Real Weddings: Katie and James's Beautiful Summer Wedding

We are so excited to share this beautiful summer wedding with y’all on today’s Real Wedding feature. Katie and James were married here on a gorgeous August weekend. They were married surrounded with friends and family on their wedding weekend, and the love these two have for each other is so evident throughout all their amazing photos captured by Chloe Kjellin Photography. The bride Katie told us all about their love story and the details of their wedding day!

Tell us the short story of how you met one another.

Me and James met the summer before our senior year of high school, at cheer practice. He was one of the guys from the football team that helped with stunts. In order to talk to me more, James ended up running for class Vice President, while I ran for President. His plan to get me to talk to him worked! Our first date was baking cupcakes for our campaign! A couple of weeks later he officially asked me to be his girlfriend, and now we’ve been together almost five years!

Tell us about the proposal!

James proposed in a gazebo in Arlington, TN, where we had our senior prom pictures taken 4 years before! He knows how much I love flowers so he had the gazebo absolutely filled with them! I had been out with his mom at a friend's wedding shower that morning. His mom had picked me up for the shower. On the way to take me home, she said that she wanted to stop at a boutique store in Arlington. She didn't know where she was going, so I was helping her to find the building. We passed right in front of where James was standing when we were pulling into the boutique, and I didn't even notice he was there! I went in and started shopping and James' mom had to bring me out of the store and point to where James was because I was so oblivious to what was going on. He had rose petals leading up to the gazebo, and had even brought our then 4 month old puppy! Once I noticed what was going on, everything turned out absolutely perfect and was so sweet!

What was the favorite moment on your wedding day?

My favorite moment of the wedding day was the last dance. The whole day was absolutely perfect, but having that moment to ourselves to just reflect on the day and all of the excitement surrounding it has to be my favorite part.

Why did you choose White Oak Farms?

White Oak Farms was the first venue we looked at and we immediately fell in love! We loved that the entire building was white, and provided a great background for any theme. The chandelier’s, tall ceilings, and staircase gave the place a very elegant and modern look.. Our favorite part was the string-lit courtyard!

In a few words describe your theme or style for your wedding.

The style for our wedding was “garden oasis”. I absolutely love flowers, and with my now husband being Hawaiian, we had flowers everywhere! The guys even wore Hawaiian shirts!

Is there anything else you can tell us about your love story?

10/10 recommend marrying your best friend, it's awesome :)

Is there anything else you think future couples will find interesting / helpful about planning your wedding?

One interesting thing we did, since our dog was way too energetic to be at the wedding, we had little gift bags made with dog treats in them, for everyone to take home to their furry friends!

Due to COVID, we decided to cut down our guest list to only family and close friends. We decided to show the wedding on facebook live. This was a great decision because all of our friends who were unable to come still got to participate in our wedding, and now I can go back and watch the video whenever I want!