Kelsie & Wesley – Fun Fair Engagement

Let us enlighten your day with this fun-filled engagement session at the county fair by Tiffany Robinson. Kelsie & Wesley thought that shooting their engagement at a local county fair was a fun way of showing who they were as a couple. Kelsie did a burlap banner with their wedding date painted on it prior to this engagement session. And the DIY save the date props out of corn dogs & mustard & lollipops & white paint were created by their photographer. It was the cutest idea ever! You’ll definitely want to have a munch on those on one of your engagement or wedding photo sessions.

The bride-to-be also shares with us a very meaningful advice about what a wedding should really be about:

The best advice I received was a reminder not to forget what the day was truly about. A wedding isn’t about a fancy dress or a five tiered cake, it’s about love. Two people committing themselves to love one another for eternity. Once you start planning a wedding it is really easy to get caught up in the “stuff” part and forget about what is really important.

What is your story as a couple, how did you meet & fall in love?

Wes and I first met while working for a hospitality service company at the University of Tennessee. We had both been working in the suite boxes at Thompson Bowling arena one night when it started snowing. Wes and I both got cut at the same time and since he was parked closer to the arena he offered to drive me to my car. After he dropped me off he asked for my phone number and after a few days he asked me to go out on our first date. Wes and I bonded almost instantly and have been inseparable ever since. We both share the love for Tennessee football and go to as many games as we can each year. Wes put a lot of time and thought into his proposal to me last March. He told me he had won tickets for us to tour Neyland Stadiums facilities from a local radio show that he listens to daily. When we arrived at the stadium on the day of the tour another woman joined us who said she had also won tickets and was a local photographer working on her portfolio. I was so excited about the tour that I never notice if Wes was nervous. Near the end of our tour we got to go into the locker room and we asked the photographer to take a photo of us under the “I will give my all for Tennessee today!” sign. As I was posing for the picture Wes suddenly dropped to one knee and pulled out the cutest wooden box (he ordered the ring box off Etsy after seeing it on my Pinterest account!). I had no idea he was going to ask me to marry him that day and I started to realize that he had organized the entire day just for me.

What makes the two of you a perfect match?

We both have strengths and weaknesses but where one of us falls short the other one picks up the slack. We work well as a team because we both have the same goals in life.

What was the best advice you received when you were planning your wedding?

The best advice I received was a reminder not to forget what the day was truly about. A wedding isn’t about a fancy dress or a five tiered cake, it’s about love. Two people committing themselves to love one another for eternity. Once you start planning a wedding it is really easy to get caught up in the “stuff” part and forget about what is really important.

What inspired your wedding decor? Why did you choose the things that you did?

I knew I wanted to have a barn wedding so that influenced our décor a lot. We went with a country rustic theme that blended perfectly with the character of the barn. We were able to use several items that had a lot of meaning to us and our family on our wedding day which was very important. We used my Papaw’s truck as our getaway vehicle and decorated the arbor we were married under using Wes’ Uncles tobacco baskets. For our centerpiece we used my Mamaw’s blue mason jars and handmade dollies from Wes’ Great-aunt. We picked through my grandparents barn and pulled several old buckets, milk jugs, and crates that we also used to decorate the barn with. The home Wes and I were living in at the time had recently been renovated so we were able to salvage the old windows from its remodel to use as décor which added a special hidden meaning to us. My Aunt made us two gorgeous ruffled burlap table cloths that we used for our sweetheart table and our cake table to set them apart from the rest.

Do you have advice for couples still in the planning process?

Set a budget together and stick with it. I am so glad Wes and I set a budget early because it saved us from arguments later on. Weddings can get really expensive so be prepared and try to make your budget as realistic as possible by getting quotes from vendors you are interested in using rather than using average price estimates off the internet. More than likely, you will have to sacrifice something but after it’s all over you probably won’t even notice what you went without.

What were some challenges you faced planning your wedding & what would you have done differently to avoid them?

We got engaged in March 2013 and set our wedding date for May 2014. We thought we had plenty of time for planning and crafting later so we put it off for several months which was a huge mistake. My advice would be to start planning immediately especially if you are doing lots of Pinterest craft like I did. I wanted the days before my wedding to be spent with my bridesmaids relaxing while getting pampered but instead I was getting paint under my fingernails and hot glue gun burns on my hands. In the end it all turned out fine but just take my advice and finish wedding planning and crafting early, you will be glad you did.

What was the wedding budget?  Where did you save the most money?

Wes and I agreed upon spending $10,000 on our wedding and came in just a couple hundred dollars over due to some last minute purchases. Our budget also included our honeymoon and wedding bands but it did not include the engagement ring. I am a very frugal person and Wes is starting to pick up on my frugal habits so we compared prices a lot. I made a lot of things myself instead of buying them from Etsy. For things I couldn’t make I would find online promo codes to get a better deal like when I used a 50% code from Zazzle for our wedding invitations. We are also very blessed that the majority of vendors we used were either family or friends who offered to gift us their services or gave us a discounted rate.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We originally wanted to go to an all-inclusive resort but decided in the end to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. This decision saved us over $3000 and we had an amazing time!

What are you most excited about for the future?

We have been building a house since Feb and were finally able to move in at the start of July. I am excited to make our house a home and fill it with all of our beautiful engagement and wedding photos!

What would you say, the overall story for this album?

I wanted to do something really fun and different for our engagement shoot so Wes and I brainstormed ideas for several days. When we decided to have it at a local county fair I was really excited and thought it is was really fitting for our personalities. After the word got out about where Wes and I were planning on having our shoot we actually had some people tell us they thought it was a bad idea. I am really thankful we had supportive photographers that loved our idea. I think these photos are a representation of us being us. We did exactly what we wanted regardless of what people may have thought or think and were very pleased with the outcome.

What was your favorite part of the day?

My favorite part of the engagement shoot was that we actually got to shoot in two locations. It poured rain only a few minutes after we started our shoot at the fair and it continued to rain to the point that the photographers equipment was threatening to malfunction. I was pretty disappointed that it had rained but I knew there wasn’t much we could do about it. A couple of days later my photographers asked me if Wes and I would be interested in meeting them at Dolloywood (a local amusement park) for a re-shoot in their “country fair” section of the park. I was so excited to have the opportunity to re-shoot some of our photos and also amazed at their generosity in offering this option to us.

Was there any Do it Yourself (DIY) projects? If so, can you describe them in detail?

The before our engagement shoot I made a burlap banner with our wedding dates painted on it. Our photographers made two super cute save the date props out of corn dogs and mustard and another one out of lollipops and white paint.

What were the highlights from the ceremony & reception?

My favorite part of the wedding was right after we got married. We had a few moments to ourselves while we were waiting to be introduced as Mr & Mrs and it was nice to just enjoy being married before going back to all the festivities.

Vendors

Photographer:  Ivy Lee Photography
Other Location: Dollywood