As most young southern girls, I dreamed of my wedding day.
When I was little I imagined walking down the isle at the First Methodist Church in my home town, the organ bellowing, my friends lined up and my future husband waiting for me.
Although the likelihood of me getting married now is dwindling by the year, I still love the idea of a wedding, and when my friends get married I am all in and up to my elbows in all the details. I typically buy my engaged friends their first Bridal magazines and a planner to help them. So it’s no surprise when I am asked to either be a bridesmaid or to help in some capacity.
I tell everyone, “I planned my wedding when I was 19 years old and so now when I think of my potential wedding, I think of a back yard ceremony, BBQ or a courthouse.”
My older sister was getting married and while she was away at college, my mother and I
planned the whole wedding.
It was at First Methodist.
There was organ music.
And a symphony.
I picked out the bridesmaids’ dresses (I was the MOH) and helped with details on the cake, the DJ, the gifts for the bridesmaids and what food would be served. My sister basically had to show up that day and get married.
From that moment on, I was always the person my friends asked to help with their weddings. I am a jack of all trades:
- Wedding Singer (I have been singing for weddings since I was 12)
- Floralist
- Hair and Makeup Stylist
- Director
- Seamstress
- Photographer
And I am sure I am forgetting some other job description. It’s my nature to be the “fixer” and to offer a simple and mostly free solution. (I have never charged my friends, but the good ones always give me some money). When a disaster happens, I am the one that they bring in to figure out what to do.
I have thought many times to venture into doing this for a living, but I feel like it would ruin for me. After this last wedding, which I was bridesmaid, making two sets of bouquets (the first set died), doing hair and makeup, and dealing with the rain and change of venue, I don’t think I could handle it.
But I still love it.
Here are a few photos from the last three weddings I took part:
These Bouquets were made TWICE. The first set died in a refrigerator because they were bought too early in the week.
I did not make this initialed heart, but I did hang it with fishing wire from the ceiling. Haha! Sometimes you have to get creative when your Bride hands you something and says, “I don’t care where you put it as long as it gets used.”
When it comes to my friends trusting me with their hair or makeup (or both), I typically have a lengthy conversation with them about what they want to look like, but I also remind them that less makeup doesn’t show up in photographs.
For Hair, I typically have my own vision, but depending on venue, gown, and personality, we go over options. Because I am such a visual person, typically if you show me a picture of a hair style, I can mimic it flawlessly.
And then there’s the whole wedding singing thing… I typically average two to three weddings a year singing. It’s always such an honor to have a friend ask you to be part of their day. 
Talented Southerner 