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My event for Project 1, is a wedding. It’s a wedding based off my best friend back home in Tennessee, but also myself as well. My husband is in the Air Force, and we currently live in Denver, Colorado, but we are from Tennessee, and have to move around a lot for the military. My best friend’s name is Christy, and she recently got engaged. There are no wedding plans for her yet, but I started thinking about her and also about me, and how I often feel torn between my new home in Colorado, and my true home in Tennessee. All of these thoughts turned into me designing a wedding for someone living in Colorado, and loving the modern, artsy scene embedded in the Rocky Mountains and big city of Denver, but also being a true southern girl from Tennessee, in love with her original roots.

 

Christy and Adam are getting married in the mountains of Colorado in the fall. The ceremony is outdoors in the afternoon with a mountain backdrop, and the reception will be inside an adjacent venue to the ceremony site. Dinner will be served at the reception complete with country-style cooking. Having a fall wedding allows the couple to incorporate all the southern/rustic things they love, without it looking out of place. Fall leaves, pumpkins, sunflowers and cowboy boots… But with their new love for the modern parts of Denver, they also want trendy touches like Aztec art, modern clear chairs etc.. The colors are a more modern fall pallet, using burgundy and dusty blue, but incorporating sunflowers, burlap, and pumpkins (painted and natural) to add southern fall flare. It’s a wedding combining the best parts of the couple’s story. Old and new. Honoring their roots, and embracing their new home.

 

The couple both adore children. Christy is a school counselor, and Adam is a pastor who hold a dual role as head pastor and youth pastor. The couple has chosen to have a bridal party full of the children in the church, instead of their adult friends. This allows the couple to incorporate their love for children, creates a uniqueness to the day, and also gives all their Tennessee friends a chance to simply enjoy the day and celebrate with the couple, instead of having to complete all the regular wedding party duties. Their religion is important to them, and as they are not getting married in a traditional church, they want there to be design aspects to the wedding that point to their faith. This is why old church pews will be used for ceremony seating, and old chapel doors will be at the beginning of the aisle, to symbolize the bride entering a church to walk down the aisle.

 

As the venue is in the mountains, the couple chose a location with a reception hall adjacent to where they can have the outdoor ceremony. It’s fall in the mountains, so after the sun goes down it will be cold most likely. There will be blankets, and fires set around outside, but this is why the reception will be indoors. There are rooms for both the bride and the groom to get ready along with their parents etc., and hotels close by for out of town guests. This is a wedding for two people wishing to pay homage to their southern home, but show they also love their new home. It acknowledges their faith, and honors their love for children. It’s fun, carefree, thoughtful, rustic yet modern. Very Tennessee and Colorado combined in the best way.