The Steven Birnbaum Collection at Geny's Bridal: Modern, Sleek, Cosmopolitan Gowns | Nashville Wedding Guide for Brides, Grooms - Ashley's Bride Guide

The Steven Birnbaum Collection at Geny's Bridal: Modern, Sleek, Cosmopolitan Gowns | Nashville Wedding Guide for Brides, Grooms - Ashley's Bride Guide

 

One Year!!!!

All photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

Happy anniversary to my incredible husband!!! As wonderful as our wedding day was, I want our marriage to be even more beautiful and while we are certainly not perfect, it is something I strive for that each day.  The past year has flown by faster than I could have ever thought possible, but I'm so proud to say that this man has been my husband for one whole year!!! Here's to the next 100... ;)

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Joining the Ashley's Bride Guide Team - Lis Simon's gowns available at Geny's Bridal

I'm so thrilled to announce that I have joined the team at Ashley's Bride Guide! ABG was my go-to site while planning our Nashville wedding last year, and was SO helpful in providing information and ideas that appealed to such a wide range of styles, budgets, or tastes! Case in point - this fall, our $5-8k rustic wedding was featured just the week before a fantastic $50-60k wedding! Truly, ABG is an incredible starting point for any Nashville bride, and a wealth of information about Nashville venues, vendors and visual artists. I was fortunate to meet so many incredible professionals in the Nashville bridal community, and am excited to add my voice to the chorus of people who are passionate about helping brides plan the day of their dreams. Click through to read my first post with ABG:

lis simon gowns at genys bridal | Nashville Wedding Guide for Brides, Grooms - Ashley's Bride Guide

Ben Vigil Photographers

mr & mrs

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

Crafting the chair decor for our head table was a simple & inexpensive way to personalize another detail in our wedding. Using card stock, 3x5 note cards, letters printed in our 'wedding font' and twine, this project was put together quickly.

To add some detail to the flags, I measured 1" up from the center of the bottom of each piece of cardstock, then cut a straight line from each corner up to the center mark. For more stability, I affixed plain notecards to the cardstock, and glued the individual letters onto the notecards. Each letter was printed on regular white paper and I left enough space between each letter when printed so that I could cut out an area that was as close to the 3x5 card as possible.

If you look closely on the detail photos, you can see the outline of the printed paper, but from a normal distance in person, this was not noticeable. Having the notecards behind the letters also ensured that the colours in the cardstock didn't show through and the white areas popped out from the cardstock, as the weight of regular paper isn't very thick.

Using a hole punch, I placed two holes on either side of the letter and reinforced the holes from the back. Twine was woven through the openings to connect the letters into our 'mr' & 'mrs', which allowed us to use the signs as props, as well as providing the easy ability to tie them onto the backs of our beautiful cross back chairs.While I would have loved to use these chairs throughout our reception space, we couldn't afford the extra expense, so we went with some lovely fruitwood folding chairs for our guest tables. I'm so glad we splurged on having two for our sweetheart table, and were able to use them during the ceremony as well!

::side note:: trying to sit down while wearing a giant dress with t w o crinolines underneath it, on a smooth cement floor almost caused a catastrophe during our ceremony! Thank goodness my Aunts were right behind us and stopped the chair from sliding during my second attempt, but I spent the first few minutes of our wedding listening to beautiful scripture readings while 1" (literally) of my body was touching the chair! Yay yoga training & good posture for keeping me upright!!

the fateful chair. i thought ahead & the pillow did help to give me some support since i knew i wouldn't be able to reach the back of the chair, but the dress was so huge i could barely sit down at all without the chair sliding!!

doing my very best to stay upright!! also, don't those girls look lovely?! post coming soon on their outfits :)

just before we were first introduced as mr & mrs dobbins!!

I made several other signs similar to these that were used around our reception room, including 'sweets' at our dessert bar, 'cards' on the briefcase we used at our gift table, 'drinks' at the bar and 'december 1 2012' to be used at our photo booth, draped across the burlap backdrop the photographer provided. I love the idea of being able to use the 'december 1' banner to decorate at our anniversary each year!

Photo by Flashtastic Photo Booth

I've already re-used several of the signs to decorate at home and as part of the decor for a friend's wedding. The darling 'sweets' sign just might be seen if you visit the delicious Creative Crumbs in East Nashville for one of her sweet creations!

xoxo
mrs dobbins

e l e v e n

 

 

eleven months of married life with this cutie!! he's been a great travelling companion on this whirlwind year :)

 

xoxo

mrs dobbins

Fireplace Feature

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

One of Camp Marymount's big features in our reception area space (and my absolute favourite part of the decor) was a huge stone fireplace. We set up our sweetheart table directly in front of the fireplace and it served as a stunning backdrop. The mantle space gave us lots of room to hang beautiful handmade paper flowers, bunting, globe lights and flowers, and there were several built-in areas that allowed us to display photos and hang more lights which came together gorgeously.

One of my favourite photos of the decor! I have the paper flowers and bunting up on our mantle at home now!

These incredible paper flowers were inspired by ones I had seen on Pinterest. Hannah Barker, one of my former youth group teens, is a very talented art student, and she made these flowers by hand using craft and scrapbook paper. After living in a bag for several months, the flowers were hot-glued to a sturdy piece of hemp cord the week before the wedding, and the garland was the pefect length to drape across the mantle.

I had several sections of the bunting shown here, and it was displayed around the reception space in several areas. I made it using brown card stock (to match several other crafts I had put together) for the base, and unbleached craft paper found during the back-to-school season. The sheets were cut into two sizes of pennants and I used an edge punch (purchased on clearance!) to add a fleur-de-lis detail to the edges of each piece. Each pennant was glued together and then hot glued to a piece of wide ribbon. I was very thankful to have several friends help out with the punching process, as it was certainly time consuming! This detail was very special to me, as the fleur-de-lis is found prominently in Louisville, where Jermaine is from, as well as in Quebec, where my Mom grew up. Atop the substantial mantle, wicker globe lights nestled in with small stems of baby's breath.

There were several shelves built into the sides of the fireplace, and these nooks were a perfect place to display photos of Jermaine & I. We found lots of picture frames at Goodwill and they were spray painted champagne to give them a cohesive look. Globe lights (purchased on clearance from summer patio stock) added to the ambience, and baby's breath was interspersed with the frames, continuing with our pastoral theme.

The large scale of the fireplace allowed it to provide a gorgeous backdrop for many photos, as it was visible from almost any angle. This huge feature fit perfectly into the large reception space and the vaulted ceilings allowed the area to feel open and airy, while still being warm and inviting.

Posing with my lovely flower girl!

I'm so thrilled with the way the fireplace added such a large impact on our reception space! While the total cost of the decor, flowers and lights used amounted to less than $50, the crafted items certainly required some time to prep. It was amazing to see the many details I had collected over several months come together in this area, and I'm thankful for the friends & family who helped to bring my vision to life! The flower garland and bunting has a new life on our mantle at home as well :)

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Ashley's Bride Guide Feature - With Fiancé in Louisville & Mom in Canada, Nashville Bride Plans Her Rustic Wedding for Under $10K | Nashville Wedding Guide for Brides, Grooms - Ashley's Bride Guide

Happy Saturday!! I'm so thrilled that our 12/1/12 wedding was featured yesterday on Ashley's Bride Guide, one of my go-to sites while planning our wedding last year. Her team is incredible at bringing together the best of the best in the Nashville wedding scene, all in one place. We attended her wedding planning boot camp last year at the very beginning of our wedding discussions, and it was SO helpful in making sure we had our priorities in the right place, how to spend wisely, and where to look for the vendors we needed to make our wedding spectacular. Be sure to check out our feature, linked below!

With Fiancé in Louisville & Mom in Canada, Nashville Bride Plans Her Rustic Wedding for Under $10K | Nashville Wedding Guide for Brides, Grooms - Ashley's Bride Guide

xoxo mrs dobbins

Registering with a Purpose

Whew! Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!! I was off last week while my Mom visited from Canada, and Jermaine & I were lucky enough to have BOTH of our Moms celebrate our first Thanksgiving with us here in TN! Honestly, the most asked question I've answered in the past five years living in Nashville, is that yes, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving. Secondly, yes, we celebrate it for the same reasons as Americans. Being further north than many states, our harvest is earlier, hence the Real Thanksgiving/Columbus Day confusion I have experienced in my years living in the South! Being 1200km from my family has certainly made me thankful for the time that we are able to spend together. This year has been especially hard, as immigration and work schedules worked against our ability to head north, so before last week, I had only seen my Mom for 12 hours since our wedding 10 1/2 months ago! It was amazing to spend time with her and we've already got our next trip home on the books.

Jermaine with our Moms - they get along wonderfully!! Two amazing women there :)

Jermaine & I have been richly blessed in our lives, and when it came to wedding registries, we decided to go the route less followed and made a list of charities that we support, asking our guests to join us - Liberia Mission, Amazima Ministries and Feeding America. It's easy to get caught up in making a huge list of things you'd love to have, but for us it just wasn't our style. We really valued the time spent together with our family and friends, especially as all of our family members would be travelling to attend our wedding. Since we knew there were relatives & friends who were going to pick up gifts regardless of what we said, we did make a Target registry, which was super easy, as well as a photography registry with our incredible photographer Vidyuta. We donated a portion of the generous funds that we received from our guests to the organizations listed above, while saving the remainder for purchases we were planning to make for our family (like one of these). I put together several info boards about the organizations we were supporting, with pamphlets that our guests could take home.

Liberia Mission is an amazing community that I have been involved with for several years now. I learned about LMI through my church, and have been blessed to sponsor a young boy named Godwin since 2010. It has been such a joy to exchange letters and emails with him and see him continue to grow into the young man that he is today. I was completely blown away when we received a beautiful wooden carving from him for our wedding, along with a congratulatory video that he sent! Liberia Mission is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, and house 110 students on their campus, which also includes St Anthony of Padua School and St Michael the Archangel Chapel. To learn more about Liberia and the incredible work that LMI does, please visit their website.

Our gift from Godwin - "The love of Liberty brought us here - Republic of Liberia"

We also were purposeful about the funds that we spent on wedding extras. I've been a fan of TOMS shoes and their One For One motto since they started out (like...2006...many, many years ago ) and own just a few pairs, so having wedding TOMS was a no brainer for me! I've posted the story about finding my dream TOMS back on sale mere weeks before our wedding previously, and walking down the aisle in these beautiful gold herringbone shoes made me unbelievably happy - not to mention knowing that a child in need would receive a pair of shoes too! I also love that I have such awesome memories attached to these shoes that I wear regularly now, and that they weren't purchased for one-day-only wear. My flower girl wore the most darling gold sparkly TOMS and she has also gotten some good use out of those shoes! We went the full mile by adding TOMS to the bridesmaid gifts, and they each chose their own pair to complement their dresses.



Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

Bridal party TOMS!!

Another way that we were deliberate in our spending was through the purchase of beautiful Amazima multi-coloured bead necklaces for the bridal party gifts, as well as presents for our Moms (who both love the same shade of purple that this one comes in!). I've had the opportunity to volunteer with Amazima sorting these beautiful hand made bead necklaces when they arrive from Uganda, and they are just incredible to see.

Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

Bridal party girls received bright colours & the purple beads were for our Moms!

Even better than the beauty of the necklaces is the program that allows women in the Masese community of Uganda to be gainfully employed making the jewelry, and the proceeds fund a feeding program that helps 1200 children daily!! We also encouraged our guests to donate to Amazima to support the incredible work that they are doing in Uganda.

Photo courtesy of Amazima Ministries

Photo courtesy of Amazima Ministries

Photo courtesy of Amazima Ministries

Donating to charitable organizations and spending deliberately definitely took some planning, but we were so happy to share the joy of our wedding day with many others in need. How are you doing things differently as you plan your big day?

 

xoxo mrs dobbins