When I say I’ve never shot a wedding like Katy and Brett’s, I mean it. They’ve been together FIFTEEN YEARS and got married in his parent’s backyard, where they grew up together and the place that they fell in love. How amazing is that?!!

At the reception, they had love letters dated back to 2007 scattered around. Another special moment was when we took sunset photos at their bus stop from middle school, SO CUTE. Katy and Brett, there is truly no love like yours!

Their vision and love story

What moment of your wedding day were you most looking forward to? 

My now husband and I both looked forward to the moment we saw each other for the first time as I walked down the aisle. If you ask Brett, he says he’s been looking forward to that moment and seeing me in a white dress since our early days of dating back in high school 15 years ago. 

What was your vision for the day!? The style/feel, what were you hoping the guests experience, what were you most excited for!? Tell me everything!  

My whole vision was truly to create an experience for my guests and take them through our relationship, from high school sweethearts to present day living our dreams out in NYC! I spent a lot of time with my incredible planner, Gillian from Events by Gillian, who helped me truly conceptualize my venue spaces (there were 2: one for ceremony and one for reception).  Seeing everything come together so beautifully was the most special moment (besides marrying my best friend). 

Was there any significance/story to your venue/location? 

Absolutely.  We got married in the church I grew up in, which also happens to be the church my parents got married at 40 years ago!  The church is less than a mile from my house and my now-husband’s house (we were also neighbors growing up!).  We had parking at my house lit by a beautiful, twinkle light path that led to our reception in Brett’s backyard. (aka, where we fell in love over the years!)

Was there any significance/story to your wedding date? 

No significance, but we always knew we wanted to get married in October and our anniversary was a few days away from our wedding date.  Brett played soccer all his life and the brisk fall weather reminds me of cuddling up in the stands at his soccer games in high school.  I knew I wanted that to be the feel for our wedding. 

Wedding Colors/theme?   

Theme was not specific to wedding colors — it was more of a ~vibe~ 

I wanted to incorporate moments and significant events in our relationship and take people back to the nostalgia of 2007-2010 when we lived out our high school memories in our hometown.  It was PERFECTLY executed and I had so many friends and family comment on the beautiful details that brought our love story to life. 

Details about the reception, gimme all the details!  

• Twinkle light path between our houses that our guest followed from parking to the reception venue.

• Featuring actual notes we actually passed in the halls of our high school.

• Clothes lines of soccer jerseys and t-shirts I made in support for his games.

• Our first dance was “Hey There Delilah” — we rode the same bus growing up and our bus driver always said she envisioned our wedding day when this song came on the radio and she saw our heads together in her rearview mirror.

• I was OBSESSED with floral installations and I made it it a point to go big or go home. They really dressed up our space SO nicely.

• We did a flash mob!!! I’m a professional dancer and we had about 15 other professional dancers join in (all my friends) to surprise Brett. His favorite song is Chandelier by Sia, so it was a no-brainer!

• My dad surprised me during our father-daughter dance — he sang karaoke and did a performance! I knew that song was his karaoke song which is why I chose it — it was very special.

• + so much more. I could write a book.

Anything else worth noting about the day! 

The amount of compliments I received from everyone on how gorgeous, professional and STUNNING my photos were from our wedding day… I can’t even keep count!  Lauren is the best of the best.  We even bought an album and it was the best decision we ever made.  Knowing our memories are documented for generations to come is so special!! I look at it literally every day.