Good Morning WW!! I posted a preview of our wedding weekend and minor post about a week ago promising a full break down and BAM. Here it goes. We were a covid couple and had postponed our wedding from June 27th to December 12th, 2020. We also started with a guest list of 175 and ended up having 32 in attendance including my Husband and myself.
Wedding Date - 12/12/2020
Venue - Pinehurst Golf Resort, Pinehurst NC - St Andrews Room (ceremony/cocktail), Donald Ross Grill (reception)
Photography - Leon Borders Photography, Leon and his assistant Zeke, Raleigh, NC
Floral - Mood Fleuriste, Madelaine, Raleigh, NC
DJ - A&A DJ's, Larry Owner, April Coordinator, Marcus MC, Raleigh, NC
Stationary - Hitchcock Paper Company, Sarah, Occoquan, VA
Hair and Make Up- Karma Beauty Bar, Southern Pines NC
String Trio - Corda Entertainment
Minister - Jim Dekornfeld, Daybreak Ceremonies
Attire Ladies - David's Bridal (Both dresses and BM Dresses)
Attire Guy - Men's Wearhouse
BM Shawls - Where To Get, Etsy Store
Bridal Party Water Bottles - My Sister and Me Shop, Etsy Store
Cake Topper - Tilly Bean Bespoke, Etsy Store
Bridal Party Slippers - Ceramically Funny, Etsy Store
Bridal Party PJ's - LeRose Gifts, Etsy Store
We did not have separate vendors for bar, catering, cake, rentals or wedding coordination as this was all provided in house by Pinehurst. I CANNOT speak highly enough of Pinehurst. Our guests RAVED about our location all weekend, not only the beauty of the grounds but the warm nature of every staff member, the quaint town of Pinehurst nestled into the golf grounds, the historic symbolism of an American golf legend. It was just the perfect backdrop for our wedding weekend, and a place we actually plan on visiting year after year for a golf get away as we all play. My husband and I are actually discussing retiring to the grounds of Pinehurst when we get to that time in our lives, it truly has become a place in our hearts.
Pinehurst Staff
The Pinehurst event's staff were top notch. They helped unload our cars of all the wedding and rehearsal dinner decorations we brought with us from VA. They did all the set-up and the tear down of our events and even washed our personalized items (champagne flutes and cake plates) before we picked them up the day after the wedding. The staff were all professional but fun and no one had to ever ask for a thing as the attentive servers were there with plate clearing or glass refill.
Pinehurst Food
The food was perfect, the steak at Rehearsal dinner was rare, but too rare for many of our guest's palates, I simply asked Michelle the Coordinator if they could cook them longer for wedding and they turned out perfect! Wedding dinner was plated and came in 3 courses. First course was a butternut squash soup, main course was a choice of seared chicken breast topped with Bousein cream and lump crab or Steak topped with red wine sauce, both plates came with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetable's. Dessert was wedding cake for all! Our wedding cake was AMAZING, it was the Carolina Decadence which was a white cake with raspberry jam filling and a white chocolate mousse in the alternating layers, the outer frosting was a whipped cream, it melted in your mouth and honestly my only regret was NOT keeping the top of that cake as I would LOVE to have a piece of it again! We had two alternate food requests, Gluten Free and Vegan, the GF courses were the same aside from dessert, which was a housemade lemonade sorbet and it was DELICIOUS!! The Vegan option was a roasted root vegetables dish with some kind of vegan sauce, my Bridesmaid who was Vegan said she loved it so much she asked for the recipe! The Vegan dessert was the same Lemonade sorbet. We opted for a late night snack as we had a full open bar and didn't want to send people home drunk and hungry lol. We had beef and chicken sliders and pretzel bites with honey mustard or beer cheese dip. Once again, they did offer a GF and Vegan option of Tortilla chips with salsa.
Pinehurst Bar
We had a cocktail hour which was held in the back of our ceremony room, it was an immensely large space and since we were down to 32 including ourselves, we had more than enough room to hold the two events in one room. The bar staff were fantastic, they moved around the room offering our signature drinks to guests to keep crowding away from the bar. Our signature drinks were a Poinsettia (Champagne and Cranberry Juice) and a Jon Daly (Iced Tea, Lemonade and Vodka). I mostly stuck to champagne and the Poinsettia but my friends who had the mixed drinks said they were very good but maybe a little sweet. We had a second bar set up in the reception room and once cocktail hour was over the staff simply moved to the pre-set reception bar.
Pinehurst Resort
We stayed on property at the beautiful and historic Carolina Hotel in two separate suites. My parents had one of the Pinehurst owned Villa's down the road. I will say this much, from a simple hotel stay perspective the suites were lovely, from a Bride and Bridal party readying viewpoint the rooms are not great. I had 5 Bridesmaids, 1 JBM, my Mother, MIL and Man of Honor and his partner all in my room during the day on Saturday and it was TIGHT. The bathroom is small but beautiful, you could only have 2 people in there at a time to get ready, then if someone needed to use it, the people getting ready would have to leave and wait. It was a two room suite so we had some space but if you have a large bridal party I HIGHLY SUGGEST getting either one of the Villa's or renting a house on Air BNB. The benefit to staying on property with Pinehurst is the use of the courtesy shuttles to anywhere on property, it's a small area and Uber/Lyft can be difficult to find. We found the shuttles a large enough benefit to staying on property with Pinehurst.
Photography - LOVE and will suggest Leon and team to ANYONE in the Raleigh area. Leon took our engagement pictures and when my husband realized he did not bring a belt with him, Leon took off his own so my husband could have one for our photographs. Leon made picture taking so much fun and not the chore it usually is when you are having to do posed photo's, his work is incredible as you will see in our photo's below. Leon and Zeke his assistant made our wedding weekend so wonderful with their vibrant personalities and big hearts. 10 out of 10 you MUST book them!!
Floral - Madelaine was a dream to work with and her work was stunning. She knew what I was looking for in unique florals and made them come to life, in fact, since she used so many dried elements and some silks, we are able to use our bouquets at home for decoration.
Etsy Vendors - I am going to do this in one paragraph, all of our products from Etsy were fantastic quality and customer service. The Shawls are a HUGE hit and my girls are still using them. The PJ's are the most comfortable ones I have ever owned. Use Etsy, shop small!!
Stationary - We live outside of DC in Northern VA so we used a local stationary shop for all of our stationary. Our stationary journey was a long one due to Save the dates, Invitations with all accompanying cards, then a Postponement card, plus wedding day items like Place cards and signs. Sarah was wonderful to work with and not only does wedding stationary but also owns a storefront where we buy all of our cards for other occasions. Shop small, shop local!!
String Trio - For our ceremony and cocktail hour we had a string trio. Corda entertainment provided us with 3 fantastic musicians who played classical music for ceremony and then upbeat modern songs for cocktail hour. They played everything from Mozart to the Beatles, our guests truly enjoyed their musical range and skills on the strings.
DJ - Larry and his team provided us with a full planning experience from A to Z and everything inbetween. Larry got to know Peter and Myself as a couple and played into our lives with their performances. April the planner and coordinator was an absolute sweetheart and coordinated all the set up of the day from ceremony mics to reception party set up. Marcus our MC KILLED IT!!! Marcus was spectacular and made our small wedding feel BIG and like a party not happening during a pandemic, everyone had a blast and he played all the songs we requested and read the room so well for songs to play inbetween requests, RUN to A&A DJ's and request Marcus for your big day if you're also in the Raleigh area.
Hair and Make-up - Hair and Make up team at Karma was perfect. The salon itself is stunningly beautiful and truly had a full bar in the salon! I did not have time to come down for a true hair and make up trial and because I had been furloughed from my job (I JUST GOT RECALLED YAY!!) They offered to do a hair and make up trial for free the day before our wedding. It was beyond gracious and I honestly cried over their kindness. They brought all their own equipment to our suite for wedding day and had all of us who were getting hair and make up done by 1130am. Myself, Mom, MIL and my Daughter were the only ones to get hair and make up done as I told my BM's they could do whatever they wanted with their hair and make-up.
Minister - Jim saved the day for Peter and myself. Our original minister was a friend of ours who was going to come from NY state but due to Covid regulations he was not allowed to leave the state. I contact Jim 3 weeks prior to our wedding day and he happily accepted our request. Jim got to know Peter and I so well over those 3 weeks and when wedding day came his service was fluid as if he had known us for years.
Attire - David's Bridal in our area was fantastic. I had a ceremony dress and a reception dress and both were from DB. I gave my girls the option of the same color same fabric but whatever style and their dresses turned out perfect. We even changed colors from Chianti to Wine due to our new date and we had little to no issues exchanging dresses for my Bridesmaids.
Attire - Men's Wearhouse, the guys had issues with MW that some of the suits came dirty and others were missing pieces like cufflinks and button covers. If you use MW make sure you have your guys check their suits before leaving the store.
