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 3

Today is the last and final day of All the Places for this crazy wedding that Robby and I are planning. This is going to be a rather small post as I have two sessions that are calling my name to start editing! 😀

The last venue that Robby and I went to look at (and absolutely fell in love with) was Mabry Hazen House right in the middle of Downtown Knoxville! We loved the idea of having a historic venue be apart of our wedding. Robby and I have a thing for history (especially me) so we were absolutely ecstatic to find Mabry Hazen House. I contacted Calvin, the director of the museum (YES, MHH is a museum), and we got to scheduling a visit to the house. 

It was of course, January/February when we toured, and AGAIN it was absolutely freezing (I didn’t take any pictures on our initial visit, so all of the images below were taken in April). Calvin showed us the grounds where the ceremony and reception would both be and we could only imagine how much more beautiful it would be in May for the wedding. 

There is a gazebo on the grounds that has ample amounts of electrical outlets…a great place for the band or DJ to set up! 

One of my biggest requests is the fact that we definitely want Diesel to be there on our wedding day! Therefore, it is a huge deal to make sure that the venue is pet friendly. To our surprise, Calvin stated that the last owner of MHH, Miss Evelyn Hazen, was actually a pet lover. She occupied the house alone (along with many dogs and cats). In her will, she stipulated that if the house was to be sold, all profits would go to animal causes. This 100% stole our heart!!

This is the side of the house that would be in primary view during the ceremony and reception. Since the house is a museum, there only only about 2 rooms that guests would be able to see on the actual wedding day, and those would probably contain the remnants of what myself and the bridesmaids brought. However, we thought it would be great to have all of our out of town guests take a tour of the house on Friday leading up to wedding! 🙂

When Calvin took us on a tour of the inside of the house, Robby and I almost died!! There is so much history in this house from 3 different generations. Its absolutely amazing how much history one house can hold! 

Oh how I am in love with these doors…I could see many pictures right here on the big day!  

A little bit more history of the house: it was a vital part of the Civil War, both for the Union and Confederate forces!

As you can see, the venues that Robby and I looked at all definitely have a similarity. They are all historic homes that have amazing life around them. This is something that I have always seen as apart of my wedding day. I never saw myself in a ballroom or in a barn. I’m definitely a big old home kind of girl! 🙂 

Tomorrow, we will finally let everyone know which venue we chose for our wedding! We couldn’t be happier with our choice and know our guests will absolutely love it too! 

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! 🙂

Planning the Big Day ~ All the Places Part 1

In light of what I will be doing later today, I thought it was a perfect day to discuss wedding venues!!!

I had a specific style of venue in mind and I couldn’t waiver from that style. I wanted a plantation style home with loads and loads of charm. Something that wasn’t too familiar in the wedding world (at least not here in East Tn) and something that made me feel comfortable. I know 100% my reasoning behind this and its because of my grandmother’s house. I absolutely loved spending time at my grandmother’s 1800’s house that was originally a parsonage and later renovated to be a family home. This also goes along the lines of my love for the Biltmore! Vintage, antique, charm….these were all words that make me feel warm and fuzzy when I think about my wedding. 

If you read the previous Planning the Big Day blog that had loads of inspiration in it, then you may have already checked out our first venue that we visited! I ran across an AMAZING styled photo shoot on the Once Wed wedding blog and immediately fell in love with this quant little Lebanon, TN farm house. Oh, how the goats and chickens called to me. LIterally, I could imagine little goats and chickens running around and eating food that was fresh from the farm for our wedding. This place was perfect! But, if you know me at all, you know I love to research! Seriously, papers in college were my favorite thing because it meant I got to research! 

So off I went, emailing one of the owners of Watermelon Moon Farm, Emily. I might have given a muffled shriek of delight when she replied! 😉 So Robby and I were off that following Saturday to Lebanon, TN to see what Watermelon Moon Farm had to offer! The only thing I never thought of was that would be the one weekend that we were threatening to have a snow storm…and what happened on the plateau?? Snow! Its was frigid outside, plus Robby came down with a mighty hefty version of the stomach bug. But, we braved the cold and pulled in to the adorable and delightful venue. (In my excitement of meeting Emily and seeing the house, I completely forgot to take a picture of the prettiest part…the FRONT! Forgive me, but you can always check out their website, it looks exactly the same!)

We were greated by a herd….literally! 

 We might have named one of them Billy (it was the obvious choice) because he was such a camera hog! 

The fantastic aspect of this venue is the freedom you have! Literally whatever ideas we had, Emily said they were 100% possible! Any caterer, any rental company, bands or DJ’s could set up where ever they liked, etc! Now, it was January, and it was frigid, so we didn’t get to see the farm in all its glory. There is a grape vine that grows behind the ceremony site and completely covers the fence (can you say magical?) and a butterfly herb garden. The area in the middle is surrounded by beautiful fresh flowers of all sorts (depending on the time of year) and vines that grow wild to make the venue a really fresh and organic feel. The porches are 100% yours and so is that most charming 2 bedroom and bath house in the back. 

(Look how old…the foundation is rocks! This is so my kind of place!)

And yes, the animals run wild, but Emily did say that she could tame the chickens and pheasants for the wedding and guests! 🙂

And last but not least, the ceremony site. This adorable old church window is situated at the back of the ceremony site and would be an adorable and picturesque backdrop! Even if you don’t want the church window as the ceremony location, you can always opt to having the ceremony at another location on the property (Love the flexibility)!

After being outside for no more than 15 minutes, I couldn’t feel my fingers, nose or ears. It was time to head back to the car. 😦 Emily and her husband were busy getting ready for the agricultural fair and we didn’t want to keep them any longer than we already had so we decided to head to Nashville for some lunch. 

Watermelon Moon Farm is definitely a phenomenal location and I would love to go back and see it in full bloom! Plus, the pricing is unlike any venue in Knoxville, at least not like one with as much character and charm!!! 

Next week is a venue a little bit on the bigger side. Make sure to check back to see Maple Grove Inn! 

Planning the Big Day ~ All the Inspiration

One of the most amazing things about planning a wedding nowadays is the amount of inspiration that is out there! Whether it be wedding blogs, Pinterest, wedding magazines or friends’ albums on Facebook, there is always somewhere to draw ideas from! I love visiting wedding blogs! There are some seriously amazing brides out there who think of anything and everything to make their wedding unique! I can get my cup of coffee in the morning, check my email and just sit on wedding blogs for HOURS!!! Don’t put it past me on a Sunday morning!

This is going to be a very small post this week, but hopefully, the amount of info and additional looksies will keep you occupied for some time! 🙂

Here are the blogs that I hit up (at least) daily:

Green Wedding Shoes: Robby and I are doing vintage spoons for the wedding that I found on this blog the first day I visited it! 

DIY Vintage Spoons

Ruffled: They have some of the best vintage weddings out there!

Style Me Pretty: Their blog slogan is perfect. “The Ultimate Wedding Blog”

Southern Weddings Magazine: because when your a Southern Bride, this is your Bible!

One of their writers, Emily, is currently writing about planning her own wedding!

100 Layer Cake: They have some amazing DIY tutorials!

Once Wed: The most elegant wedding blog I’ve come across…the photography they feature is to die for!

I fell in love with this Farm Fresh Wedding Photoshoot so much that Robby and I visited the venue…check back next week for my post on Watermelon Moon Farm!

The Wedding Chicks: I love their vendors and DIY tutorials!

Rinse. Repeat.: A bride that shared her entire planning process and then surprised EVERYONE by going and eloping! She is amazing and has beautiful ideas!

I hope you have a blast going through these sites and get some phenomenal ideas!

Next week, I will talk about our quest for the perfect venue…it isn’t complete, but it is definitely a journey to talk about! 🙂

Planning the Big Day ~ The Guests

So, just in case you have recently stumbled across my blog…or me perhaps, you might have missed the small teeny tiny fact that I’m engaged!! 🙂 Yes, the love of my life popped the BIG question on a beautiful May day at none other than the Biltmore! You can check out our blissful (and I have to say the sweetest, most thoughtful and most romantic) engagement right here at Jennie Andrews Photography!

I am beyond excited to start on this little endeavor known as planning a wedding. Most brides probably have a slight panic attack when they realize just how much goes into planning a big shindig…where as I have seen probably (creeping up on) 100 weddings while tagging along with Jennie Andrews over the last 3 wedding seasons, so naturally I thought I had this in the bag. Oh boy…was I wrong! I feel like I just made 5 brides decide on eloping. 😦 But to be honest, I have seen SO much and have had SO many ideas, that deciding on what I really wanted and what would capture Robby and I as a couple has been a little bit tricky! I know I’m not the only bride out there who has felt like this (I follow an amazing blogosphere of ladies who blog about this very subject – see the end of the post for links). So I would like to put it all out there. Go through the tough guest list decisions, the breaking of traditions, deciding on if we should have a carving station or not…all of the little things that are left out of the bridal binders. Especially for planning a wedding here in East Tn! I hope to give you some venues that are a little bit less known, some alternative ideas for bands or DJ’s, and maybe even some DIY moments thrown in here or there (because lets face it…this is definitely going to be a DIY wedding)!

One thing Robby and I knew from the beginning, was we wanted only close friends and family and we wanted it to be laid back. Not show up in your blue jeans and flippie floppies laid back, but a relaxed atmosphere..no fuss. We’ve patiently waited 8 years for this marriage to begin (it’ll be 9.5 by the time the wedding rolls around) so we want to focus on us and making this a day that WE will remember.

Believe it or not, the guest list was the first thing we tackled. I had been told by many, many people that this is where the fights lie. He’ll want this person and that person and you’ll want friends that you haven’t seen in years there. I already knew that family was a must for me…and boy do I have a big family. So I knew that I would have to cut back on the friends…whereas Robby has a microscopic family (compared to mine) so he gets to go wild with his guys, and that was something that I had no problem compromising on. I am very, very happy to say that the mission of the guest list was solved one night, sitting at a restaurant where I had a glass of wine and Robby had a beer. No fights, no “if you are going to invite that person then I want to invite this person”. We even started suggesting who the other should invite! 🙂 We had decided that 80 was the number we wanted to stay close to, but we allowed ourselves the wiggle room so as not to add stress to a “potentially” stressful decision. Although the guest list isn’t 100% finalized, we have a hard list. Meaning, no one will be added. If we haven’t thought of them yet, then there must be a reason (ouch…little harsh there Kay). Once we finalize the venue, we are hoping to finalize the list!

Image by: Jill Thomas Photography found on explore. dream. discover

Need help on narrowing down (or even just beginning) a guest list? I actually created a list of my own, and Robby (with some help from his mom) created his list. Then we came together and went over both of them. Since we had a number in mind that we didn’t want to veer away from too much, that limited each of us while we created our own lists. We created a list of the “bare essentials” as we are calling them. These are the people that we wouldn’t feel right if they weren’t at the wedding. Basically, all of our family members were on this list (with the exception of the long lost aunt and uncle or the cousins that we haven’t seen since we were 7). Obviously, not everyone is in the situation we are. I have a close friend who doesn’t like half of her family. Not that she doesn’t see them…but she doesn’t like them. I have told her…”now thats a tough one” many times! Your wedding is your and your fiance’s day. And you should spend it with and surrounded by the people who will be there throughout your marriage to support and guide you. Hopefully that will help make those little odds and ends fall into place. 

Check back next week for our “Venue” post…man oh man…Knoxville has some killer areas for venues!!!