Southern Garden Chic Wedding Inspiration

Where oh where to begin with this beauty from Landon Hendrick Photography, Ring Around Rose Events, and A Beautiful Theme? This sweet editorial fuses southern charm with classic beauty and an endless array of lush floral arrangements, PLUS a signature cocktail recipe. Let’s jump in!

From the photographer, Landon Hendrick Photography: We wanted to create a garden wedding that was chic, elegant, sexy, and just romantic. We wanted to create a wedding that would want you to say I do all over again with sugar on top. This is a lush wedding filled with flowers, greenery, touch of gold for the bride with the chic flare and beautiful wood elements for those obsessed with southern living. Starting with our ceremony setup we built a pergola and filled it with lushes flowers and greenery. We framed the aisle with garland and flowers made for a garden princes with french country chairs for the guests. Our Bride started with an elegant and romantic braid up do to show off her beautiful lace dress. Our attention was everything garden so of course we had our handsome groom dapper it up with a beautiful floral tie. Every Chic bride should be allowed to have two bouquets if she desires, its allowed its a garden wedding.Perfect one for tossing and one for keepsake. For the cocktail hour we wanted to create a romantic setup for the two newlyweds to cozy up and bring the elegance out to the garden. We selected a chaise lounge and draped it with garlands with a beautiful gold bar stand with gorgeous signature drinks that fit the garden feel with the delicious sweet blackberries. Our drinks were beautifully accompanied by a sign with a watercolored image of the actual signature drink. For the DIY bride this is a delicious simple signature drink strong enough for a man and sweet enough for our delicate brides. Recipe For Blackberry Thyme Signature drink is included below.

We added a chic touch by hanging beautiful flower filled atriums and a chandelier from our beautiful southern moss trees. Moving on to our swing dessert table we made this beautiful table swing from oak wood with live edge to keep everything true to the garden feel. This was a super easy DIY project! We cut a slab off of a tree trunk, sanded it down and sealed it. So gorgeous we couldn’t bare to toss after the shoot so repurposed it to be our office coffee table now. On our dessert swing you will find our beautiful donut tower, delicious gold/watercolored macaroons, the perfect cupcake size miniature naked cakes garnished with beautiful flowers and greenery. We incorporated a beautiful simple wedding cake with flowers and greenery to complete the perfect garden wedding dessert swing. We are so blessed to have beautiful large mossy trees in Florida, even though they never change color, we don’t mind because they are stunning. We hung the swing off a beautiful tree and covered the rope with beautiful garland and flowers for a stunning effect that looks like the swing is being held up by nature. All of our desserts were beautifully labeled with calligraphy signs.

Moving on to the reception we selected a beautiful white wood farm table to stay true to our southern living style and filled it with a draping garland and flowers. We added gold/ivory candles to set the mood and set it under our beautiful moss trees underneath a chandelier and flower filled atriums. For our plate settings we selected a square clear glad charger with a beaded gold rim to add that elegant touch to the outdoors. Our goal was to create a wedding that would show brides how they can bring the elegance, the chic, the romance to a garden. We wanted to enhance even more the romance by having the bride/grooms vows hand watercolored onto a scroll that draped behind their seats during their reception. We wanted to show them from beginning to end how their wedding could look. And it would look gorgeous if I do say so myself!!!! To keep the garden wedding glamorous we had the bride with an updo for the ceremony and then a second look for reception. It’s perfect for the bride who can’t afford two dresses but wants to do a second look for the party.

Signature Drink recipe:
1 c. blackberries + 8 more for garnish
1 c. Water
1 c. sugar
1 bottle of champagne
4 ounces or 1/2 c. gin
4 long sprigs of thyme
Directions to make blackberry syrup: Bring blackberries, water, and sugar to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain blackberries, and allow to cool then refrigerate. Syrup can be made up to a week in advance.

Directions on how to serve: add 1 ounce of gin to each champagne glass. Next drop two blackberries in each glass, followed by 2 ounces of homemade blackberry simple syrup. Fill the rest of the glass with champagne and top with a sprig of thyme in each glass. Voila!

Make sure you catch the behind-the-scenes film from KEJ Productions: