Maple Grove Inn Wedding | Chelsea & Aaron

There are so many words that come to mind when I think about this couple and their wedding day. Magical, perfect, ironic. The last might be confusing, but how Chelsea, Aaron and I met and how their special day unfolded is really rather ironic. So as not to bore you with details, we met at a Christmas Eve party, hit it off wonderfully and as I was helping Chelsea with some wedding planning questions, she asked if I still came back home for weddings. 8 months later and I was shooting her wedding at Maple Grove Inn (the same venue that Rob and I were married at) and the wedding day forecast was calling for rain. Hmmmm.

However, the rain stayed away for most of the day, giving a nice cleanse right before the ceremony and then coming back out to give us an INCREDIBLE after ceremony session! I adore C&A for SO many reasons! Photography was one of the top items on their wedding list and they wanted to take extra time for photos…LOVE! Not only did they want to do a First Look, but they also asked for some more time after the ceremony to “just spend some more time together”. When the rain began to pick up, I asked Chelsea if she just wanted to go ahead and head to the ceremony, her words “can we go out in the rain?” I died. I’ll just let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Chelsea and Aaron, not only did I absolutely ADORE spending your wedding day with you, but I am truly honored that you asked me to be a part of your day and trusted me to capture it for you! So much love to the both of you!!

Smiles,

Kayla F

Vendors:

DJ: Ogle Entertainment (Robby Mathis)

String trio: Ogle Entertainment (Elizabeth Farr)

Venue & Catering: Maple Grove Inn

Florist: Mulberries (from Chelsea “She is amazing”)

Bridesmaid dresses: David’s Bridal

Suits: Jos A Banks

Bride dress: Boutique Couture, Chattanooga, TN

Dress Designer: Essense of Australia

Invitations: Be My Guest, Roanoke, Va

Rentals: All Occasions Party Rentals

Large program: Silver Linings (etsy)

Favors (koozie): Splendid Sip

Makeup: Angela R Jordan

Cake: Kim Robison Dandridge, TN

the first look {mine and my love}

The First Look. I am asked by many, many of my clients what a first look is or what all it entails. Many think that it’s just a photographer’s joy because of the timeline, and although it is lovely to help the day progress smoother, it’s by no means solely for the photographer. Instead of telling you why I, as a photographer, think that the First Look is a wonderful part of the day to consider, I want to share my feelings on the First Look as a bride. I also reached out to a few of my 2013 clients and asked them to share their thoughts and feelings on their first look…before and after their big day. Their responses will be a small series for this week!

May 4, 2013 was and will always be the best day of my life. It’s the day that I promised myself to my best friend and a day when we were surrounded by every single person that we love dearly, whether they were there physically, or only in spirit. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to experience a first look with Rob. Not because I was a photographer (well, not entirely) but because I had been a part of many weddings previously hearing the bride and many times, the groom, stating how they “just wanted to see him/her”. Rob is my best friend. He calms me when I’m anxious, nervous or scared. He brings out my silliness and continues to push me in how I think and act. He is my balance. On the biggest and most important day of my life, I wanted to spend it with him! Our ceremony was scheduled for 6:30PM and I didn’t want to go all day without seeing him. I would honestly be a wreck and probably wouldn’t have been able to walk down the aisle. It wasn’t an easy sell. Rob was pretty adamant about not doing a First Look. I bribed him, telling him I’d give him the music, food, cake, alcohol, first dance, ANYTHING as long as I could do the First Look. After so much hesitancy, he knew how much it meant to me and he agreed.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been more on time for anything in my life. Well, we might have been late, but who is looking at a clock on their wedding day? I can remember walking down the hallway of the house and seeing him in the window leading out of the front door. I took a small minute, closed my eyes and reminded myself what today was about. He and I. Our love and our lives together. I’m a moosh ball. I cry at absolutely everything, but I had an overwhelming calm in that moment. The tears I had in my eyes were excitement and happiness and I couldn’t wait to walk out those doors. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (as I have rambled way too much already). Can I say that the first look was the best decision we made for our wedding? After our photographer, yes. Easily. I think the photos speak volumes for that moment. 

{From Rob}

When Kayla initially told me about the first look, I was 100% against it. For a bride, at least it seemed to me, there are a lot of different things they imagine for their wedding day; their dress, the venue, the details, etc. For me, the one thing I had ever really imagined for my wedding day was watching my bride walk down the aisle and seeing her for the first time. The anticipation, the excitement, all of it.

After some convincing, and seeing how important it was to Kayla, I gave in and I’m very happy I did. Not only was the first look far more intimate than a traditional walk-down-the-aisle-look could be, it also allowed me to spend a majority of the day with my soon-to-be wife! That was hands down the best part. We didn’t have to wait all day to see each other and got to spend more of our special day together. We even snuck in a shot before the ceremony! 🙂

In the end, I cherish the time I spent with Kayla before the ceremony as much if not more than the ceremony itself.

{All photos are copyrighted to Jennie Andrews Photography…the best photographer ever!}

I can’t wait to share the thoughts of a few of my other couples over the next couple of days! There are some amazing memories!

Smiles,

Kayla F

planning the big day | the paper goods

Wow! I can’t believe that May 4^th is right around the corner!!! Planning a wedding, having a full time job and growing my photography business has just eaten up my time, but I wanted to continue with the planning the big day series! I’ve had many people ask me when my next post will be, so I’ll be making a solid effort to blog once a week on our big day!

In my last planning the big day post, we showcased our amazing venue! Rob and I just absolutely fell in love with Maple Grove Inn and knew that we had to have our wedding here. It had everything we wanted and SO much more!!!

Since we got engaged {almost} two years ago, we wanted to send out Save-the-Dates to our friends and family that we 100% knew we wanted to invite to the wedding so they could mark their calendars. Having a wedding in early May means little kiddos are still in school and families are starting to begin {or already have begun} planning their vacations. So we knew we wanted to get a jump on them!

In looking at Save-the-Dates, there is an abundant amount of inspiration and incredibly talented designers out and about!!! {See a list at the bottom of this post for some vendors}. Would we go with a photo for the save-the-date? A magnet? A viewfinder {trust me, they make them}? Or stay simple and showcase the amazing venue that we are getting married at?? Well, you guessed it! I actually had my mind set on a photo save-the-date. I mean, I am a photographer and all. But after meeting with one of my brides Katie, and seeing her save-the-date, I instantly knew that I wanted to have a drawn representation of our venue! 

The Save-the-Date that started it all. {the link to this vendor is at the bottom of this post}

Now, you all have probably seen me gush about Kate with Kate Moore Creative! She designed my photography logo and I’ve had a love fest with her work for a few years now {she’s genius, let me just say}! So off I went to send an email to Kate. Here is a verbatum excerpt of what I sent her, “We absolutely LOVE our venue (Maple Grove Inn) and would love to have a sketch done of it for the save-the-dates.“  When she replied back with “Ummmm YESSSS! yay! i would adore doing something for you guys. Your style is so awesome and I am in love with the idea of a sketch of the maple grove inn. so different and adorable.“ I knew we were a match made in Heaven {as if I didn’t already know this…psh}.  So a few emails back and forth and I sent her this image! 😀

Let me just say, when I got the proof back for our save-the-date, I literally sat there and stared at it for probably a good 5-7 minutes. I was in aww! It was EXACTLY what I wanted! She nailed it. Literally. I couldn’t have even thought that it would be this awesome! She even did a handdrawn  picture of Maple Grove Inn! I loved every single little big of it! Now the only conundrum I had was what color did we want it in???

We chose lavender {did you expect me to choose something else} and then decided that we wanted to STAMP them! Oh yea! We bought this amazing super thick cotton paper from Holyoke Papers,  our envelopes from Paper Source, and our stamps from Clancy Stamping Co. {local}. And off we starting stamping!!! 

{so I’m a loser and only documented our envelope process, sad day}

You’ll see the FINAL product in our wedding day pictures!! I hope you loved seeing the process that we went through and how you can make a save-the-date unique and tie in with your wedding theme!!! 😀

Smiles,

Kayla F

 View Finder Save-the-Dates

Adorable Picture Save-the-Dates

Katie Save-the-Date

Calligraphy Postcard Save-the-Date

Custom Handkerchief Save-the-Date

planning the big day | our venue

I don’t know if I could be any more excited to let you all know where Robby and I will be having our wedding! I wanted to wait until our Save-the-Dates went out, but I cannot contain my excitement! Robby and I loved all of the venues we visited, but in the end, we couldn’t get over how perfect Maple Grove Inn would be for the most important day of our lives!!!

Overall, the venue has everything we want! It comes with amazing landscaping, we can have our ceremony and reception outside (with an inside option and two tents in case of rain), the house feels like everything I have ever wanted, and above all, Diesel gets to spend the day with us!

In the coming weeks, I will talk about everything that comes along with Maple Grove Inn, especially when it comes to rentals and catering. Robby and I couldn’t be happier that we found this venue and we can’t wait to spend this day with our closest family and friends!!

Planning the Big Day ~ All the Places Part 2

I hope you all had a fantastic week! Mine has been oh so fun as wedding season is starting to swing back in full gear and I’ve dove a little bit farther in to the wedding planning world! Its insane being on this side of the process! You just really don’t realize everything that is involved in planning a wedding! Wowza!

Ok, so I am absolutely in love with this next venue I’m going to share (what am I saying…I love ALL of these venues)! 🙂 But this one is super special. I’ve known about Maple Grove Inn for about 5-6 years now. An old friend told me about it once when I was so keen on having my own Bed & Breakfast (any other girl who watched Gilmore Girls also had this dream at some point in time). Well, she told me about a quaint little B&B right down the road and told me I should just go check it out. Well, I drove down the road and could not believe what I saw…perfection! Literally, the exact Bed & Breakfast that I had always wanted. I was sitting in the parking lot, working up the nerve to go inside and ask if they were hiring when a whole slew of cars started pouring into the parking lot…it went from 1 little Suzuki to about 25 cars in 35 seconds! So my nervous little butt hi-tailed it out of there. Needless to say, that amazing little B&B always stayed in the back of my head. Fast forward 5 or 6 years to last summer. Jennie tells me I am going to be shooting a bridal luncheon at none other than…Maple Grove Inn!!! You’ve got to be kidding me! I actually get to see the inside! Yay!!!

I immediately fell in love with the house. A little history recap, the house was built in 1799 (ummmm thats 100 years before the Biltmore) and is one of Knoxville’s oldest homes! I felt like I had struck gold…I probably just walked around the house for a good 10-15 minutes just taking all the antiques and oldness in! It was like being transported back to my Gammy’s house, but much bigger!

Anyway, when Robby and I started talking about venues, I immediately wanted to show him MGI. Went went in…you guessed it, January, when it was bone freezing cold and walked around the outside of the home. Robby liked it…but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. So we decided to make an appointment with Vicki and tour the house!

My favorite EVER!!! The driveway to the house is unbelievable…whether its winter or spring!

A week later (because I cannot contain my excitement) we went and toured the house. I was already hooked, but Robby fell in love immediately. Then, to top it off, Tom (the owner of the house) made Robby and I a cup of his own roasted coffee. Can I tell you how delicious this cup of coffee was?! I have never been able to drink black coffee, and I drank the ENTIRE cup, no problems! It was delicious!

Rob and I were excited, but didn’t want to make any decisions until we saw all of the venues that were on our list (which weren’t very many…you’ll see all of them). We bid adue to Vicki and Tom and went on our way. Because I didn’t have my camera with me on our initial trip, Robby and I decided to go back and have a gander at what Maple Grove Inn would look like in the spring. These are those pictures. Isn’t it beautiful?!?!?!?

So thats Maple Grove Inn! Its definitely different than Watermelon Moon Farms which you can see HERE! So what do you think of Maple Grove Inn??

Next week, will be our last venue…its of course historic and an amazing home here in Knoxville! I can’t wait to share the yummy gorgeousness with you! 🙂