What it means to a Blue Ridge Bride to be true to her dreams?
Posted by Nancy Craun on Tue, Feb 07, 2012 @ 09:27 AM
When one decides to get married, one quickly realizes all your very best friends have their ideas of what your wedding should be. So staying true to your dreams is hard.
During last year's Photography Extravaganza, one Blue Ridge Bride stood out for her originality and staying true to her dream for a theme wedding capturing the movie and music years of the mid 20th century. A singer herself, she loves jazz and blues and the Hollywood 40's cinema. With a limited budget, she wowed us with her ability to create a wedding that should have costed much more. It was creativity that made her budget work.
Being true to her family, the ceremony occurred in a very traditional church environment. In her words, "I was good at bartering." She also was good at losing 104 pounds! Congratulations Jessica.
From walking out the church door into a waiting vintage car, to walking on Red Carpet in to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for the reception, Jessica began to shape her wedding dream. The screen was perfect with The Three Stooges on silence in the background. Jessica did tons of research to be true to her wedding theme. She also followed the DIY trend making her own centerpieces.
One thing Jessica learned early was to be true to herself and not compromise. Early in the wedding, she realized she had bought the wrong dress. "I had to just realize I was going to lose the money on the dress which made my budget even tighter. So good bye to a florist and hello silk flowers. Martini Glasses with candles became great centerpieces."
"I found that if I gave my vendors "free will" within the restrictions of my theme, not only did they meet my price range but their ideas were fabulous. The silk flowers I used for my bouquets allowed me to design early which gave me more freedom on the day of my wedding. I loved my red dress as much as my white dress. It was a surprise to realize I could rent Zoot suits and added the red checked Converse shoes. Adding a cane and a tommy gun, my fiance loved the idea. One of my bridesmaids agree to be a Cigarette Girl and another friend was the News Paparazzi dressing the part. Dad loved playing Humphrey Bogart."
Jessica said she kept things local because I felt that the wedding professionals locally would work with me. For more pictures, see more. (published tonight)
What about your wedding dreams? Are you going to do a themed wedding? It is a lot of work but also a lot of FUN! Tell us what you are planning to make your wedding 'all yours'!