A Southern Soiree Blog | Raleigh Weddings, Advice for Brides, Wedding News, and Adventures in Event Planning

Beth and Taylor’s Cotton Room Wedding!

Lauren and Chase’s Winter Wedding!

Laurie and McQueen Campbell’s Carolina Country Club Wedding!

Jenna and Sean’s Highgrove Wedding!

The wedding party in front of the Highgrove!

2011: A Recap of Our Favorite Moments

Wow! It’s hard to believe that 2011 is almost over. We have had an amazing year filled with wonderful weddings and events, new friends, and amazing business endeavors. Completing the year with 37 weddings, a brand new website design, an outstanding promotional video, and 2 fabulous weddings featured on Style Me Pretty (Salisbury Wedding and [...]

Candra and Kengie’s 11.11.11 Wedding!

Candra and Kengie were such a fun couple to work with and we enjoyed every part of planning their November 11 wedding at All Saints Chapel in Raleigh. It was always such a joy to be around Candra and Kengie to help decide the details for their wedding. They both have a fun spirit and [...]

Candra and Kengie getting married by Pastor Barry Squires

New Website Launch!

We’re so excited to announce the launch of our new website today! The basics of the site are the same, but the design of it, the feel, and the overall flow go way beyond what we had before. Going through the site, we wanted our prospective brides to truly get a sense of what the [...]

Courtney and Jordan’s Fall Wedding!

Courtney and Jordan were married on October 22 of this year, and I am just now getting around to sharing some of their beautiful images from Tesh Parekh of IWP Photography. Kelly Odom did an amazing job with providing gorgeous flowers for the ceremony, which was held at St. Mary’s Chapel in Raleigh. Kelly also [...]

Beth and Taylor’s Cotton Room Wedding!

Posted by kailey on January 25th, 2012

Beth and Taylor were married on December 17th of 2011 at the beautiful Sacred Heart Cathedral. Fresh Affairs did a great job of transforming their reception site, The Cotton Room, into a winter wonderland. The lounge area with the cozy fireplace and Christmas tree made you feel as if you were sitting in the comfort of your own home! The photos will blow you away, thanks to Whitebox Photography! I loved all the special touches that Beth added to make their wedding so unique…from the delicious hot chocolate bar, the Jones Soda favors to the snow that fell for their exit as guests rang jingle bells! They chose a fantastic band, The Dickens, that rocked the reception! The dance floor was packed all night! The guests went crazy over the beautiful six tier cake that Swank created. It was truly an amazing wedding and we were thrilled to have been a part of it! We can’t wait to share their wedding film by Heart Stone Films!

She looks stunning in her dress!

Taylor and his men!

Love this photo!

Her face is priceless!

Swank did an amazing job with the cake!

Closeup of the cake : - It tasted as delicious as it looked!

The linens are fabulous!

Cute Mr. and Mrs. chair signs!

Everyone loved the seating area!

Chalkboard Menu for the bar!

Beth and Taylor's Cotton Room First Dance

Beth and Taylor's fun first dance : )

His and her gingerbread cookies!

Great favors!

The Dickens rocked the reception!

Hot Chocolate Bar : )

Toppings at the Hot Chocolate Bar!

The bride having a blast!

Congratulations Beth and Taylor!

Sacred Heart Cathedral – Ceremony

The Cotton Room – Reception

Whitebox Photography – Photographer

Triangle Catering – Catering

CE Rentals – Linens, Draping, Additional Rentals

Swank Cake Design – Cake

Fresh Affairs – Florist

Simpsound – Lighting

Heart Stone Films – Videography

Alexia’s Bridal – Beth’s Dress

The Dickens Band – Band

Lauren and Chase’s Winter Wedding!

Posted by Megan on January 18th, 2012

Lauren and Chase were married December 17th at St. Mary’s Chapel with the reception taking place at a Toll Brothers’ model home in Cary. Lauren’s mom works for Toll Brothers so we were able to have the reception in this amazing 8,000 square foot house all decked out in holiday decor. Chase called me back in May and told me that he and Lauren were both living out of town (Lauren in Nashville working on her phD and Chase getting ready to make the move from Texas to Nashville) and were in need of a wedding planner. They were looking for someone to help them plan their wedding and be their eyes and ears here in North Carolina since they were limited on time as well as trips to NC. We got to work pretty quickly on securing some top notch vendors and coming up with the perfect winter wedding theme to fit this fabulous reception site.

Thanks to Brian Mullins for capturing all the great moments from Lauren and Chase’s big day! Also, thanks to Lauren for the wonderful review she submitted about her experience working with us… it’s a great feeling to call someone a friend after working with them and I so enjoyed working with Lauren, Chase, and both sets of their families on this special weekend!

“Megan made us feel like we were planning a wedding with one of our close friends. She made our entire wedding weekend absolutely perfect!! We decided to hire a planner 3 months after being engaged. We both have jobs that require large amounts of our time and we were struggling to plan the wedding we wanted. Hiring Megan was the best decision we made (besides deciding to get married of course!!). She coordinated all our vendors and made them cost effective. But, most importantly, she quickly and truly understood our vision for our entire wedding weekend. She made the planning and the wedding weekend go smoothly and it turned out even better than we had dreamed of. We have no idea what we would have done without her. She is extremely detail-oriented and doesn’t let anything fall through the cracks. She is incredibly sweet and everyone involved in the wedding commented on how wonderful she is! We STRONGLY recommend Megan and the entire A Southern Soiree team.”

Lauren's beautiful bouquet wrapped in lace from her mother's wedding hat!

Chase's first look at Lauren is precious!

Lauren and Chase getting married by one of Chase's childhood friends - Pastor Bryce Langford

Such a happy couple!

The Toll Brothers Model Home...gorgeous!

Their first dance : )

Ornament Guest Book - such a neat idea!

Guests would write a note to the couple on an ornament and hang it on the tree!

Sweet Memories did an amazing job on this winter wonderland cake!

Lauren and Chase had the best comfort food - grilled cheese and tomato soup shooters! Thanks Rocky Top team!

Beautiful staircase inside the Toll Brothers house.

The single ladies waiting for Lauren to throw the bouquet!!

Lauren and her girls singing All I Want For Christmas Is You - Lauren was a big dancer on the wedding night as she used to be on the dance team at WFU!

Kissing under the mistletoe : )

Sparkler exit... all that was missing was snow!!

Chase's one request...the getaway car!

Thanks to all the wonderful vendors involved in this event. Lauren and Chase, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of your big day, and we wish you a lifetime of happiness!

Vendor Credit:

Venue – St. Mary’s Church (ceremony)

Caterer – Rocky Top

Cake – Sweet Memories

Photographer- Brian Mullins

DJ – Randy/Joe Bunn

Florist- English Garden

Hair and Makeup- MakeUpForYourDay- Jennifer

Rentals- CE Rental (linens, cake stand, glassware/plates/flatware)

Transportation – Blue Diamond (bridal party and guests)

Classy Transportation (getaway car)

Laurie and McQueen Campbell’s Carolina Country Club Wedding!

Posted by Megan on January 12th, 2012

Laurie and McQueen first came to me in June and were married this past November at the Carolina Country Club. With 5 months of planning, we planned a fabulous, super fun wedding that very much reflected the bride and groom’s personalities! With every couple I like to find out what is most important to them when it comes to the wedding day. Laurie and McQueen knew they wanted to have a excellent band and wanted to provide a great time for friends and family traveling in town for the wedding weekend. We started looking at venues and came across Carolina Country Club, which had an elegant yet approachable feel that could accommodate their estimated 300 person guest count.

As we went through the planning process we booked fabulous vendors for this event. However, what really sticks out in my mind from this wedding are two perfect surprises that made the wedding so memorable. The first was McQueen surprising Laurie (and everyone else!) by singing a song and playing the piano during the ceremony. He did an amazing job and had the whole church in awe. The second was a surprise exit that McQueen, Brenda from Carolina Country Club and myself kept secret from Laurie and all the guests until the very end of the event!

Thank you so much to Walters and Walters Photography for these lovely images and to all the other wonderful vendors that made this day possible! Stay tuned for a lovely wedding film clip of the event coming next month!

A beautiful picture of Lauire.

Lauries gorgeous bouquet by Greg Warren.

Laurie and McQueen getting married!

McQueen's surprise song to Laurie during the ceremony! He did such an amazing job : )

Such a sweet couple!

McQueen started to tear up walking back down the aisle...

...then Laurie started to cry.

Beautiful arrangment from Greg Warren.

Their first dance : )

Tatie's Bakeshop did an amazing job with their cake!

One of my favorite centerpieces from Greg Warren!

Everyone having a blast dancing to Hava Nagila!

Laurie being lifted in the chair...she was brave!

McQueen having a blast!

Laurie and all her flower girls!

Love this idea of a photobooth guestbook!

McQueen and Laurie after we pulled them aside to get all the guests outside for the surprise exit!

Sparkler exit!

McQueen's surprise exit for Laurie....A Helicopter!!

Everyone lined up with sparklers waiting for Laurie and McQueen to run through!

Running to get into the helicopter to take them away!! So exciting!

McQueen and Laurie taking off!

Vendor Credit:

Venue – Edenton United Methodist Church (ceremony)

Carolina Country Club (reception)

Cake – Tatie’s Bakeshop

Band – The Wallers

DJ – Mark McNally with Bunn DJ Company

Florist- Greg Warren Flowers

Photographer – Walters and Walters

Videographer- Heart Stone Films

Hair and Makeup- Makupforyourday

Linens and Tables – CE Rental

Photobooth- Shutterbooth

Jenna and Sean’s Highgrove Wedding!

Posted by Megan on January 9th, 2012

Jenna and Sean were married this past October at Highgrove on Laurel Lake in Fuquay, Varina, NC. This couple was so sweet and I enjoyed working with them throughout the planning process! Jenna selected beautiful colors for her wedding day and wanted a soft, romantic feel to the entire event. When we booked Highgrove for her wedding, the tent was still there and they were getting ready to start the remodeling process to build an actual structure where the tent stood. We were all SO happy with how the renovations and remodeling turned out, and I highly recommend Highgrove as a location for both ceremonies and reception. Below are some of my favorite images from the lovely April with Evoke Photography:

The wedding party in front of Highgrove!