Today’s wedding is so classic and sweet, yet fresh. And when your venue is the Biltmore Estate, timeless elegance is a given. Then the colorful florals just boost the beauty factor even more!
The lovely Heather shares some of the details:
Ben and I had so much fun planning our wedding. We decided early in the planning to have “Joy” as the theme. We planned the wedding in less than 5 months, so we had to pick what was important to us. During all of our planning meetings, which were a lot of family dinners at my parents, we determine our goal to get everything that had to be done, finished before Friday. We wanted enjoy every moment of the whole weekend with our family and friends.
We had the wedding ceremony at the Inn at Biltmore Estates with a breathtaking view of the mountains. Our colors were shades of blues, purples and pink. It was wonderful to have Ben’s father and stepmother play a flute duet before the wedding as everyone was being seated. The ceremony was very special with my childhood minster presiding over the service and the exchanging of our vows that we had written together. One of my parent’s lifelong friends, Big Jim, gifted us with a Beech tree, a symbol of strength and endurance. During the ceremony Ben and I poured dirt around the base of the tree as a sign of our unity and after the wedding we planted it at the North Carolina Mountain house.
The reception was on the veranda at the Lioncrest. A lot of the loving details of our wedding were from close family friends. The florists, Link and Alexis Johnsten of Eau Gallie Florist, have been our family friends and florist for many years. They traveled up to design the most beautiful wedding arrangements for us. The place cards and table numbers were a calligraphic gift written by my mom’s good friend Brenda Zoby. Another interesting detail was our guest book. Nicole Bloom, our coordinator from the Biltmore, gave us a lovely pictorial book of Biltmore Estate. Our wedding guests signed pages of this book and we keep it on our coffee table.
It is so touching to hear all the stories from the weekend. The whole weekend was a wonderful experience from the bridesmaid luncheon at Chelsea’s Tea Room in Biltmore Village given by my Maid of Honor Meg McAllister, to the rehearsal dinner hosted by Ben’s mother and sister at The Market Place with innovative farm-to-table cuisine before the wedding. Continuing to the day after when we gathered for brunch at Tupelo Honey with down home country cooking given by my Grandmother and our long time family friends Bertie and Jess Yates. The perfect ending to the weekend was having 33 friends and family traveled with Ben and I to the Nantahala River for white water rafting. Then we had one last get together at the Mountain house for dinner with 65 friends and family.
It was our hope that everyone would enjoy a little sample of the Western Carolina Mountains. We can’t wait to see those who are planning to join us at the Mountain house the week before our anniversary. Then Ben and I plan to spend our first anniversary enjoying a weekend in Asheville together.
Photography | Two Ring Studios
Event Planners | An Extraordinary Event
Ceremony | The Inn at Biltmore
Caterer & Cake | Biltmore Estate Catering
Florist | Eau Gallie Florist
DJ | K2 Productions
Ceremony Music | Ron Clearfield
Wedding Dress | The Collection
Shoes | Manolo Blahnik
Make-up | e. Scott Thompson
Hair | Lelena Settlemyre- Lola Salon
