ClarksvilleBrides

Chelsea - Selecting my bridal party

Selecting my bridal party was not an easy task. It was one of the hardest things I had to do in a long time. After several days of thinking, I finally selected my 10 bridesmaids. That’s right, 10 bridesmaids. There is no way I can survive my big day without these ladies.
Rebekah Cooper was the first person I called when Stephen proposed to me. After sharing the good news with her, I immediately asked her to be my maid of honor. Rebekah is my sorority big sister and the first person I turn to when I need something. She constantly watches out for me and is not afraid to correct me when I am wrong, which isn’t a lot.
My sister Becky was the next person I called with the good news. She was the one who introduced me to Stephen. Becky will be my matron of honor. Both my maid and matron of honors names are Rebecca, just spelled different.
Chelsea Burkhart Wooten was the third person I called after Stephen proposed to me. She is one of my sorority sisters and we have the same major and minor, English Education. She and I have been inseparable throughout college.
Lauren Staggs and I met in college and instantly became friends. Our weekly hot chocolate dates blossomed into an everlasting friendship. She is one of my very best friends and could not imagine my life without her.
Magen Ladd, Kendyl Davis, Leann Oakley, and Jessica Monfries are also my sorority sisters. Magen, Leann, and myself worked together at the YMCA and spend countless hours together. Kendyl is not only my hairdresser, but she is one of the best friends I will ever have. Jessica and I also have the same major and minor, but she is a year older than I am. After she constantly helped me with homework, we became instant friends.
Lindsey Pendergrass in my high school best friend. She and I never spent a moment apart during middle and high school. After we went our separate ways during college, we still managed to keep in contact.
Sarah Sutusky Alphin is Stephen’s incredible sister. She welcomed me into her family with open arms. These ladies have played a huge part in my life and have already been an enormous help during wedding planning.

Chelsea - Selecting a Venue and Church

I already had a venue in mind before I started searching around Clarksville. My junior year of high school, we had our prom in the ballroom of the Riverview Inn. The room was beautifully decorated and the staff was so nice. Everyone remembers that specific prom being the best because there was a lot of room to move around unlike years before and the atmosphere made everything perfect. My sophomore year of college, my sorority had our spring formal in the ballroom as well. We had an absolute blast!

The Riverview Inn is also in a great location in Clarksville. It has an amazing view of the river and there are several historic sites for out of town guests to visit. In order to accommodate our out of town guests and Clarksville residents at the same time, we decided to include most of our wedding weekend events at the Riverview Inn.

Our rehearsal dinner will be held in the Montgomery Room on June 4, 2010 and our reception will be held following the wedding in the Ballroom. I knew that the ballroom looked like, but I wanted to see it with no decorations for myself. I emailed Mike Turner and he immediately set up an appointment with me. Mike welcomed me into his office with open arms along with his partner Charlsie Griffin. Mike took me on a tour of the hotel and I instantly knew this is where I wanted to have my wedding festivities.

We decided to have a buffet style dinner at the rehearsal dinner and hors d'oeuvres at the reception. We haven’t selected what items we will have, but we have a good idea of what we want. We also set aside rooms for our family and friends to reserve, which is ideal for our out of town guests.

I have been a member of Park Lane Church of the Nazarene for 15 years and I couldn’t imagine getting married somewhere else. Stephen has been with me several times and he enjoys the services. There was little discussion about the church; we knew we wanted to get married there. We are planning a fabulous ceremony followed by an exciting reception.

Chelsea & Stephen - Setting the Date

Stephen and I knew from the moment we started to talk about setting a date we wanted a summer wedding. A fall or spring wedding was out of the conversation because we live eight hours apart, I am in my final semester of college, and he works during the year. There is no extra time during the semester due to our schedules. We first decided to get married June 12, 2010, but there was not a room available at the venue or church we selected, so we decided to get married June 5, 2010. June weddings in Tennessee are beautiful and it is not too hot. After the wedding, we will depart Nashville for a week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

Kayla & JB - The Cakes

I have been looking at cakes for a long time now, probably since the beginning, trying to decide what I liked. There are so many beautiful ones to choose from, but I made my decision on how it would fit into the wedding style I was going for. I love the romantic, formal, traditional style and that is what I wanted my cake to reflect.

My mom, Carly, and I visited Carrie Rains of Cakes by Carrie one Thursday evening at Carrie's home. I brought pictures that I had printed off of the internet of what I wanted my cakes to look like. Bringing a picture helped Carrie see what I wanted and it also put us on the same page. I never imagined that I would be able to have a 5 tier cake, but Carrie helped us create one that will fit into our budget. We also got to taste the flavors of the cake. I am not a big cake person, but her cake was wonderful!

We tasted raspberry, chocolate, strawberry, white and lemon. We decided that since our cake was going to be five tiers anyway we would use every flavor, because they were all so good it was hard to choose. The bottom layer will be raspberry, the next will be white, then lemon, then strawberry and the top tier will be raspberry again, my favorite! Plus, that is the part that JB and I will get to keep until our first anniversary!

I didn't forget the chocolate cake! The groom's cake will be chocolate. I don't want to give away the groom's cake because I would like for it to be a surprise to JB, but it is going to be fantastic! I can't wait to see it and I can't wait to see JB's reaction!

Kayla & JB - Invitations

When my mom and I went to meet with Jennifer from Invitation Creations by Jennifer I wasn't expecting to find one that I liked that day. I really didn't even know what I wanted as far as invitations went. However, Jennifer welcomed us into her home office and we got at the task right away. She pulled out all different kinds of books for me to look through. Some of the invitations were very traditional and others were the extreme opposite, being very modern.

As I looked through the books, Jennifer had me place sticky notes on the invitation pages that I liked. She also had me look at the wording and text to see what I liked in that area. The more and more invitations that I looked through the more I realized that my style was traditional. The invitation that I ended up picking out was a formal, traditional invitation that included my navy blue color. I am very happy with our invitations and my mom was happy they came in right at our budget!

Jennifer was very helpful and continues to be helpful as we e-mail her back and forth on making sure we have the right wedding invitation etiquette.

Courtney - now comes the where

Ok, so we have decided on the when, now comes the where. Where do we have the ceremony and what type of reception do we want to have? A sit down dinner or just finger food and cake?

So, this is what I did. Randy surprised me by leaving a notebook for me to begin writing down ideas, phone numbers and other lists in. First I started by going to ClarksvilleBrides.com, I checked out the list of reception sites and wrote down the phone numbers for all of them. Then I started calling everyone on the list, mainly to see if places were already booked and to get some general cost ideas. I quickly learned, to my surprise, a lot of places were already booked.

We had attended my matron of honor’s wedding back in mid-October and their reception was at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was amazing, the hotel is beautiful and Chef Hay is outstanding, but I wanted to make sure we were getting the most out of our money so even though I called all the places the Hilton Garden Inn was at the top of my list. Randy got in touch with Katja at the Hilton and learned there was in fact an opening for May 1st. I was so excited because I knew this was the place so we put our deposit down!

With me being a University of Tennessee football fan and Randy being a University of Kentucky basketball fan, we decided to have a split reception, half of our tables will be UT orange themed the other have will be the royal blue of UK themed! Originally we wanted to do just finger food and cake but after looking at the menus for the Hilton Garden Inn, we will get more out of actually doing a sit down dinner. We are still finalizing the menu, but I’m sure with Chef Hay everything will be yummy!

Stealing another idea from my matron of honor’s wedding, the Smith/Trahern mansion was really the only place on my list for a ceremony site. Sadly, they were already booked. Since my Grandmother lives in Clarksville and has attended the same church, where I was christened, for many years, I called and they did not have anything booked for May 1st. So we quickly returned our paper work and deposit and sealed the date with New Providence United Methodist Church.