Katherine + Will by Katee and Caroline Photography - Together Journal

We wanted the reception to be classic and simple, with good food and good music.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We live in NYC on the Upper West Side. I (Katherine) grew up in Savannah, GA (where we got married), and Will is from Orlando, FL. We both love art and museums (I’m an art historian working on 17th-century Dutch paintings), music (Will loves the orchestra), cooking and trying new restaurants, and walking around the city!

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

Will was living in Atlanta at the time. We met at a dinner with mutual friends in NY when he was in town for work. We were intrigued, but nothing major. It wasn’t until we were at dinner again a few weeks later in NY, and one of our friends was out sick, and another was 45 minutes late, that we got to connect! We both found the conversation so easy and fun. We started talking on the phone a lot after that – just couldn’t stop talking! We soon started dating a long distance away, and then Will moved to NY about seven months later.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

We both knew pretty early on – just the early trips visiting each other in Atlanta and NY and always wanting to be on the phone debriefing our days.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

Will proposed on New Year’s Eve Eve (Dec 30). We had never discussed an engagement or a ring, so I was totally shocked! We went on a walk at Lullwater Preserve in Atlanta in the morning, and he just proposed!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.

We wanted the focus to be on the ceremony, which we had in the church where I grew up. We were married both by a pastor from the church and by a pastor that Will is close friends with from a church in Winston Salem. We wanted the reception to be classic and simple (all white flowers, tent, table cloths, candles), with good food (we loved our pizza – Big Bon brought their wood-fired pizza oven and made them on the spot) and good music. There were no assigned seats or exact dinner time because we wanted everyone to feel free to move around and get food whenever they wanted. We had no wedding planner, so we (especially my mom) did so much ourselves – it was such a joy to see everything come together on the day!

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

We wanted there to be plenty of food – it’s no fun when you’re hungry at a wedding! We were also so excited to have a great band to keep people on the dance floor. The Equinox Orchestra was a blast. They played a couple of Beach Boys songs just for Will (he loves them). We also wanted amazing photography to capture the day (we are obsessed with our photos)!

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

We got married two days after Hurricane Helene passed through Savannah. Branches and debris were still all over the city on Saturday, they had to remake the tent at the reception after the storm, and the power was still out at both my house and at the church (definitely stressful). We were just planning to do the ceremony without power, but literally a few minutes after the ceremony start time (our grandmothers were going down the aisle), the power came on. Everyone gasped.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

I found my dress at Markarian in NY and loved that it was more of an ivory colour. We decided to have bridesmaids all in bright white dresses (which they got to pick) to contrast.