RAG PEPPER: THE BRIDE

Rag Pepper: The Bride!

From the beginning, Potsy and I always knew we wanted to elope. We picked Sedona, AZ after just a three day stop-over vacation there. However, we also wanted a very festive and fancy party to celebrate with all of our friends when we came back to Nashville. I cannot speak highly enough of the vendors, locations, and even brands we chose to involve on our big day. Just for transparency, none of this post is sponsored. Below I’ve picked out some bridal inspiration and detailed our elopement and reception!

Bridal Musings

Wedding Details + Vendors

Sedona Elopement Photographer: The Shepard’s | Name another photographer that will hike over an hour down an extremely dangerous mountain in pitch black and pouring rain… I’LL WAIT. We can’t thank Aslan enough for being an irreplaceable part of that beautiful day (and Andria there in spirit!).

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Nashville Reception: Noelle Hotel | As soon as we walked in, Potsy knew this was the place I wanted to host our reception before I even had time to turn around and tell him. We wanted our reception to feel like a cocktail hour, so we had heavy hors d'oeuvres and an open bar.

Nashville Reception Photographer: Kara Nikol | A mutual friend that spent so much time capturing all of the details and providing us with so many options and photos to choose from.

Nashville Reception Balloon Installment: Vroom Vroom Balloon (the BEST team!) | I had to have them after I saw their installation at Proper Bagel. I knew they would be able to capture the feeling we wanted at our reception. We even nixed a few items to make sure they were budgeted! Afterwards, I requested to take some of the balloons home to occupy a blank wall we have in our kitchen. Just trying to get 4 clusters on the wall in ANY sort of aesthetically pleasing way took Potsy and I about 2 hours—I respected their work even more after that!

Nashville Reception Desserts: Delicious Twists | A wonderful friend used Michelle’s desserts at my bachelorette party and I knew she would be perfect for our reception. Potsy and I wanted multiple dessert options instead of a single cake, since I can never decide on my favorite. Michelle knew exactly what I wanted and beautifully executed cupcakes, cookies, and macarons!

Nashville Reception DJ: DJ KO (a dear friend!) | Normally frying bigger fish than weddings, we were so happy he was able to DJ our wedding. Couldn’t imagine anyone else filling that role.

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Wedding Dress + Veil: Olia Zavozina | I worked at Olia’s for about 6 months and unplanned, ended up getting engaged while working there. My appointment with my mom was even more special because I got to share it with my fellow coworkers and even Olia’s mother!

Wedding Bands (Bride + Groom): Consider the Wldflwrs | We came in about an hour before they closed “just to look”… and walked out having ordered our wedding bands! The staff was so gracious and not at all pushy. We probably should’ve shopped around more (they were our first stop) but we knew they were perfect.

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Bridal Canvas Sketch: Haley Maddox Designs | A dear friend with an incredible talent sketched my dress and even embellished it with feathers and sequins to match!

Save-the-Dates, Invitations, Wedding Website: Minted | I really enjoyed using Minted.com for everything! Their designs are beautiful, and getting to tweak them to fit my style without doing the entirety of the work, is perfect. We’ll be using them for our thank you cards as well.

Wedding Registry: Traveler’s Joy | I was SO thrilled to discover this website. Potsy and I already had a lot of the newly engaged couple registry items and I was so happy when a friend suggested a honeymoon registry. Very user friendly, customizable, easy to obtain your gifts, and keeps track of your thank-you list.

Wedding Book: Shutterfly | The Knot offered us a free wedding book through Shutterfly! I upgraded to matte pages and a lay-flat book because of our incredible landscape photos and simply paid the difference. Plus, Shutterfly almost always has some sort of insane deal going on!