Styles: , , , , ,
Colors: , , ,
Settings: , ,

Alexa & Colt first came my way only a few short months ago with their completely amazing engagement session that has some serious Wes Anderson vibes going on. It was unique, thoughtful & creative, certainly a Storyboard Wedding all time favorite!  When Cole Gorman, of  Blest Photography, a North Carolina based wedding photographer, remarked to me after the feature that Alexa would love to have us feature her wedding, it was possibly one of the easier ‘Yeses’ I have ever said in my life!  When the photos finally tumbled into my inbox, well to put it mildly, I was IN.LOVE.  Alexa & Colt’s cool style had rolled off in spades onto their wedding day in the form of porcelain figurines, painted deer antlers, eclectic lounge set ups, empty frames, vintage touches & so much more!  One of the most wonderful and certainly most meaningful elements of the wedding process, was how just about every piece to their wedding puzzle was touched or effected by someone close to them.  The venue– generously lent by their neighbors, her dress-hand sewen by her mother, flowers & mixed centerpieces– hand crafted by Alexa herself along with the aid of her closest friends.  Adding to these gorgeous homespun touches was a collection of unique antique items & furniture that was collected from friends & family as well as some items Alexa & Colt have procured over the years.  Perhaps the coolest of the vintage pieces however, is a beautifully restored creamy blue Chevy pick up truck that served as quite the backdrop for some truly captivating portraits.  While possibly easily  unnoticed, the thing I love best of all is the location of the ceremony itself, nestled into an open field.  You might not realize it, but an area of the field was cut specifically for that moment and I could not be more in love with the framing job of the tall grass by nature herself!  Having now celebrated Alexa & Colt’s engagement & experienced their gorgeous wedding day, I can honestly say this amazing couple stayed uniquely truly to who they are as a couple and as such created one utterly stunning wedding day!

[sbwgallery]

Novella of the Bride…

Colt and I are both from small towns in North Carolina, so choosing a venue outside of NC was out of the question for us.  We’re both lovers of nature and all things old and charming, so an outdoor barn wedding was an obvious choice for us. After struggling for weeks to find a venue that had our date available (and fit our budget!) we came up empty handed- that is, until we realized the answer was under our noses the entire time! Just down the road from my house in Reidsville, NC, tucked away on a neighbor’s plot of land, was the barn we had been searching for. Thanks to the generosity of our neighbor and the hard work of a whole team of people (most notably, my own parents) to convert the space into what we had envisioned, we had our very own unique reception space that far exceeded our expectation.

Décor: The majority of our décor was our own, collected from antique and thrift stores over many years. Other pieces were borrowed from friends and family. We used mix-and-match antique china for our reception, an old whitewashed farm table for the altar, an old Royal typewriter by our guestbook, and railroad lanterns for decoration throughout. Colt’s father made a mason jar chandelier out of recycled bench wood for our proposal set-up and we knew that had to be incorporated into our reception décor as well.

Color palette: We wanted the keep the color palette neutral and white-washed with nice, subtle pops of robin’s egg blue (inspired by blue Ball mason jars!). We became very attached to elements like arrows, deer antlers, feathers, and natural fibers (barn board, burlaps, linen).

Invitations: The invitations were definitely a labor of love. After finding inspiration online, we took the image of an arrow paired with our initials and ran with it. What evolved were hundreds of hand-stamped, burlap-and-luggage-tag-tied Save the Dates and Invites that we sent out to 150 of our closest family and friends. We were so excited to have produced something that we hope came off as deeply personal and gave our guests a little taste of what they could expect from the ceremony and reception.

Wedding dress: As someone who works in the fashion industry, I knew I’d be picky about the wedding dress. I scoured magazines for inspiration and we set up a few appointments at some local boutiques. But, ultimately, I knew I wouldn’t get quite what I was looking for unless I was able to design it myself. We had planned on taking the design to a seamstress to have the dress made, but my mother offered to take on the challenge herself. A jack-of-all-trades, my mother can do or make just about anything she sets her mind to. We were making adjustments up until the last minute, but the end result was, what I believe to be, a stunning work of art and something I’ll treasure forever.

Cake topper: The cake topper, oddly, was one of the greatest sources of inspiration for the entire reception. It was pieced together with handmade objects from several different artists I found on Etsy. The ceramics artist who made the porcelain animal figure allows customers to pick and choose which animal heads they want placed on the body mold. The bunting, with our initials splayed across it, was tied to two twigs that I mounted in the wood slice base. The final touch was the Spanish moss, to give it that authentic forest feel.

Centerpieces: The centerpieces were one of my favorite projects of the wedding- each collection was slightly different, but contained many of the same elements. We collected mason jars from anyone and anywhere that had them to offer and filled them with fresh, supple peonies. My uncle, who is a hunter, provided enough deer antler pieces for me to hand paint and add to each table. We created small, mason jar “terrariums” with handmade paper mache eggs from an artist in Greensboro, NC. And, finally- to help neutralize, we added in at least one piece of milk glass or white porcelain animal figurine to each table.

Music during reception: Because Colt is from the mountains of NC, it was important to us to have authentic bluegrass at our reception. The final song that the band played was “Rocky Top”- all of Colt’s family flocked to the dance floor and began clogging!

 

Vendor Love

Venue: Private Farm | Wedding Dress: Handmade by Bride’s Mother | Veil: Handmade by Bride | Necklaces: Mixed Collection | Hair: The Hair Company  | Bridesmaids Dresses: Mixed Designers | Riding Boots: Steve Madden  | Groomsmen Attire: Calvin Klein  | Bowties: The Cordial Churchman  | Invitations: If It’s Paper  | Rentals: Hauser Rental | Flowers: The Peony Patch {arranged by bride} | Caterer: Short Sugars  | Cake: Maxie B’s  | Cake Accessories: Topper-Melabo Wed, Tree Slice-Hudson Block Co, Bunting-A Fox Wedding  | Band: Rain Check  | Guest Gift: Hazelwood Soap Company  | Wedding Planner: Katy Junker | Photographer: Blest Photography