I’m excited to reveal that we are published in the latest issue of Kentucky Bride Magazine! Brittany and Justin were married last summer at one of my favorite Bowling Green, Kentucky venues, The Club at Olde Stone. We had the honor of designing all of the paper goods and making some recommendations on other fun & fabulous details for the outdoor soiree. A full gallery of images to come but here are the published pages featuring gorgeous photography by my friend Kristyn Hogan.

You can order your own copy of this issue of Kentucky Bride Magazine by clicking here.

Lynae and Brenton’s September celebration at Riverside Chapel Seventh-day Adventist and Hilton Downtown Nashville was a beautiful day filled with so much joy and laughter! As you may have seen in earlier blog posts, their spectacular detail-rich wedding was featured in Volume 5 of Southern Weddings Magazine. It was also later featured on the magazine’s blog here in Part I and Part II.

You can also view Lynae + Brenton’s highlight gallery on the site here.

I can’t stress enough to my clients how important not only photography is but also videography/film is in capturing the day.

I think this highlight film by the amazing crew at Focal Point Cinematic definitely demonstrates it better than anything else I could say to convince you. See it here for yourself:

Brenton & Lynae :: Highlights from FocalPoint Cinematic Weddings on Vimeo.

Photo by Cyn Kain Photography

Tis the season for proposals and engagements! The time between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day is the most popular time of year to pop the question. If you’re wearing a new piece of sparkle after the recent Christmas holiday, here are my personal initial thoughts on what you should and shouldn’t do first when jumping into wedding planning.

You should…

1. Each of you make a list of top 3 needs/wants/desires you want part of your celebration. Perhaps you always envisioned getting married in your family’s historic church while your partner has dreamt of a live band and good party. Going over each other’s lists together and up front helps set expectations for decisions down the road.

2. Set a budget or at least ball-park amount of how much you intend to invest in your celebration. This may include asking family members or taking an honest look at your own finances. By knowing how much you have available to you will greatly impact every vendor inquiry and appointment later in the planning process.

3. Celebrate! Take the time to enjoy your engagement. Have a small gathering with friends and family. Share the story of the proposal and document it for yourself in a special scrapbook to reflect on later.  Make a date with your BFF to buy up all the wedding magazines on the newsstand and start tearing out fun ideas and looks that you love over a bottle of pink champagne!

You shouldn’t immediately…

1. Pick a date. If you have your heart set on a popular venue or vendor, chances are you’re going to be competing with many other couples. Inquire with a range of dates or month options if you’re able to.

2. Extend invitations to your bridal party. Many couples today are having lengthier engagements. By extending immediate and excited invitations to friends and family without first planning the essential elements to your day (where, when, size of celebration) may cause regret for you a later point. Being a member of a bridal party can be a large investment these days. Kindly wait until you have all the important details in place before you start asking others to join in your celebration.

3. Book the first venue or vendor {or insert wedding related item} you see or meet. When you’re first engaged, you’re ready to hit the ground running and are easily enamored with each first place you come into contact with. Take your time, do your research, look around and trust your gut.

It’s no secret to my close friends and family that it has been a long-time goal of mine to have my work published in Southern Weddings magazine.

To my great delight, the latest issue available on newsstands and online here, features more of my work than I could have ever imagined originally and I’m so humbly thankful and grateful for the opportunity!

Over the next few posts I’ll feature each of my contributions to Southern Weddings V5 and a few behind the scenes highlights.

The first feature is the editorial styling that opens up the five year anniversary issue. Here, Creative Director Emily Thomas and Editor-in-Chief Lara Casey wanted to marry traditional marriage vows with the culture of the South as an opener to the issues focus on love, marriage and ceremony.

The vows were written in gorgeous calligraphy by Lindsay Letters that I bound to a vintage book I had purchased at a barn sale this past Fall in a nearby county. I was saving this deep ocean-navy blue book for the perfect opportunity and this definitely was it!

A pure white magnolia bloom from my neighborhood (that smelled heavenly!), hydrangea, and pink teacup roses clipped from my own backyard garden. And my absolute favorite? That sweet little bible open to 1 Corinthians. It was given to us at the hospital on the day my son Colin was born and now a very special keepsake to our family.

My good friend and fabulous wedding photographer Cyn Kain joined me in Nashville for the shoot along with some other projects we were working on.

Above left: Cyn getting some test shots on the dining room table while Rocco snores away. Middle: In a silly moment during the visit, Cyn decided to dress up Rocco more like her own yellow lab Bella at home. Far right: Colin getting in some after-school snuggles between editing photos and doing email.

Cyn and I are over the moon excited to have contributed such a beautiful spread to Southern Weddings! Stay tuned for more features in upcoming posts.

Image courtesy of Southern Weddings

I was thrilled to see the peek shared today of the gorgeous new cover of Southern Weddings! I mean, can it get any more delightful, cheerful and beautiful as this?!

I’m also excited to share that there is some Amber Housley goodness in this issue (!!!) – and it’s some of my best work ever, friends!

Seriously, seriously proud and honored to be in such an amazing publication.

This will be on newsstands Tuesday, November 13 but you can pre-order your copy today here. I can’t wait to receive my pre-ordered copies next week! Did you know they include a hand-written note with each order? That’s a sweet and personal touch only a business in the South could produce!

Image courtesy of Southern Weddings