Kristen & Adam

When you've experienced the talent of Benjamin Wheeler Photography for your London elopement, there's no question that you'll invite him over to captured your North Carolina celebration too. His technique for capturing light and love are second to none and this is wonderfully apparent at this outdoor farm wedding. With an adorable first look and a festoon lit barn reception you'll be ooh and ahh-ing the whole way through this delicious set of images. Also pinning fingers at the ready for bride Kristen's keyhole back dress and floral adorned up do. Just beautiful.

Gown

Kristen the Bride: My gown was by Venus Bridals and purchased at Dar-Lynn’s in Matthews, North Carolina. Party dress was by Jill Stuart. Blue shoes by Sam Edelman.

The Venue

Claxton Farm in Weaverville, North Carolina. I had been to a wedding here about 8 years ago and in my mind I always remembered it as such a beautiful place with stunning scenery. We honestly didn’t even look at or consider another location once we decided to have the wedding in America.

Colour Scheme/Décor

I knew I wanted a mix of wildflowers so we had no colour scheme. I liked this though as I felt it gave me the chance to be more creative when picking out little details (like Adam’s ties and my sister’s dresses). Signs were designed by Etsy store ‘HelloAm’, cups/napkins by SipHipHooray.

Flowers/Florist

We purchased all the flowers from Lady Luck Flower Farm in Asheville, North Carolina. She provided us with 8 huge buckets of gorgeous wildflowers and greenery. She also made my flower crown (which I absolutely loved!). Once we picked up the flowers from the farm, I brought them back to our cottage and my sisters, aunts, mom, and I all got to work on making centerpieces! We had purchased about 40 mason jars as well as some large vases we spray painted gold. I really have to give credit to my sister, Megan and my Aunt Terry as they were incredible with the flower arranging! I loved spending this time with a special group of ladies and found this part of the planning process really fun and relaxing.

The Wedding Party Fashion

Adam’s brothers (Jamie and Jonathan) wore suits by French Connection and ties by Tie Bar. My sisters (Megan and Ashley) wore dresses by Show Me Your Mumu. I loved their dresses!

Ceremony

Our ceremony was incredibly special to Adam and I. We eloped last year in London so having a ‘ceremony’ was really just an opportunity for us to say what we wanted in front of all our family and friends. My dad led the ceremony, which was so special for both Adam and I. He did a fantastic job and I will cherish that memory of him standing up there with us forever. We exchanged our own personal vows and Adam’s were so touching that every one of our guests said they had tears in their eyes! We knew we wanted to keep in short and sweet so we could start the party and my dad did a perfect job doing that for us! We had a bluegrass band for the ceremony and cocktail hour called Bobby and the Bluegrass Tradition. They did a fantastic job and added that special bit of North Carolina to the ceremony!

Entertainment

Our band, The Radio Narks, were fantastic! I really can’t say enough great things about them. They are a band local to Greensboro, North Carolina but travel all over for weddings and events. They kept our crowd on the dance floor all night, played 6 encores, and did an awesome mash up to end the reception that had everyone cheering!

Food

We offered southern style hors d’oeuvres during the cocktail hour (fried green tomato biscuits, bacon wrapped BBQ shrimp, and black eyed pea cakes) along side Pimm’s Cups. It was a bit of America and England. At dinner, we served the meal family style so big platters on the tables of beef tenderloin and Mediterranean chicken. The best part of the meal though was the ice cream truck for dessert! We had a local ice cream company come out called Sunshine Sammie’s. They served cones, cups and ice cream cookie sandwiches. We knew we didn’t want a wedding cake (neither of us love cake) so choosing something unique was risky but everyone absolutely loved it! I would recommend to other brides to not feel like they have to do the traditional things in their wedding; it’s fun and people appreciate something different!

Photographer

Our photographer, Benjamin Wheeler, is London based and shot our elopement last November at Islington Town Hall. After he shot the elopement and we got our pictures back, we knew there was no one else we could trust to photograph our big day in America! He is talented beyond belief and truly captured the happiness and love throughout the weekend.

Final Thoughts

A good friend of ours told us just the other day that we nailed the wedding because we made sure it was just a big party! That’s all we really wanted throughout the whole planning process – to have a huge party with our closest family and friends! When I felt overwhelmed with the little details or people asking me questions about the traditional stuff I knew we didn’t care about, I just remembered what we really wanted. Our wedding day (really the whole weekend) was all about getting the people we love together to have fun! It really was the most fun day of my life!