Katy Warren and Casey Oliver’s East Tennessee Destination Wedding

 

 

Katy Warren and Casey Oliver’s East Tennessee Destination Wedding

BY KATY OLIVER

    Casey and I met on a Campus Crusade Missions Trip in Uppsala, Sweden. I start-ed crushing on his adorable smile and laid back personality. Our wrap up trip was in Rome so our first official

date took place on a patio overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica. Pretty romantic and hard to go uphill from there, but not for Casey.

      We dated long distance for a year while he finished school at The University of Tennessee and I at Duke University and then I moved to Knoxville for a new job. That winter, Casey surprised me by having friends and family pick me up and drop me off at different locations between Knoxville and Durham, NC. This long relay race led me to Duke Chapel where he proposed at the end of the aisle. I never thought I would get married so young but I cannot imagine living one day without my best friend. He makes me more loving, care-free and selfless and shows me God’s love everyday.

     Our motto has always been “It’s not about us” because we feel like we are here to love others more than ourselves. From day one of planning we thought of ways we could make our wedding day and we hope our guests feel that love the entire week-end.  Even though I am from Northern Virginia (no where near a farm), I have always dreamed of getting married in my mom’s cowboy boots outside near a barn (good thing I ended up engaged to a boy from East Tennessee)! Since most of our guests were traveling to the wedding we decided to get married on Memorial Day weekend so we could have more time with them.

  The weekend started off with a lingerie shower with all of my girlfriends, then our Mexican Fiesta themed rehearsal dinner, a cocktail hour for all the guests at a local hotel and then the wedding day at Castleton Farms in Loudon, Tenn.

    This place was a perfect mix of rustic and elegance and ft both of our personalities. We got married in the field, had the cocktail hour on the croquet lawn (with corn hole of course) and then danced the night away in a renovated barn called the Carriage House. Our color pallet was based on the navy bridesmaids dresses by Bill Levkof  and then we added pops of coral, peach and ivory in the flowers Lisa Foster Florist made the most beautifully bold bouquets including ivory reniculous, coral peonies, garden roses that perfectly contrasted with the rustic carriage house.

    Our wedding was everything we could have dreamed of: relaxed, joyful, warm, romantic, silly and fun. The ceremony had a perfect mix of reverence as we committed ourselves to each other before our God but was also fun as we danced down the aisle to “Signed Sealed Delivered.”   Katerine Birkbeck caught every special moment and Milestone Pictures produced the most tear-jerking video of our special day.

     DJ Drew from Ogle Entertainment had all of our guests dancing from the end of the first dance until we drove away. It was a party with glow sticks and all! Some of our favorite touches/moments included praying through a wall so we wouldn’t see each other, running through fields taking pictures, the home-made beer (“I Do” Brew made by our friends), the incredibly thoughtful toasts from my sisters, our ice cream sundae bar from All Occasions Catering and our first dance to Ben Rector’s “Forever Like That.”

          Many people warned me that I would not remember the day and it would all be a blur but I remember and cherish every second. The DJ played Fun’s “We Are Young” for the last song and we had the opportunity to take in all the love as our friends and family formed one large circle around us on the dance floor Our wedding was a gift from God but we are even more thankful for our marriage.