Happy Friday!
I hope you’re all staying warm during these January temps. We expect our first snowstorm in the South this weekend, and I am so excited! This will be Tux’s first time playing in the snow, and I can’t wait to see it. Before I log off for the weekend, I wanted to share my wedding photos from our outdoor ceremony at The Greystone Inn in Lake Toxaway!
I have always dreamed of an outdoor wedding. Being obsessed with greenery and flowers, it couldn’t be more fitting. I was a little nervous since it had been raining all day, but just a half-hour before walking down the aisle, it stopped raining, and while Kyle and I were exchanging vows, rays of sunshine came poking through the trees. It felt so magical.
Thank you, Amanda Castle, for capturing our wedding day! 📷
Our ceremony was at 6 pm on a summer night on June 9th. We had our intermediate family there to celebrate with us, and everything was so special. Our wedding ceremony overlooked Lake Toxaway, and it was simply dressed with white rose petals down the aisle and gorgeous bouquets designed by The Blossom Jar. I purchased these beautiful large honeycomb vases at Ballard Designs to go on the pedestals my dad had built.
These photos of Kyle made me smile so hard while looking through the album. Our photographer, Amanda Castle, shot our wedding so beautifully. 
This was such a happy moment! My dad was such a champ helping me straighten out my train before walking down the aisle. My dress is from Winnie Couture in Charlotte.
All of the women wore a beautiful blush pink. Because I didn’t have bridesmaids, I thought it would look so nice if the guests were matching, and everyone looked amazing. Kyle and I bought blush ties from The Tie Bar for all the men and put them in the welcome bags. With an intimate wedding like this, the matching guests made the photos turn out stunning.
We had the sweetest officiant, and I can’t recommend her enough! She was such a blessing to work with, and she made our ceremony so special. She sent us the script of our ceremony so we could have forever. I highly recomend asking for this so you can print it in your wedding album. 
My husband ❤️ 
After the ceremony, we dove straight into family portraits. 
Before heading to the reception, we spent some time taking portraits with our photographer. It was so nice to get a moment with Kyle alone beore celebrating the rest of the night.
I love these photos so much. It was a dream day. 
And then we were off to our dinner! I’ll be sharing all of the photos from our dinner and night of celebrating in the next wedding blog.
Questions for you!
- Did you have rain on your wedding day?
- What were your wedding colors?
- If you had to get married again, what would you do differently?
We had rain (lots of it) the week of our wedding and just kept our fingers crossed that the vineyard would dry out in time. Thankfully, it did and we got to get married in a vineyard!
We had navy, coral and grey as our colors.
I would definitely make it smaller than we did so we could spend more time with those who attended.
Hi, Holly!
I bet that made for the most beautiful lighting. A vineyard wedding is stunning!
These photos are gorgeous and you looked absolutely breathtaking. ❤ Enjoy the snow, Taralynn! It’s going to miss us completely here in northwestern Oklahoma.
Thank you!!!! ♥️ I hope you get some snow soon!
Your photos are stunning! This looked like such an amazing day for a wedding. Congratulations again! 😍
Thank you, Sloan! ♥️ It was magical.
WOW! You are such a beautiful couple. These photos are amazing. I especially love the 2 photos of you on the pier laughing. You look like a model….so natural, happy and glowing! Congrats again!
You are so sweet, Pamela!
Thank you ♥️
You all looked so lovely on your wedding day! What beautiful photos.
1. It rained at night after all of the photos were taken so I took that as an extra good omen 🙂
2. Neutrals with pops of gold which I absolutely loved. We got married in a beautiful barn and the golks just really added a pop to the rusticness of everything.
3. I would likely change up some of the guest list and bridal party. I really wanted a small bridal party of 2 each but my husband has 3 brothers and 2 best friends so he really insisted on a large bridal party. It was absolutely perfect day for us.
Thank you, Lauren!
Definitely a good omen! ♥️
Your wedding sounds GORGEOUS!
I forgot to answer your questions. I am divorced now, but found my perfect match (he’s from NC too)!
Anyway…my first wedding we were married in September and it was rainy much of the day.
Our wedding colors were red, black and gold
I hope to get the chance for a do over 😉 This time around would be so much smaller and intimate. We had over 400 guests at my first wedding. I would do so many things differently.
I’m so happy you’ve found your love! ♥️ Sounds like you deserve that intimate wedding!
WOW!!!!!!!!!! These photos are amazing!!! Your photographer did a really great job!!! You are so stunning!!!! you and your hubby make such a couple!!!!! Loved that you had your Dog in the wedding!! That is the most precious thing!!!! Hope your day was everything you dreamed of!!!!!!!!!
Aw! Thank you, Nikki! ♥️
No, it didn’t rain. In fact it was the warmest day of the year so far, which was wonderful for May in England.
Our colours were Ivory and Lilac 💜
We hired a hotel on Rutland Water and had the ceremony and reception/evening party all in the same place.
I arrived in an Ivory Rolls Royce 🚗
We’ve been married 20 years this May 👰♀️🤵♂️
We renewed our vows on our 10 year anniversary, on the beach in Norfolk, on the east coast in England, where we live now and are busy planning another renewal this year too.
We had 110 guests at our wedding; if we did it again I would probably have had a few less, but it was a fantastic party
Hi, Kathy!
Sounds like the most beautiful day! Visiting England (the countryside) is on my bucketlist!
Gosh lilac and ivory! how stunning. Also I’d like to be invited next time 😂 it sounds so magical!
So beautiful! Thank you for sharing all this!
Would you mind telling us where you got the dog tux? I’m getting married in March and our doggie is our Ring Bearer 🥰
Thanks, Missy!
I got it from Chewy 😊
We had so much rain on our wedding day, but we had some amazing photos because of it. And my MIL did the sweetest thing – she collected rain so we could use it for our baby’s baptisms!!
We had navy gold, and a little pop of maroon!
I think we would do it similarly, but maybe have hired a day of coordinator. We had a large wedding, but it was what we really wanted that day :).
Your day was absolutely beautiful, and I love being able to see all the photos!
Sounds like you had such a magical day! ❤️
We got married in November so no rain, just cool temps. Our wedding colors were dark red and purple. So my bridesmaid wore a dark, crimson red dress and I had red roses and white & purple calla lillies in my bouquet. Very fall like colors 🙂
So beautiful!
Gorgeous pictures, and I love your dress!
I got married this past June as well and it stormed the night before but awesome weather the next day! It was an outdoor wedding on Lake Michigan and my colors were Sage green, gray tuxes and we had bouquets of white and light pink peonies. Second marriage so we kept it semi-low key and it was definitely everything I wanted! Congrats again! <3
Thank you, Michelle!
Your wedding sounds like an actual dream!
So so pretty! I love the intimate wedding and how the guests all followed a color scheme! Just curious- was the plan always a small wedding or did you pivot to that because of Covid! Congrats- been following your journey for about 10 years now!
Hi, Emily!
It was actually planned to be EVEN SMALLER! Kyle and I wanted to just do an elopement in Italy but with the border being closed around our original plan, we decided to just do it in the states, and of course, that meant adding in our close family. We never wanted a big wedding, so this was just our cup of tea 😊
xo xo
These photos are beautiful and you looked stunning! I also love how your hair and makeup looked – very natural but still gorgeous! Was it intimidating doing your own hair/makeup? You did a great job!
Hi, Shelby!
Thank you!! I really wanted to do my own makeup because I’ve had horrible experiences with others doing my makeup and making me feel completely like a different person. Kyle is not a fan of makeup either, so I didn’t want to completely transform my face with eyelashes, contour, etc. I really enjoyed just sitting in the hotel listening to a podcast and doing my makeup. The weather was a little wonky, so I wasn’t too concerned with making my hair look a certain way. I just added some curls and clipped it back, and I loved how it turned out 😊 I think having someone come do my hair/makeup would have given me anxiety lol
TARALYNN! These are amazing! I absolutely love every detail, so so perfect! I’ve had wedding fever lately because I feel my boyfriend will be proposing this year (we will have been together 6 years this June) so I’ve already started looking at all the fun stuff–dresses, hairstyles, colors. I bought The Knot’s wedding planner and realized I love the combo of a pale green and deep magenta. I have my eyes set on Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown, SC just north of Charleston for the ceremony and reception. It’s so beautiful and right on the water! Tons of huge oak trees and spanish moss everywhere. So dreamy! I really want to use seasonal flowers such as camellias–I fell in love with them when they were in bloom at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, and I feel they will be perfect! Just to prepare for rain, I know Hopsewee has a tent as well as a tea room. Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures of your wonderful day! <3 -Kelsey
All of that sounds absolutely gorgeous!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful and elegant!!❤️
Thank you! xo
You can see the moment the sun comes out!
These photos couldn’t be more precious.
I’m a day late and a dollar short. I have Covid-19 and a little pneumonia, but am on good meds and monoclonal antibodies.
I hope you get better soon!
Your wedding looked like it was an absolute dream! You look stunning!! Are you going to do a cost-break down of the wedding/reception? That might be too intimate to share but I was just curious, my husband and I are planning a vow renewal and we’d like to have a ceremony & reception since we didn’t have one the first time and wanted to just get an idea of costs. Now-a-days weddings are so over the top and so expensive I want to sometimes just say ‘nevermind!’