Elegant Southern Wedding: Whimsical Charm & DIY Details

Deeply southern and whimsical elements contributed to make Deirdre and Jason's wedding day both personal and elegant. Their bright color pallet of coral pink was punctuated with pops of mint and gold. As a letterpress artist, the bride took on the project of created all of the amazing paper items herself! This stately southern wedding it far too grand an affair to be missed!
Due to how fab this wedding is, we know you are going to want to see even more. Not to worry, there's always loads more to see in the full gallery gorgeously captured by Elisa Bricker.

From the Bride:As a graphic designer and letterpress printer, one of the other most important details to me was the paper goods. I letterpressed each piece of the invitation suite, and then I dip dyed each invitation with a pattern that was meant to echo the Shenandoah mountains that grace the skyline of Orange. I think my favorite thing to design was the program, where I felt we could get really personal, including a photo page of the bridal party, and a page with interesting/embarrassing facts about Jason and I.

We found out that there was a Catholic church in Orange, and felt the stars were aligning when we went for a mass and not only did the reading happen to be about the wedding feast at Cana, but the pastor had been a priest at my childhood church in Northern Virginia.

Jason and I had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted for our wedding, but were having a hell of a time finding a venue in the DC metro area that fit the bill, until a coworker of Jason's suggested the Inn at Willow Grove. Despite being an hour and a half drive from home, we knew the moment we visited that it had to be our venue. After deciding on the Inn, the rest of the details came together easily.

Due to the venue's availability we only had about 6 months to plan and realizing I was in a bit over my head, I hired a dear friend since high school, Meredith Zeller of Sage Nines Events to plan our wedding. She brought in her business partner, Shannon O'Kelley, and the two of them made wedding planning not only a breeze, but such a joy. They contributed countless ideas, negotiated with vendors, made sure that everything came together smoothly...and trekked all the way from Nashville to do so!

I would advise brides-to-be out there to consider budgeting for a wedding planner. It seemed like something that was out of my price range, but I found out early in the process that a lot of vendors are much more willing to negotiate on price with a wedding planner. And most importantly, I was completely stress-free throughout our wedding weekend and was able to enjoy every moment because my planners (Meredith and Shannon of Sage Nines) handled anything and everything that popped up behind the scenes.

• Bridesmaid: Plum Pretty Sugar
• Cake Topper: Bonjour Poupette
• Dress designer: Marisa
• Event Planning & Design: Sage Nines
• Flowers: Sugar Magnolias
• Hair & Makeup: Le Mariee
• Jewelry: Kate Spade
• Paper Goods & Calligraphy: Meme Davis
• Rentals: MS Events
• Stationery: Meant To Be Calligraphy
• Stationery: Lennah Press
• Venue: Inn at Willow Grove
• Wedding Dresses: Amsale