Ideas for a Country Wedding: Hitching Post

Jenna and Andrew Lombardi's wedding on a Georgia farm brims with romance and homespun charm.

By: Felicia Feaster

Related To:

Shop This Look

Photo By: Image courtesy of Gracie Blue Photography (www.grblue.com)

Love, Actually

Jenna and Andrew Lombardi incorporated personal mementoes and family heritage into their wedding, serving Italian food in honor of Andrew’s heritage at their reception, and celebrating the couple’s love of nature and the outdoors in the farm setting.

Farm Fresh

Jenna and Andrew Lombardi’s wedding day took place on a perfect sunny May day on a 300-year-old Georgia farm.

Dress Barn

Jenna took a chance and ordered her wedding dress by mail, but was delighted with the results: a simple shape that perfectly suited the romantic, unpretentious spirit of her wedding. “For my something blue, my mom stitched my wedding date in blue onto a piece cut out from her wedding dress, and then sewed it inside of my dress,” says Jenna.

Something Wild

Jenna’s bouquet is a nod to Andrew’s habit, when they were first dating, of picking bouquets of wild flowers for Jenna. On the morning of their wedding, Andrew went to his secret Athens, Georgia spot (he’s not telling) to pick Jenna’s wildflowers. Jenna added her signature baby’s breath to the arrangement to give it more fullness.

Equestrian Rhapsody

Wedding photographer Gracie Dinwiddie of Gracie Blue Photography captured the spirit of the day: wholesome, authentic and brimming with good spirits, sunshine and the beauty of nature.

Wheat Wins

Special guests of the bride’s received arrangements of wheat tied with ribbon to carry during the ceremony. Jenna’s sister (her maid of honor) and matron of honor carried small sprigs of wheat tucked into their bouquets.

Green Goddess

Bride Jenna Lombardi wore a headpiece composed of baby’s breath, daisies and lavender.

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Georgia bride Jenna Lombardi’s seven bridesmaids carried bouquets of baby’s breath and wore dresses in a color palette of cream and blush.

Well Groomed

Groom Andrew Lombardi’s boutonniere was created using a mix of pheasant feathers, wheat and hypericum berries.

The Ring Cycle

Andrew carried a vintage handkerchief holding his and his bride’s wedding rings. “The notebook is one of my old journals. As part as my wedding gift, I gave him a ton of old journals and marked pages that I had written prayers for him on,” says Jenna.

Best Foot Forward

The groomsmen wore identical pants, rolled up in keeping with the event’s unpretentious spirit, and were asked to wear brown shoes.

Nature and Nurture

The groomsmen's boutonnieres also featured wheat. “We chose it intentionally for it's natural look and feel as well as it's Biblical significance,” says Jenna, who along with Andrew now works for the University of Georgia’s campus ministry.

Bandana-rama

Each of the groomsmen received vintage bandanas to wear in their back pockets, along with wheat boutonnieres.

Tree of Life

A majestic 200-year-oak tree seems to shelter the wedding ceremony in its embrace.

Preserving Memories

The mason jars on the wedding program harken back to the discovery the couple made, early in their relationship, of a cache of vintage jars while exploring an abandoned house. The couple have since collected the jars from thrift and antique stores.

Pickup Luck

A farm employee loaned the couple his vintage Ford pickup which they used to transport guests and groomsmen.

Special Delivery

A borrowed pickup truck transported the groomsmen to the wedding ceremony for a stylish, farm-fresh arrival. In keeping with the farm theme, guests were transported to the ceremony and reception via hay ride. A bluegrass band serenaded guests as they arrived at the reception.

Get Me to the Oak on Time

A majestic oak offered welcome shade from the May sun. Hay bales provided additional seating for guests.

Take a Vow

The gently bowing branch of an old oak tree created a cathedral effect above the couple during the wedding ceremony. Jenna went barefoot for her wedding and the couple read their own vows.

A Trip to Bountiful

Jenna read her vows from this travel journal given to her by Andrew.

Clean Start

In an expression of faith and humility the couple washed each others’ feet during their wedding ceremony. The couple used this vintage copper bucket for the ceremony.

Fun on the Farm

The couple, flanked by their wedding party, pose in front of one of the historic structures on the 300-year-old Georgia farm where they were married.

Making Hay

Hay bales festooned with fabric garlands lend an all-American, old-fashioned touch to the homespun Lombardi wedding.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Jenna wrapped wildflower seeds in burlap to give to guests as mementos of their wedding. In gardens around Georgia, those wildflowers grow in memory of this lovely couple’s celebration of love and nature. Happy memories of being pushed around in this wheelbarrow her father used for yard work inspired Jenna to seek out that wheelbarrow to hold the seeds.

Barn Raising

Jenna’s father and brother created the wooden boxes that graced the reception hall and contained a mix of vincas, petunias and marigolds sourced from a big box retailer.