a garden wedding.

 

I really had a straight forward vision going into planning for my wedding reception. All I wanted it to be was southern, botanical, lush, vivid with color, vintage classic and garden like. I depended a lot on my florist and he really pulled through. He understood me like no other, and totally saw the same vision I was seeing. I think he thought about my wedding day and night, because he knew I was going for southern, so I'd get phone calls from him in the middle of the day saying how we should throw some spanish moss in the tree limbs, since spanish moss is very popular in one of my favorite cities, savannah, georgia. And spanish moss reminds me of the times we'd drive down to my grandparents in tampa, florida and take walks in their neighborhood, or to the pool or to my great-grandpas house and covering the whole streets were canopies of spanish moss hanging from the live oak trees. I have always loved how dreamy and eerie it made me feel. 

I was trying to tie in all of my favorite things about the South, and home, and all of my favorite cities I grew up visiting. I tied in the large palmetto palm fans that hung along the perimeter of the back porch and around the edge of the gazebo. The palmetto palm fans created a banner that reminds me of my second home, hilton head island, south carolina. The Palmetto tree is South Carolina's state tree. It's seen everywhere you go, especially on the island. It's a reminder of my child hood and the one place that made me more giddy every year more so than christmas. I tied in all of the greenery with touches of garden roses onto the backs of each chair and had a table runner made of 

conculus leaves. This reminds me of the lushness in Georgia, and the large garden spray roses that filled the landscapes of my favorite plantation homes I grew up visiting just right around the corner. My mom always has taken great care of her garden and our backyard. Every summer it was nothing less of lush and beautiful. Sitting on the back porch drinking my dad's homemade lemonade is one of my favorite pastimes, this is why we decided to have mason jars filled with lemon drops and my dads homemade lemonade recipe rolled up inside as our wedding favors. 

As for the reception location, it took me an arm and a leg to finally come to conclusions that I wasn't going to get married in Georgia. And I wasn't going to be able to have my wedding reception at my picked out plantation home like I had always dreamed of. But hey, such is life and I decided to make things work either way. That's when I was blessed and felt very lucky to find "The Woods on Ninth." I have never heard of it before, and every other venue in Utah resembled nothing of the South, I can't blame them, for we are in the West for crying out loud. That is, until I came upon this venue. The front of the house didn't do so much for me but when I saw the back, my jaw dropped. It ain't no plantation but it sure as heck took me back to my backyard at home with the porches and the cobblestone patio. The trees has ivy and greenery growing up the trunk which reminded me of the kudzu that creates canopies over georgias lush forests. I knew it was the place, and for a steal of a deal might I add. And no... I didn't get my New Orleans Jazz Band. There is just no such thing of that here in Utah. And that's okay too, so I just went with the typically DJ whom I can't complain of because he gave us a whoppin' party that's for sure. I am just so happy with how it all came together. During the process of planning, you kind of want to throw in the rag and call it quits, maybe elope even. But the day of and once it's all said and done, you see how well hard work pays off and I wouldn't have had it any other way. It really was a dreamy southern night.