Q&A With the Marriage Poppins Team

Meet Anna and Justin Holladay, owners of Sweet Grass Weddings/people who take the term “work husband” literally.

Why the decision to specialize in Tiny Weddings?

Justin:  Two reasons. We struggled to find anyone who could help us while planning our own small, mountaintop wedding. It was stressful to put everything together from afar. Who could we trust with this most important day? The second thing is you can do so much more in a small wedding context than you can with a huge production!

Like?

Justin: You can get pretty elaborate and personal. For instance, one of our brides married on the beach on St. George’s Island. Because there were only 15 people invited she hand-made her invitations to look like messages in a bottle, complete with corks and tea-stained paper! Because she had less than 10 to create, it was manageable and fun instead of stressful.

Another one of our couples was a major Harry Potter fan (shout out to Hufflepuffs!) and we actually created a table runner for them from the pages of their favorite book for their cake scene.

Favorite Tiny Wedding memories to date?

Anna: My favorite weddings are when the brides cry happy tears when they see everything set up! I also L O V E when couples include their dogs. Please have your pups at the wedding!

Justin: Some of the in-ceremony surprises have been amazing. Like the time one bride sang the entire song of “Let’s Stay Together” acapella in perfect harmony. Or the time a well-known singer happened to be a guest and had worked it out with the groom to serenade the bride during the ceremony.

What street cred do you bring to the table?

Anna: We have years of comprehensive event planning experience. Together we’ve planned non-profit galas, weekend festivals, conferences and have completed over 100 themed weddings.

 One of our couples loved silver glitter, purple, and dinosaurs (specifically, Jurassic Park). We ended up crafting glitter dinosaurs for decor and planting purple angel plants in silver dinosaur planters. The couple was THRILLED!

 Another couple wanted a Christmas themed wedding, but their date was actually in late March. So, we put up Christmas trees and garland and put out HUNDREDS of those fir scent sticks to set the mood. We even threw a little fake snow in. The day of their wedding it actually turned out to be only about 40 degrees.

 Yet another had a Great Gatsby themed wedding where everyone dressed like flappers. We had pearls and feathers and vintage champagne saucers. We made the cake navy art deco and sourced a cake topper from the 20s.

 We even organized a tastefully morbid Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Complete with Til Death Do Us Part skeleton cake topper and a blood-red and black color scheme.

 We had two grooms that had a country-western theme. They wore matching gingham shirts with their blue suits and we had custom cowboy boots cake toppers commissioned for them with all the appropriate burlap accessories.

Anna: My favorite weddings are when the brides cry happy tears when they see everything set up! I also L O V E when couples include their dogs. Please have your pups at the wedding!

 Justin: Some of the in-ceremony surprises have been amazing. Like the time one bride sang the entire song of “Let’s Stay Together” acapella in perfect harmony. Or the time a well-known singer happened to be a guest and had worked it out with the groom to serenade the bride during the ceremony.

Any misconceptions about what you do? 

Anna: Small doesn’t have to mean small-time. You can have a beautiful wedding with all the personal touches, gorgeous flowers and beautiful photos for under $10k. You just have to have a very exclusive guest list

Best advice for a Tiny Bride/Groom?

Justin: Don’t be afraid to go for something that completely celebrates your relationship and its delightful quirks, like a love of glitter and dinosaurs or shared gem mining hobby.

Where should couples look for inspiration besides wedding pubs/blogs?

Anna: I always tell people to think about the places and things in their life that bring them joy and peace. Beyond that, architecture and travel magazines always seem to connect and give me inspiration about aesthetics. Literally anything can be an inspiration. We designed one wedding off an antique vase the bride’s grandmother had.