Real Wedding:: Amanda and Shawn
We have been absolutely tickled from day one to have the honor of designing Amanda and Shawn’s wedding. We have always referred to Amanda lovingly as our ‘expo bride’. When Absolutely Fabulous Weddings made its’ debut in January at the Pensacola Bridal Show we met with hundreds of brides, passed out countless business cards and spent hours describing to those that stopped by our booth exactly who we were. We were unique. We weren’t just flowers, or design, or makeup. We weren’t separate entities hoping to reach out to brides, but instead the
‘AbFab Team’ looking to provide brides with a ‘one-stop-shop’ if you will providing three needed services for their wedding days. While we chased several leads from that day, it was an e-mail that we received from Elisabeth, Amanda’s mom, that really got the ball rolling as our first opportunity to showcase exactly what AbFab was. They would become our first official booking of the 2011 wedding season and were special to us already because they believed in our talents, motivation and desire to create the most perfect wedding day, stress free of course all the while having a blast in the process.
Our initial consult with Amanda and Elisabeth was nothing short of sensational. We laughed until there were tears in our eyes, listened attentively as Amanda shared the story of her and Shawn and just grew more amazed with the beautiful people that Elisabeth and Amanda were. We walked away from the first meeting all three of us with the same though: can every bride and mother-of-the-bride be this awesome!? They were truly special to us from the start and the journey that we took with them over the next several months couldn’t have been more perfect or gone more smoothly. They both fell in love with the olioboard of what our vision was for the big day and gave us more creative license than we could ever have dreamed of. Since the day we began designing and envisioning what their Big Day would look like everything was a breeze. Elisabeth and Amanda trusted us to make design, flower and color decisions for them and that meant the world to us, seriously. We love nothing more than for the bride to assist in giving us her vision but when we get to add to what she has already dreamt up it is literally a designers dreamworld; and we got to live it!
The day of the wedding went off flawlessly for us. Church décor was setup early on to include the gorgeous greenery and rose garlands that wrapped around the candelabras and alcove pieces that filled the church with the sweet smell of peonies and roses. Setup at Soiree was oh-so-fun. If you’ve never had the opportunity to check out this beautiful gem of a venue, you definitely need to stop in. It’s old-world chic with a hint of modern décor is the perfect venue for so many couples. It can be customized in so many ways! The centerpieces were carefully placed and the sweetheart table décor was intricately placed, special just for the bride and groom. The bouquets were passed out individually to each bridesmaid and to Amanda. We were so fortunate to have these few minutes with the girls to officially hand them their bouquets after they were finished getting ready. The flowers completely set of their look and they looked absolutely sensational! Not to mention this was the first wedding where the entire wedding party, bride and mother -of –the- bride would receive an all-day wear makeover by Alaina Mitchell herself. She worked her magic flawlessly on all of the girls, adding her special touch to each one of them and making them sparkle on this special day. They were glowing when we left them to put finishing touches on the reception venue and expected nothing short of absolutely GORGEOUS photos to come. Needless to say, although we were stunned to see Ms.
Leslie Roark's images of this beautiful day, we weren’t completely surprised to see exactly what each picture captured: a loving couple, an amazing family and true friends there to help celebrate one on of the most memorable and incredible days of Amanda and Shawn’s life.
An incredible THANK YOU to
Leslie Roark Photography for capturing each and every moment of this magical day!
We'll begin with a peek at Amanda + Shawn's olioboard that drove our inspiration!
Click
here to see more details!
And now we'll let the story unfold.......
~All the girls enjoyed being pampered by Alaina and her fabulous assistant Tara~
 |
| ~Amanda graciously agreed to be a part of our 'recycled bride' program. As part of the 'perks', these gorgeous alter pieces were transported to the reception site so they could be enjoyed even more up close and personal while everyone was celebrating! Alter pieces were a design of green hydrangeas, green amaranthus, lavender garden roses, purple ranunculus, lavender and pale yellow stock, white peonies, hypericum berries, curly willow as well as sprigs of camellia bush greenery.~ |
~Both Amanda and Shawn are FSU grads so we made sure to add touches of the gold and Seminole arrowheads to personalize. Amanda's bouquet had touches of lavender and purple ranunculus, fragrant white peonies, and pittosporum greenery. We placed a gold and pearl family heirloom brooch to add the finishing touch to her bouquet. The grooms boutonniere had white ranunculus, hypericum berries, and sprigs of dusty miller. ~
~Amanda was absolutely glowing, and what a beautiful couple her and Shawn are! Amanda's dress was exceptionally stunning and made just for her by her grandmother.~
 |
| ~blush spray roses, purple and lavender ranunculus, amranthus, pittosporum, sprigs of pale yellow and purple stock and hypericum berries composed the moss balls which hung from the sweetheart table as well as the flowers that were placed on the cake!~ |
~The girls, shining in their beautiful dresses, makeovers, and bright-eyed smiles!~
~From their first look to their exit at the end of the night, Amanda and Shawn are the epiome of a couple deep in love and happiness. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. H.! We hope that you are blessed with an incredible life with one another and can’t thank you enough for letting us be a part of your beautiful day!~
