Champagne and gold colored wedding with traditional, classy and formal style with glamorous touches at The Ballantyne Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Brianna and Chris first met during a summer internship their junior year of college. Instead of working hard and hoping for a job offer at the end of the internship, the couple spent their time enjoying each other’s company. While they may have not gotten the job offer in the end, the internship ended up well worth it!

When Chris decided it was time to propose almost four years later, he knew it had to be special. After telling Brianna that he had tickets for a brunch cruise, they arrived at the lake and she was surprised with a proposal and her out of town family waiting to celebrate with them. 

The couple was married on a perfect October afternoon in the sweetest traditional Egyptian ceremony. The traditional affair had a glamorous flare and looked like a day to remember. Full of love, dancing and their closest family and friends, it was everything the couple dreamed of.

The day began at the Ballantyne Hotel where Brianna and Chris each got ready, separately. Downstairs, the ballroom was being transformed.

After reading the handwritten note from Chris (as he read hers from another room), Brianna slipped into her gorgeous ballgown style two-piece wedding dress. The halter top gown had a sweetheart neckline peeking through the lace. The back buttoned until it met the full, multi-tiered tulle bottom. There was tulle for days and we loved every piece of it! The dress was love at first site for Brianna and obviously for good reason!

“I couldn’t just buy the first dressed I tried on, that’d be too easy, so I continued shopping for hoursand visited multiple stores to check off the box that I ‘shopped around,’ but ultimately, I ended up getting that first dress,” said the bride. “We had the top and the bottom stitched together and wrapped a white ribbon around the waist to tie the look together seamlessly.”

Once they grabbed their flowers, Brianna and her bridesmaids in mismatched gold, sequin and champagne colored floor length dresses hopped into the limo and headed to the church. Each girl carried a lush bouquet of wine, champagne and ivory colored roses and greenery that was tied off with ivory and gold ribbon. Brianna’s bouquet was similar, just larger in size.

As is tradition with an Egyptian wedding, Chris was waiting outside the church to meet his bride and escort her inside and down the aisle. Arm in arm, the couple walked down the church aisle that had tulle draped from pew to pew with greenery aisle markers tied off with ribbon. Egyptian or not, the groom escorting the bride down the aisle is a tradition we can get down with. It was one of the sweetest aisle walks we have ever seen!

“Our most anticipated moment of the day had to be when we first saw each other at the church. Rumor has it that he got something stuck in his eye right when he saw me, but there were certainly some tears in his eyes for other reasons,” joked Brianna. 

The ceremony began and other Egyptian traditions were sprinkled throughout. From the singing to the crowning ceremony it was definitely a ceremony the guests would remember forever.

“One neat thing about the ceremony is that the priests place Crowns and Vestments on the bride and groom to declare them ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of their new household and family to come,” the bride explained.

After the ceremony, the bridal party and all the guests headed back over to the Ballantyne Hotelfor the real party to start. As the bridal party finished up pictures on the hotel’s picturesque grounds, guests were welcomed into the ballroom and assumingly, their jaws dropped from the beauty of the room.

The oversized round guest tables were draped with a champagne colored paisley patterned floor length linen. Each place setting had a silver charger and a personalized menu card on top of the champagne colored linen napkin. Some tables had short floral centerpieces, some had tall floral centerpieces, but all tables were glowing with candlelight from floating candles in hurricane glasses and small votives. Each table had a printed table number framed in a silver frame. 

Keeping with the traditional, upscale feeling there was a head table where the couple would sit with all their bridal party members on the same side of the table. Lush greenery and pale colored roses lined the rectangular table, as did candles. Behind the table, the wall was covered with multiple layers of drapery which, up against the uplighting was magical looking. 

The four-tiered wedding cake stood out on a small round table with a gold sequin linen. The cake sat on top of a silver cake stand and had alternating tiers. The bottom and third tier were champagne blush color with a rosette pattern. The second and top tiers were a smooth ivory color. There was a cluster of roses and greenery on each tier and the whole thing was topped with a rose gold wire topper of the couple’s initials. 

Brianna and Chris shared their first dance under one of the ballroom’s several chandeliers as a gobo with their names lit up the wall behind them. After they cut the cake, the party really got started, and once the belly dancer arrived, there was no slowing it down! 

“To keep the momentum going, we bought a bunch of belly dancer hip scarves that we passed out to everyone to wear on the dance floor,” said Brianna. “ It made the party crazy fun!”

The dance floor was packed the whole night and the bride and the groom were in the center of it all. Like any good party, this one had to come to an end but not before the couple made their grand sparkler exit. As their friends and family surrounded them, the couple shared one final kiss.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Still looking for that perfect venue for your wedding reception? Check out The Ballantyne Hotel HERE!