{real wedding} melissa + scott's local southern wedding

There is something so charming with southern wedding. I was smitten from the moment I saw Melissa + Scott's wedding.  Here's what couple had to say about their wedding...We love local. We love food. We love each other.

I wish I could say that I had some grand vision for my wedding and that I nourished every detail for the event from the ground up. That would be a lie.  I had just begun my first year of teaching, so busy was an understatement. The summer before I began teaching, Scott proposed to me at St. George Island during a joined family vacation. We had been together for 6 years at that time and we had talked openly about getting married, but had never actually gotten our act together. We had already designed our rings with BLUE, so it was really only a surprise for everybody else! When we came back in from our walk and announced our engagement, everybody thought we were joking and ignored us. “No, really!” I said holding up my left hand…then the celebrating began.

Not too long after, we started looking at venues and tossing around ideas. We wanted to be able to share our love for local, seasonal food and for the outdoors with our friends and family. We also wanted a comfortable setting that would not put us into great debt. We discussed everything from the hike-Inn at Amicacola Falls to a more sophisticated Asheville affair to the Altanta Botanical Gardens, but nothing seemed to fit both our sense of self and our budget. Scott had taken over the search once the school year started, and he expanded our search to other areas where we had gone hiking. He found Sweet Home Plantation on an internet search based around the Pine Mountain area. We had hiked the area on multiple occasions and took a short trip down in the Fall to see the place. We fell in LOVE!! The grounds are tranquil and picturesque without being too manicured, plus Bobbie gave us the freedom to create the event we wanted for a set price that would not go up if we needed an extra table or wine glass (did I mention we are a bit thrifty and were appalled at the costliness of the average wedding).

The location of Sweet Home is very rural, so I asked if there were any local farmers or vegetable stands I could visit. I am part of a CSA at home, so it is not like the fridge was bare, but I am a sucker for buying things from the people who grew them. It turns out that our Sweet Home contact was a frequent visitor to the Jack and Jenny Sun Farms, which was just down the road. We paid the farm a visit, bought some garlic and sweet potatoes, and arranged with Jenny and Chris to supply the produce and some of the flowers for the wedding. They gave us Shannon Klein’s number who had done some dinners at the farm with her company Food Blossoms Catering. We were on our way back to Atlanta with our wedding pretty much planned!

It just took a couple of more phone calls to Shannon’s friend Kelly Geer to get the details of what we really wanted worked out and set into action. Kelly and Shannon had worked together previously planning farm suppers at with Jenny and Chris. Kelly is amazing! She listened and got to know us and what we wanted for the event. She was able to bring to life ideas that were limited to a few words I had strung together. Somehow I managed to surround myself with people who could take the phrase “simple summer outdoor wedding” and flesh it out into the beautiful event that we all got to enjoy.

The only hitch was the weather (no, it didn’t rain!), but because spring had sprung so early and suddenly this year, some of the arrangements I had made for the local flowers were not able to accommodate my order. I took a drive with Rebecca Traylor a couple of days before the event to Athens to pick up the flowers. I loved taking a tour of the farm, picking out the buckets I wanted, and then loading and seat-belting them into the car for the frostily air-conditioned ride to Pine Mountain. That is the thing about going local. Sometimes doing things the right way means being flexible. Getting dirty with my nails done…now that is more like it!

Scott and I really ENJOYED our wedding. So many people don’t even get to eat at their wedding. Scott and I are not micromanagers; so many aspects of the wedding were so much better because we did not put any constraints on the people there to run the event...there were so many pleasant surprises for us the whole night from Gary’s song choices to the Special “firefly” decoration Rebecca made for our table. The story of our wedding is really about getting wonderful, talented people together and allowing them to be themselves so that we could do the same. There was NO stress that day…I mean it! We enjoyed everything from the photos, to saying Scott’s carefully arranged vows, to walking into the beautifully laid out reception area, to cutting the pies, to saying good-night. We did things our way and tapped into a wonderful community of like-minded people. What a joyous day it was!

{Photography} Moss & Issac

{Event Designer} Kelly Geer

{Venue} Sweet Home Plantation 

{Make Up/Hair} Laurin Trudeau  

{Cake (pie) and Caterer}Shannon Klein

{DJ/Music} Gary Brown

{Dress & shoe designer} Joli Bridal and Gianni Bini

{Flowers and Produce} Jenny Jack Sun Farm Fertile Crescent Farm

{Groom Attire} Men’s Warehouse Wilke-Rodriguez Vested Suit

{Bridal Party Attire} Belsoie

{Jewelry} Blue Goldsmith

{Lighting} Rebecca Traylor

{Officiant} Charlotte Brachiers

{Stationery} Minted