That’s the thing about weddings, they planning is such a journey and it’s inspired by so many unexpected things. For Amy and Mitch, they turned their classic style into a romantic day filled with their personal touches…and a perfect color palette.
Read all about their wedding day, especially their favorite wedding vendors. You might find one you love too.
Amy + Mitch
Wedding Date: June 27th, 2015
Ceremony Venue: Cathedral of the Incarnation
Reception Venue: The Fleming Center (Cathedral of the Incarnation)
Guests: 245
Budget: $40,000 – 50,000
Wedding Team
Photographer | Krista Lee Photography
Cake Artist | Signature Cakes by Vicki
Floral Designer | Branching Out Floral and Event Design
Caterer | Chef’s Market
Gown | Alvina Valenta from Arzelle’s
Men’s Attire | Vera Wang Black Collection from Men’s Warehouse
Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Jasmine from Bridal and Formal in Cincinnati
Hair + Makeup | Parlour3 Beauty Bus
Stationery | Programs provided by church; Invitations/menu/escort cards etc by Minted.com
Ceremony Musicians | Organist: Jackson Schoos, Cantor: Danielle Shea, Violinist: Amy Helman
Reception DJ | Kevin Thompson: Choice DJ’s
Rentals Lighting | Grand Central Party Rental
Transportation | Monarch Transportation for guests transportation, Grand Avenue, vintage Rolls Royce for our send off car
Rehearsal Dinner | Aerial
Wedding Details
How would you describe your style as a couple?
Our style is classic and traditional with contemporary touches. We especially love when things have meaning behind them and are one of a kind. We like a little bit of everything and our style reflects that about us.
Where did you get your inspiration?
Picking out our colors/decor was very fun and challenging for us as we really wanted to have a unique yet traditionally beautiful wedding. We started by going to Lowe’s and picking out any paint swatches of colors that we liked, not with any particular theme in mind (I love color so I think we ended up picking 50 paint swatches. Haha.) We then went home, spread them all out and sorted them until we came up with our favorites and then picked what we felt went together best.
We ended up with sea glass, peach, coral, and champagne which would make for a perfectly romantic wedding! This lead us to decide on a “Jane Eyre”/Romantic Era theme for our wedding day. Some things that inspired us were flowers with special meanings behind them, unique vintage details such as my great grandmother’s ring pillow used in the ceremony, and splashes of crystal mixed with raw wood elements that Mitch and I love so much.
How did you incorporate that style into your wedding?
Between my mom and I, we are SO detail oriented and don’t know how to reel ourselves in – so we incorporated our style into probably every aspect of our wedding haha. We wanted to make sure that everything coordinated really well but wasn’t corny. Our colors all flowed really well together and were everywhere such as our linens, flowers, cake, photo booth, and even having the strawberry lemonade the perfect coral/peach color to coordinate. (Did I mention we over-do everything? Haha.)
What was your (or your guests’) favorite aspect of your wedding?
I think everyone’s favorite aspect of our wedding was that it was just a really fun atmosphere. It was a giant reunion of all our family and friends from literally all over the world; combine that with amazing food and music, and it was truly the “best day ever” (as our koozie wedding favors said on them ☺).
Where did you splurge? Where did you save/DIY?
We splurged on the food and photography. The food was something we knew everyone would remember and I come from a big Italian family so good eats were very important to us ☺ Photography was also so important to us because it really is the one thing you have after the big day. We wanted classic pictures that would bring us right back to those special moments for years to come.
Our photo booth was an amazing DIY using the decorations from one of my bridal showers. Mitch’s family did such a beautiful job with the decorations so it was awesome to be able to reuse them! We knew we wanted a photobooth because they are so fun but can be expensive. Luckily our longtime neighbor is an amazing photographer and let us use her equipment for the day (check out Caturra Photography by Shannon Eggleston. She is amazing! caturra.smugmug.com.)
Who were your favorite vendors and what made them exceptional?
All our vendors were honestly phenomenal and did an amazing job at making our day everything we dreamed it would be!
Signature Cakes by Vicki – That cake. It was insane. Beyond anything that we could have ever imagined. It was truly a work of art and the most beautiful cake I have ever seen! She is so absolutely sweet, the cake tasting was so fun and she even sketched out our cake to give us an idea of what it would look like. You could tell she was really excited to work on our cake too, which made it even better! She is an extremely talented artist so we gave her a general idea of what we wanted but overall gave her creative freedom for all the flowers and final design. Everyone was absolutely blown away by the cake! Oh and it was SO DELICIOUS! I would recommend her to any and everyone!
Krista Lee Photography – Another truly talented artist. Her photography is beautiful and she was so fun to work with, super personable, and just so sweet! She made you feel very comfortable and kept everything natural, which made for pictures we will treasure for the rest of our lives. Mitch isn’t the biggest fan of having his picture taken but Krista did such an amazing job making us feel comfortable and keeping the photos moving but not feel rushed. She knows what poses and lighting will make for great photos and is a true professional. Krista was very thorough and was so on top of everything. It really helped calm my nerves because I knew I could count on her! Absolutely recommend her to any and everyone, too many great things to say about our experience with her. She will be our go-to photographer for future photography needs 🙂
Chef’s Market – The food was absolutely amazing and delicious; it was so unique and looked like a work of art! They were so on top of everything and are truly the best in the business. They were so quick to respond, answered all of our questions in detail, and were just so professional. Harmony was so personable and took such great care of us and made sure everything was executed perfectly on our big day!
Choice DJ’s – Kevin did a great job picking fun songs throughout the night that kept our dance floor absolutely packed from literally the first song (but really – he got everyone up and dancing on the dance floor from the very first song!) He played what the crowd wanted, was super friendly and just wanted everyone to have a great time! We were very happy with him and would definitely recommend him!
Grand Central – They have everything you could ever want for an event – a true one-stop shop! They had everything from the perfect linen colors to Italian string lights and Chivari chairs. Melody and her team were all so friendly and such a pleasure to work with – they were always willing to answer questions and even mailed us swatches of our linens so we could make sure all our décor coordinated!
Branching Out Floral and Event Design – Our bouquets were so colorful and so gorgeous! All the table arrangements made you feel like you were in a garden and really helped execute the romantic garden party look we wanted. My mom helped us select flowers with special meanings from the Victorian Language of Flowers – it made everything so special and Vicki was so helpful in making sure we could have all these specific flowers.
Parlour3 Beauty Bus – An amazing experience that really made all of my bridesmaids feel beautiful and take any stress of the day away (this was my treat to them because I wanted everyone to feel pampered and special since they are my closest friends who are so amazing and came from all over the USA to be by my side on one of the most important days of my life! Love you girls!!) Seriously though this was the coolest concept ever – having your hair and makeup brought to you in a celebrity style makeup trailer?! Perfect for the one day you really want to feel like a princess ☺
Arzelles – The best bridal shop in Nashville!! Kimya is SO sweet and made you feel so welcome and special, they have the most beautiful and current bridal styles! Highly recommend making an appointment there ☺
Now that the wedding day is over, is there anything about your planning process you feel you could have done differently?
I think I could have not stressed out so much over little details and just trusted that it would all be ok. Overall though I would not change a thing – our day turned out perfect and the creative planning process was such a fun time with my mom and I will always treasure that time together. Mitch and I really kept ourselves focused on the ceremony and the reasons why we were getting married which really made the whole day even more special.
In one sentence, what words of advice do you have for couples in the midst of their planning?
Keep each other laughing and don’t forget to go on dates!
