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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Bride Amanda



In the hectic days before her wedding a few weeks ago, Amanda Smith graciously visited with me about her plans for the big day. Yesterday, she sent photos of the wedding. Her professional photos are not back yet, except for the one above, so she kindly agreed to let me post photos that a friend took. I think you'll agree, the wedding was gorgeous and so is she! Enjoy.

1. Did you decide to go with a big wedding or a smaller one? Why?

We went with I guess an average size wedding. We have 183 guests for our big day which is in 11 days. The decision was challenging because we wanted everyone we ever met to share in our happiness; however, we did pay for our wedding ourselves so money was definitely the determining factor.

2. What has been the most difficult part of planning a wedding?

Coordinating all of our out of town guests and the logistics to get people to all of the activities has been the most challenging part of my wedding planning experience.

3. What has been your favorite part of planning your wedding?

My favorite part of planning my wedding has been spending time with my mom and my soon to be mother in law. I gave each of them some ownership in planning the day and it’s been great to watch everything come together. They both have helped to reduce the amount of stress that goes into planning such a large affair.

4. How did you make this wedding celebration uniquely yours? (And unusual or interesting touches you chose to go with)?

We are actually doing quite a few things to make our celebration unique to us. We are doing trivia throughout the reception. People can answer a question about us and we have made bags with local goodies that you can only get in the Carolinas. We also have created a poem to have our guest’s hoolahoop for the bride and groom to kiss. Our wedding favors are fuchsia can koozies with our name and a saying on them. The bartender will be placing guest’s drinks in the koozies so they will definitely have one to take home. Our send off will be with sparklers. We also are having BBQ, grilled boneless/skinless chicken breasts, rolls, broccoli cheese casserole, scalloped potatoes, carrots, and then peach cobbler and brownies.


Of course, we will also have a 4 tier wedding cake with each tier hosting a different flavor. Our champagne is pink which compliments our colors of pink and black. Our flowers are gerbera daisies and we are having a large outdoor reception at the Huitt House which is a large historical home in the area.


5. How many attendants do you have? Describe the dresses you've chosen (or would like to choose).

We each have 4 along with 4 ushers and 4 greeters. My fiancé has a large family. As far as the girl’s dresses go. Let’s just say I am a super nice bride. I actually picked their dresses and shoes out at White House Black Market. The girls are wearing simple black strapless cocktail dresses. They love them, I think because they truly can wear them a hundred times over.


6. Any favorite songs you’d like the wedding band to play?

-Our first dance will be to Vince Gill “If you ever have forever in mind”
-Our father/daughter dance will be to “My Girl”
-The mother/son dance will be to “The Man You’ve Become”
-We want a great mix of country, rock, cheesy dances like the electric slide and some booty music later in the evening.

7. If you could go anywhere you wanted to, describe your perfect honeymoon location.

We are going to Charleston, SC for the week. That’s where we went our first vacation and where we want to go where everything took place. We are having a private chartered yacht for Wednesday evening for a sunset cruise on the ocean. We are also parasailing one of the days of our trip. We also have a half day kayaking trip in the ocean as well as some down time to just relax on the beach. We will be doing a ton of eating…Charleston has some of the best food in the country. What we already have planned is the perfect honeymoon.

8. Have you received or requested any unique wedding gifts? What are they?

Not really. We just bought a house so we really just want gift cards to Home Depot, Pottery Barn, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target. We have asked for a Nintendo Wii, some games for the wii, a Hepa Dyson vacume cleaner, and some Rachel Ray pans. Obviously we have asked for more, but those seem to be practical and unique at the same time. If my fiancé had his way, everything would be from Sears.

9. If a millionaire dropped by and offered to pay for the wedding of your dreams, what additions/changes would you make?

We would probably want to do a destination wedding to Italy and have our wedding party and family join us for a month long celebration in an Italian villa. My fiancé is half red neck and half Sicilian.

10. Have you chosen any interesting/different places for wedding photos?

Our engagement pictures were fun and interesting. My fiancé is a Testing Mechanical Engineer for a major race team and so he wanted some of our engagement pictures at the race shop with the race cars…so we did. As far as our wedding day pictures go…not really sure. I have left that up to our photographer. She is fantastic.

11. A wedding is a bride's opportunity to act out a fairy tale for a day. What stands out as the most special part of your wedding?
My entire day is extremely special. I have found the man of my dreams and I am super excited to unite with him as one. Also, my mom and nana never had a wedding so having our entire day with them is amazing! Don’t forget about my wedding dress…it’s BEAUTIFUL! It’s a Mikella couture and is really special to me and my mom surprised me and purchased it for me as a gift.

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13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, our reception was perfect; however, a few things changed from what we expected. We ran out of money towards the end and we didn't want to charge up our credit cards so we were unable to do our trivia idea, but the hoo-la-hooping was a huge hit. Everyone seemed to have fun. Our food was perfect and delicious, but the caterer decided to chop up the chicken like the bbq to serve instead of the original boneless skinless chicken breasts. The guests had no idea and our caterer received a ton of compliments. Finally, what was thought to be a yacht ended up being a regular sized boat. It was no big deal because it was still chartered and private where we drank wine, ate some yummy gouda and crackers, played with a group of dolphins, and went out to Morrison Island to see one of the oldest light houses in the world. Lee, my husband really enjoyed our adventure because he is really big into history and pirates. I am still waiting on more pictures. I hope to have our honeymoon and professional pictures soon. If any bride needs help planning their wedding, please reach out to me. I had so much fun planning ours and I am a little sad that our wedding is over. We will get to re-live our wedding day when our videographer completes our wedding video...it's going to be the funniest thing any of us have ever watched! We can't wait!

July 3, 2008 at 6:13 AM  
Blogger Myrna Mackenzie said...

Amanda,
It sounds like a beautiful wedding. Hoola hooping? What fun! (I'll bet everyone shared a few hilarious moments when that was going on). And the trip to the light house must have been wonderful.

Thank you for sharing with us.

July 3, 2008 at 7:57 AM  
Blogger cheryl c said...

Congratulations! It looks and sounds like it was a lovely wedding! Thanks for sharing with us.

July 3, 2008 at 9:52 AM  
Blogger catslady said...

Everything sounds like it was lovely. I'm glad the "changes" turned out not being anything horrible :) My daughter is getting married this month in a gazebo with the reception in a historical hotel. As long as it doesn't rain (which at the moment our weather has been rainy in July which is unheard of) we should be able to cope with "changes." She already had to pick out another dress when the first couldn't be altered correctly.

July 3, 2008 at 10:36 AM  
Blogger EllenToo said...

Black as bridesmaids dresses is a little unusual and surprising but at least you picked something they could use after the wedding.

July 3, 2008 at 10:48 AM  
Blogger Brandy said...

Everything sounded lovely for the wedding. I especially like the Southern touches. *G*
What a nice bride to find dresses that the Brides-maidea actually could use again!
Many Happy Blessings to the Bride and Groom!

July 3, 2008 at 1:19 PM  
Blogger Nathalie said...

Amanda... Thanks for sharing your wedding story with us.

Congrats and the pictures were lovely!

July 3, 2008 at 3:43 PM  
Blogger Melissa McClone said...

Thanks for the lovely posts and pictures, Amanda! Best wishes for a happy future together!

July 4, 2008 at 9:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On our wedding day, it did rain. We were lucky enough to have all of the picture moments, i.e. toasts, cake cutting, and first dances done before the rain. My husband was so happy it rained because it "justified" us having 2 large tents. The rain just added to the fun and our guests kept having a good time and didn't seem to care it was raining.

Also, thanks for all of the warm wishes to our future and the sweet compliments we are receiving.

Our wedding was the best day of our lives so far!

Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2008 at 11:31 AM  
Blogger Lily said...

Lovely picturs... I am glad the rain did not ruin the day or those pics!

July 5, 2008 at 7:59 AM  
Blogger CrystalGB said...

Congratulations! Beautiful photos. :)

July 9, 2008 at 11:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you very much. Our photographer was amazing. She is super cheap and does a great job. If anyone is interested in her doing their wedding. She will do weddings outside of the South East for just the cost of her travel and not her regular photographer rate. I thought that was awesome!

July 9, 2008 at 1:41 PM  
Blogger Amanda Hallman said...

If anyone is interested in seeing our professional pictures, please let me know and I will send you the link. Thank you again for the warm wishes.

July 24, 2008 at 8:48 AM  

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