Southern Weddings Part 2

Some of my favorite things to do are surrounded around the joining of a man and woman in marriage.

1. picking out flowers
2. finding wedding dressesokay just a little side note here, this is/was my dream wedding gown, seeing as we planned our wedding in exacly 7 weeks there was no time for Monique Lhuiller to make this beauty,soooo i wore this... and i still love it,
3. I also think one of the neatest stages in wedding planning is deciding which traditions will be incorporated in the ceremony. I knew that since Casey and I had no grandparents attending (casey has a grandmother living, everyone else is deceased) we thought we would have the mothers lay a special pink rose in honor of the grandmother's not with us.
4. GIFT REGISTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello, need i say anymore, i was excited, mom was excited, and casey went crazy with that gun they give you, SCAN IT!!!! Most of the items on my registry were very practical. I think that is really becoming the trend, most of my friends have registered for really practical things, I have only had 4 friends register for china, and they are my traditional, "girly"friends.

1. childrens clothes for the wedding. Just see below. One day i hope to own a store that rents french hand sewn children'a clothing, noone wants to pay the price for such fine work but i know if there was a store that charged a deposit (for incidentals) and a rental fee, people would be all over that for children's portraits, weddings, in Mobile, (for the coronation ball)

below, these are the two sweet girls in my wedding, even though i had yet to walk down the aisle, the lady who sat up the ribbon tied a knot in it and the girls had quite a time figuring it out, (the car in the background really irks me.... whatev, small garden wedding i keep telling myself) needless to say it brought all the guests a little chuckle to get their minds of the incredibly aweful heat they were sitting in......
the dresses the girls are wearing have a really neat story to them... my mom made both of them for my sister and i to wear in our babysitters wedding when we were Allie Marie, and Mary Ira's age. It was really special for me to share that with two little girls that i had the privledge to keep. Are they not the cutest things ever???

this pic is from my friend Anna's wedding, are these not the most breathtaking wedding gown and french hand sewn {flower girls} dresses ever?? uhh just gorgeous......

and this is my sweet friend Kara's nephew London, uhh he is going to be a heartbreaker, and look at the lace both of the girls have in their dresses, (I LOVE LACE)

Sidenote: Most of the photo's shown in this post were taken by Josh Malahy Photography.
This is Josh
basically he rocks. His photography skills are amazing, and he has a true talent for photo-journalism. He IS the best! Here is a picture from my friend Haley's wedding. Josh has such an incredible way to capture a sweet moment.

What was your wedding like? Did you incorporate any neat traditions??

Sweet Southern Traditions

Hello lovely readers,

Thought i would take some time to share something near and dear to my heart, Southern Weddings!!

 Seeing as i am in my first one for the summer this weekend (Lauren's wedding) I thought I would share some interesting things I learned while planning my wedding almost 2 years ago.

 Buy a few books:

My two favorite are...

My super sweet friend, H, was in college with me at Alabama, and her major was event planning with an emphasis in Wedding Planning, there was no doubt in my mind she would be coordinating my event and boy am i glad she did. The first thing we did was go to Barnes and Noble in t-town and grab some magazines, while perusing the store we found this book.

UMMMMM not only is the book absolutely HILARIOUS, it is extremely informative. Of course i purchased and ran home to read, The book follows women of the Mississippi Delta and the "must haves" of throwing a southern weddings.

Then there is the Southern Belle Primer, oh dear lord this book will have you in complete stitches, even if you aren't getting married it is a really funny light read, great for a road trip to share with the crowd.
Here are some of my favorites of the book, and things the book highlights i didn't know before i read...

• "what is considered trash or quality in the south has nothing to do with money. Some of the best families around here haven't had money for generations. The emphasis is on breeding and manners. no amount of money can make you quality of you don't act like quality. For instance, good souther belles don't place much importance on paying $400 to buy a pocketbook that's got some Italian designer's initials all over it. In the south, grandmother's monogrammed napkin rings are much more important than Gucci's monogrammed luggage. To think otherwise is just considered tacky. And around here, nothing is more tacky than being tacky." -Alabama belle discussing the intricacies of being southern

{a rundown of southern belles golden rules}

1. always wear white when you walk down the aisle (even if its for the third time)
2. never date your sorority sister's ex-husband until at least three years after the divorce. You may need her to write a rec for your daughter one day and its alot easier to find a new man than get your daughter into the sorority.
3. buy low, sell high.

• what a finger bowl is... back in the day these bowls were used for cleaning your hands before dessert, who knew?? {they contain rose petals or lemon peels floating in the water, you are to dip your right hand then pick up the doily with the left and once finished this signifies you are ready for dessert. they surely didn't teach me that at cotillion.
• There are 12 official Silver patterns

1. francis1
2. grand baroque
3. burgundy
4. rose point
5. buttercup
6. chantilly
7. strasbourg
8. acorn
9. old master
10. eloquence
11. chrysanthemum
12. repousse'

these are just a few of my favorites of this book. Honestly i could write for days on this... ahhh the joys and charms of being Southern.... by the grace of god.