aisle!  The Atlanta Woman’s Club had an upstairs room for dressing, which was very useful.  Charlie, our best man, our officiant, our honor attendant, the hubby and I all waited there while our guests arrived.  I’m very much in love with this photo of Charlie in his bow tie!

One of my favorite parts of planning my vow renewal has been picking my rentals! Today we had the chance to stop by We Rent Atlanta to work with Glen.

Atlanta’s stately Swan House is the backdrop for this elegant shoot designed by Heather Benge Events. Selecting a deep and rich color palette of royal blue and purple mixed with pastel blooms and lush swaths of greenery, Heather set out to showcase the beauty of the venue with a beautiful outdoor king’s table reception. Thorne + Thistle incorporated fall fauna and lots of texture into the arrangements and showstopping bouquet. A. Joy Cakes created three cakes for the occasion, the centerpiece cake even echoing the pillars, chandelier and grand entrance of the venue! Each detail is thought out to perfection and beautifully captured by Heather K Cook Photography!