Hello friends!

We have something sweet to kick off your Monday Last week I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Renay Zamora, owner of Sweetface Cakes. Renay’s kitchen is in Mount Juliet, TN, but she also has a space at Wedding 101 at The Factory in Franklin, and does tastings at both locations! I had a great time getting to know Renay, and photographing some of her beautiful designs at Wedding 101. I am always so amazed with cake designers; I know it takes such a special talent! I am especially in love with the hand painting Renay does on some of her designs; so unique, artful, and gorgeous!

Meet Renay!

I loved this DIY inspired cake and set up!

Gotta love a little wedding day bling!

I almost can’t even pick a favorite! Elegant? Whimsical? Rocker? DIY inspired? Love them all

Ok, so maybe the DIY inspired is my favorite Close up of the flower detail!

So fun! Brides, if you’re still looking for a cake designer, I’d definitely recommend adding Sweetface Cakes to your list of possibilities!

Renay-thanks so much for hanging out with me and showing me your beautiful designs! I hope we get to work together again soon

Have a great week, everyone!

It was pretty much all perfect, and I was inspired by all the creativity! Here are some of my favorite shots:

Jen and Craig had ballots for their guests to fill out before the awards–too fun!

Glam center, where guests could grab some “bling” after walking in on the red carpet!

Best picture nominees inspired most of the decor

Cupcakes by Jo’s Custom Cakes and Catering

Of course it wouldn’t be a movie night without some gourmet popcorn!

So fun! Jennifer definitely did a fabulous job!

This was the first time I’ve ever really watched the Oscars with any sort of interest, and I was glad to have some of the background info Jennifer and Craig shared with me Chris and I were glad to see The King’s Speech win, but also loved Social Network! (Haven’t seen Black Swan yet, but looking forward to seeing it soon!)

Anyone disagree with Oscar night winners? What was your favorite movie of the year?

Happy Monday night!

Awhile back at the Weddings Unveiled Winter Social, I had the opportunity to meet the fabulous ladies who run The Bride Room.  Charlotte and Stephanie are seriously some of the sweetest women, and I was super excited to have the chance to visit their gorgeous shop! The Bride Room is Nashville’s source for bridal couture, and I have to tell you, their dresses are absolutely swoon-worthy!

I may have blogged about this story before, but when I was shopping for my wedding dress, I definitely had a less than stellar experience. On my first day of dress shopping, the shop we intended visiting was closed, so just for “fun,” I was dragged to a to-remain-unnamed chain bridal store. After an hour or so of employees not listening to what I was interested in, or my vision for what I wanted (“Oh, you don’t want to wear a veil? Here, try this chapel length veil…”) I was about ready to not have a wedding haha. No girl deserves to feel like that when shopping for a dress for their big day! I finally found a fabulous boutique in Ky, and found the dress of my dreams.

The point of that story as it pertains to today’s post? I KNOW that The Bride Room takes amazing care of their brides! The shop is beautiful and relaxing, the ladies who work there are the sweetest and most stylish people you’ll ever meet. So if you’re a bride-to-be looking for a gown, you really need to add The Bride Room to your list of places to look

The Bride Room will be celebrating their 10th year in business on March 31 with a blowout party at Houston Station! A huge congratulations to TBR, and here’s to many more!

Visit The Bride Room website to learn more about their collections, follow them on Twitter, and make sure to visit the blog to hear about the trunk shows they have coming up (including Melissa Sweet, my favorite!) and more awesome events!

Thanks for letting me visit, ladies! You all are awesome

Have a fabulous week everyone!

For the last day of Vendor Spotlight week I just couldn’t narrow it down to one person or place! We really are so blessed with all the people we have met, especially in the last year. So, here’s a short list of other vendors you should check out! Some of these are people/places we have actually worked with, and some are people or run by people we have met and loved!

Places:

First we have Talon Winery and Vineyard in Lexington, Ky, where we shot Allie and Ian’s wedding!

Next up is the beautiful Indian Hills Country Club in Bowling Green, Ky, where Lindsay+Gerrit’s reception was held. The girls also got ready there, and it was just so fantastic. Super classy, and the staff was super attentive and helpful all day. (If you haven’t guessed…customer service is one of my favorite qualities in a business…and Indian Hills definitely gets an A+!)

And next is CJ’s Off the Square in Franklin, TN! Their event specialists, CJ and Amy, are absolutely wonderful. I met them at a workshop in Franklin back in the fall, and have heard tons about their venue since then! They are also have a winter open house on Saturday, February 27, which you can learn more about here. So fun!

Bridal Boutiques and Salons:

The Couture Closet in La Grange, Ky (near Louisville!) is a super cute boutique, and a fabulous experience! This is actually where I got my dress (Pictured, dress by Melissa Sweet, photo by Krystal from Mint and Sage). Couture Closet is a “blend of an upscale New York style boutique with the charm of Southern hospitality.” Owners Lauren and Tera are there to help you find your dream dress, and treat you like a princess during your dress shopping experience They also have several trunk shows coming up, so check out their website for more info!

b.Hughes Bridal and formal in Nashville, TN is THE premiere bridal salon of the area! They are also the exclusive source for such jaw dropping designers as Badgley Mischka, Vera Wang, Romona Keveza Couture, Romona Keveza Legends Collection, and Oscar de la Renta. How awesome is that?! They also carry an incredible selection of bridesmaids dresses. While I haven’t set foot in b.Hughes Bridal myself (yet!), I have met one of the owners, the fabulous Karen! And if her bridal consultants are anything like she is, you are in for a real treat and the time of your life

So…those are just a few of our other favorite people You can also visit our People We Love page (found at the bottom of the blog) to see more of our favorite vendors. We try to keep this updated whenever we meet new vendors that we want to share with you all. Also, if you all have worked with some FABULOUS vendors, feel free to pass on their info! We always love to meet new people

I first had the opportunity to work with Latrice on Destiny+Patrick’s wedding, which was super cool for both of us (we are both WKU alumni!). Hiring a planner can really help bring together all your ideas for your wedding and achieve them in ways you couldn’t even imagine! Planning a wedding for most of us is uncharted territory, and the experience of an awesome planner really can be such a blessing. (I would have LOVED to have someone like Latrice to help me plan my wedding!) And, Latrice doesn’t just rock out the one on one planning, but also has a wonderful blog with planning tips, unique vendors, etc. You MUST check it out! (I especially love her eye candy posts!)

Thank  you all so much for sticking it out here with us on vendor week! We’ll have one or maybe two more vendor spotlights, then back to our regularly scheduled programming with some full wedding posts. I hope everyone has a great evening!

First up is Lauren from Handmade Lovelies! She has a fanciful, funky style that is just fantastic. Everything is handmade by her, and she can do custom pieces as well, for that one of a kind look for your wedding day! Lauren also uses recycled materials whenever possible.

I am so in love with her headbands, hairclips, and veils! (I have an awesome peacock feather hairclip from her that I could pretty much wear every day!) This birdcage veil with pink flower is to die for!

Next, we have Garter Lady!

Garter Lady has  a HUUUUGE selection of awesome garters, from traditonal and elegant, to fun and sassy! Many of them also come with a garter for tossing, which is very cool. Her customer service is fabulous as well! Love this one:

Those are just two fabulous vendors to be found on Etsy! If you’ve never shopped around on that site, you definitely should check it out! (Ummm…just don’t blame me if you have a new website addiction ) You really can find just about anything wedding related you can think of. So check it out, and feel free to leave a comment if you come across any other fabulous wedding vendors!

I think one of the best things you can do for your wedding day is spring for a make up artist! First, who doesn’t want to be pampered a little extra, especially on their wedding day? Second, professional make up can really make a stunning difference in pictures! Ana specializes in photography make up techniques, which is awesome

I know I’m not really writing a whole lot on these posts…but you definitely should check out the websites! While I’m at it…feel free to leave comments with some of YOUR favorite vendors, or with requests for recommendations in various vendor categories and we will see what we can come up with!

Have a great day, everyone!

Besides all that…he’s super fun! He keeps the party moving whether it’s rocking it out, or doing some slow dancing. Jeff is located in Lexington, Ky, but is available for travel!

Source: http://www.thebridalsuiteoflouisville.com/

So, first up…The Bridal Suite of Louisville! I actually came across this adorable bridal boutique when I was invited to go wedding dress shopping with a dear friend. It is located in the cutest colonial style house in historic Middletown (just barely south of Louisville).

They do have walk in hours…but do yourself a favor and schedule an appointment, you won’t regret it! Every single person in the shop absolutely blew me away with their dedication to customer service, and making the bride feel like she was special and making it a wonderful experience.  One of my least favorite things about larger, chain bridal stores is that it’s super hard to get personalized service. That is definitely NOT the case here! My friend had a list of styles she liked and didn’t like, and they brought in a huge selection of dresses for her to try on. They had a room for all of us to be in, and helped her get into the dresses (goodness knows it would have taken one of us an hour to lace up some of those dresses ) They also have a huge selection of veils, shoes, and even bridesmaid dresses. I really can’t say enough about how focused they were on making it the perfect dress shopping experience!

And, bonus, downstairs from the shop is a super awesome cafe where you can go eat lunch with your bridesmaids after shopping! It’s not related…but two thumbs up to the food definitely

Later on this week we will be talking about some other bridal boutiques as well…so check back soon! We have a huge list of posts to come…including more vendor spotlights, full posts from our last three weddings, some community features, proposals, and more! Get excited!

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

(P.S. With all our Vendor Spotlights, we are not associated with nor do we get kickbacks of any sort for blogging about them. These are just some fabulous professionals that we are excited to share with our brides!)