Rustic Wedding Catered by Twelve at the Table
Today we are going deep in the rural woods of central Tennessee for Tess and Jon's wedding. They exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony surrounded by 60 of their closest friends and family. They kept it simple with natural, rustic decor accompanied by vintage accents and when it came time to eat it was the food that became the table centerpieces. Dinner was clearly one of the highlights of the event — a family-style feast presented by Twelve at the Table!
Read on to hear so much more from Tess about their special day, especially how she and Jon stayed on budget and their full budget breakdown. Don't miss a single detail from this amazing rustic wedding by heading to the full gallery here, all marvelously captured by Brad & Jen.
From Brad & Jen: It doesn't get much better than this. A beautiful summer day, a quaint cottage and barn in the charming little town of Leiper's Fork (just minutes outside of Franklin TN) and the overwhelming beautiful decor accompanying a feast that is sure to make you beg for seconds.
Tess and Jon celebrated with an intimate ceremony at the Leiper's Fork Inn surrounded by 60 of their closest family and friends, while the amazing team from Twelve at the Table served up to-die-for food and heavenly cocktails. (This was a truly magical, once in a lifetime thing to witness, as Twelve at the Table only specializes in small intimate dinners.) They championed every minute. And the open barn doors that allowed crickets to accompany the clinking of plates and the ringing of glasses made Tess and Jon's wedding one of the most romantic, natural, and beautiful weddings we've ever captured.
From the Bride:Honestly, when I look back at our wedding day, there's not one thing I would change. Obviously, it would have been lovely to invite every single one of our family and friends, but we opted for a smaller-scale wedding to keep it affordable. So if budget were not an issue, I wouldn't have changed anything - I would have just invited more friends and family!
On the Caterer: Twelve at the Table is a community-centered, multi-sensory experience which typically takes place around a table with 12 people or less. It begins with hand-crafted cocktails at twilight and ends with shared life stories by candlelight. With atmosphere and spirited conversation valued in equal measure, they strive to make setting their tables an art!
You simply must watch the entire video from Needle + Thread! A breathtaking and memorable wedding film that we could watch over and over.
https://vimeo.com/71061409
Read on to see how Tess and Jon budgeted for their rustic wedding as well as how much it cost. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.
It was really important to my husband and I to keep things affordable. Even though it was such a monumental day for us, it's just not our style to spend a lot of money on any one thing. Our parents paid for a majority of our wedding weekend, so out of respect and love for them we also wanted to stay within their budget and not go crazy. We both just love great deals and did our research before deciding on anything for our wedding.
To stay within our budget, we went the unconventional route. In Nashville, it seemed the average venue price started at around $5k-10k. So we started researching unconventional venues like local bed & breakfasts, day-camps, home rentals on VRBO.com. We finally found the most adorable home/inn on VRBO.com that had a garden and small barn on the property. It was perfect and we saved a big chunk of our budget with the low venue cost and were able to stay there with our family for 4 days as well, which saved on hotels.
To keep food costs down we served it family-style; a little more formal than a buffet, but cheaper than plating each person's meal. It also just made me so happy to see all of our family and friends passing plates back and forth as if we were in our own home enjoying a meal.
To keep alcohol costs down, we chose 2 cocktails to serve and bought a couple kegs. We bought wine wholesale and just put a few bottles on each table to open during dinner.
We were incredibly lucky when our good friends and photographers introduced us to the amazing family that is Twelve at the Table. They usually specialize in curating dinners for twelve people. We were able to magically talk them into taking on their first (and probably last) wedding. They took care of everything from the food, decor, floral arrangements, signage, and even made our two delicious cocktails. It was such a perfect arrangement for us. We just described what we wanted in a couple of casual meetings, sent some inspiration photos and they took care of everything. I really didn't want to be a stressed out bride, so I left everything in their hands and after seeing photos of their small-scale dinners I knew I would love anything they put together. They truly knocked it out of the park and went above and beyond anything I ever could have imagined. And to top it all off, the food was to die for. They are such a talented family and I really can't thank them enough for everything they did for our wedding day.
Other than the above, we took the below cost-saving measures:
We used an iPad and a Spotify playlist instead of hiring a DJ.
I made it a goal of mine to get a wedding dress under $500 and we bought my husband's suit from an inexpensive retailer.
We opted out of the engagement photo and video shoots and were able to negotiate a lower rate for our photographers and videographers. Our amazing wedding photographers are also great friends of ours and graciously gave us discount.
By only having a total of 62 people attend our wedding (including the wedding party) we were able to save on food/drink costs, rentals costs, invites, etc...
My sister (the only other female in the bridal party) and myself did our own hair and my sister did our makeup.
I called in favor from one of my best friends from high school who happens to be a chef. She made our beautiful and delicious pistachio and lavender icing cake.
Venue: $2,575
Photography & Videography: $4650
Event/Floral/Lighting Design & Caterer: $7,100
Rentals: $2,100
Dress: $400
Groom's Attire: $200
Wedding Party Floral (including Floral Crown): $500
Restroom Rental: $600
Invites: $700
Ceremony Music: $200
Alcohol: $1000
Jewelry: Free Hair/Makeup: Free Cake: Free Reception Music: Free Grand Total: $20,025
- Bridal Gown Designer: Tadashi Shoji
- Bridesmaid Dresses: ASOS
- Cinematography: Needle + Thread
- Event Designer & Food Experience: Twelve at the Table
- Flowers & Floral Crown: Regalo Design
- Officiant: Crosspoint Church
- Photographer: Brad & Jen
- Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
- Stationery: Evie Coates
- Venue: Leiper's Fork Inn