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A hunt country wedding calls for houndstooth! I loved this subtle nod to our wedding locale that was woven throughout many design elements over the course of the weekend, but was first used in our save the dates.
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All ears during our ceremony rehearsal. In true Jackson style, my groom doesn’t appear to have any pre-wedding jitters. I loved wearing this One Of creation in designer Patricia Voto’s dahlia taffeta print on Friday afternoon. I believe I first saw this fabric featured on OTM in the form of a two-piece set (still available online!) but politely asked Patricia if she might be willing to make it into a dress.
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I had shared with Carey Lowe of The Idea Emporium that I wanted our wedding to be "steeped in tradition, but full of whimsy,” and I feel as though Carey brought that phrase to life with this invitation. The tradition: letterpress stationery, classic script, botanical prints, the embossed 'W' cartouche. The whimsy: the unexpected octagonal shape of the invite, the houndstooth detail card pockets, the 'W' velvet pull tabs.
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The Wilburs hosted the most beautiful rehearsal dinner and welcome party (thank you, Katie & Mike!!) at the Red Fox Inn. The back terrace was the perfect venue with its twinkly white lights for our first gathering of all our friends and family.
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The Red Fox Inn is one of the nation's longest running inns, having been established in 1728. I thought this Elizabeth Filmore silk number and gem encrusted topper combo matched the old world elegance of the dining room quite nicely (if I do say so myself!).
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Loved Calder's idea of having matchboxes as our escort cards for Saturday night. Hopefully they made it into the homes of our guests to spark warm memories for them of a really fun wedding weekend.
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I was torn between a few silk options from Elizabeth Filmore, but once I tried this one with the cowl worn down the back, I was sold. I mean, who doesn’t love a cowl moment…the drama! Speaking of drama, the mantle florals by Sophie Felts were stunning and all those candles made the room so dreamy and cozy.
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There's my groom! Jackson also embraced houndstooth for Middleburg. I feel like our smiles were this big all weekend. We received a healthy dose of toasting and roasting on Friday night.
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It was not lost on me how special it was to have this specific group of people coming together to celebrate us for an entire weekend. As my mom often reminds me, time is the ultimate equalizer, so to ask your friends and family to give up a weekend of their lives on your behalf is no small favor. Truly surreal and a precious gift to look around and see so many people from different phases of our lives come together to celebrate us in one place.
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Loved our Friday night tablescape illuminated by amber votives and that our flowers were mostly white with pops of green, a nice contrast to the more colorful palette on Saturday.
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My sweet sissies and maids of honor in a quiet getting ready hug. Kathryn and Lucy delivered the funniest and most heartfelt speeches at the reception, all the while looking amazing – I was simultaneously touched by their words and so proud of them. Love them so much!
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Dad!! When I noticed that my dad was tearing up at our first look, I thought I was about to cry all my make up off. My mom and sisters are just out of frame and we all broke down for 30 seconds (anyone who knows the Whitneys can attest, this is not atypical - we're an emotional bunch!) But just as quickly as we realized we were all crying, we burst out laughing. Also not uncommon for our family. My dad’s elegant boutonniere made of hellebores and seeded eucalyptus fit in perfectly with the garden setting. Although we compared him to Father of the Bride’s George Stanley Banks many times throughout the planning process, my dad is the most patient and gracious father a daughter could ask for. And doesn’t he look dashing?! Love you, Dad!
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I told you we’re emotional! My mom was my constant partner in wedding design (and occasionally crime!). Nanners has exquisite taste, which I leaned on heavily. Everyone loved my mom’s custom Lee Anderson shimmery dove gray satin number, with its botanical inverted pleat in the front. I thought she looked beautiful!
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The MeggyMaids!! Sisters, cousins, childhood friends, best friends from college…lucky to have ‘em all in my life. And they looked GOOD! I asked them to choose dresses in muted shades of pink, purple and black with some floral prints interspersed as a nod to the floral appliques on my dress and our Glenstone Gardens wedding. Extra shoutout to my cousin, Emily, who is 7ish months pregnant in this photo and looking amazing – queen!
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Our photographer, Erich, was cracking us up during these pics. At one point, he was giving some instruction to one of my bridesmaids who shall remain nameless and goes, “Okay could you not hold your arm like that? Like maybe try acting like a human?” We were all giggles after that quip.
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I mean this light?! Come on. I could’ve looked like an absolute hag in a gunny sack with this lighting and I still would’ve been glowing. Kidding…but someone was definitely looking out for us upstairs because we had incredible weather all weekend. After an emotionally draining wedding dress search, I love the dress I ultimately chose. This Oscar de la Renta gown originally had straps that we removed, and with the floral appliques I thought it was the perfect dress for our garden nuptials.
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The boys looking dapper! I was later told that in the name of groomsmenship, male bonding, camaraderie etc. the fellas had all gone in on a college football bet that did *not* hit while they were getting ready together. Good to see that didn’t dampen their spirits and ensuing revelry. Also note that Jackson put the onl
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Wilbur boys looking handsome (missing the equally handsome, Davis!). Perhaps my groom’s spirits weren’t dampened in part due to the spirits? Only a matter of time until this pic hits Weston’s dating app profiles. . .
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Love at first look! Glenstone showing off while we showed off our looks to each other. Virginia is for lovers!
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Practice makes perfect for our “You may now kiss the bride!” moment.
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My cousin’s adorable three daughters, Teagan, Kenley, and Locklyn, were our flower girls and they took their duties very seriously. Also, the bigger the bows, the better.
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Teagan, Kenley, and Locklyn looking downright cherubic in action. When they reached the end of the aisle, they gave high fives to the entire wedding party – needless to say the crowd loved that.
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Aisle of my dreams! In my dad’s toast, he remarked how after he had commented that it was so great that we were getting married in a garden so that we wouldn’t have to devote too many resources to bringing in florals, he was mysteriously dropped from all of the wedding design calls and moved to “Accounts Payable”….sorry Dad! Sophie Felts and her team did a stellar job with the floral design of the entire weekend….from my bouquet, to the aisle, to the floral adorned altar, to the arrangements on our tables and behind the band even Dottie’s floralized dog collar and leash and our getaway car…Sophie has an incredible eye and completely understood what we were looking for.
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Petals for tossing in the iconic houndstooth! I love that old school tradition…
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After envisioning this moment over and over, I couldn’t believe the time had finally come to walk down the aisle. I was expecting to feel a bit nervous or teary because that’s in my nature, but fortunately, overwhelming happiness crowded out any other competing emotion. Walking down the aisle with my dad is a memory I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
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The reason for the season! Of course I’m biased, but I thought our ceremony was so special. I always knew I wanted to have a religious ceremony, but since we were getting married outside, it became especially important as we wouldn’t be able to rely on the sanctity and reverence that a church setting naturally provides. Our officiant, the Rev. Dr. Mark Anschutz, delivered a moving ceremony and homily chock full of pearls of wisdom on the sacred nature and meaning of marriage. While of course we wanted to respect all of the traditions that embody an Episcopal ceremony, Jackson and I wanted to ensure that the ceremony was also reflective of our personalities and of us as a couple. I think we were able to achieve that by delivering vows we wrote ourselves – the tears finally caught up to me at that point. I was just so happy to be marrying Jackson.
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Wilbur wedded bliss!!!
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A little married frolicking.
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In a nod to one of his favorite movies, Sweet Home Alabama, Mark kept posing the question throughout his homily - why do you wanna marry me anyway? And then at the end of his remarks gave the answer from the movie - so I can kiss you whenever I want!!! Biiiig smooch!
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As much as I’d like to think I’m Jackson’s number one girl, I think we can all tell who it really is from this photo (can’t blame him!)
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Love my family more than anything! Especially thankful that my Grandma Julie could be part of our wedding. And although he is the ultimate “Girl Dad,” I think my dad is grateful to have Jackson help balance out the gender ratio of our fam. Jackson is prepared to answer my dad’s perpetual, “So what do you think of the Knicks this year?” for the rest of our lives.
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And my new family – in-law jackpot! Love the Wilburs so much.
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The middles got married! Jackson is the 2nd of 3 in a boy family and I’m the 2nd of 3 in a girl family!!! Dot girl is the most photogenic member of the family…and it’s not even close.
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We snuck away during cocktail hour for a few more pics with Erich…couldn’t let this light go to waste! Between lifting me up for pictures and our first dance choreography, safe to say Jackson got a workout on wedding day.
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I loved noticing small details that were carried throughout the design of the weekend like the tiebacks to the drapes matching the velvet pull tabs from our Save the Dates…(normal observations that I’m sure our guests totally noticed as well.)
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The calm before the storm.
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God is in the details!
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If someone had asked me to dream up my ideal tent design, never in a million years would I have been able to come up with this. And yet, I felt like this so conveyed our personality as a couple: warm, inviting, classic but a little unexpected and most of all, fun!
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I have a confession, I never wanted to get married in fall. Needless to say that’s changed, I’m a fall-wedding evangelist now, specifically for the month of October. But when we originally secured our October 19th date, I was having nightmares of hay bales, red plaid, mums…you catch my drift, a real “it’s fall y’all” vibe. (I like those things, just *not* at our wedding per se.) Of course, with someone whose taste is as refined as Calder’s at the helm, those elements weren’t ever going to make it to our wedding day design. But for a while, I was spring/summer bride in recovery, trying to push for bright fuchsias and oranges in our florals. I think we ultimately landed in the right spot, with a few springier tones in our florals against our decidedly autumnal linens and plate stack. And how cute are those twig candles – there’s the whimsy!
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Love this stack. I definitely saw more than one woman with her place card bow in her hair on the dance floor after dinner.
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Jackson’s first year college roommate shared that he wanted to be reincarnated as one of our dance floor trees. Ditto, Connor, ditto.
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And the couple served…green cake! If you eat with your eyes first, as chefs believe, this cake did not disappoint. Our dark chocolate and salted caramel crunch confection was as delicious as it was beautiful. In a word…sublime! The cake was by Jisoo Cake Design.
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At one point during cocktail hour, Jackson and I went up on the ridge overlooking our tent to take more photos with Erich. It was so gratifying to have a birdseye view of our guests, not unlike this one, mingling and enjoying themselves.
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Mr. & Mrs. Wilbur reporting to the d floor!
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We thought it’d be fun to take a few dance lessons to prepare for the big day – figuring we’d feel more comfortable dancing in front of all our friends if we had one or two big moves in our back pocket to rely on. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up with full choreo including this almost, but not quite, Dirty Dancing-esque lift. It was so much fun.
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We were having such a good time with friends and family on the dance floor, I really didn’t want to leave for our outfit change and risk missing a second of the party. But, I’m so glad we did – couldn’t leave these looks on the hangers!
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Quick trust fall with my husband, check. Loved my ceremony dress, but it wasn’t exactlyyyy the most dance floor friendly per se so I was happy to groove in this one. Wouldn’t say the platforms I was wearing were the most dance floor friendly either, but those pearl-encrusted Jimmy Choos I was determined to keep on.
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Our band, the Atlanta Showstoppers, pulled us up to dance on stage several times over the course of the night. Emboldened by our first dance success, we recycled a few of our moves, including this lift. Jackson’s dad told us later, when he realized we were going for the lift again, he was not confident we’d pull it off a second time (honestly, fair.)