Hi! I'm Taryn, a writer, designer and soon-to-be-bride from Atlanta, Georgia. Sit a spell with me and catch up as I plan the wedding of my beer-loving, confetti-throwing dreams to the wonderful Mr. Williford.Capturing a Photographer
Without a shred of a doubt, photography was my absolute number one priority going into this wedding. After all is said and done, the only thing I’ll have left is my ring, my husband and the pictures. I want to be head over heels in love with all three. Forever.
As soon as we had a date and a place, I started looking for photographers. As a well-researched bride and wedding enthusiast, I’ve always known what the price range would be for a “good” photographer. Rooster, not so much. So when I presented the first draft of our wedding budget to him, well…. he may have freaked out. After talking him down and convincing him that we wouldn’t get the same caliber of photos from a student from his university for “a few hundred bucks,” he came around and realized that splurging on a photographer was a good investment.
I searched for potential photographers through WeddingWire and The Knot, reaching out to anyone whose photojournalistic style caught my eye. Many of them were out of our budget (our “splurge” photography budget still wasn’t sky-high) or just not a good fit, making this officially the first wedding vendor (after the brewery and food truck) that we didn’t book on the first try. Since we’d be spending the whole day with our photographer, I thought it was important to find somebody we really got along with. Somebody who might want to spend the day with us even if we weren’t paying them to be there.
Thankfully, It wasn’t too long into searching that I hit the jackpot. I stumbled upon Paige Jones thanks to Southern Weddings’ Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory and fell in love with the photos on her website. After a quick meeting at a Monday Night Brewing beer tasting (can I tell you how much I love that I can visit our venue all the time?), I discovered she’s also really cool, incredibly kind, super professional, and loves Hanson. Our photographer search just became a no-brainer.
Here’s some of Paige’s wonderful work, to seal the deal for you:
Anyone else get jazzed for light trail dance floor photos like I do?
I’m stoked to have Paige hanging out with us on our wedding day. We’ve already tackled our engagement photos and I’m so happy with how they turned out. I’ll share them soon!
Being a Detail-Oriented (Cough, Uptight) Bride
It’s crazy to say, but we’re more than halfway through our engagement. (The obsessive side of me decided to figure out what day was exactly the halfway point… I even used a date duration calculator and discovered that January 27th was legit day 257 of our 514-day engagement.) Now that we’re well over the halfway mark, it’s a good time to do a “State of the Union” kind of check up and figure out: What kind of bride am I?
Lucida Photography via Style Me Pretty
I mean, I know what kind of bride I thought I was going to be before we were engaged. I play with tradition. I don’t get too caught up on the way we’re “supposed” to do things, so I thought I’d be immune to a lot of the pressures that other brides have regarding their wedding day. I was going to be calm and aloof. Never get hung up on flowers or what color the napkins were gonna be. I like simple things anyway. Neutrals. I would never stress about whether this green dress is more “kelly” or “emerald.” As long as it’s green, right? Or even if it’s not green. It’s just a dress, and this is just a party. At the end of the day, as long as we’re married, that’s all that matters.
Andrea Lee via Bridal Musings
Super zen yogi bride. Yep! That’s me… not.
Now that I’m here halfway in, I realize that I care more about the day and the details than I ever thought I would. It’s just one single day, yes, but it’s an important day. And an expensive day that we’ve set aside to host all of our our closest friends and family. It’s a day that symbolizes us and everything we have been and will continue to work towards in our relationship. So yes, I care about it. A lot. And when you’ve invested lots of time and money on this one important and symbolic day, you start to care about making sure the details are just right—and, yes, that the damn dresses are emerald. Not “kelly.” Emerald. I’ve spent too much time and money on this shindig to start getting sloppy on the dress color, you know?
Bride Bikini on Etsy
If I’m being totally honest, I’m also plagued by thoughts about how other people are going to judge my wedding. I want them to think it’s cool. That it’s different from other weddings. That it’s “us,” whatever that means. So I’m holding an even tighter microscope on all our choices for the day. I spend time thinking about the right font or the right earrings. And what they don’t tell you about wedding planning is that suddenly every thing has a voice. “What does this wine say about us?” You start to think about things you never would have imagined you’d be worrying about before you were engaged.
It’s all really stressful, being a detail-oriented bride. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I find that when I work really hard at something and mull it over and really throw myself into it, I’m so proud of the end result. So no, I’m not going to win any awards for the world’s most laid back bride. And yes, it’s been difficult at times and I may or may not have cried at a few points when it all seemed too hard to handle. But you know what? I already love our wedding. And I’m here more than halfway through our engagement feeling so proud of all that I’ve done to really make this day ours. I hope when day 515 rolls around after our wedding, I’m still feeling like all of the hard work and thoughtful planning paid off with gorgeous photos, good fun and great memories.
The Best Things About Our Venue
Monday Night Brewing
I talked about how Mr. Rooster and I stumbled upon our brewery venue in a previous post, but I never really went over all of the things that we really love about it. It fits our wedding style, sure, but there are several details that helped us make up our minds about Monday Night Brewing:
It’s indoors and outdoors. I love the idea of getting married outside, but let’s face it: My idea of being “outdoorsy” is sharing a pitcher of margaritas on a patio. That’s why I love that the brewery is an indoor/outdoor kind of place. Their 4,000 square foot tasting room is attached to a 5,000 square foot patio, and we’ll be using the entire space for our celebration.
Monday Night Brewing
We can have the ceremony and reception in the same place. As long as the weather’s nice (knock on wood) the plan for our day is to have the ceremony outside on part of the patio, then open up the whole space for the reception. As a wedding guest, I’m always relieved to know that I won’t have to travel far to get from the ceremony to the reception, and I’m glad we have more time to celebrate and less time dedicated to logistics. “We do,” then we dance. Boom.
It’s already decorated. For the most part. Monday Night Brewing hosts tastings several times a week, and the space is fitted with tons of details that make it a fun place to hang out. There’s already lots of vintage-cool mismatched furniture in the tasting room, including tables and chairs, picnic tables and bright red benches, so we’ll only have to rent a few pieces to finish off the space for our wedding. And we both love the little elements that give the space personality, like the Atlanta mural, wall of ties and strings of market lights. They’re all details that would be costly or impossible to duplicate in another venue, but they give our wedding tons of character.
Caroline Fontenot
Plus, OMG MARKET LIGHTS!
Four letters: BYOB. Yes, it’s a brewery. But thanks to some weird Georgia drinking laws, the brewery legally can’t serve more than 20 ounces (I think) to a person in one day. The loop hole: Since Roo and I are not a brewery (obvi), if we bring the beer (and wine, and liquor) to the party, our guests can drink as much as they want. So we’ll be bringing our own kegs of Monday Night beer (and wine, and liquor) to the brewery to drink. That’s a huge savings over some venues that mark up beverage service.
We’re excited to support a local brewery. Having a wedding at the brewery means we have another way to support Atlanta’s local craft beer scene and gives us another reason to be super fans of Monday Night Brewing. Roo and I have such pride in Atlanta’s beer scene, and now we get a little extra tinge of excitement when MNB is declared by Southern Living as one of “The Best Bars in the South,” or announced as the venue for the 9th annual Atlanta Not Wedding. We’re jazzed that we get to share in even a tiny part of this awesome brewery’s history.
Once we considered all these details, it was clear that Monday Night Brewing was our space. It’s an unconventional choice for a wedding, judging by how surprised people are when we tell them we’re getting married at a brewery. But we’re convinced it’s the perfect place to say our vows and celebrate our marriage.
Picking Out “The Ring”
An indecisive girl like me has trouble committing to a paint color, let alone what engagement ring I want sitting on my hand for the rest of my life (ironically, committing to Mr. Rooster forever was an easy choice I made in my mind after just 6 months of knowing him). I mean, I’ve seen dozens of beautiful rings, and I could imagine each of them sitting on my hand. But choosing one ring (or even one style) out of the bunch was difficult.
So after 3+ years of dating and 2+ years of living together, when it was clear we were getting close to the whole “marriage” thing, Roo and I always discussed ring shopping as something we would do, at least in part, together. After all, if I didn’t even know what I want, how can I expect him to know what I want? It wasn’t meant to spoil the surprise; we planned that Roo would still end up choosing “the ring” and proposing totally in secret from me. He just wanted to make sure that indecisive me really really liked what he was putting on my finger.
So several months before he actually proposed, he and I started talking about rings. We played the Google images game to give him some practice in predicting my tastes: I would type “engagement ring” into Google Images and quiz him on which ring I would choose out of each row of photos. Sometimes it was more than one, sometimes none, but it gave him a really good idea of what I liked.
“The last one in row 2, for sure. Right, honey?”
It worked really well, and gave him a solid idea of what I liked. White gold with a halo and a diamond band. Or, that’s what I thought I liked.
See? Indecisive!
When our engagement ring discussions evolved from the Google Images stage to the “actually going out and trying them on” stage, my tastes totally changed. I mean, I still loved those halo diamond stunners, but when I had them in the flesh on my own finger, it felt like too much. Too much weight, too much height and way too much bling.
I’m a simple girl who favors minimalism in everything from clothes to decor. Case in point: My favorite piece of jewelry has always been a simple braided ring. I got it on a trip to Walt Disney World with my family many years ago at a shop in the Norway area of Epcot. It’s a thin stainless steel band that looks like a twisted rope. It was “the ring” to me for most of my life, long before I had a diamond on my hand. I wore it everyday.
With another ring that is, not surprisingly, a simple twisted band.
All of you following along are probably acting like you’re watching a bad horror movie right now. Only instead of shouting, “He’s upstairs… get out of the house!,” you’re screaming “Get a ring that looks like the one you love and wear everyday. You’re not indecisive, you’re just dumb!” And you’re exactly right. But honestly, I never thought to look for a simple textured engagement ring… until It found me.
Ritani
On one of our e-ring scouting trips, just before we were about to walk out the door after another fruitless search, I saw it. A simple white gold beaded metal band with a solitaire diamond. It was clean, dainty, and it reminded me so much of the ring I have always loved. Plus, if I’m being honest, it was so much less expensive than every other setting we looked at (appealing to my sensible side). I loved it immediately, and Roo could tell. He wasn’t about to show his hand and admit that this ring was the one he was going to buy, but I think he made up his mind right there. Plus I wouldn’t stop talking about it. It was a done deal.
And sure enough, when he proposed a few months later, there she was. My simple beaded ring. I grow more and more in love with it every day, knowing that it represents his love for me and our impending marriage. It’s something we did (mostly) together and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The End.
No, not really. You didn’t think I’d leave without sharing the customary “engagement ring hanging casually from parts of plants” pictures, did you?
Ok, Now I’m done.
A Not-Rehearsal Dinner
On the spectrum of Traditional to Totally Offbeat, our wedding is going to be somewhere in the middle. When it comes to making decisions about our big day, we usually start thinking about the “traditional” thing to do, then decide how we’re going to own it and make it fit our personal style, budget or guest list. The rehearsal dinner was no exception.
Rehearsal Dinner Kit by Brooke Courtney via Oh So Beautiful Paper
Traditionally, the rehearsal dinner is held the night before the wedding and includes the bridal party, plus any out-of-town guests. The idea is that after you rehearse the actual ceremony (with bridesmaids, groomsmen and whoever else is walking down the aisle), somebody (usually the groom’s folks, but sometimes the couple themselves) treats the bridal party to dinner and invites any guests who traveled to the wedding and might need something to do.
I’ve shared before that Mr. Rooster and I are (a) are paying for the bulk of the wedding ourselves, and (b) inviting a ton of out-of-towners. Like, 90 out of 100. So hosting a traditional rehearsal dinner, for us, essentially means hosting a second wedding. And it’s safe to say that doubling our expenses is squarely out of the wedding budget. So we had to get creative, once again.
Last year Roo and I traveled to attend a high school bestie’s wedding in Maryland, where her guest list had the same proportion of travelers as ours. As out-of-town guests tend to do, Roo and I arrived the day before the wedding to settle in, but the rehearsal dinner was limited to the bridal party (and gurrl, I can’t blame them). But some wedding magic came later in the form of an impromptu little mixer. After the rehearsal dinner, everyone (including the couple, bridal party and any guests staying nearby) decided to meet up at the hotel bar to catch up and have some drinks. It was totally unplanned, but gave the wedding VIPs and all the out-of-town guests a chance to see each other and get some good face time.
Inspired by that turn of events, J.R. and I decided to capture that lighting in a bottle and host an official “Meet & Greet” in lieu of a rehearsal dinner. The idea is to arrange a specific spot for everyone to meet and see each other the night before the wedding, just like we did back in Maryland. To facilitate the pre-wedding meeting and greeting (and drinking), we’ve reserved the upstairs private room at a restaurant that’s walking distance from our guests’ hotels. We’re inviting everyone, including the bridal party, out-of-town guests and anyone in-town who wants to come (there’s, like, 10 of them. No need to leave them out).
Hudson Grille
Roo and I ordered a bunch of cocktail party nosh for the night like chicken wings and sliders, and our guests have the ability to order drinks from a cash bar. The cash bar isn’t ideal, I know. We would love to completely host everyone for the night. But after the awesome unplanned experience we had at my friend’s Maryland wedding (everyone handled their own drinks that night), I’m hoping that our guests won’t mind and instead will appreciate that we tried to accommodate them instead of closing off our rehearsal dinner. Plus we’re feeding them sliders. That has to count for some hospitality points, right?
Craig Paulson Photography via Lover.ly
To make sure it’s all clear for our guests, we included this bit of text on our wedding website:
Everyone is invited to join us upstairs at Hudson Grille the night before the wedding to greet the bride, groom, and the rest of your fellow guests before the big day. We’ll have heavy hors d’oeuvres and appetizers for everyone to feast on, and there’s a private bar where you can order your own booze and cocktails.
I’ll let you know how it goes once everything is said and done, but Roo and I are both tremendously excited for our wedding Meet & Greet. If you’re in a budget pinch and considering the same option, reach out to some restaurants or bars nearby. We were able to reserve the upstairs private area with only a food & beverage minimum (no extra room fee), and the cash bar counts towards that amount. For just a bit of extra money and some extra time planning, we now have a “second wedding” to look forward to.
