* Blog by Jill Areheart.

Ok – fair warning…I cannot keep myself from gushing over this wedding!  I barely even know where to begin talking about this amazing couple and their beautiful day, but I’m sure this post will be filled with lots of adjectives and exclamation points.

We began working with Julia and John and year ago. Julia had grown up in Columbia, but the couple now lives in New York.  She wanted all her big city friends to see Columbia at its best and enjoy an amazing weekend of fun and hospitality here, and she did not let a single detail get overlooked! I love that Julia and John are both a tad obsessed with details…Julia even did a 12-page guide for the wedding party with directions, contact info etc. for the entire weekend. She is a planner’s planner!

The couple only did one trip to SC during the planning, so we became very good email friends.  And Julia’s mom in Columbia was also a huge, wonderful part of the planning.

I love, love, love the overall feel of this wedding. The couple wanted southern elegant, but a bit modern. Julia loves pink and knew she wanted as much pink as possible and still look like a beautiful wedding and not a sweet 16 party.  I think it came out perfectly.

One of the first things they chose was the Lace House as their venue, and it was a spectacular setting.  We used the main floor of the house and the grounds for cocktail hour and then guests were invited to find their seats for dinner outside in the mall area of the grounds.  We worked with Palmetto Party Rental to find the right tent set-up to fit the area and cover all the tables in case of rain. Luckily the weather was great, but the tent looked amazing. Ambient Media did a fabulous job with the lighting design for both the grounds and the tent. We supplied the light and dark pink paper lanterns and they hung those with the lighting.

Thanks to All Dressed Up Photography for letting me share some of their gorgeous photos here. You can tell which ones below are theirs and which are my very UN-professional candids!

But back to those details…this event was full of them. I was so happy to see them all come together so gorgeously throughout the day as we were setting up and all the various vendors arrived. Scott Jones with American Floral went above and beyond his always beautiful work with the flowers.  The low arrangements on the long tables were the perfect accent to the antique china provided by Aberdeen Catering. We used light pink linen with a charcoal runner and tucked the menus into dark pink napkins. Linens by BBJ Linen.

 Love this photo of Julie before the wedding “arranging” the rose petals around the beautiful cake from Parkland Cakes.

Julia loves pink peonies and her bouquet could not have been more perfect for her.

The lovely seating cards!

The guest thoroughly enjoyed the great southern specialties from Aberdeen Catering (Jack Brantley). There was even a station with freshly grilled venison sausages.

The favors were grits, cobbler and muffin mixes from Adluh Flour.

Check out the bride’s sassy party dress!

…and the SHOES!

I love the emotion!

Jill and Julia 🙂

A big thank you to Keith, Barbara,  Jennifer, Mary and all the crew for making this happen. The best payoff was when the groom hugged me at the end of the evening and said it was everything they had hoped it could be.

J

And the most amazing ‘Masters’ grooms cake!!!