Andrea and Warren Celebrate Their Love at Their Raleigh Home

 Andrea and Warren wanted their wedding to be a fun, casual celebration at their home, surrounded by their family and friends. They both have a great sense of humor and that was going to come out in the celebration for sure... starting with the wedding entrance music. Warren is a member of a Barbershop Chorale group and many of the other members were guests, so the wedding processional was an a capella rendition of “Here Comes the Bride,” or as Andrea describes it, “the dum-dum-de-dum” version. I knew right away I was in for a fun time at their wedding.

They have a lovely home with a lush yard and the ceremony took place out in the yard under an arbor decorated with flowers and ribbons. Tables and chairs were set up in another part of the lawn and as I was leaving later, I noticed kids playing in yet another area. It was all very sweet and Norman Rockwell-ish and it was wonderful being a part of it all.

After the ceremony, Andrea and Warren had a very nice welcome for their guests, followed by a toast. 

After the toast, and as all the mingling began, there were some photo ops over by the arbor. Here’s one of me taken with the happy couple.

Over by their deck was a display of plastic pink flamingoes. I grew up in Florida, where plastic flamingoes are common, but in NC? And not even by the beach? I had to ask. Turns out that the flamingoes are an inside family joke that relates to Warren’s mom, who has now passed on, and the flamingoes were there in her honor. I’ll bet she would have LOVED that.

Before the wedding was to take place, some renovation work was going on at their home and it was supposed to have been completed by the wedding date but, of course, it began to look doubtful as the wedding date got closer. The workmen, God love ‘em, worked almost around the clock to get the walls up and painted and things finished enough to have the festivities take place in the addition, but there were some nail-biting moments to be sure for Andrea and Warren. I loved getting Andrea’s update emails about the progress. She could write a humorist’s column, she is so witty.

Inside that dining room renovation was laid out a splendid buffet of all kinds of delicious treats. Overseeing this sumptuous feast was the Chef, Kevin Ingram, of KSI Catering, proudly and ably being assisted by his son, Gregor. What you see here was just the beginning. Much more was to come later but I was not able to stay and see what that was to be. It was sure to be just as amazing, though.

 Their absolutely beautiful cake was created by Simply Cakes and with that pedigree, I am sure it tasted every bit as good as it looked.

In a corner of their living room sat this magnificent old jade tree. For those who don’t know about jade trees, they can live to a very ripe old age with care and this particular one is very old. When I asked about it, the tree had belonged to Warren’s mother and they had taken it into their home to love and care for it when she passed. How touching that is.

Andrea and Warren, I wish you all the many special years you see ahead for yourselves. May your family jade tree be a perfect harbinger of the friendship, luck and prosperity it portends and may your love thrive as well as has this tree.

Renee and Jon Celebrate Their Love and Their World Travels with a Wedding at The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill

Renee and Jon are natural givers - she is a pediatric nurse at UNC and Jon is a policeman. You can tell when you meet them that they are warm and caring people and their choice of careers bears this out as well. They are also world travelers and adventurers and their love of travel has taken them all over the globe. For their honeymoon they planned a trip to Tahiti, where they had never yet been, and it was sure to be a trip of a lifetime, even for these intrepid travelers.

They are so in tune with each other that unbeknownst to the other, each had chosen the same vow from the list of vow ideas I provide. Because they wanted their vows to be secret from each other, neither knew of the other’s choice and I just couldn’t wait for the look of surprise on their faces when it came time for their vows during the ceremony. It was priceless! I have only had one other couple do that in all the years I have been doing weddings.

They chose as their wedding location the historic Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. The wedding was held in the intimate Bryan Courtyard and the reception took place in the wonderful Old Well Room that has also entertained the likes of the young Queen Elizabeth of England. Perfect company for this globe-trotting couple, I’d say.

For their decorations, they had petals lining the aisle in the thickest edging I have ever seen and it was beautiful. The colors for the wedding were shades of purple and lavender and the petals picked this up perfectly, as did the bouquets, boutonnieres and table florals, all created by Watered Garden Florist.

photo by DJ - Randy Bennett

The ceremony took place under the large tree that is a focal point of the courtyard and the tree was strewn with lavender paper lanterns.

The Bridesmaid dresses were a lovely shade of lavender. The dresses were stunning and you can see they looked great on each of the Bridesmaids. Here is a photo that includes me, taken after the ceremony.

During the ceremony, Renee and Jon wanted to add a symbolic touch about joining their lives together and they chose a Blending of the Waters ceremony to symbolize this. They had purchased an engraved glass vial to pour the waters into and when they poured their red and blue waters together they created purple. This is a special ceremony that is not often done, unfortunately, but as the new color is created from two others, it makes for a very dramatic moment. Guests always love it, especially since so few have ever seen this before.

Their wedding planner was the very capable Rebecca Dunn of laFete, shown here with her assistant, Carly Abernathy. They were quite the dynamic duo and things went off perfectly for this very special wedding. Rebecca’s the lady on the left. Don’t they look like sisters!

The DJ for the wedding and reception was the wonderful Randy Bennett of Joe Bunn DJ Company and he was his usual friendly, kind and professional self. He is a superb DJ and I always look forward to working with him at weddings.

Their wedding cake was a fun decoration by Simply Cakes, complete with a sparkly monogram topper. Sorry my photos don’t do it the justice it deserves. It had such a happy feel to it.

As I mentioned earlier, Renee and Jon are great travelers so they naturally used that as the theme for their reception. Look at the cute suitcase box they created for the gift cards from the guests. Placed on the gift table by the photographic guest book, it made a very clever presentation and suited these world travelers perfectly.

The table names were the most fun of all. Each table was the name of one of their trip locations, with a photo of them taken at each locale. So far they have traveled to Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, Italy, Curacao, Greece, Mexico and Malta (whew!) and they were planning to honeymoon in Tahiti, which was the table name on the Bride and Groom’s table.

It was a beautiful wedding day, a fun celebration of their love and a great start to what is sure to be a grand adventure for the rest of their lives. What a treat to get to know a couple so full of life and love. My best to both of you, Renee and Jon. I hope you keep posting your travel photos so we can all continue to see the world through your adventurous eyes.