Town & gowns

Published On: April 13, 2009

Like a melody

When Elizabeth Clement wed Trael Webb in September, it was destined to be an affair to remember. Elizabeth, daughter of Congressman Bob and Mary Clement, has long-time Nashville ties that are both deep and wide. Elizabeth and Trael got engaged on New Year’s Eve at the State Capitol downtown. She says that the wedding, planned by her mother and super coordinators Elaine Parker and Shelley Holland, was “very much me,” from the use of the top levels at Christ Church in Brentwood to the Belle Meade Carriage House reception—chosen to reflect her love of horses. “We had a great time in the planning process!” she said. “We wanted to enjoy the day, and with help from Shelley and Elaine, no one felt any stress.”  That’s an impressive trick, with more than 700 guests, 12 bridesmaids and 12 groomsmen, many of them family members.

The dress? A Reem Acra design found at the Bride Room, the only place Elizabeth went. She chose a gown in soft, creamy white, strapless with a cathedral train. Echoing the local trend of the year, she opted for simple.  A band of champagne colored silk—to match her bridesmaids—wrapped around the lower part of the bodice, decorated with rhinestones and pearls.  The same beading pattern was repeated at the base of the train. Elizabeth has had the dress carefully preserved, and hopes that it will become an heirloom gown for a future daughter.

Elizabeth had one special requirement for her dress: she had to be able to play the violin while wearing it.  A violinist since she was four years old, Elizabeth asked Leland Riggan of Dessert Designs to incorporate a miniature version in the wedding cake. During the wedding ceremony, Elizabeth surprised her new husband and guests by stepping off to the side, picking up her instrument, and performing a version of the couple’s favorite hymn. Minister L.H. Hardwick (Elizabeth’s uncle) was in on the surprise. “I was afraid Trael wouldn’t know what to think, when I suddenly turned and walked off,” she said, “but I came right back with the violin.”  The orchestra leader had been Elizabeth’s first violin teacher, and the performance evoked a deep emotional response from the guests. Elizabeth deliberately created a special moment she and Trael could share through her talent and the lyrical beauty of her music.

Sophisticate

Neither Lacey Elgie nor Clint Newman is a Nashville native, but this is where they’ve chosen to build their lives together—Clint with his dental practice and Lacey, a Realtor with French Christianson Patterson and Associates. So they chose to marry at West End United Methodist Church on Oct. 22.

Lacey’s Vera Wang gown, a strapless, empire-waisted,  A-line with a cathedral train came from b. Hughes.  The mermaid skirted design in ivory silk satin featured covered-button detail all the way down the back, exquisite pearl and crystal Indian beadwork on the bodice and a wonderful grosgrain ribbon tie. She says the girls at b. Hughes nicknamed the gown the “Lacey dress.”

As Karen Kaforey, owner of b. Hughes, explains, “When she put on the dress, she lit up. When you find the right gown, the bride’s face transforms—they know innately what’s just right.  And this dress really set the tone for the whole wedding—it embodied everything she’d always wanted. She was elegant, sophisticated and beautiful all at once.

Not only was she gorgeous, but she felt comfortable enough to dance the night away.  That’s what Vera Wang gowns do for a bride.”

The couple’s reception was at Union Station hotel, because that was where Lacey had spent her very first night in Nashville.  The wedding and reception, arranged with the help of Karen also a wedding planner, reflected the season—all rich, autumn colors.  The couple’s favorite country band, Henry and the Seahawks, performed and kept guests dancing well past midnight. Lacey and Clint spent the first few days of their Mexican honeymoon reminiscing and “reliving every little moment,” she says.

At home

It used to be the classic way to host an American wedding—on the front steps of the family home, but not many brides today see that as an option. When Baylor Bone of Hendersonville married Ryan Swindell on Oct. 15, they reinvented an American ideal.

Baylor wore an original gown from the atelier of Nashville Vera Wang-trained designers Mary and Elizabeth Blankenship at AnnFrances.  They created an ivory duchesse satin, strapless A-line sheath with a hand-pleated sash in contrasting Byzantine gold that crossed at the bust line and had been shipped to India for custom beadwork.  The tails of the sash created Baylor’s train, accented with Swarovski crystals and pearls, and her cathedral-length veil created a splash with its graduated, custom trim in the same satin as the gown.

“I’m not really a girly girl,” Baylor says. “I knew I had to dress up for one day, and wanted something basic and simple, but pretty.  That’s why the beads are on the back!” She firmly believes that different is good, and input from her interior designer mom and her sister helped her make crucial decisions about her dress.  As a team, they got it right, since she wore her gown right through the outdoor reception.

Baylor says her mom, Baylor Anne Bone, planned the wedding with her usual creative flair. Home, with a reception in the backyard, seemed perfect for the ceremony since the bride had lived there her entire life. Outside, the autumn 70-degree sunlight illuminated Baylor’s dream wedding. Ilex’s Joe Smith, every bride’s favorite florist, arranged breathtaking floral tableaux, and Baylor’s wedding party wore an unusual and lovely combination of rich chocolate brown, lime green and violet.

Spectacular

Amy Alderson, aspiring songwriter and singer, married Warner Brothers recording artist James Otto on Oct. 1 at Forest Hills Baptist Church.  A true Music City affair, the wedding party included luminaries Shannon Lawson, John Nicholson, David Marcus (of Rascal Flatts, husband of Amy’s sister, Allison) and Gretchen Wilson, one of many professionals who sang at the wedding. Guests received one of the year’s most spectacular invitations, designed by Beth Buchanan at Buchanan Ink, a tri-fold on Crane’s paper with an engraved family crest in Amy’s signature copper, tied up with copper organza ribbon.

Amy’s Reem Acra dress came from the bridal salon at Saks Fifth Avenue in Atlanta.  The salonshowed her several dresses by Acra, none of which were exactly right.With the help of the renowned Acra herself, she created a custom dressincorporating various aspects of several different Acra designs.

The A-line gown in candlelight satin features a dropped waist and has “point of the shoulder” straps.  The detailed champagne embroidery on the bodice also falls down the back of the dress to cover train and hem, with beadwork in pearls and Austrian crystals.  The veil is also Reem Acra, with matching crystal and embroidery work.

Amy’s accessories only enhanced the dress. She wore four-inch, silver sling-back pumps with a mesh, crystal-encrusted toe by Rene Caovilla that wedding coordinator Jayne Bubis said were spectacular. Her jewelry included a Paris tiara, an antique, estate diamond necklace from her parents and a pearl bracelet made from a necklace given by her father to her mother as a wedding gift. (Mom and sister Allison have bracelets made from the rest of the original pearls.) Her “something blue” was a monogram on the hem of her slip, with a brooch of her great-grandmother’s and a diamond pendant of her grandmother’s sewn next to it.

The ceremony included performances by country music notables Jeff Lisenby, Rascal Flatts, Shannon Brown, Shannon Lawson and LeeGreenwood, as well as the Nashville Chamber Players, in tribute toAmy’s training in classical piano.  The post-recessional music includeda rendition of “Oh, Happy Day” by a gospel choir.

At the Hillwood Country Club reception featuring Atlanta band The Retrospecs, the ballroom was decorated in a traditional white, while the outdoor patio gleamed with white lounge furniture, brilliantly colored table cloths and ice sculptures around interactive food stations, a martini bar, and a hand-rolled cigar bar.  The couple composed their own song for the first dance called “Last First Kiss.”

Summer perfection

Lucy Mudter married Charlie Swayze of Greenwood, Miss. on Aug. 6 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation with a reception held at Belle Meade Country Club. Wedding planner Jayne Bubis made sure everything was absolute perfection, since Lucy was living in Chicago during her year-long engagement and her mother Lou Dimond was in Colorado.

Jayne did the footwork for Lucy, so that she and Lou could fly in for the weekends and go to the series of appointments Jayne had packed their days with. Sister Jenny was also on hand to help out with the dress selection.  All the diligent work paid off. Lucy swears that her wedding was the “perfect day” —no stress, no nerves, just a joyous day for the bridal couple.

Lucy found her dress at b. Hughes in November, long before the wedding. Jayne still describes it as one of the most spectacular of the year.  The Ramona Keveza gown (a line carried exclusively by b. Hughes in this area) is a strapless candlelight-colored satin, with a slightly dropped waist and a full skirt wrapped with swaths of fabric. Named “the Grace” after the classic style of American icon Gracy Kelly, the dress is, as Lucy says, very simple and “a perfect fit for me, everything I was looking for!” 

After the 7:30 wedding (the Cathedral allows weddings at 2:30 or 7:30 only), trolleys ferried guests to the Belle Meade Country Club. In fact, when the sky threatened rain, Jayne stepped in and also arranged for buses to carry the many guests staying at Loews Vanderbilt across the street to the Cathedral beforehand.

Lucy’s reception glowed with white and candlelight, and the bistro tables arrayed in the ballroom were especially inviting to guests. Beloved florist Joe Smith, in a gesture both thoughtful and creative, made each of Lucy’s 13 attendants feel special by providing each green-clad girl with a different type of flower to carry—gardenias to gerbera daisies.

High fashion

“Jenna,” says photographer David Wright of Jenna Dunham, “looks like she ought to be a model. She’s always been fond of fashion, so we wanted to make her bridal portraits as much like photos out of a magazine as we could.” When the pictures were taken at Union Station, she wanted something not only unique to her taste, but an end-product that would help make her special day memorable forever. She describes the whole experience as “serene, peaceful, totally enjoyable.”

Jenna married Matthew Rice in May at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ, which also hosted the reception.  The baptistry curtains were open to reveal the stained glass, and light shone from the windows above onto the faces of the bride and groom.

“I love my dress!” Jenna gushes about her Pronovia gown from Village Bridal, a recommendation from wedding planner Helen Morissette.  The simple, creamy ivory gown, with its ruched bodice and chapel length train for a French bustle is deceptively simple—showing off the bride’s slender figure. Jenna didn’t think she’d like the dress when Elizabeth at Village Bridal brought it out—but she put it on and…Wow! That was it.  The ivory flattered her blond hair and skin tone, and she loved its elegance. Mother-in-law-to-be Marinda Rice, browsing with Jenna, thought it was great too.  The only sparkle came from rhinestones on her chapel length veil.

“There was a group of girls there I’d run into at another bridal shop earlier in the day.  They had seen me try other things on, and they all came over to tell me, when they saw me in this one, that this was it!” Jenna says gleefully. Everyone who saw it knew this was something special. “Everything just came together at once.”

Maximum glamour

Angela Barrett of Franklin married Mark Rivers at Union Station at noon on a cold, blustery day in April that seemed more like February. “I think it was 40 degrees,” she recalls, “but we got married by a roaring fire—and that made everything just right.” She loved Union Station for its romantic, castle-like atmosphere, so they held their reception there as well.  Then, along with numerous guests, they spent the night following the nuptials in its cozy warmth.

Angela found her spectacular dress only three months before the wedding—completely by accident. Headed to dinner in Cool Springs, she saw the Matthew Christopher design in Faccio’s window. She went inside and found the visiting designer standing beside his creation—dubbed “The Tie that Binds”—and tried it on—the only dress she tried on.

The gown was perfect, but not yet in production—the only version that existed was at Faccio’s.  Angela’s enthusiasm persuaded Christopher to make one special gown specifically for her, so Angela became the very first bride to wear the fairy-tale pretty design.

Faccio owners Beth Bowman and Elizabeth Maxwell (www.facciobridal.com) say the dress is made of a gorgeous silk satin organza. Its construction features modified princess seams

Angela did most of the wedding planning herself, with help from her mother, Julia Barrett and Amy Frew at Union Station, who coordinated the actual wedding day.  After the ceremony, guests enjoyed drinks and appetizers in the bar, before having a candlelit dinner on tables scattered with deep coral rose petals to complement Angela’s chocolate brown and ivory color scheme.

Angela’s favorite innovation? The guests threw lavender from sachets, instead of rice.  The scent, which lingered until the next morning, was intoxicating.

Understated

For Ginny Wallace and Mike Dolezal, the most important aspect of the wedding was their faith, and they wanted something special to celebrate the sacrament.  The reception was held in the Wallace family back yard with the help of event coordinator Elizabeth James.

Ginny bought her dress from AnnFrances, where the Blankenship sisters whip up cutting-edge, yet classic gowns. For Ginny’s dress, the girls were inspired by her classic beauty and traditional values. “Ginny was married in a church with her reception at her parents’ home, and we wanted her gown to be beautiful and functional,” said Elizabeth. “Ginny’s elegance was reflected in the design.”  The result: a strapless, satin ball gown with pristine lines.  The dress features a gorgeous beading pattern of Swarovski crystals and pearls at the bust, with custom beadwork from India. She wore a cathedral cascade veil trimmed in the gown fabric.

Ginny chose AnnFrances after looking at a number of bridal houses because she thought their designs suited her style better than anything else she’d seen—and because they could outfit the entire wedding party. She tried the sample dresses from the show room, then worked with Mary and Elizabeth to make a custom gown with all the features she liked best. According to Ginny, the whole experience was a pleasure, she felt at home and “they made me feel pretty the whole time.”

AnnFrances also designed a beautiful champagne-gold gown for Ginny’s mother, Anne Wallace. Her bridesmaids wore AnnFrances dresses in a bright, warm raspberry, perfect for a bride who loves color.

(See all the brides and their gowns in this month’s print issue of NFocus)