Lexington Wedding Vendors

This post has been long time coming.. sharing all about our Lexington wedding vendors and planning. I’ve included each of the vendors we worked with and a ton of photos. There’s even more photos at the end of the post, so read on!

Church: First Presbyterian Church

I grew up attending First Presbyterian Church and it was really important to me to get married there. It was so special to say our vows on the same alter where I was baptized, sang in the children’s choir, got confirmed, commissioned to go on mission trips and lead our youth group. Our minister married us and helped us pick out a meaningful service. I think both of our favorite part was that instead of my dad “giving me away” our pastor did a parental blessing, and then had the entire congregation stand up in support of our marriage. It was really cool to look out and see all the most important people in our lives there for us. My uncle said a prayer, my cousin did a reading and my grandmother sang Ave Maria. If you’re interested, FPC does weddings for non-members and it is a beautiful setting with stained glass windows and an impressive organ. One of my favorite moments of the day was immediately following the ceremony Dave and I went to the church garden for a few minutes by ourselves.

Venue: Lexington Country Club

Lexington Country Club checked all the boxes we wanted in a venue. It’s a beautiful space, so we didn’t need to bring in a lot of decor. They also do all the food and drink and provide tables, chairs, serving-ware and basic linens. It was so nice to not have to worry about separate vendors for all that stuff. The golf course makes for amazing photos. To host an event, you typically have to be a member, but you can have member sponsor you. Our menu included passed appetizers, including fried ravioli with a honey lavender dipping sauce, prosciutto & gorgonzola crostini, and chicken & waffle bites, and stations including charcuterie, crudite and salads, a shrimp & grits station and a carving station.

Photographer: The Malicotes

A photographer was one of the first things we booked and I knew I wanted to work with Kelsey! She and her husband Matt are so easy-going and fun, so we were super comfortable with them. One of my biggest fears was ending up being stuck taking photos all night, especially since we didn’t do a first look, so had to get all the group photos after the ceremony. Our ceremony was at 6:30 and I think we were in the reception by 8! That included solo shots with Dave and I at the church, big group family photos at the church, transporting from the church to LCC, bridal party photos at LCC and just Dave and I at LCC! We got a ton of photos back and are so happy with them.

Coordinator: Scripted Events

We booked a month-of coordinator to tie up all the loose ends so that my mom and I wouldn’t be stressed about coordinating deliveries/all the day-of craziness. We had a pretty good idea of what vendors we wanted and the look we were going for, so didn’t need a full-on wedding planner. Laura was so helpful. My mom met with her a month out and she took over all the logistics. She also gave us some great ideas of little things we wouldn’t have thought of, like using a coffee table book for our guest book.

Dress & Bridesmaids Dresses: Twirl

My best friend manages Twirl, so it was a no-brainer to shop there. My experience was so special and I ended up kind of surprising myself with the dress I picked out. You can read about that here. We also got bridesmaids dresses at Twirl. I thought that I would do everyone in the same dress, but ended up mixing patterns and styles and it looked so good. If you are trying to do an eclectic look, I definitely recommend working with one shop or designer so that you can actually see the dresses in person all together and guarantee they match.

Groomsmen Tuxes: Men’s Warehouse

I love the look of white dinner jackets and luckily Dave loved the idea too 😉 Since our wedding was black tie I think the dinner jackets helped the groomsmen stand out. They did rentals from Men’s Warehouse and the quality was fine, but I will say we weren’t impressed by the customer service.

Band: Flavor Big Band booked via Rob Kirkpatrick

A band was probably our main priority. We booked a Motown/big band that absolutely made the night. Like Prince may have come back to life by their rendition of Purple Rain. We worked with Rob Kirkpatrick, a local guy who books bands and he was so helpful in finding exactly what we were looking for. We gave him a budget and told him what we were looking for and he sent over several options with videos and went back and forth with our feedback. I don’t know how we would have found them without him. He also coordinated making sure they had our songs for the first dance etc. and that the band knew our favorite songs. Dave and I danced to “Fly Me To the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, my dad and I danced to “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, and Dave and his mom danced to “Hit the Road Jack,” except they switched out Jack for Dave!

Invites: Cardinal & Straw

Invites are something that can end up getting kind of out of hand price-wise. I do love paper goods, and could definitely have gone wild with the envelope liners and wax seals and such, but when it came down to it, invites were not where I wanted to spend all the budget. We found Emily of Cardinal & Straw and were so impressed by her work. I was able to pick out a design I loved that was great quality, but reasonably priced. She designed a Victorian-style monogram and I chose a script font to look like calligraphy. We went pretty simple with just a touch of gold. She printed them with thermography, which gives the look of raised ink without doing letterpress, which is more expensive.

Flowers: Stems

My mom has worked with Bonnie of Stems for years and we use them at work, so it was an easy decision. Our meeting was maybe my favorite of all the wedding vendors, because Bonnie is honest and to the point and didn’t try and sell us on a bunch of stuff we didn’t need. I showed her some Pinterest photos of what I liked and she ran with it. In addition to our bouquets and boutonnieres, she decorated the fireplace mantle, did greenery on the staircase and arrangements on tables in LCC. She was able to repurpose the bridesmaids bouquets and put them in vases. It’s funny, I would have never said that flowers were a priority in wedding planning, but I ended up being so obsessed with how ours turned out!

Cake: Sugar Forest

We did tastings at a few cake places and landed on Sugar Forest because her cake was so moist and delicious. We had plain wedding cake, champagne and chocolate flavors. I showed her pictures of cakes from Pinterest with buttercream icing in a textured look. Stems provided the flowers and the topper was my grandmother’s that my mom also used. My biggest regret of the wedding is that I didn’t think to ask my mom to save us a slice (or two) for when we got home from the honeymoon! Counting down until we can eat the top tier for our one year anniversary.

Rentals: Bryant’s Rent All

Like I said, we were lucky with our venue we didn’t need many rentals. We did a few sparkly tablecloths from Bryant’s on high top tables to add a little extra touch. We also rented a cake stand and stage for the band from them.

Bride Hair & Make-Up: Blush + Glow

I had worked with Allison of Blush + Glow before and knew from seeing other weddings that I loved their work. Dana ended up doing my hair and makeup and I loved what she did. We had a trial a month or so before the wedding and I just showed her photos (from Pinterest again, ha!) that I liked and she asked me a ton of questions to land on the final look. I’ll say it was harder than I thought to find someone who did both hair and makeup. I preferred to use one person for both as opposed to coordinating multiple. Blush + Glow is in the higher end of pricing (rightfully so), so I ended up booking someone else to do my bridesmaids. She did a fabulous job, but is no longer taking bridal clients, sorry!

Transportation: Gold Shield

We did a big bus to transport the wedding party to/from the ceremony and a Rolls Royce getaway car. Going into planning I wasn’t sold on the getaway car. It seemed silly to rent a car for a 10 minute ride, but it was more reasonably priced than I expected and certainly more special than an Uber 😉 Also my mom was worried about the bridal party not eating, so she had the bus driver pick up a Chick Fil A tray during the ceremony for everyone to snack on on the way to the reception and it was a big hit!

Rehearsal Dinner: The Apiary

My mother-in-law planned our rehearsal dinner and it was so special! The Apiary is stunningly beautiful and I love that they have indoor and outdoor spaces. During cocktail hour people wandered among their gardens. The food was amazing, and at least I’ll get to remember this meal! We each only ate one bite of food at the reception, ha!

Registry: ZOLA, L.V. Harkness & Peggy’s

Registering was maybe the most fun part of wedding planning 😉 We did the majority of our registry with ZOLA, and I could not recommend them more. They have a ton of different brands, including big names like Crate & Barrel, Le Creuset, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Kate Spade, Brooklinen and so many more. They also let you register for cash funds that you can make any amount or do an unlimited fund. My favorite thing about ZOLA is that they notify you when someone purchases a gift, and then you have the option to send it immediately, wait, or transfer it to credit. The only downfall to ZOLA is that everything is done online, so if someone wanted to purchase a gift in person (especially before a shower) they didn’t have an option to do so. Which is why I found it important to register locally as well. I registered for all my china and some serving/entertaining pieces at L.V. Harkness. I’m pretty sure it’s the only local store that offers a wide assortment of the traditional china, silver, crystal etc. I know some people say china is outdated, and while I know I won’t use it that often, I absolutely love our china pattern and know it will be so special to pull out for fancy occasions. L.V. Harkness also notified us when we received a gift and we had the option to get that gift or apply it as credit. The last place we registered was Peggy’s Gifts, my favorite local gift store. So many of our family and friends shop at Peggy’s, it only made sense to register there. We got a lot of fun serving-ware, entertaining pieces, and home decor. If y’all are interested I may do a post on what we registered for.

And now enjoy 1000 more photos, all by the Malicotes!