So honored to see Lauren and Joe’s Castle Hill Cider wedding on Southern Weddings today!
Be sure to visit the amazing Southern Weddings blog for more photos and the beautiful story of Lauren and Joe!
A huge thanks to Michelle of Grey Dog for helping me photograph the day!
Today I’m so happy to share this gorgeous wedding from talented Wedding Planner, Julianne Giuliano of Soiree. Lauren and Joe were married this past Labor Day Weekend at one of our area’s beautiful venues: Castle Hill Cider and photographed by Meg of Meg Runion Studios. You will love the wonderful narrative from Lauren… it really brings the photos to life… The details of Joe and Lauren’s weddings are absolutely gorgeous… so bright and light and creative… a perfect summertime wedding! Thanks so much, Julianne!
How We Met:
Joe and I met because his youngest sister is my best friend. In college, (before I met Joe), she always joked I should marry her brother because then I would be “Lauren BullSchmitt.” (My last name is Bull and his is Schmitt- so it was a joke of ours back then). When we finally met for the first time it was love at first sight! We have always embraced our unique combination of names and our friends affectionately know as as “The BullSchmitt’s.” For the wedding, we wanted to incorporate our fun new name to honor how we met and to celebrate the official joining of our families!
Our Wedding
When we started planning,our number one objective was for the wedding to truly represent our personalities. We decided to combine two of our favorite things: live music and the mountains. We have been to over 50 concerts together since we started dating and share a love of live music. We live in Richmond, Virginia and travel often to the Charlottesville area for camping, hiking and wine tasting! So we decided to make our wedding a “concert theme” and picked a venue not too far from home in the gorgeous Blue Ridge mountains.
For the concert theme, we nicknamed our wedding “BullSchmitt Live!” and wanted to capture the energy and magic you feel at a concert. We named every table at the reception after a favorite concert we have attended. For the escort cards, we had a “Will Call” table and used concert tickets for escort cards. We made sure we had awesome live music at the wedding and had our favorite local bluegrass band for the ceremony and an 80′s cover band for the reception. I even walked down the aisle to a bluegrass version of our song- a complete surprise to my groom! I also wore a very special pair of cowgirl boots. They were signed by Tim McGraw (my favorite singer) in 2005 and I had not worn them since. In fact, they were always displayed in my house as a prized possession. I decided that marrying Joe was bigger than all of that and the only occasion special enough to warrant wearing the boots!
Our venue was absolutely gorgeous- a cidery in Keswick, VA that uses a gorgeous barn for events. We wanted our wedding to have a rustic, down home feel to it- but still traditional and romantic. We used a combination of farm tables and round tables and alternated between burlap and ruffles for the table linens. We used orange lanterns and Edison lights over the dance floor and mason jars and floating candles for centerpieces. We tried to keep the rustic and romantic themes throughout the wedding.
For the flowers, I wanted bright shades of orange. Our wedding was September 1, so we were in the late summer/early fall season. We chose orange and cream as our colors because we felt like it represented both summer and fall. My bouquet was a vibrant orange mix of Mexican Sunflowers and Dahlias. The bridesmaids carried huge bouquets of Baby’s Breath because I love the rustic, understated feel they have. Our bridesmaids wore orange sundresses with cowgirl boots and our flower girls wore orange seersucker. We then had the groomsmen wear orange seersucker ties with their beige suits to tie it all together. We really wanted our wedding to represent the natural beauty of the changing seasons.
It was absolutely the perfect day for us and we were so lucky to work with such talented vendors. They truly made our day everything we ever wanted!
The post A Real Charlottesville Wedding from Julianne Giuliano of Soiree appeared first on Charlottesville Wedding Blog.
So excited to share images from Lauren and Joe’s wedding! This wedding was packed with details and couldn’t have been a more beautiful day for two amazing people!
Their first dance was “It’s Your Love” by Tim McGraw
Dancing in the dark
Middle of the night
Taking your heart
Holding it tight
Emotional touch
Touching my skin
Askin’ you to do
What you’ve been doing
All over again
Oh, it’s a beautiful thing
Don’t think I can keep it all in
I’ve just gotta let you know
What it is that won’t let me go
It’s your love
Just does something to me
Sends a spark right through me
I can’t get enough
And if you wonder
‘Bout the spell I’m under
It’s your love
Better than I was
More than I am
All of that happened
By taking your hand
Who I am now
Is who I’ve wanted to be
Now that we’re together
Stronger than ever, happy and free
Oh, it’s a beautiful thing
Don’t think I can keep it all in
And if you ask me why I’ll change
All I gotta do is say your sweet name
It’s your love
Just does something to me
Sends a shock right through me
Can’t get enough
And if you wonder
‘Bout the spell I’m under
It’s your love
For all of you brides and grooms out there who have questions and are looking for inspiration and ideas for your rehearsal dinner, look no further than United With Love… they’ve got you covered this week. From extensive, detailed advice from several event planners in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area, to venue suggestions and even real rehearsal dinner features, it’s all going on this week. I’m also pleased to say that today’s feature highlights our very own Kelly and Hendrick. Thanks so much you two for sharing your inspiration and insight!