1. Real Weddings

Teri & David: A Citrus-themed Wedding in Nags Head, NC

As summer was nearing its end, four-and-a-half years after they’d met, Teri drove out to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to visit David where he was work

As summer was nearing its end, four-and-a-half years after they’d met, Teri drove out to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to visit David where he was working. She’d been hoping for a proposal all summer, and this was the last weekend they’d be spending time together before she started graduate school. The Bride Teri Leake, 24, music educator The Groom David Stipe, 26, recording engineer The Date June 22 After a night out celebrating David’s sister’s birthday, David said it was a tradition to take a walk on the beach. Teri thought nothing of it until David suddenly dropped to one knee and held up a ring.

The Favors
To accent his khaki-colored suit, the groom wore a fragrant boutonniere of freesia.
Teri designed the programs herself and assembled them with the help of her family. “That was one of my favorite prewedding planning memories!” she says. The color of each program cover alternated between citrus green, yellow, and brown, and featured a graphic of a lime. The inside pages were printed on ivory card stock in a modern block print, and the whole thing was bound together with citrus green ribbon.
Teri and David’s wedding conveyed casual beach chic right down to the citrus green and yellow-striped cocktail napkins, printed with their names and wedding date.
A buffet and tables were set up on a giant deck overlooking the ocean. Citrus green curtains accented by yellow blooms welcomed guests to the area.
The Centerpieces
To exemplify the wedding’s lemon and lime design scheme, each table featured a different style centerpiece. A variety of glass vases held either yellow or green fruit at the base, topped off with matching flowers. Also at the florist’s suggestion, the couple placed patterned fabric overlays that matched their color scheme over white linens.
Teri and David didn’t want to compete with the natural beauty of the beach, so they kept decorations minimal. They stood before a cross, made of driftwood, with a bucket of sea grass on either side. The couple exchanged traditional vows in addition to personal ones, which they read to each other.
To outsmart the hot summer weather, Teri and David’s pastry chef brought their cake into the reception layer-by-layer and assembled and decorated the cake in front of the crowd. “We are still getting compliments on how entertained the guests were by the display!” Teri says. It consisted of three, square tiers, each placed at a diagonal to one another and decorated with fresh cut lemons and limes and white daisies. The bottom and top tiers were Key lime flavored, and the middle was chocolate.
The Reception Decor
The Reception Decor
“I had a very easy time choosing a dress,” Teri says. “I wanted something functional, considering a ceremony on the beach.” She went with an A-line, tea-length gown with allover lace from the Galina line at David’s Bridal. To keep things natural for the ceremony she went barefoot, but accented her gown with an elbow-length, oyster-colored veil, custom-made from VeilShop.com. She capped it all off with a necklace and earrings made from David’s grandmother’s pearls and crystals, along with her mother’s sapphire ring. Teri’s five attendants wore tea-length, citrus green skirts from the Make a Match Separates Collection at David’s Bridal. Each maid then picked a top that suited her style and shape.