When Sarah and I first met, I knew her wedding was destined to be gorgeous – she has fantastic style! Sarah’s color palette was navy, mustard/gold, lavender and ivory. Since we were working on a budget, we had to get creative when it came to decor items.  We wanted to bring in a lot of personal details to the wedding – primarily the Tom & Sarah’s love story.  Tom had been in the Middle East since early last year, met Sarah on a brief trip back home here, they kept in touch through letters, email and Skype – he sent her flowers on a weekly basis.  He proposed to her ‘unofficially’ over the summer when he sent her to Genesis Diamonds under the premise of picking up a watch he had ordered.  When she got there, the salesman told her to pick out which ring she wanted.  Tom came home for a week of leave in October 2010, and went home with Sarah to meet her family.  During a family photo session, Tom proposed to her in front of her whole family.  Because of the dangerous situation the groom is in (his job is basically what the guys in the movie the Hurt Locker did with bombs), they went ahead and got married at the courthouse. Their ‘real’ wedding was the one at Carnton Plantation in June.  We wanted to share their story, and did so by using the letters they sent to each other as part of the decor.

I tried to ‘upcycle’ as many things as I could do bringing in a green, environmentally conscious element as well.  All of the fabric flowers and pennants were made from old sheets purchased from Good Will.  The window was taken from an old house in Franklin.  Rather than using a ton of flowers (though the ones we did use from Melissa Marie Floral Designs were AMAZING), we went with fabric flowers for centerpieces and attached them to twigs from branches in my yard.  The glass vases were all old jelly, spaghetti sauce, pickle, salsa jars.  Rather than renting new dishes, Sarah collected vintage china plates from yard and estate sales and thrift stores. The guests were also invited to sign these plates & will serve as the couple’s Guest Book.   Sarah’s bouquet was made primarily from her grandmother’s vintage brooches – they served as her ‘something old’.   All of the drinking glasses were mason jars that were fitted with tags for guests to write their names on and claim for the evening.  The suitcases used as the altar were from the bride’s family and supported memorial candles in honor of the bride’s grandmother and the groom’s sister.

The wonderful Josh and Amber Ulmer of Ulmer Studios captured all of the sweet details and special moments of Tom & Sarah’s day.

Check out more images in the gallery:

Vendors:

Caterer - Bacon & Caviar
Ceremony & Reception Venue - Carnton Plantation
Coordinator – Bridal Blueprints
DJ & Lighting – Ross Hill
Event Rentals – Music City Tents & Events
Florist – Melissa Marie Floral Designs
Hair – Bryan Wood @ Salon Capelli
Linens – Connie Duglin Specialty Linen
Makeup – Andrew Pentecost
Photographer – Ulmer Studios