love story - Simply Elliott

The whole engagement period leading up to the big day itself was made all the more incredible by the loving, supportive and joyful circle of friends and family that surrounded us throughout the whole process. A faithful circle who continually reminded us that our wedding was the starting point of something greater; a marriage that glorified Christ. Inspired by this blog post and the recent requests to assist with some newly engaged young ladies in the Birmingham area, I wanted to share the details of what made our day not only fit our budget, but our desire for simplistic elegance that celebrated us, those who care about us, and the One who created us. While our wedding was far from pinterest worthy, without defect, or full of pizzaz, it was indeed perfect for us and I wouldn’t trade a single moment from that day or a single day that has followed.

ENGAGEMENT:

Auburn, Alabama. Read about our proposal story here 🙂

WEDDING:

Birmingham, Alabama. January 15, 2011. I would love to talk details so please email me!

CEREMONY:

Trinity United Methodist Church. My husband grew up in the church and his family still attend there. Aside from being such a wonderful home away from home for us and source of love and encouragement, it is just simply an incredibly gorgeous location.

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Mandy Busby. She and her husband do the shooting and are so much fun and simply wonderful people. The packages are so inexpensive in comparison to everyone else we looked at. And they have options for bridal sessions, engagement sessions, etc. We were recommended from a friend and they have ended up doing several other friend’s weddings as well. They also do 8mm video (watch it here!) which is one thing I especially loved from them in addition to the photo book.

Check out a larger sample of our pictures from the wedding (album #1 & album #2) or the engagement shoot.

FLOWERS:

Norton’s. They are so well established and very easy to work with. We went with relatively simple arrangements and utilized the bridesmaids bouquets for the display at the reception as well as my toss bouquet for the guestbook. I worked with J. Ross and he perfectly captured my vision and I don’t even know much about flowers haha. They also were very well priced. Simply beautiful.

VENUE:

Park Lane. We loved the venue when we first saw it. It used to be a restaurant that they converted into a special occasions venue. It had PLENTY of space for up to 300 people. There was room for tables and space for a dancing area as well. The best part was the very beautiful old wooden bar area. It was a very simple and elegant space.

CATERER:

Kathy G. Since we had our reception at Park Lane they were required to cater, but it was a real blessing actually b/c they were wonderful! Very easy to work with and pretty budget friendly options as well. And VERY tasty. We worked with Tamara Archer and she was great. This was one of the most expensive parts of the wedding but not too bad overall. We chose from the fall/winter hors d’oeuvres menu and had an open bar too.

CAKES:

Publix. Cakes are still expensive no matter where you get them, but Publix had the best deal of all the places we went. Most places charge by the slice and they didn’t. Also, they delivered it to the reception site for us. Depending on your guest list size, you can always do a smaller cake and have sheet cakes in the back to cut and bring out. The cake tasted delicious and we got both the wedding cake & grooms cake for a great price. Everyone was VERY surprised that it was from Publix b/c they thought it was from a upscale bakery b/c it tasted so good.

ATTIRE:

I got my dress from Alfred Angelo (There is a store in Birmingham) & they partner with Mr. Burch’s Tuxes. My bridesmaids dresses were from there as well and they got a discount coupon since I got my dress there. Glenn and my brother (he fulfilled the FOB duties) got their tuxes for free there since I got my dress at Alfred Angelo and the groomsmen’s were relative to other prices elsewhere. My accessories were quite meaningful to me as my shoes were glitter TOMS & my earrings were handmade by an Auburn graduate at a small store in Auburn called The Villager.

INVITATIONS & PROGRAMS:

Target. We bought the stationary ourselves and printed them at home on our computer and hand tied all the ribbons. It was very cheap! We payed for one ink cartridge and then bought 3 invitation kits (invitation and rsvp cards). It was a bonding experience for sure 🙂
Staples. We bought the stationary for the programs as well, however we had it printed professionally from a pdf I created.

HONEYMOON:

The night of the wedding we stayed at the quite luxurious Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham thanks my wonderful madre and bro before heading out to New Orleans, Louisiana. We stayed in the beautiful Maison Dupuy once there and had an incredible time exploring the town, the aquarium, the french market, enjoying the much less crowded night life full of fresh seafood and of course Café Du Monde beignets. Perfection 🙂