maggie and chris | ansley golf club wedding

Maggie and Chris were a dream to work with. With my due date for baby girl and an 8 week maternity leave stuck right in the middle of our planning, they stuck by me as I navigated my new role as mom/wedding planner. I am so blessed to have such amazing clients that believe in my work and trust my abilities. After my leave of absence, we had 6 weeks to wrap up details for their wedding day and with an amazing group of vendors by our side, these final preparations were seamless.

Maggie and Chris were referred along to me by a groomsmen of theirs, Brandon in which my husband and I met playing kickball with mutual friends. I also helped plan said mutual friends wedding (see Hannah and Jeff’s wedding here) in which Brandon was also a groomsmen. Now I just need Brandon to go ahead and get engaged himself so we can plan his wedding ;)

but back to Maggie and Chris and their beautiful wedding day….

Aside from their amazing vendor team, there were so many details I loved about their wedding. From their Grooms cake that was modeled after their dog, Merlin to Maggie wearing a redesigned version of her mothers wedding gown, there were just SO many well thought out, personal details included which made their wedding extra special.

Their welcome bags for guests were acrylic game day bags and guests from out of town all went to cheer on their alma mater, Ga-Tech in football upon their Thursday arrival- I mean how fun is that?

And you’ll have to scroll if nothing else, just to see their personalized favors- Old Bay Seasoned Potato chips (a homage to Chris’ home state of Maryland) with their faces on the bags!

Ceremony: Northside United Methodist

Reception: Ansley Golf Club

Photography: Picture This! Photography

Videography: Josh Naylor Media

Florist: Britt Wood Designs

Band: Time of Your Life Band

Cakes: Cakes by Darcy

Invitations: Paces Paper

Hair and Makeup: Make Me Up Ga

Transportation: Atlantic Limousine, Guest & Bridal Party Transportation

Special Day Limos, Rolls Royce

sam and katie | emory conference center wedding | atlanta, georgia

I was referred to Katie and Sam by the photographer for this wedding, Audrey (of Audrey Grace Photo) and was so happy to have the opportunity to connect and work with these two! From our very first meeting, I just loved these two. As Katie recently described it in a thank you note, it was truly synchronistic. We spent many planning meeting at our local coffee shop (because come to find out, in this sprawling city, we live 1.5 miles from one another)!! Katie and Sam had a fairly short engagement at just around 7 months and I actually took a 2 month maternity leave right in the middle of there as well. Such a perfect wedding and couple to come back to after having baby!

Below are some of my favorites from their day. Katie and Sam, thank you for choosing me to be such an integral part of your wedding. I feel incredibly blessed to have met you and your families both and look forward to continuing our relationship beyond the wedding planning process!

Thank you to all the vendors who made this such a success!

Venue: Emory Conference Center Hotel

Photography: Audrey Grace Photography

Videography: TNReels

Floral: Marigold & Moss

Hair + Makeup: Blush Studio

Band: Emerald Empire Band

Dress: Kelly’s Closet, Ivy and Aster

Groom Suit: Jos. A Bank

Bridesmaids Dresses: Azazie

Cakes: Gabriel’s Bakery

Light and Draping: Unique Event Elements

Getaway Pedicab: Joyride Pedicabs

Wedding Registries, a history and FAQ's

As we begin back our ‘in the know’ series , we want to get started by chatting about your Wedding Registry! We get questions from clients ALL. THE. TIME. about registries and want to share our two cents with you today :)

But, let’s first chat about the history of the wedding registry because I think that’s fun. if you’re not a total nerd like me and this doesn’t interest you, feel free to scroll below to the goods: our Registry F&Q’s

*this post is not sponsored or endorsed by any stores/products mentioned. All opinions are my own*

The History

information courtesy of registryfinder

The Chicago based retail store Marshall Fields, now known as Macy’s first instituted the practice of bridal registries as early as 1924. There is however some speculation that smaller stores began simple wedding gifting services even earlier but Marshall Fields as far as we can tell was the driving force that popularized this tradition. In 1924 the idea was a couple could indicate which china, silver and crystal patterns they preferred to friends and family.

The Great Depression in the 30’s led to decreased numbers in homeownership, as well as marriages. The impact on the registry business was simply fewer sales overall.

World War II was an obvious time of great violence and destruction but with that came a great influx in marriages. At the start of the war, couples were hurrying their marriages as a means of getting through the hard years and making that one last romantic gesture before deploying. Following the end of the War was an even higher increase in marriages as young couples were hopeful for peace including marriage, families and homeownership. aaaaaand … you got it, goods to fill their homes. Registry boom!

The years following World War II was a time in which the average age of marriage reached a century low and stayed there for nearly 26 years! From 1949 to 1975 the average age for men getting married was 22.9 years old, and for women it was 20.5 years old. This statistic is important to registries because young couples were starting homes together and in dire need of household appliances, linens, dishes, etc. In these years, young couples built their homes on gifts from guests. At the end of this 26 year period the barcode was invented bringing even more ease and simplicity to choosing their preferred wares for gifting.

At the turn of the century, the average age for marriage increased to the upper 20’s lending way to young professionals with already established homes (independent of a spouse and often furnished). The ease and simplicity of these registries, as well as the types of products so often added in the 50’s remains the same even today: appliances, silverware, china.

But what the 21st century has also brought is an evolved registry that are often more specialized (honeymoon registry, baby registry, home registry). Additionally there are registries that allow you to put items from multiple stores on one single registry, AKA the Universal Registry. SOOOO a somewhat brief synopsis of the evolution of the wedding registry , now onto our Registry F&Q’s!

Registry F&Q’s

Let’s just jump right in with some common themes …

'We live together already and have so many home goods already” OR “We both have homes full of furniture, appliances, etc. and will be moving in together so we really don’t have a huge need for traditional registry items.” “WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?”

Let’s face it, in today’s modern age-many couples are moving in together pre marriage and even pre engagement. My husband and I had an apartment together and then bought a home together before we got married. This left us with a pretty full house of goods already. What I suggest in this scenario is take this as a time to upgrade some appliances and kitchen wares that have seen better days. Register for that stand up mixer you’ve always dreamed of having but never quite pulled the plug on buying yourself. Not into traditional china? No problem! There are so many beautiful everyday plate and glassware options to add to your entertaining stock.

Have you thought of doing a Honeymoon registry? There are many options for gifting ‘experiences’ rather than tangible items now and we highly suggest taking advantage of that. Places like Zola, Honeyfund and Blueprint act more like a crowd funding site than an actual registry and allow your guests to contribute to things like a down payment for a home, donations to charity and most commonly, travel and honeymoon expenses. What we love about a honeymoon registry is that your guests can choose to help you pay for airfare, treat you to a meal on the beach or greet you with champagne upon arrival- all experiential gifts that we think will be long remembered.

‘How many places should I register?’

While there is no formula to this, we suggest registering at 2-3 stores and also adding a honeymoon option. Big box stores such as William Sonoma, Crate and Barrel or even Target can be great jumping off points depending on what you are specifically looking to register for. Also, don;t be afraid to register at a local boutique that you just love even if guests are mostly from out of town. If you are having showers in the area, this is a great opportunity for your local guests to pick you up that special item you are dying to have at your favorite local boutique.

‘When do we register?’

Look out for local registry events in your area. Large stores will often have registry events which can be a fun date night for you and your significant other to attend together. They’ll often greet you with a drink and some appetizers and have registry experts on site answering your questions about products ad you build your registry. In addition, we do suggest you start registries early. Like before you send Save the Dates early. This way, when you send your save the date with your website information, guests can access your registries right away! You also may be surprised with an engagement gift or two from your registry as well :)

‘WHAT do we put on there?’

This could be a blog post in itself so while refraining from going into too much detail, many stores will have a checklist or suggested list for you to work off of. Again, use your registry as an opportunity to update worn items and build your home together as a couple. If you really love cooking together, try out some fun, new gadgets in the kitchen. If you entertain frequently, update your martini glass collection, register for that wine decanter, add those whiskey rocks! A few items that I am thankful we registered for that get used frequently in our home are ….

Le Creuset Deep Dutch Oven. We use this ALL THE TIME. Thank you Tom and Kate Peters ;) This is such a versatile pot and plenty roomy enough for big batches of homemade spaghetti sauce or chili as well.

You can find similar here.

J.A. Henkels Knife Set, thanks Mom and Dad! Ours knife situation was seriously lacking and now we are we equipped with all the things cutlery related. I don’t think I even realized what we were missing out on until we started using our block set. Now you better believe I use the correct knife to cut my fruit and a bread knife really makes all the difference when slicing through a loaf of bread or even a bagel!

You can find Similar here.

Kitchen Island. Yes, you read that correctly. We registered for a kitchen island and it obviously gets used daily. Tim Smith, you are a gem my dear friend. Our Kitchen isn’t the largest so when I saw this Island at Crate and Barrel, I knew it was the perfect size for our little kitchen and would be a great addition since we lack counter space. This is the exact Island we have but we opted for ‘mint’ to add a bit of color to our previously all white kitchen.

I hope this helped answer some of your burning registry questions!! If you have others, I’d love to be able to answer them for you so leave a comment here or get in touch via hannah@likethedazzling.com