Tucker and I have officially made it one full year of marriage. People always say the first year is the hardest, and if that’s the case for us, I bet the rest of our lives will be just perfect because it’s been a wonderful first year.

We celebrated last night with dinner at St. John’s in downtown Chattanooga. They surprised us with complimentary champagne to start the evening, and needless to say, we ate real good the rest of the night.

I meant to write about our wedding day for Valentine’s Day, but I ran out of time and now we’re in the middle of March. So instead, I’ll write about our wedding day for our first anniversary together.

Below is the story of the day we said “I do,” which was magical and quick, just the way we wanted it. Enjoy this cheesy slice of our story (and all the photos!). ;)

The Rehearsal Dinner, 3.18.22

THE BEST SPEECH I’VE EVER HEARD

Bob and Laurie, Tucker’s parents, hosted our rehearsal dinner in their home and it was wonderful. A private chef cooked for us - the highlights were the brisket, cheese grits, bacon jam, and Kiki’s banana pudding for dessert.

Bob gave the best speech we’d ever heard - Tucker and I cried through the whole thing. It was a wonderful take on the benediction we say at the end of every service at church on Sundays, but Bob then spoke it over us and our marriage. I couldn’t imagine better way to spend the evening before our wedding. We are so unbelievably blessed.

The Wedding Day, 3.19.22

CEREMONY AT LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

We married on March 19, 2022, at 10am in our home church, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church (LMPC). Our pastor, Chad Middlebrooks, led our pre-marital counseling sessions and officiated our wedding. We’re both so thankful for his gentle guidance, constant prayers, and genuine friendship - it only made sense that he would help usher us into our committed lives together.

Tucker and I are both fans of quick weddings - get in, say the thing, have a glass of champagne, get out. But we also knew we didn’t want to rush our special day (there’s no rushing into something as big as marriage), so we opted for a morning wedding, a brunch reception, and a hard stop at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

For our wedding colors, we went with two that matched both our eyes - green for me, blue for him - and a pop of blush pink to round out the spring feel of a morning wedding in March. Though we didn’t have much of a theme beyond springy colors and flowers, I suppose my answer to those who asked was “brief, brunch, and blueberries.” One of Tucker’s favorite flavors in the world is blueberry, including his favorite jam, so we incorporated blueberries into our decor. Even the bridesmaids had sprays of blueberries in their bouquets, and Tucker had a spray in his boutonniere.

Though the sanctuary of our church is stunning on its own and we could have left it as is and still had a beautiful wedding, we decided to put flower bunches in the stained glass windows and hang eucalyptus and ribbon from wrought iron poles along the aisle. We added pink, blue, and white roses to the boxwoods on the altar, too.

Tucker and I said multiple times through our engagement leading up to the wedding, during the wedding, and after we drove away, just the two of us, that our bridal party was the best we could have asked for.

All our dearest friends and family were incredibly helpful, encouraging, and so excited for us; it was enough to make us feel both so humbled and overjoyed that they were able to share in this moment with us. We thank God for each of them constantly, and cannot imagine this day without them.

For the bridal party outfits, I was nervous it wouldn’t all come together as perfectly as it did. Most of our friends and my family live far away, so not seeing how all the colors might work together until the day of can be a toss-up.

But it was perfect.

My Bridesmaids

For my bridesmaids, I asked them to alternate colors on a spectrum of dusty blue and sage green. I believe my instructions were basically: Here’s your color (alternating blue and green); find a long (midi or maxi), silk dress you feel pretty in, and nude dress shoes. I wanted them to feel comfortable in whatever dress they chose, and I wanted them to alternate based on where they stood with me during the ceremony, starting with green for my maid of honor.

The colors turned out perfect, even better than I’d imagined them, especially when we were all together. The slightly overcast sky and the gorgeous surroundings of our church grounds made for beautiful photos of me and my favorite girls.

The Bridesmaid Lineup

Maid of Honor - Elisa Grace Davis, best friend since high school - Green

Karyssa Forshey, sister - Blue

Kalena Forshey, sister - Green

Martha Grace Curtis, sister in law - Blue

Emily Hamilton, best friend since college - Green

Amy Lopez, best friend since college - Blue

Tucker’s Groomsmen

For the guys, we chose navy suits and brown dress shoes, and Tucker surprised me by choosing blush pink ties and pocket squares, which turned out to be the perfect pop of pink I was hoping for.

As you may notice in the photos, Tucker got all his groomsmen rings, like Schmidt does in New Girl. They showed them off all weekend. You may also notice that Tucker’s the only one with a boutonniere. That’s because I accidentally ordered only 5 and we found out the morning of the wedding that they didn’t have enough. Ah well, they still all look very handsome. ;)

The Groomsmen Lineup

Best Man - Andrew Fultz, best friend since college

Will Highsmith, best friend since college

Sam Curtis, brother

Zac Curtis, brother

Charlie Curtis, brother

Ethan Forshey, brother-in-law

Getting Ready

With an early morning wedding, you have an early morning wake-up time. For the girls, most of us arrived at the church at 6:30am to start on hair and makeup. Thankfully, my sisters stopped by Starbucks to pick us all up some drinks to get us through the day. The boys slept in and showed up at 8am to get ready.

I had found an adorable cropped sweatshirt and sweat-shorts combo, with butterflies in our wedding colors on them that I chose for my “getting ready outfit,” especially because early mornings on the mountain are pretty chilly.

My sister did my make-up, which added a special touch and my wedding coordinator’s daughter did my hair. I suppose I should talk about my dress now because it was everything I wanted it to be.

It was a strapless a-line, taffeta gown, and I lowered the backline and added crisscrossing straps to it. The train was chapel-length, though on me it looked more cathedral since I’m so short, with a row of buttons going all the way down the back. My veil had tiny rhinestones along the edge to frame the dress train.

I wore gold and diamond earrings and my something blue was a pair of baby-blue velvet chunky heels, which were actually fairly comfortable to walk in and just gorgeous.

As an engagement gift, my sister got me a dress hanger with our wedding date and “Mrs. Curtis” bent into it, which we used to take photos of the dress.

We also used the yellow, velvet ring box Tucker had custom-made to propose to me in our “detail” photos. For my flowers, I chose light blue hydrangeas and added blush pink roses, to match my invitations and program.

The Ceremony

We asked our church’s organist to play the organ during the ceremony and chose all our favorite hymns to invite all our friends and family into this time of worship. For our prelude music, the organist played “Be Thou My Vision,” “For the Beauty of the Earth,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Speak, O Lord,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “Jesus Paid It All,” and “Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts” as people were seated.

The one hiccup of the day happened just before I was to walk down the aisle. My mom came back into the bridal suite and told me, “The address for the reception is wrong…on everything.” After editing and editing and editing some more, our darned website, invites, and signs all had the wrong address for the reception. I had put the address to the Fairyland Club instead of the Lookout Mountain Club.

Luckily, Fairyland and LMC are owned by the same people and are only a few minutes away from each other on the mountain, so I responded to my mom’s wide eyes and bridesmaids’ worried looks with, “Welp, that sucks. Nothing I can do about that now.”

We continued with the wedding. I knew there was no sense rushing around to get someone to find our pastor (who was already at the altar at this point), so he could make an announcement. The address was wrong - most people would find out through word-of-mouth, and the most unlucky among us would just be redirected by the Fairyland employees.

We all bustled up toward the sanctuary as the prelude music came to a close. Just off the sanctuary is a small chapel, where the bridal party except for Tucker gathered to wait for our cues. My dad gathered me and my bridesmaids and my family all together to pray - through choked tears, he prayed for our new life together, for the Lord to bless and keep us, and for our lives to ultimately glorify God.

I had held it together up until this point, but I couldn’t stop the tears and I knew the rest of this ceremony was going to be a bumpy ride for my emotions. How do you keep all the joy in, when it’s literally spilling out of you?

Our cues began.

The mothers and grandmothers were escorted and seated to my favorite hymn, “This is My Father’s World.” The bridesmaids were escorted down to “How Deep the Father's Love for Us,” and I followed with my dad to the song, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

It was so surreal, that long aisle, my future husband, my pastor, and all my dearest friends and family waiting for me. I leaned heavily on my dad for support - I thought I might topple, overcome with joy at all the wonderful faces I passed, all praying for us and cheering us on.

We began as good Presbyterians often do, with a call to worship. Then we sang Tucker’s favorite hymn, “O God, Beyond All Praising.” If you’ve never heard it, please take a moment and listen to it sometime - it is beautiful.

From there, Chad prayed for us, gave the divine ordinance of marriage, and read Psalm 139 before we said our vows and exchanged our rings.

I didn’t make it through my vows without crying - my voice got really squeaky and high-pitched by the end, but I said them all and meant them with every part of me. Tucker breezed through his vows, and he meant every bit as well. He’s cool as a cucumber under this type of pressure, whereas I’m always a heaping mess of emotion.

And suddenly, we were married! We kissed to seal the deal and our pastor presented us to our friends and family as one. We walked back down the aisle to “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder,” a perfect send-off hymn.

Then, it was picture time, both in the sanctuary and the courtyard. In the meantime, our guests headed to the reception, both the right location and the wrong one, for celebratory mimosas and bellinis. Thankfully, those who ended up at the wrong location were quickly redirected and everyone ended up in the right spot before the bridal party turned up.

The Wedding Day, 3.19.22

RECEPTION AT LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN GOLF CLUB

Someone prayed for the meal, I don’t remember who, and our guests started eating before we got there. This worked out well, because by this time, we were all very hungry and eager to enjoy brunch.

I kicked off my pretty blue heels and donned some fuzzy, white slippers for the reception. We headed to our sweetheart table and enjoyed all our favorite foods - fried chicken and waffles, sausage links, bacon strips, biscuits and jam, and hashbrown potatoes. I was brought a bellini and a mimosa and I alternated between them happily.

We transitioned into speeches, one from Tucker’s Best Man and one from my Maid of Honor. Both were hilarious and sweet - they fit all our personalities so well.

After the speeches, it was party time. We made our way to the dancefloor. Tucker danced with his mom to “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, then I danced with my dad to “Moon River” by Frank Sinatra, then Tucker and I had our first dance to “Hold You in My Arms” by Ray LaMontagne. I distinctly remember swaying too quickly to our song, practically bouncing on my toes, I was so excited to be where I was. Dancing with my husband, dancing with all my favorite people.

Then we opened the dance floor to everyone! We danced to all our favorite songs, even “Dancing in the Moonlight,” which was my favorite from the whole day. We took more photos and partied.

Finally, it was time to cut the cake. Our friend Naomi, of Nae’s Pastries, custom-made a blueberry and earl gray cake for us, which was completely delicious, though we only made a cake big enough for me and Tucker to enjoy. For everyone else, we catered Koch’s Bakery cake donuts - mostly blueberry, but also chocolate, vanilla, and blueberry with maple frosting.

Our send-off gift was a little bag of Goodman’s Coffee Beans and a tiny jar of Bonne Maman Blueberry Jam.

After a few more photos and heartfelt goodbyes, it was time for our sendoff. We gave everyone confetti cannons and had them lineup along either side of us while we ran through and had a fairytale kiss.

Then we hopped in Tucker’s red ford escape and drove off into the afternoon sun, eager for a restful honeymoon (which we got!) and a wonderful life together.

Thanks for reminiscing with me! Special thanks to all our vendors below - we couldn’t have done it without you. :)

Photos - @jordycophoto

Reception Decor - Complete Wedding Rentals

Ceremony Location - Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church

Reception Location & Food - Lookout Mountain Club

Wedding Cake - Nae’s Pastries

Reception Music - Justus Johnson Music

Donuts - Koch’s Bakery (Unfortunately, they closed on March 18, 2023, one day before our one-year anniversary. Luckily, we snagged a dozen blueberry cake donuts a few days ago, as an added anniversary treat.)