Knoxville Wedding Weekend!

 Last weekend found us in Knoxville, for the wedding weekend of one my best friends in the whole world, Dana! Her wedding was at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and it was gorgeous!

I love their colors at the rehearsal.

I didn't get a photo, but the garden is on the top of a hill, and has a beautiful view of the Smokey Mountains. We actually tried to get a cabin in the mountains during the week, but everything was booked up with people in town to see the leaves. And Dollywood was closed! Can you believe it?

We helped set up on Friday, the best part was putting together all the flowers. If I did my wedding over, I would do the same thing. It saves a lot of money, and it's actually fun!

I wish I had taken more photos of the house we got ready in. It is a vintage lovers dream! From the crazy marble bathrooms with pastel fixtures to the tiny metal kitchen in the basement!

I was in the ceremony (matron of honor woot woot!) and Travis forgot to take photos for me! I guess I can forgive him because he was also in charge of music. They wrote their own vows and they included Simpsons references and were so sweet, I was definitely crying! Maybe it is a good thing I don't have photos of it!

The reception was in this cool greenhouse space.

There was a different pie on each table instead of a wedding cake. Another idea I really loved! And of course I was into those pom poms too! I brought a bunch home!

It is hard to see here, but those little hoops had Mr. and Mrs. embroidered on them.

Here I am in my dress! I got it at Bettie Page, it is by Beach Bash, and I love it! I know you are dying for a close up of that brooch too....

Dana got custom brooches made for us by her friend Pudgy Dove Pottery as our bridesmaids gifts! Could mine be any more perfect? I LOVE IT! She also gave us vintage hankies, which came in handy for sure.

Here is a funny picture of Travis, in his tie made by the bride! He asked me " Did you tell me you were taking this picture?" I did! I don't know why he is so stiff!

Bride and Groom! Nick is cracking me up with that face! And how much do you love Dana's head piece? She wore a vintage tiny veil for the ceremony, and then switched for the reception!

It was a great reception, full of love and fun and DANCING!

Their first dance was to "Wild Horses". Which I have always loved since I heard it on the Buffy soundtrack. I didn't ask, but Nick is a big Buffy fan, so I'll pretend that is why he picked it.

After the reception ended around eight, we went to the after party at a cool bar called Sassy Anne's. We danced until the wee hours of the morning ( I had Travis request lots of things for me, including Whitney Houston "Dance with Somebody"). It was such a good weekend!

Congrats to my friend and her new husband!

That time I rode in a hot air balloon!

I have always thought of myself as someone who is afraid of heights, so riding in a hot air balloon has never been on my list of things I had to do. But when the opportunity presented itself last weekend I was all over it. And it was amazing! That is me up there!

This happened at the wedding of my friend Ashley, I told you I'm having a wedding filled month! Ashley is a designer (I know her from college. Remember when I had dreams? Ha!) and she really had everything perfectly thought out. The wedding was so beautiful!

Another friend, Lauren, was shooting the wedding and needed some last minute help when her assistant got sick. I was pretty excited to be asked to help out! I took lots of pics with one of her cameras (and a pretty amazing lens!) It was FUN! My camera is on its last legs and won't let me shoot in manual anymore, so I got to do that again. I can't wait to see her finished images! What follows are just what I snapped with my camera once I was done with my assisting duties.

Ashley is known for her love of pink, and we couldn't stop laughing at her pink Port o' Potties! I didn't even know that was an option! Of course she found them!

Here I am shooting for Lauren!That lens was so heavy! 

And here is my little assistant. Travis is such a good sport. Always willing to carry bags and hand me things. This is the only photo I got where you can kind of see the dance floor. It really got going after the sun went down, and there was a basket full of glow sticks so we could make all kinds of accessories. I love dancing all of a sudden! A few years ago you couldn't have paid me to get out there in public, but now I can't wait to bust a move! What I lack in dancing talent I make up for with enthusiasm.

If you didn't want to sit at the tables there were all kinds of cute picnic stations set up. Another friend, Rosemary, styled all this up! She and her business partner Bethany looks so cute in their dresses climbing ladders and setting everything up.

Look at that cake! I thought it looked totally fake! And see the hot air balloon topper? The plan was for the bride and groom to make a completely surprise entrance to the reception in the balloon. It didn't work out exactly as planned, but it was still incredible! Travis got to hold the balloon open while it filled up! It was such a cool experience! Afterwards I asked him if he wanted to run into the open mouth of the balloon (it looked so cool! Like a huge colorful room!) and he answered "Of course."

The balloon made a dramatic photo backdrop! And I'm realizing I have no photos of the groom! Sorry Shawn!

After they made their entrance guests were treated to rides in the balloon. Here is a photo of Travis waiting in line. What a cutie!

Balloon! Maybe I shouldn't have worn black to a wedding, but I really love this dress from Target! It makes me feel sassy! There were three other girls there in dresses from the same line, just in different colors! I kind of want to go back and get the blue one.

Here I am freaking out a little bit because of the flame! Thanks to my buddy Brett for taking some photos of us in the balloon! I didn't want to take my camera up there and spend the whole time looking through a lens.

It really was amazing! Have you been in a hot air balloon? It's such a different view than you are used too. We were only a few stories up, but when are you ever up that high and not surrounded by buildings/concrete? The view was beautiful rolling Tennessee hills, and it was that magical golden hour time. It was really breathtaking. The guy who was flying the balloon was nice too and indulged all our questions about how you steer (you don't, you follow wind currents!). I don't know if I would be able to go on a real flight, it was a strange feeling to be held up in that basket without some kind of machinery sound. Just the occasional burst of flame (!!!).

The wedding felt really laid back to me. The bride and groom seemed to have plenty of time to walk around and talk to all their guests.

I realized all of my dress shoes are this color. Which is my favorite (and matches my camera bag!) but I might need to invest in some basic black and brown shoes.

Travis and I brought our own cupcakes from Kahn's so we wouldn't feel left out once the cake got cut. These are their jumbo filled cupcakes and they were AMAZING. Everything we have bought there has been good and their logo includes a pug! Bonus! This was a chocolate pistachio cupcake with a fudge filling.

So that's three weddings down, and one more to go in a few weeks! Here is a kind of cute/ kind of awkward photo of us from the photobooth. What am I doing with my hand?

Another thing I love about weddings is getting to bring flowers home at the end! Here are my two beautiful bouquets on top of my hutch in the dining room. The only place in the house that keeps the cats from eating the flowers!

The day after the wedding I had to work, and for some reason I felt like I shouldn't be there. I think it was the hot air balloon ride. It felt boring to go back to regular life after such a beautiful day. This week has been much less glamorous. I'm going to physical therapy for a messed up rotator cuff and it hurts! I hope it will only last one more week!

Wedding Weekend!

I'm in the middle of my month of weddings, I went to two out of the four this past weekend! On Sunday I was in a wedding for the first time! It was fun! Here are some photos I took over the weekend! I've got another wedding this weekend, and then one more at the end of the month!

It rained almost the whole day Sunday, but it was still beautiful. They got some pictures with a cute bubble umbrella.

Dresses in shades of coral and peach.

I wanted to get some fancy heels, but then I decided that flats are more my style. GLITTER flats.

Crystal and I were cracking up about how "normal" we looked at the wedding! I wish I had gotten a pic with my real camera. I don't know if I'll ever be seen in white and peach again!

Wedding donuts and gnome toppers.

I really love the rose/succulent/cotton flower combo!

I love weddings so much you guys. I always get teared up. Marissa walked down the aisle to a live acoustic version of "Halo" by Beyonce and I almost LOST IT. It was so perfect!

Doggies! 

(So my friend Thomas has called me "Rae Dawg" forever and it turned into all of us calling each other "dawg" and now we usually just say "doggies." It is silly and I love it. You should know I REALLY love you if I call you doggy. Haha.)

I danced SO HARD at this wedding that by the end I couldn't physically dance another moment. It was so fun! The DJ told us to be sure and drive safe at the end, and I wanted to tell him "We aren't drunk! We just love to dance!" I think this weekend is going to be even crazier! I can't wait!

The other wedding we went to was at a huge church. As soon as we walked in we heard some friends calling us from a few stories up. "Do you guys know where the wedding is??"

It was another beautiful one.

I loved their favors! The wedding was book themed.

We picked the To Kill a Mockingbird table.

The beautiful bride and groom.

While we waited for them to get done with photos we played trivia (we know the groom from our weekly trivia team! It was fun!) They also had a wedding hash tag for instagram, which I think is fun. Theirs was mostly filled with photos of our table goofing off.

I liked their cake table! Such a good idea to have a bunch of cakes, and the books! If you look down in the corner you can see a few vegan cupcakes for Travis and me! Isn't that sweet? They were GOOD too!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of us in front of their cute book backdrop on our way out.

Ryan is the pez king and likes to bring a themed pez to most events. I'm going to pretend he brought Spock for me, not because the groom is a Trekker.