Sweet, Intimate & Fun Wedding in Nashville

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We’ve got a wedding on the blog today that’s fun, laid-back, stylish and so sweet.

Gorgeous bride Sara and her dashing groom, Ben got married in downtown Nashville, the city that played such a big part in their love story.

For their backyard-style ceremony, Sara’s friend officiated, their adorable dog Dexter made it up the aisle in a bow tie to match the groom, and the couple said their vows with their parents and siblings standing by their sides – such a lovely idea!

The reception was beautifully styled, with gorgeous florals and foliage, string lights and minimum fuss in their cool blank canvas venue, The Cordelle, with a vegetarian feast and dancing into the night.

From the style – the bride and groom both rocked contemporary slightly-Southern looks and we’re loving Sara’s effortless hair style – to the florals, and the music to the setting, there are so many beautiful touches to this day. And that’s before we start to swoon over the gorgeous pictures by Cassie Lopez Photography.

Our favourite detail though? Sara & Ben’s no stress attitude to wedding planning – these two know what’s really important…

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Our Love Story

A mutual friend introduced us at a Nashville house party in 2008. We immediately hit it off and soon after, went on a first date to JJ’s Market (Sara’s favorite coffee shop) and Exit/In to see the Stanton Moore Trio (one of Ben’s favorite jazz acts).

As life can go, the timing just wasn’t right, and we fell out of touch.

Over several years and separate adventures, we later learned that we’d both thought of each other from time to time.

Three years later, Ben was a second-year medical student in Memphis, and Sara was beginning her career as a lawyer in Nashville.

Spurred by – of all things – a tweet about The Walking Dead, we reconnected and soon after went on our second first date. We’ve been together ever since.

After two and a half years long-distance, Ben graduated from medical school and was accepted into a residency program in Nashville. We moved in together and, shortly thereafter, brought home the other love of our lives, a labradoodle puppy named Dexter.

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The Proposal

One Thursday evening in the Fall of 2015, Sara returned home from a long day at work and was puzzled when she didn’t see Dexter’s eager face in the window waiting to greet her.

She opened the door and, to her shock, there was Ben in the entryway on one knee and Dexter wearing a wooden sign reading “Will you marry us?”.

A live recording of the very performance that we saw on our first first date eight years earlier was playing in the background.

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Our Wedding

We wanted our wedding to be a big party that was beautiful but unstuffy, and that reflected our personalities and values. We focused on the details that were most important to us first– venue, music, and food!

We knew that we wanted a warm, inviting venue with indoor/outdoor space that didn’t require much “dressing up.” The Cordelle was a perfect fit! It was the first venue that we visited, and we put down our deposit within a month of our engagement.

Visually, we incorporated neutrals with shades of blush and gold accented by pops of burgundy. We wanted everything to look natural and understated rather than adhering to a strict color scheme.

We initially thought that we “didn’t care about the flowers,” but that was before meeting Mary Love Richardson of Rosemary and Finch! Working with Mary Love was one of the best decisions that we made.

She created the most stunning, eclectic arrangements that really brought our vision to life.

Favourite Moments

We invested a great deal of time, thought, and expense into planning our reception, but our ceremony ended up being the most special part of our wedding.

We wrote our vows, chose our readings, and drafted our ceremony script together.

It was important to us to involve our friends and families in the ceremony. In lieu of a traditional bridal party, we asked our parents and siblings to stand beside us.

Dexter also made a cameo, mingling with our guests before the ceremony, walking with Ben down the aisle, and leading the recessional.

Sara’s oldest friend officiated, and two of Ben’s oldest friends played bluegrass music. For the processional, they created an original arrangement of Hans Zimmer’s ‘You’re So Cool,’ the theme of ‘True Romance’ – one of our favorite films.

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The Photography

We both felt very strongly about working with a photographer who had a natural, photojournalistic style.

We wanted to work with someone who could capture the beauty of small, unplanned moments and portray us, our friends and families, and our wedding as authentically as possible.

Sara found Cassie’s portfolio after extensive research, and we both agreed that we had to book her immediately. After meeting with Cassie, we were delighted to find that she was not only the right photographer for us, but an awesome person with whom we’d want to hang out in “real life!”

On our wedding day, Cassie somehow managed to seamlessly blend into the crowd while capturing the most intimate – and fun – moments. Our photos represent our wedding exactly how we want to remember it.

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Advice for Other Couples

We tried to create a laid-back atmosphere centered on having fun and celebrating love and community.

To that end, we recommend setting a “Give No Sh**s” deadline prior to the wedding, after which you both agree to let things unfold as they will, and commit to being present and having a great time no matter what goes ‘wrong’.

Inevitably, there will be hiccups – but no one will remember them – they’ll only remember your attitude in dealing with them.

We adopted this approach and it made all the difference.

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The Food & The Music

Having a great live band was really important to us, we and our friends are huge music fans, and we wanted the night to end in a big dance party.

While brainstorming options, we remembered how much we’d enjoyed the music at our first New Year’s Eve together – a show at The Five Spot in East Nashville featuring Chubby and the Dots, a 1960s pop/soul band comprised of local session musicians and producers.

Fortunately, they were available, we didn’t even look at any other bands!

They put on an incredible performance; everyone danced their hearts out and raved about the setlist.

Food-wise, we are both vegetarian, so we wanted to create a menu that reflected our values yet wasn’t too “out there” for our guests. Flavor Caters helped us do just that, and we received compliments from even our most avid carnivore guests.

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The Honeymoon

We’re actually headed to our (deferred) honeymoon in two weeks!

We’ll spend four days on safari near Kruger National Park in South Africa, then four days in Cape Town – including a cage dive with great white sharks!