News
Sanity Saving Tips for Planning your Wedding
Posted on Dec 07, 2018
Congratulations, you’re getting married! Seconds after anyone sees your ring or hears the news, the very next questions are all about the wedding. Suddenly everything from the guest list to how the ceremony should proceed is on your plate, and what seems like a million decisions big and small are demanding your attention. How can you not feel overwhelmed?
First off – take a few moments to just enjoy being a happy engaged couple, and don’t let “The Wedding” take over your life. It’s easy to let that happen, but the wedding is part ceremony, and part celebration, of your life together.
Before...
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A Summer Styled Shoot
Posted in Wedding Blog on Aug 03, 2018
This styled wedding shoot was six months in planning, and just kept getting bigger! What started out as an email from photographer Hillary Leah wanting to take photos eventually grew into a bigger shoot with 10 fabulous Chattanooga area wedding vendors.
Plates & silverware: Chattanooga Tent | Goblets, Candles: The Copper Quail | Floral: Creekside Flower Farm | Linen: Avocado Hand Dyed Runner by Nade Studio | Pottery: Facture Goods
We love styled shoots. It’s like putting together a “dream team” of vendors you’d love to work with more without the pressure and timeclock of an actual eve...
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Chattanooga Food: Why We Love Food Works
Posted on Apr 21, 2018
Dave and I don’t get out to eat very often. When we do, it’s generally a pretty short list of places we love and are willing to go back to. We’ll try any new place once or twice, seeing as we need to be able to recommend a great place to guests and ensure they have the best gastronomic delights in town while here.
Food Works is one of the places we do recommend to folks — and they cater, and cater VERY well, so we absolutely love it when they are catering at an event at our barn. We decided to have a short chat with Troy and his catering director, Amy, and get the inside scoop on what to con...
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Oakleaf Cottage Wedding Featured in Junebug Weddings!
Posted in Wedding Blog on Apr 10, 2018
We have to tell you about an amazing couple — more than once we have gushed at how incredible it was that they had hiked to the bottom of Cloudland Canyon State Park for those waterfall photos … without breaking a sweat, messing up makeup, or even slightly staining that beautiful dress. They came out looking as fresh and amazing as when they left!
But what we haven’t said much of is this — when Rachel and Josh first came to see our barn, it looked like this:
No concrete. No walls. No deck. There may not have even been rocks in the section of driveway out to the barn, meaning they had to wal...
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Styled Shoot with our New Farm Tables!
Posted in Wedding Blog on Mar 22, 2018
We are soooo excited to say this: we built farm tables for our barn!
And even more exciting, they are stepping out in style thanks to a photoshoot pulled together by Molly of Molly Nicole Details, flowers by Christy of MayFlowers, and photographed by adventure and elopement photographer Alyssa Smithley.
Molly brought in chairs from Luma Designs to complement the aged gray tones of our tables, and created the beautiful setting. We adore her — she has such an eye for pulling together the unusual — we are in love with the copper flatware!
Word among the Chattanooga wedding vendors has it that ...
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Why You Need a Day of Wedding Coordinator
Posted in Wedding Blog on Mar 01, 2018
Back in January, Dave and I had an idea that it would be nice to do more of an “introduction” to the vendors on our preferred vendor list so our engaged couples could get a better sense of who these folks are and why they are on our list.
For this initial Wedding Blog post, we’re talking to Jessica, of Jessica Ann Wedding Co. Jessica is a Day of Wedding Coordinator (DOC) who moved to the Chattanooga area in 2015 and bravely but excitedly stepped out into this new world that is the South.
You started offering DOC services in California, where you used to live. Can you tell us what drew you i...
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Shinrin-Yoku – Learning to Take in the Forest
Posted on Sep 30, 2017
I hadn’t heard of Shinrin-yoku until last winter, when I came across an article explaining the restorative, calming, benefits of the practice. There are full studies on the effects of forest bathing being held in Japan, noting reduced blood pressure, improved mood, increased energy levels, improved sleep, an increased ability to focus and even accelerated recovery from surgery or illness.
Having purchased this property while working in a fairly stressful job, I can attest to how just taking ten minutes to breathe outdoors here, staring up at the tree canopy or sitting on the ground did far mo...
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Summer’s Last Hurrah Dinner
Posted on Sep 23, 2017
Confession time: I, Cris, am a tableware hoarder.
I’ve wanted an excuse to create an “ocean” themed table for ages, ever since I first found this vase some years ago. As time went on, I found more pieces that related to it — flower holders, salt and pepper shakers…
And then it just happens that my family has three birthdays in September. And that one of those persons is usually not in town.
And it also just so happens that Mom and Dad come back from the Bahamas with yummy things like lobster and crab that Dad found while snorkeling. And suddenly a table concept was born. With only a day left...
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Revealing the Barn
Posted on Sep 01, 2017
Well, kinda revealing. It’s not finished — but considering where we started a few months back, the transformation is coming along well.
We had a deadline that we never expected would be tight, but with all the rain this spring it took for-ev-ah to get dirt and rock up here. Also, due to our location, a lot of work has to be done by hand. Mostly by two people. Myself, and Dave. I’ve got some pretty cool muscles going after slinging a pickaxe so often. Who needs a gym, when you are remodeling a barn on the side of a mountain?
Our deck is complete, save we will be changing out the farm-fence l...
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Deck and Barn Progress
Posted on Jul 03, 2017
The passage of time is a strange thing when you are working on a big project, because every day you see one more small thing finished or changed and it seems like progress takes forever, until you look at your photos from a week or two ago and realize how far you’ve come.
This was the MOAD less than two weeks ago (Mother of All Decks, which is what we are jokingly calling the massive deck we are building off the barn’s stall doors). Dave and I now have added the beginnings of stairs, considerably more posts, cross bracing and more cross bracing, and the board aprons.
When the Cottage isn’t r...
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