If you think you have to have all the details in the world to make your wedding shine, today’s post is going to make you reconsider! Cally and Tommy chose to keep things simple; opting to make the day about their authentic love and choosing to let go of anything that may not go as planned. Their intimate wedding day included an adorable first look, food trucks with a southern touch, and lots of moments embracing the love of family and friends. Details Nashville captured the celebration in all it’s glory and you’re going to love what’s in store below!
Cally + Tommy
5.31.2019
Christ the King Catholic Church + Ruby
Tell us about your engagement!
Cally: August 18th, 2018 — The morning started with Tommy asking me to commit to an itinerary of errands from Hobby Lobby to Target. I love aimlessly wandering around Target so I happily obliged. At Hobby Lobby, we picked up some pictures Tommy had gotten framed and shopped for some crafts for projects he wanted to work on. We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Franklin and finally headed to Target. By this point, Tommy was characteristically pretty antsy to go home (he can only handle shopping for so long), but I had never been in this particular Target so I insisted that we do a thorough walk around the perimeter and peruse everything from clothing to furniture.
Tommy was then in a noticeable rush on the way home, uncharacteristically complaining about the traffic. While we pulled into the drive, I noted how awful the weather was and Tommy countered that he thought it might be one of the best days of our lives (this was nothing out of the ordinary, “everyday is good day” is one of his favorite quotes). We went inside and as I headed for the couch, he eagerly asked me to come help him find a spot in our room to hang his new framed pictures. Thinking that I definitely wanted those pictures to go in a different room, I followed him into our room to find it totally decorated with string lights, flowers, and four large mosaic pictures – each one made up of hundreds of tiny pictures of us from the years of our relationship. In blue writing, each of the four pictures had a different word spelling out “Will you marry me?” I admired the photos as Tommy got on one knee and asked me to marry him.
A few hours later, we headed to Desano Pizza Bakery (one of our favorite restaurants) and another surprise was awaiting when we arrived. This time it was a room full of our closest friends from Nashville as well as some of my best friends from college who had traveled all day to be there with us. I then found out that two of my closest friends, Candice and Abby, had actually set up the proposal pictures and decorations while we were out running errands — and that the reason Tommy had gotten so antsy in Target was because he had just received a text that the candle was lit! We had such a fun and special night celebrating with everyone. It was the perfect start to an exciting new season in life!
What was the vision for your wedding?
Cally: Wedding planning did not get off to a productive start because neither Tommy nor I had a particular vision in mind. At first we leaned towards having a destination wedding in Italy with a backyard reception at a big villa, and then on multiple occasions we talked about eloping, but we eventually decided that it was more important to us that our closest family and friends could attend – so we opted instead for a relatively small wedding in Nashville. Our vision was simply to keep it fun and laid back, which is most authentic to who we are as a couple. It was also important for us to be budget-conscious and not overspend on things that wouldn’t really impact how we remembered the day.
What was your theme and what inspired it?
To be honest — I’m not sure if we had a theme! Tommy says that we were focused more on bringing the people we love together and creating an atmosphere that they would have a good time in, and to do that, we kept everything pretty casual while incorporating some of our favorite things. For example, our signature drinks were named after our pets — the Mister Otis Mule (a Moscow Mule named after our bull terrier, Otis) and Miss Ellie’s Paloma (named after our sweet and sassy cat). We opted for Nothing Bundt Cake bundtinis in several flavors rather than a traditional tiered cake or groom’s cake, and our catering was from Califarmia food truck — they set up a killer taco bar and passed around milkshakes as the night went on.
Ruby’s layout made it easy for the atmosphere to feel kind of like a backyard bbq – which is exactly what we were hoping for. There was music and dancing inside, the taco truck out back, cornhole boards on the side patio, and the bar in the front courtyard. Additionally, since most of our guests were coming from out of town, we wanted our reception to have some Nashville flair — so Califarmia prepared a classic hot chicken appetizer (with bread and a pickle, of course), and we had local beers from Yazoo in their new can offerings. We kept decorations and flowers to a minimum, mostly using centerpieces borrowed from friends. My favorite decorations were the mosaic photos that Tommy proposed with.
Can you share any special moments or highlights from your wedding day?
Cally: Our first look was a very special highlight. Although we were excited to be surrounded by family and friends, we also knew that we wanted some time to ourselves on our wedding day. After we finished getting ready separately with some of our closest friends, we met in the courtyard at our church to read letters we’d each written and to spend some quiet, private time together. Tommy was hesitant to even have our photographers and videographer there, but we’re both so glad they were! They totally gave us our privacy until all of the happy tears were out, and then we had a ton of fun taking pictures.
Tommy: Our first look, because it took the stress out of the day. Our wedding was on a Friday, but our attention had been pretty diverted non-stop all week. It was nice to take a break from all of the craziness of wedding planning and coordinating to just be together, just the two of us, before the ceremony began. It was symbolic in a way – it made me think about how through all of the craziness of life, we’ll always have each other. Eventually, the trolley showed up to pick us up from the church to continue with family pictures at Ruby, and all of the friends we’d gotten ready with earlier in the day were ready to celebrate on board. It was a pretty cool moment!
What are some tips you can share with other brides planning their weddings?
Cally: When planning your wedding, try your best not to get caught up in the comparison game and just focus on what is authentic to you and your spouse instead. Then, on your wedding day — the best advice I can give is to roll with it! The week of our wedding, someone asked us what one major thing could not go wrong. She told us that we should each pick something — catering, photography, etc. — that we could hold on to as “our thing” on our wedding day, but that we should let anything else go if it went awry. Tommy and I both decided that there just wasn’t anything we cared about that much. Tommy’s joke was that his one thing was for me to show up. Fast forward to our wedding day and I totally see where our new friend was coming from. So many things went wrong! The deacon butchered my name and made questionable jokes throughout our ceremony, the trolley went missing, the DJ setup wasn’t exactly what we’d expected…etc., etc. But truly, it just didn’t matter.
We laughed through the ceremony, almost called Ubers to pick us up when we couldn’t get ahold of our trolley driver, and our DJ ended up being a total hit anyway. So my advice is — make yourself a promise that the most important thing (the only thing that really matters) will be that you and your future spouse show up for each other. All day the day of your wedding and all day, every day, after.
The looks on their faces says it all … LOVE is all you need to make your wedding day a success! Thanks so much to Cally and Tommy and to Details Nashville for sharing this beautiful, intimate wedding!
