It’s 2019 and we’ve resolved to finally blog a BUNCH of weddings that have been sitting in our files just waiting to be released. 2018 was full with a new baby and a new business (Lolly’s) and growing the EBJ team and we might just finally be catching our breath. And… well… the world deserves to see this gorgeousness. So here were go with one of our first throwback blogposts.

Megan and Hamilton had the most amazing destination wedding in the rolling hills of Virginia full of military traditions and thoughtful details. Hamilton had graduated from VMI and since Megan and Hamilton were currently living in Alaska with their family and friends located all over the US and abroad, pretty much any location was going to be a destination, so they decided on Lexington, VA, where Hamilton’s alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute is located.

Since Megan and Hamilton were planning their wedding wedding from ALASKA, several time-zones away, they decided that our “full-planning” package was the best fit as they were going to need someone on the ground to do venue scouting and planning. We had lots of late-night chats (to accommodate for the time difference) and truly developed a sweet friendship throughout the planning process. It was so good to finally give them both a squeeze when we met for the first time IN PERSON the day before the wedding!

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Megan knew from the get-go that she wanted PURPLE to be a primary wedding color with touches of wooden accents. Peep this little screen shot portion of her custom designed mood-board.

Gotta love a red headed bride and a groom in uniform!

We were so thrilled to work with Harmony Harvest farm again - one of our favorite central Virginia florists who GROW all their own flowers on their flower farm! Seriously, these ladies know their way around a flower and it shows in everything they do. We loved how they brought our vision to life!

How gorgeous is the architecture at VMI? So stunning.

At a certain time every day all of the cadets at VMI come out to the drill field in the middle of the campus and line up around it for role call. Megan and Hamilton just happened to be in the middle of that field taking portraits when that happened but it truly was so sweet - just take a look at this picture of the cadets saluting and congratulating them - love it.

Megan and Hamilton knew from the get-go that they wanted their wedding ceremony to be held at the chapel at VMI but didn’t have a reception venue in mind so I headed up to Lexington early on in the planning process to scout locations while taking lots of pictures and videos to share with them. We ended up choosing the Lexington Golf and Country Club because we couldn’t pass up those big windows looking out over those gorgeous rolling Virginia hills in the fall! Also a big factor… complimentary rounds of golf for the groom and his groomsmen. ;)

While the view at the Lexington Golf and Country Club can’t be beat we knew we wanted to do a few things to take the interior space up a notch to make it unique for Megan and Hamilton’s wedding. It proved to be a little challenging being that, unlike Hampton Roads or Richmond or Northern Virginia (which are big areas with lots of rental options at your fingertips) Lexington didn’t have a ton of rental/vendor options close by. This meant either a very limited local selection that didn’t really have what we were looking for or paying lots of expensive travel/delivery fees to bring in various companies from bigger cities father away. After analyzing all our options we handled the challenge in a few different ways.

First, we opted to pay to bring in wooden, cross-back chairs from Charlottesville rather than use the club’s standard banquet chair.

Second, we ordered our linens from an online rental company who shipped them directly to the venue (since the local options didn’t have exactly the color we were looking for) and we similarly decided to rent our lighting from an online lighting company who shipped them directly to us so our EBJ team could handle the uplighting set-up for this occasion, as it wasn’t it the client’s budget to pay to bring in a lighting team from a city far away.

Lastly, we opted to purchase the chargers ourselves (on a great sale at Michael’s) since the local rental companies didn't have the style or color charger plates that we were hoping for.

Harmony Harvest farm executed a lower, longer version of our guest table centerpiece for the sweetheart table to ensure that everyone had a clear view of the bride and groom!

If the wedding had taken place close to home Megan and Hamilton’s dog Macy would have definitely been a part of the festivities but since that would have meant bringing him all the way from Alaska with them that wasn’t really a feasible option. Instead they incorporate their canine family member into the tables numbers! I love how Macy was still there in a way.

Loved this unique “guest book” option and of course we had to have the cigar bar for the gents.

Of course they cut their wedding cake (with a nod to the army on it) in traditional military fashion, with a sword!

Thank you to Megan and Hamilton’s purple loving wedding photographer, Caitlin Gerres for these gorgeous pictures (dare I say Megan and Caitlin’s shared love of purple is part of what brought them together) and to Kelsey and Nate for capturing the day so beautifully on video!