ceremony location – Holy Ghost Catholic Church
florist – Sassafras Flowers
wedding cake – Esther Cant
groom’s cake – Dunkin’ Donuts
invitations – Larry Newman Printing
bridal shop (gown) – The White Room
bridal shop (bridesmaids) – Wedding Wonderland
formalwear – Men’s Warehouse
transportation – The Knoxville Trolley
reception venue – The Foundry
reception music – Heart to Heart
rentals – White Linens
What is your favorite wedding movie? Either the traditional Father of the Bride or My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I love movies and I love chick flicks, so really all wedding movies.
How did you and Jess meet? We were introduced at a party in college.
Did you have any input on your engagement ring or was it a total surprise? Total surprise!
How did he propose? We have a goal of doing the whole Appalachian Trail in sections. It has been something we both have really enjoyed doing together. He proposed on top of a mountain in Georgia. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was truly surprised!
How did you chose rings? This was really special because Jess gave me the engagement ring with his grandmother’s diamond in the center. The setting also looked exactly like her ring did. Jess was very close to his Papa and giving Jess this ring was the last big/special thing that he did for Jess before he passed. The band is beautiful as well! He picked out both without me and gave me some guidance on his.
What was the most important thing to you about your wedding? I wanted the ceremony to be personal and meaningful. So we put a lot of effort into that, but making sure that the reception was going to be fun was on my priority list as well.
What was the most anticipated moment of your wedding day? All of it!
Tell us about “the” dress. Who was with you when you found it? I was with my sister and my mom. My dress was the first one I tried on and my mom was the one that picked it out. We had actually made a weekend out of dress shopping. So we went to look at other dresses but I kept coming back to that one!
What was your something blue? My something blue was actually a bit of a surprise. We had a wonderful tailor in Knoxville who has a tradition of stitching in the date of your wedding into your dress with blue thread. I was not aware she did this until we picked it up on my final fitting. It was a great personal touch to the dress!
What was your favorite wedding moment? I would have to say right after the ceremony in the basement of the church. Jess and I were so happy and excited! All of our family and wedding party met us down there as well. Also, I loved dancing at the reception!
What was your favorite part about planning your wedding? One of my favorite parts about planning my wedding was the time that I got to spend with my parents. At times I think they probably thought I moved back in because I was there so much.
Have you been planning your wedding since you were a little girl? I had actually never really thought about my wedding. I have always thought about marriage and family but not the actual wedding.
Why did you choose the facility you chose for your wedding and/or reception? We chose our ceremony site because it was such a beautiful church and it was close to the reception site. We chose the reception site because it was downtown which made it easy for people to get back to hotels or go somewhere else after the reception.
How did you chose your colors? I have always like the color blue, so that was my main color. The accent colors were decided more by what when well with my dress, which had a slight gold tone to it.
What was your first dance song? Our first dance song was “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Ray Charles. We did not have a history behind the song. We had listened to many songs trying to figure out the best song for us and we ended up choosing this one. We loved the lyrics!
What flavor was your cake? Vanilla cake with butter cream icing…plain and traditional but delicious!
Did you have a groom’s cake? Our groom’s cake was actually munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. My dad is a franchisee of Dunkin, so it was fun to include that into our wedding. We had a three tier stand with three different flavors.
Did you do any DIY projects? We had a few chalkboard signs around the reception that were made by Jess’ mom (very creative person) but that was about it on the DIYs!
Where did you go on your honeymoon? Jess loves to surprise me and he is really good at it! So, I did not actually know where we were going on our honeymoon. I did mention many years ago that I wanted to go to Costa Rica and he kept a mental note of that. I found out Sunday moring after the wedding where we were heading. It was so much fun to not have to plan it and just go! He did a great job!
What are you most looking forward to about being Mr. & Mrs.? The thing that I look most forward to, which I am already enjoying, is the time we are able to spend together. It has been so fun to be able to spend more time with Jess and going through the process of learning how to mesh our lives together.
