Southern Elegance: Magnolia and Pink Tones Sweeten This Wedding Day

CAN'T RAIN ON THIS PARADE

Rain. It strikes fear in every bride's heart, but Lauren and Kenneth will tell you that if it rains on your big day, just relax and let the party happen. This wedding just makes us smile. The bride wanted an elegant day without all the fuss. We love the blush tones, the subtle sparkle, and the magnolia leaves that accented the reception.

From the bride: From day one, I have known that I wanted a traditional, elegant wedding that wasn’t too over the top, but showcased the best qualities about us a couple - which are perfectly imperfect. Having an 18 month engagement allowed me to space out my planning over time so nothing felt rushed or crammed into a short period of time and that also left me with choosing vendors without scheduling conflicts! Since we were both from the same hometown, Somerset, KY, we decided to let this be where we get married.

The church sanctuary was the most decorated venue as it has quite a large stage area. We had magnolia wreaths on the church double doors, and lined the outside sidewalk with fern stands and candle lanterns. Inside the sanctuary, we lined the pews with tulle and magnolia flowers, filled all blank spaces with full ferns, and decorated the Baptistery with a large white birdcage entwined with magnolia leaves and blooms. To continue on, the cake was special since it was made by the groom’s aunt, who is a fabulous home baker from Somerset. She made the most delicious 4 layer cake, half strawberry, my favorite, and the other half vanilla almond with buttercream icing. I had never had so many compliments on wedding cake before, and I believe it was because it was made with love.

I believe aside from the dress, venue, shoes, or other detail about your wedding day, the most important thing you should have is a joyous attitude and a willingness to roll with the punches. There is so much planning down to the position of the napkins on your plates at the reception, but as life will have it things don’t always go as planned. Thanks to Kentucky and its psycho wedding patterns, it started to rain heavily at 2:00 pm, right when we decided to take our group photos outside. But nothing was “raining” on my parade. Our wedding was full of life, celebration, and love, and I couldn’t have asked for a better day. My favorite moment of the entire day was my ceremony. Becoming a wife and putting a ring on my husband’s finger and promising him my world just cannot be matched. It had the right amount of emotion, love, and happiness all tied into it, and our pastor made his words so specific to us, our audience truly got a sense of our love and how important this commitment was.

My advice for other brides is to try your hardest to remember it is all about you and your husband at the end of the day, and this day is so special that wasting your time worrying is truly just that… a waste. Enjoy this day! If you don’t have a smile on your face 98% of the time (see, I gave you 2% to freak/stress), then you will regret it. I promise that the vibe of the day completely depends on how you act, and I felt like my day and those around me were so easy going and happy because they were feeding off of my attitude. Enjoy every minute of the day, it goes by in a blink!