Marmaros Productions

Mar 25, 20216 min read

Sarah & Austin

2.9.2019 | 550 Trackside

How We Met

The friendship between Sarah & Mallory goes way back. Sarah and Mallory met through carpooling to Kindergarten together (look at the ADORABLE photos below!). Around Christmastime of that year, Mallory’s mom took Mallory to see Sarah in The Nutcracker and that sparked a love for dance in Mallory. Sarah and Mallory ended up dancing together for the next thirteen years! Sarah & Mallory went in different directions for college, but that just created a new era of their friendship. Summers in college were spent at the Summer Leadership Project for Campus Outreach. This was a great way for them to meet college students from different campuses across Atlanta… Austin was one of those students.

Love Story

Sarah and Austin were both involved with Campus Outreach on their respective campuses, and one summer both ended up on the Summer Leadership Project together. They built a strong friendship that summer spent at the beach but it wasn’t until later that their relationship would kick off. After the Summer Leadership Project was over, that meant going back to different schools. Campus Outreach has various combined campus events over the course of the year, so Sarah and Austin’s paths crossed again. As the story goes, friendship eventually turned into relationship. Once Sarah graduated, she ended up joining the Campus Outreach staff at the University of North Georgia, which happened to be where Austin was enrolled. This finally put them in the same city, which allowed their relationship to develop even more. In summer of 2018, Austin liked it so he put a ring on it. After knowing each other for three years, Sarah and Austin were taking the next step and had a wedding to plan!

Down to Business

After Sarah & Austin got engaged, Sarah approached Mallory for help. Their first meeting was filled with generic wedding talk, catching up, and lots of queso! With a shorter engagement, Mallory encouraged Sarah and Austin to start looking and settle on a place as soon as they could. This was no easy task though since all of Sarah & Austin’s friends and family come from all over Georgia. Once they booked 550 Trackside, they met again to start nailing down details! With a venue booked, that made things such as finding different vendors and choosing an aesthetic much easier! Since the wedding was quickly approaching meetings became lengthy, and because Sarah and Mallory were meeting after a long days of work they started to do FaceTime meetings to finalize all the last minute details!

The Big Day

February is becoming one of our favorite months for weddings - especially here in Georgia where we experience all the seasons (and then some) in a week. 550 Trackside has this rustic vineyard feel that we really dig and which makes the entire venue feel romantic even before you add any decor! When we arrived on Saturday, we checked on the couple and the wedding party before starting to lay out the tablecloths. There was a rehearsal going on in the space so we just quietly started setting up so we wouldn’t be in the way or a distraction. All of the chairs were already set up for the ceremony but all the tables were off to the side to be moved into place later for the reception. We put out the table cloths and the stunning centerpieces (that were made by Sarah’s Aunt!) before moving onto the other decor like Sarah & Austin’s engagement photos and other adorable signs!

The bridal suite was well equipped to handle all the beautification that was happening - many outlets, a private restroom, cozy chairs, and best of all a full length mirror. The groomsmen had no issue with staying in their area (especially after we gave them some yummy sandwiches from Blue Rooster). Austin was very cautious of all doorways and windows because he absolutely did not want his first look of his bride to be spoiled! Once all the groomsmen were pinned and the bridesmaids were done with hair and makeup, we went into first looks with Sarah & her bridesmaids, Sarah & Austin, and Bride & dad!

After the bridal party & couple photos were done, we hid the beautiful wedding party away as guests began to arrive. We welcomed the flower girls & ring bearer and walked them through their special task for the day! There were six flower girls, and in the downtime leading up to the wedding they were all just having a blast hanging out with the “big kids” and getting to be all dressed up. The guests took their seats and the processional started. The minister was actually one of the other staff members from Campus Outreach who was there from the beginning of Sarah & Austin’s relationship, so he performed a personal and sweet ceremony.

Next, we sent all the guest out to the patio so we could flip the room! Knowing how cold it was outside, 550 Trackside knew how important it was to get the guests back inside as fast as possible, so they graciously lended a few extra hands to help us with the heavy lifting! Guests started coming in and finding seats so we lined up the bridal party once again for introductions before dinner! Adriane’s Delectables created a beautiful buffet layout that was so colorful and fun. We were huge fans of the sausage stars they catered...we still crave them to this day!

After everyone went through the buffet, we cut the sparkly, delicious cake (accompanied by some sparkly cupcakes too)! There was a moment for toasts and all of our special dances before opening up the dance floor. All of the guests from all ages were having a blast on the dance floor, which meant they stuck around for the sparkler send off which made the photos so stunning!

Something Spectacular

Sarah and Austin had so many personal connections to each of their vendors, but one thing that we thought was super unique had to do with their photographer! Early on in the planning period, Sarah had mentioned to Mallory that she had a specific editing style that she wanted for her big day (this is something important to think of when picking a photographer). After looking at various talented photographers portfolios, Sarah decided that Bryson Eller Photography would be the perfect match for what she was looking for.

Bryson knows how important it is to provide photos that the couple will love for ages, and also knew how important this aspect was to Sarah & Austin’s big day. Knowing how special these photos were to Sarah, Bryson actually had the couple do an engagement shoot just weeks before their wedding. This ensured to Sarah that she would get her “dark, warm, and moody” pictures she was looking for. To no surprise, these engagement pictures turning out to be stunning.

Towards the back of the ceremony space at 550 trackside, there are a few large frames on the wall. Roger, who owns the venue mentioned to Sarah & Austin that sometimes couples will bring in their own pictures to fill the frames, and that is exactly what Sarah and Austin ended up doing! Since Bryson’s engagement photos turned out so great, the couple blew up and printed out a couple of those shots to fill the frames. We thought this was such a personal touch to the ceremony space and it really tied together the venue for Sarah & Austin’s big day!

Photographer: Joseph Wood

Happily Ever After

We are honored to take part in Sarah & Austin's love story! For Mallory, it was super sweet to see this love story develop from the beginning and have the opportunity to be a part of the start to a new chapter in their relationship. We loved seeing how genuinely happy they were even in the midst of a crazy planning period leading up to the big day. We know they are going to do great things together with their marriage!