Backyard Chattanooga Wedding by Austin Gros Wedding Photography
It is not very often that a wedding stops me dead in my blogging tracks but this backyard ditty has done just that. It’s both a gorgeous display of wedding goodness and sweet, sweet home cooked details almost too perfect to be real. Austin Gros captured this adorable couple and their equally adorable big day and all of it has us dreaming of lovely summer soirées. The flower (yes, the really big, really gorgeous flower), the personalized mason jars, the food truck, we’ll take it all. Welcome to Monday lovelies. Now how about starting things off right with a pretty party in the full wedding gallery.
Click here to see the entire gallery of images!
From the Bride…When I think of our wedding day it plays over in my mind like an old black and white movie… like a rerun I must have watched a hundred times when I was growing up. I hear the song “home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s on repeat… with the lyrics “home is wherever I’m with you” ringing like a bell over and over again. With my fiancé at the time, now husband, being a musician, our “home” was different every weekend depending on where he was playing that night. So as you can imagine, trying to research, create, plan, and organize the perfect wedding for us was difficult yet rewarding for us all at the same time.
I would start by saying we love all things vintage, the older the better in my book. The rustic-vintage-DIY style was a no-brainer. I spent more hours than I care to mention researching various unique ways of turning traditional wedding ideas into something that reflected “us” in the best ways possible. We wanted our guest to feel at home and comfortable, kind of like they were at a big family party or a picnic. The look that we aimed for was simplistic, handmade, and whimsical. Since, our wedding was outside in my now new parent-in-laws beautiful backyard, this wasn’t hard to accomplish. Our ceremony was probably the simplest aspect of the entire wedding. We decided on the park in the center of the neighborhood. It had a circular meeting area in the middle, surrounded by tall trees, with stone seating all around it. Our families were seated around us, his on one side and mine on the other. It was just us and the preacher, no bridesmaids or groomsmen. Following our short but sweet ceremony, our guests released butterflies as we walked back down the aisle & then we paraded down the street with our “Just Married” banner waving in the air all the way to the reception site where we greeted all our guests before heading off to take pictures.
Throughout the wedding process there were three things that I was definitely sticking to my guns on. The first was our pictures, and there was no one who could capture and truly represent “us” better than our photographer Austin. His style and what we had envisioned was spot-on. Next, was our caterer, and for us, a food truck was a must! I just absolutely love the simplicity and relaxed feeling they bring to an outdoor wedding. It allows people to come and go with ease with a hint of excitement like kids flocking around an ice cream truck. To make a long story short, when Taylor (my handsome husband) proposed to me, it caught me off guard so much I actually turned and said, “I am really in the mood for some chips and salsa” before I even realized what just came out of his mouth. Of course I would say something like that! So, when we found that Moe’s Southwest Grill had a food truck that could not only cater but would set-up a huge salsa bar as well, we knew they were the ones for us. Lastly but most importantly were the flowers. I am obsessed with wild flowers! I’m a firm believer in you can never have too many flowers. When in doubt, more flowers! With our budget we knew that ordering in bulk from Sam’s was going to be our best option. I highly recommend looking into Sam’s if you haven’t already. They truly exceeded our expectations. The “thrown together look” of wildflowers in mismatched vases is a favorite of mine and we made sure these covered all the tables. The imperfection was so uniquely beautiful making each arrangement very distinct in its own way.
Wedding Photography: Austin Gros / Day of Coordinator: Cari Moretz of Socially Circled / Catering: Moe’s Mobile / Flowers: Sam’s Club / Bouquet and Boutonniere: Making Arrangements / Butterflies: Fragrant Acres Butterfly Farm / Wedding Cake and Pies: Piece-a-Cake Bakery / Wedding Invitations: Baumbirdy / Veil: Velvet Owl / Guest Book/Fingerprint Tree: Bleu De Toi / Just Married Sign: Celebrate With Fun / Venue: Private Residence / Utensils: Birchware.com / Dress: Claire Pettibone via Dream Bridal / Makeup: Darin Wright of Elea Blake Cosmetics / Paper Bags: Scrap Bits / Print: Joceybella Designs
57 Comments about “Backyard Chattanooga Wedding by Austin Gros Wedding Photography”
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This wedding is amazing!! Simple, stunning, and fun. The bride's wedding dress is gorgeous! Please tell me where it's from?
Hi I was wondering if you know or if you could find out what font was used for their names on their wedding invitation? I love it! Thanks!!
Simply amazing! Where are the mason jars with the mini chalkboards from? Was there a special kind of chalk used? Thanks!
Beautiful!!! The pictures turned out great! We had such a good time and I am so thankful for being included. Love you guys!!!!
The bride and groom are too cute! I love the moe's truck catering it adorably fits their friendly earthly feel... and you have to have mason jars to go with that!
beautiful wedding! I'm having a garden wedding as well, this August! I'd love to know where the mason jars with the mini chalkboards are from as well! Lovely wedding! :)
Those invites are so, so pretty! And I love her dress - beautiful!
I would love to know where you got the mason jars? Or if you made them, how? Also- if you were looking to sell them I would love to discuss buying them from you for my spring wedding! Congrats, the wedding was absolutely beautiful!
I am the mother of the bride. We spent countless hours making most of the decorations and I wasn't real sure how everything was going to turn out, however when I saw it all put together, it brought tears to my eyes. It was even prettier than the pictures you see (even though Kristen couldn't have found a better a photographer...we highly recommend Austin)!! A huge thanks to Austin Gros and Style Me Pretty for the opportunity to let everyone see our special day!!
adorable wedding! love the cake pops!! :)
What a lovely wedding--looks a lot like what I am hoping to achieve myself. Any info on where the dress is from?
Love this!! Such a simple, personalized celebration. The photographs really capture it beautifully -- looks like a wedding I would love to attend!
Love the cutlery ... it appears to be eco-friendly ... and beautiful at the same time.
Great photos from Austin Gros!
what a beautiful wedding. Looks so personal and intimate. Great photos!!
Wow, really, really, great stuff!
What a unique bouquet! Gorgeous wedding, love the blackboard jars!
Ann- would you consider selling those mason jars? I would need about 75? Please let me know, thank you so much!
The photos are beautiful! So honored to part of this gorgeous wedding!
Hi there! I was wondering where you got the cutlery from? What a great idea! :)
Wow! I hate we missed this wedding everything was so precious and beautiful at the same time and the Bride and Groom are the two sweetest people that I know!!!
All of these wonderful comments are making me so very happy! Thank You Style Me Pretty for featuring our wedding and special thanks to Austin Gros Photography, Cari Moretz (Day-of-Coordinator) and the Socially Circled Team, and to everybody else who brought nothing but joy to our special day!
Marlene and Kirsten-The dress is actually from Claire Pettibone’s 2007 Collection. I purchased it online from dream bridal (dreambridal.com). The gown was used and worn by another bride when I bought it.
Trisha-I am not sure the exact font they used, but baumbirdy created our invites and they have an etsy shop. If you contact them they might be able to tell you the exact font used. The link to their etsy shop is listed under the vendor list.
Ashley, Femmecletique, and Courtney- The DIY mason jars were actually really easy to make... only bad thing is they are a little time consuming. We bought our mason jars at Wal-Mart. They seemed to have the best price on their brand (Mainstay) plus the most important part... they don't have any writing/grooves one them. Many mason jars have something written on them which actually sticks up off the surface of the glass. You really want to avoid those if possible, makes the other steps later on a lot more difficult. Next we went to Hobby Lobby and bought a (ek paper shaper-eksuccessbrands.com), some clear contact paper, and some chalkboard paint (from Lowe’s). From there it’s pretty simple. Get the contact paper and use the paper shaper to punch out the template. Then leaving about an inch around the cut out stick the template outline/contact paper onto the Mason jar like it is a sticker. Try your best to place the contact paper flat onto the Mason jar. If there are a lot of bubbles then the chalkboard paint will get underneath and mess up the design. No worries if the paint does bleed under the contact paper you can use something sharp to shape it up. It does take about five coats of chalkboard paint, so we used a paint brush. Once you feel that the chalkboard paint is thick enough on the glass you can start peeling off the contact paper. Just peel slowly because sometimes the paint sticks to the paper.
Side Notes: Do not put the jars into the dishwasher, hand wash them. Also, I would go to Lowe’s and see if they recommend putting a base coat/primer to help the chalkboard paint stick to the jars better. Pretty much all of ours stayed on, but there were a few at the end of the night that peeled off from the condensation.
Also, Courtney…do you live anywhere near Chattanooga or Atlanta? The reason I am asking is it would probably cost a small fortune to mail the mason jars and I would be worried about them breaking. I would also have to see exactly how many we have left since some of the chalkboard paint did peel off due to condensation. Just let me know and I will be more than happy to look and see how many we have left. If you do decide to make your own and need more details on how we made them let me know and I will give you my email address so I can give you more information.
Angela-The utensils are from birchware.com and they are amazing. I believe that you can purchase them on Amazon though. The best thing about them is that they are compostable! Enjoy.
Hope this helps. Thanks again for all of the sweet comments.
xoxo.the bride.
What a beautiful wedding!!! The pictures are just wonderful!! I love the decorations. So many wonderful ideas! And the bride is just BEAUTIFUL!!!
My husband and I were honored to be a part of this true Southern Wedding! It was simple elegance and was captured by the photographer Austin Gros. It was a simple wedding with no bridal party which made the bride and groom really stand out! The setting for the wedding was perfect (in a park) and when the goom cried as he saw his beautiful bride, well, that just put the love and romance in the air!!! The reception was laid back and plenty of food and drinks. Not to mention the awesome blue grass band! Pecan pies, cookies, yard games, and dancing into the night was the perfect setting! The bride and groom spent many, many hours of thought and work into "hand making" everything just perfect for their special day!!! This wedding was amazing and the bride's gown was total "Southern elegance" and her handsome groom was dashing in his tux and bow tie. I will never forget the simple but awesome exotic flower that the bride was holding. Kudos to the bride and groom!
Kristen,
So excited to see these pictures! Y'all make a lovely couple in picture and in person. I really love the sweet details in all of the decorations. Girl, you got your DIY on! Oh and I got to see ML's (flower girl) dress. It was one of the most unbelievable dresses I have ever seen...can you believe Lisa made it! I hope to see you guys the next time you are in b'ham.
Cheers to you both, Cecily
Cecily-Thank you so much. You are so sweet. I wish you could have been there to see ML (flower girl) all dressed up. She was stunning! When I first saw her I almost cried because she looked so beautiful. She did such amazing job...Taylor and I were so proud of her and that dress was unbelievable. Lisa is so talented!! xo
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for all your sweet words and comments.xoxo
I feel honered to have been a guest at this wedding. Kristen is my niece and every bit as beautiful as the pictures show. One item I'd like to hit on was what was in those mason jars, another excellent idea....Kristen and Taylor had slushi machines (2) with the bottles of liquor choice on the side. You could have virgin drinks or as much or little as you wanted.
This was one of the funnest weddings we have been invited to play. The classic/downhome feel was excellant and little details really made it beautiful. Taylor and Kristen truely had a special day and we were very happy to be a part of that. The pictures are wonderful! Good luck guys!
By far the most beautiful bride i have ever seen(except for my wife of course!)
The ceremony was totally sweet and with the absence of a wedding party, all the attention was on the Bride and Groom. Where it should be. Kristen's dress was beautiful and the reception was wonderful. It was lots of fun and relaxing. Actually, I was in awe the whole night at all the attention to detail that Kristen and Taylor had put into their special day. It was amazing!
What a beautiful wedding. Beautiful bride and a hansome groom.
Oh wow, what a beautiful wedding! What is the name of the gorgeous big flower in the bride's bouquet? Thanks!
This wedding is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I love how personal and intimate it looks. The photographs are stunning. Huge kudos to your photographer!!! Kristen, I do have a question for you! Where did you get your "thank you baggies" from?? My fiance and I are thinking about having a candy bar for our reception and those look perfect for our guests to use! Thank you in advance! :)
Hello Hello,
Kay- The flower is called a Protea and it is even more lovely in person. So amazing!
jleigh182- We actually purchased the Kraft bags from Scrapbits (Etsy Shop) and I found the DIY template online (link-http://www.joceybella.com/weddingchicks/weddingtemplates/treatbag.pdf ). It is so simple...all we did was put them in the printer and next thing you know we had our favor bags. Hope this helps.
p.s. thank you thank you thank you for the sweet comments!
Kristen! I would love to speak more with you about certain details of your wedding. Feel free to e-mail me at my personal address: jleigh812@gmail.com THANK YOU! :)
I adore this wedding and will be using the chalkboard mason jar idea & also the utensils! Kristen - for the little papers you used to roll the silverware, did you stamp them yourself? Or could you let me know where you found them?
Thank you!!
Wow! I love the bouquet! So unique...stunning.
Awe...you guys are so sweet.
Tessa,
The napkin rings are actually strips of Kraft paper. I just tested a few different sizes to see which one fit best around the silverware and napkins, then I used a paper cutter to cut the strips. We purchased the pack of Kraft paper from hobby lobby. After all the strips were cut, I stamped each napkin ring (stamp and ink were also from hobby lobby). Afterward we wrapped them around the silverware and used Zots to stick them together, but the Zots did not work well so my mom started using hot glue and that worked perfectly. Hope this helps.
Have a lovely weekend!
Kristen
congratulations for the jars idea!!!! and for the bouquet..and for every detail
Hello.. Just wondering where and how you got that Moe's Van??? I love Moes! Thanks..
Hello.. I was just wondering where and how you got that Moe's Van??? I love Moes! Thanks!
Meghan,
I absolutely love Moe's! They did such a wonderful job at our wedding.
All we did was google "Food Trucks Chattanooga, TN" and there was a web site/article about mobile food vendors in the Chattanooga area. Moe's happened to be on the list, so I then searched for a Moe's truck in Chattanooga and found this web site: http://www.moeschattanooga.com/onwheels.html
You might be able to just search for "Moes on Wheels" to see where they are located.
Hope this helps.
Kristen
Hello,
I LOVE the mason jars. I saw your explanation of how you did the contact paper but I'm a little confused, could yo email me detailed instructions?? I want to do that for my son's birthday party!
Thanks!
Staci,
So glad you love the mason jars! They would look adorable at a birthday party. Good news is they actually make chalkboard Contact Paper now (so exciting!).
I know you can order it from Amazon...here is the link:
(http://www.amazon.com/Kittrich-Corporation-Chalkboard-Contact-Paper/dp/B000KKMO90 )
You might even be able to find it at a local store. Anyways, it would be a lot easier to purchase the chalkboard contact paper and then just use a large punch to cut out the design from the contact paper.
For example, we used this Flourish Square Large Punch:
(http://ektools.eksuccessbrands.com/Product/Flourish+Square+Large+Punch.aspx )
Ek Success Brands sale a ton of different designs, so you could pick which design punch you want and get the chalkboard contact paper and use the paper shaper to punch out the design. Then all you would have to do is stick the cut out of the chalkboard contact paper onto the mason jar and you are done. SOOO much easier than having to paint the jars.
If you still have any questions you can email me at kmcain10@gmail.com
Enjoy!
Kristen
Where did you get the chalkboard labels???
Amber,
We actually painted the mason jars with chalkboard paint. I typed up the DIY instructions in a reply that is posted above, but right above your post I wrote a much easier way to make these cute chalkboard labels. All you would have to use is chalkboard contact paper and a paper punch! Just look at the comment that I left Staci...there are links for where to purchase the supplies and directions on how to make them.
Enjoy!
Kristen
Did the birchware work well to eat with? I really like that idea and the reviews make it seem like a waste of money.
This wedding is so wonderful. I love all the details (esp the bouquet), and the bride looked so pretty (love the headband and make up). Where was the utensil basket from? It coordinated so well with all the decor. Was that a DIY project too!?
Hello there!
Jade...I absolutely love Birchware utensils. We had a lot left after the wedding and everyone in my family still uses them. We were actually contemplating ordering some more to keep around the house.
Christina...You are so sweet. Thank you for all the kind words. A friend was nice enough to give us the basket, so I am not sure exactly where it was purchased. I bet there are plenty of stores who carry similar baskets though. Adding the twine was a DIY project that my mother did. She just took the twine and weaved it into the basket. A very tedious project, but I think she did such an amazing job.
Have a lovely week!
Kristen
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i was wondering what your sign said underneath the mason jars. i'm wanting mason jars to drink out of them..but i'm thinking about having like the utensil or and napkin inside the jars already but even though i'm not sure what ur sign says its very cute. just wondering if you should share love your website by the way. i was so against having my reception outside at a park until now thanks..and my fiance thanks you.
crystina. u can email me if you like daycrystina25@yahoo.com
Love the details of your wedding. I am having a candy bar at my daughter's wedding. Where did you get the little paper bags? These would be perfect for scooping candy in to!!
Jackie...
A candy bar would be so much fun!!! The bags are from an Etsy shop (Scrap Bits).
Here is the link:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/scrapbits?section_id=5934852
Tell your daughter congratulations. Happy wedding planning.
Kristen