Casual Forest Micro Wedding

Mandie + Devin – October 2, 2026

There are couples who want their wedding day to feel polished and formal from beginning to end. And then there are couples who say, “Yes, I would like the beautiful wedding dress…but I will be wearing Converse.” Mandie and Devin were our kind of people. 😂❤️

Their casual forest micro wedding brought their families together for a warm October day filled with sentimental details, four very important sons, a little bit of country style, some serious happy tears, and clouds that spent several hours threatening us without ever actually following through.

Honestly, the combination of Mandie’s layered wedding dress and Converse beside Devin’s jeans, tan jacket, and cowboy hat tells you quite a bit about the day before we even get started.

It was beautiful without being stuffy. Emotional without being overly formal. And very, very them.

Warm Fall Colors in the Forest

Mandie and Devin chose textured rust fabric with succulent florals for the chapel, bringing warm autumn tones into the still-mostly-green East Tennessee forest.

October around here is always interesting because fall doesn’t arrive everywhere at once. You might get cooler air, warm wedding colors, and a few changing leaves while half the forest is still confidently hanging onto summer.

The textured rust fabric gave their ceremony that cozy fall feeling regardless of what the trees had decided to do. It was earthy and warm without being overly decorated, which fit their casual forest micro wedding perfectly. They weren’t trying to turn the woods into a ballroom. The forest could still be the forest. They just gave it a little autumn wardrobe adjustment. 🍂🤎

A Wedding Dress, a Veil, and Converse

Mandie wore a sleeveless wedding dress with gorgeous textured layers running through the long train. It had plenty of movement and detail, especially from behind, and paired beautifully with her medium-length veil. And then you looked down. Converse. 😍 With bows on the back. YES.

I love a wedding look that mixes something traditionally bridal with something completely comfortable and personal.

A bride does not suddenly lose the ability to have preferences because she’s getting married. If heels are your thing, wear the fabulous heels. If you’d rather walk around the forest in Converse without thinking about your feet every seven seconds?

Wear the Converse. Mandie managed to have a gorgeous dress, a fabulous train, a veil, AND shoes she could actually wander around in. This seems like excellent planning to me.

Carrying Her Dad and Brother With Her

One of the most meaningful pieces of Mandie’s wedding look was tucked into her bouquet. She brought her own flowers and had photographs of her brother and her dad attached to them. ❤️ It’s such a small detail physically, but one with so much weight behind it.

There are people we wish could be present for the biggest moments of our lives, and when they can’t be there in the way we want, finding some little way to carry them with us can matter enormously.

For Mandie, those photos meant her dad and brother were still part of her walk toward Devin. They were there in her hands while she stood in the forest and started this new part of her life.

And considering how emotional the rest of the ceremony was about to become, I think it’s safe to say there were already plenty of feelings floating around that day.

First Look With Her Four Sons

Before Mandie saw Devin, she had four other very important gentlemen to see. Her sons. 🥹❤️ Mandie shared a first look with all four boys before the ceremony began, and there is something so incredibly sweet about that kind of moment.

Yes, this was Mandie and Devin’s wedding day. But it was also a family day.

For her sons, this was their mom getting married. Taking a few minutes before the ceremony to let them see her all dressed up gave the five of them their own moment before everything else started moving. No crowd. No walking down the aisle yet. Just a mama and her boys. And with four sons involved, I’m going to assume Mandie has developed expert-level experience managing a group of men. 😂

Her Boys Helped Start the Ceremony

When it was time for the ceremony, Mandie’s sons helped escort her mom and her best friend down the aisle before taking their places. It was another sweet way to make the boys part of the day rather than simply having them sit and watch everything happen.

Then everyone was in place. Devin was waiting. And it was Mandie’s turn. She walked toward the chapel by herself.

Everybody Was Doing GREAT

Mandie was already crying. Like…before she even got there. 😭❤️ Sometimes wedding-day emotions politely wait for the ceremony to start. Sometimes they do not.

Mandie made her way down the aisle carrying her bouquet, with those photos of her dad and brother attached, while Devin waited for her at the chapel. Then he turned around and saw her. And HE got choked up. So basically, everybody was doing GREAT. 😂

I love emotional ceremony entrances because there’s nothing manufactured about them. You can plan the décor. You can choose the clothes. You can decide exactly who walks down the aisle and in what order.

But you can’t really schedule the moment your brain suddenly goes: Oh my God. We’re actually doing this. For Mandie and Devin, that moment apparently hit both of them at once.

Making It Official

Once Mandie reached Devin, the two of them could finally settle into the reason everyone had gathered in the forest.

They were getting married. They made their promises to each other and exchanged wedding rings, including Mandie’s uniquely gorgeous ring. 💍 And YES, the ring absolutely got its own little moment in front of the camera later.

Some rings are subtle. Some rings are like, “Excuse me, I would like a portrait.” Mandie’s deserved the attention. But what mattered most was that by the end of the ceremony, these two emotional humans were officially husband and wife.

They had made it. Tears and all.

Family Photos at the Chapel

After the ceremony, we gathered everyone together for family photos around the chapel.

With Mandie’s sons and the rest of their family playing such a big role in the day, those photographs were an important part of telling the whole story.

Micro weddings are especially nice for this because the people who are there are usually the people. The group may be smaller, but the relationships represented in the photos are huge. Once we had everyone photographed, we were almost ready to steal Mandie and Devin away for their newlywed pictures. Almost. There was one more family photo we wanted first.

Devin and His Son at the Old Truck

Before completely switching into couple-photo mode, we stopped by the old truck for a photo of Devin with his son. ❤️ I loved that we had gotten Mandie’s first-look moment with her boys earlier in the day and then had a chance to capture this little father-and-son moment, too.

A wedding is obviously centered around the couple getting married, but these smaller relationships are part of the story surrounding them. Years from now, those photos may mean even more than anyone realizes while we’re taking them. And then? Okay. NOW we could steal the newlyweds. 😂

Newlywed Photos in the Forest

We started Mandie and Devin’s couple portraits around the chapel, where we could finally give that beautiful textured train the attention it deserved.

The rust fabric, succulent florals, Mandie’s dress, Devin’s cowboy hat, and the surrounding greenery all worked together in this wonderfully casual fall look.

Nothing about them felt overly posed or formal. Which was perfect. From the chapel, we headed underneath the archway before making our way toward the gravel road. Mandie’s Converse were earning their keep at this point. See? Practical AND cute.

Country Wedding Vibes on the Road

The gravel road was a particularly good fit for Mandie and Devin. Between his jeans and cowboy hat and her Converse beneath that wedding dress, they had just enough country personality to look completely at home there.

And by this point, the ceremony emotions had settled. They were married. Family photos were done.

The only thing left on the agenda was spending some time together and letting us follow them around with cameras. Romantic. 😂❤️ We got to play with Mandie’s veil and train, let them snuggle, and give them a little space to soak in that strange and wonderful holy crap, we’re married feeling.

Then we headed toward the mountains.

Will It Rain? Will It Not? Who Knows!

All day, the sky had been making threats. Clouds rolled around overhead looking suspicious. We watched them. We wondered. We mentally prepared. Was it going to rain? Maybe. Probably? Sure looked like it. And then… Nothing. 😂🙌 NOT. A. DROP. This is basically the East Tennessee weather experience.

You can stare at clouds all afternoon convinced you’re seconds away from a downpour, only for them to wander off and bother somebody else. Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened for Mandie and Devin.

Finishing With a Mountain View

We finished their wedding adventure out in the field with the mountain view. 🏔️🤎 After the cozy forest ceremony and photos around the property, the open field gave them a completely different backdrop for the last part of their day. The mountains stretched behind them, the threatening clouds behaved themselves, and Mandie and Devin had time to simply enjoy being together.

Those are some of my favorite wedding-day moments. There is no ceremony happening anymore. Nobody is waiting for them. There aren’t family members trying to figure out where they’re supposed to stand. It’s just the newlyweds. And for the first time all day, they can look at each other without another thing waiting to happen immediately afterward.

They’re married. That’s it. They did the thing.

Casual Doesn’t Mean Unimportant

I think Mandie and Devin’s wedding is such a good example of what a casual forest micro wedding can be. Casual doesn’t mean careless. It doesn’t mean the day isn’t emotional or meaningful. And it definitely doesn’t mean you can’t wear a fabulous wedding dress with a train. It simply means you get to decide which parts matter to you. For Mandie and Devin, that looked like family gathered in the woods. It looked like her sons seeing their mom as a bride.

It looked like photos of her dad and brother tied to her bouquet. It looked like Converse and a cowboy hat. It looked like Devin getting choked up when he saw her. It looked like a father-and-son photo beside an old truck. It looked like mountains at the end of the day. And it looked like two people who were incredibly happy to finally be husband and wife.

A Pretty Fantastic October Wedding

Mandie and Devin’s wedding had all the pieces that actually mattered. There were sentimental details. There were cowboy vibes. There were fabulous Converse. There were four very important sons. There was a gorgeous ring. There were tears. SO many feelings. 😂❤️

There were clouds that talked a big game and ultimately accomplished absolutely nothing. And at the center of all of it were Mandie and Devin, standing together at the end of the day as husband and wife. I’d call that a pretty fantastic wedding. Congratulations, Mandie and Devin!! 🤎🍂

May married life bring you plenty of laughter, lots of family adventures, and many more reasons to get dressed up while still refusing to sacrifice comfortable shoes. And may all future threatening clouds be equally full of empty promises. 😂❤️

From the Bride: 

We met at work. The first date was on Valentines Day. He sent 2 dozen roses with a card that said can’t wait till tonight. We went out to eat and the rest is history. 

Devin proposed during the family pumpkin carving contest as Halloween is my favorite.

We chose East Tennessee for our casual forest micro wedding because the chapel kept popping up on my feed on FB and I thought it was the cutest ever. I’m most excited about seeing his facial expression when he sees me in my dress. 

Casual Forest Micro Wedding Vendors

Wedding Dress: Hitched Boutique
Event Management: Erin with Custom Love Gifts & Events
Wedding Rings: Gold Mine Fine Jewelry and Gifts, Inc.
Hair + Makeup: Bloom & Style
Photography: Star Noir Studio
Venue: Chapel in the Hollow

Colorful Smoky Mountain Elopement

Molly + Chris – September 30, 2026

There are wedding days with a color palette. And then there are wedding days where the bride apparently looks at the entire rainbow and says, “Yes, but make it jewel tones.” Molly and Chris’s colorful Smoky Mountain elopement was the second kind. 😂🌈🖤

These two closed out September with a wedding full of personality, rich colors, handmade details, a spectacular black wedding dress, personal vows, a teal cake, and even a tiny bride-and-groom duckie situation. Basically, Molly understood the assignment.

What I loved most was that none of those details felt like they were added simply because weddings are supposed to have stuff. Everything worked together to create a day that genuinely felt like Molly and Chris. They weren’t trying to recreate somebody else’s idea of what a romantic elopement should look like.

They made their own version. And it was GLORIOUS.

A Jewel-Toned Wedding in the Woods

Molly and Chris started with color at the chapel, choosing raspberry and navy fabric paired with our succulent florals. Against the green of the early fall forest, those rich colors immediately stood out.

September 30th is technically fall, but East Tennessee doesn’t always feel particularly obligated to follow the calendar. There was still plenty of green surrounding them, which actually made the raspberry, navy, teal, and purple details pop even more.

It was colorful without feeling overly bright or summery. Moody without being dark. Alternative without trying too hard to be alternative. And then Molly started bringing out all the things she’d made.

Molly MADE All of This

Listen. I appreciate a crafty bride. But Molly was BUSY. 😂 She created her own wedding bouquet, filling it with gorgeous pops of teal, purple, and raspberry that tied beautifully into the rest of their wedding colors. She also made Chris’s boutonniere so the two of them coordinated without everything being overly matchy-matchy. And she did not stop there. Molly also made their wedding cake. Their TEAL wedding cake. 🩵 Because obviously a wedding with raspberry fabric, a black dress, jewel-toned flowers, and succulent florals did not need a plain white cake suddenly wandering into the story.

The cake was topped with the cutest vintage-style design reminiscent of the classic signs you see around national parks, which was such a fun little nod to the mountain setting. But wait. There’s more.

We Need to Discuss the Duckies

Molly also made a little bride-and-groom duckie for their wedding photos. 😂🦆❤️ At this point, I had no choice but to respect the commitment. Flowers? Made them. Boutonniere? Made it. Wedding cake? Yep. Adorable cake topper? Obviously. Tiny wedding duckies? WHY WOULD YOU NOT?

I love details like these because they’re the things that make one wedding completely different from another.

Years from now, Molly and Chris aren’t going to look at their wedding photos and see a collection of generic elopement trends. They’re going to see their stuff. The colors they loved. The things Molly made. The silly little details that made them happy.

That’s so much more interesting.

And Then There Was THE DRESS

Okay. We have to talk about Molly’s wedding dress. 🖤🔥

She wore a long-sleeved black wedding dress with multiple layers and a long, dramatic train. And she looked AMAZING. Her hair was styled half-up, and the combination of that dark gown with all of the raspberry, purple, teal, and green around her was ridiculously pretty.

Black wedding dresses have this wonderful ability to completely change the feeling of a wedding look. They’re dramatic and romantic without automatically being one specific style. Depending on everything around them, they can feel gothic, elegant, whimsical, witchy, modern, or wonderfully unconventional.

On Molly? It just felt right. And that TRAIN. Oh, we were absolutely going to play with that later.

Chris kept his wedding look classic in a black suit, which gave all of Molly’s colorful handmade details plenty of room to shine while still making the two of them look fantastic together. There was a lot happening visually with this wedding, but somehow it all worked.

Just the Two of Them in the Forest

When ceremony time arrived, everything suddenly became very simple. Chris waited for Molly on the chapel steps. Molly made her way from the bridal suite toward him on her own. There wasn’t a wedding party walking ahead of her or a big group of guests waiting for her arrival.

Just Molly. Chris. The chapel. The trees. And all of those little forest sounds happening around them. 🌿❤️

I think that’s one of the sweetest things about an elopement. You can have all the personality in the world in the details—and clearly Molly and Chris DID—but when it comes time to actually get married, everything can become wonderfully quiet.

At the center of all those colors and handmade pieces were simply two people standing together and making promises.

Personal Vows in the Woods

Molly and Chris had each written their own vows. They shared those promises with each other in the forest before exchanging rings and officially becoming husband and wife. And that’s the part I never want to get lost underneath all the pretty wedding details.

Because, yes, I will enthusiastically yell about a black wedding dress. I will photograph the heck out of a teal cake. I will absolutely give tiny wedding duckies the photographic attention they deserve. But all of that is the wrapper around the actual thing happening. Molly and Chris were choosing each other. They were standing together in the woods, sharing words they’d written specifically for the person in front of them, and beginning their marriage.

That’s the good stuff. ❤️

Time to Play With That Black Wedding Dress

Once everything was official, we had plenty of time to wander around and take photos. And I had been waiting patiently.

There was now a dramatic black wedding dress with a long train at my photographic disposal. LET’S GO. 😂🖤 We started around the chapel, where Molly’s dress looked incredible against the lighter wood and surrounding greenery. That contrast was so much fun to photograph, especially with the colorful florals mixed in.

We could spread out the train, let the layers move, and use the forest to frame the two of them. Chris’s black suit coordinated perfectly beside her, and together they looked just a tiny bit like they might be preparing to run away into the woods and begin an extremely fashionable life of mysterious forest activities.

I mean that as a compliment.

A Completely Different Forest Look

From the chapel, we headed up toward the highland area. Even though we were still surrounded by trees, the change in location gave their portraits a completely different feeling.

That’s one of my favorite things about a forest elopement. You don’t necessarily need to travel enormous distances to make the photos feel varied. Changing the density of the trees, the direction of the light, or the amount of open space can completely change the look.

And Molly’s black dress continued to be the star of the show. Well. Molly and Chris were technically the stars. The dress was an extremely enthusiastic supporting cast member. 😂 They got to snuggle, wander, laugh, and enjoy finally being married while we played with the different scenery around them.

Then it was time to leave the forest behind.

From Forest Elopement to Smoky Mountain Views

We finished Molly and Chris’s wedding adventure out in the field with the mountain view. 🏔️🌈 And East Tennessee decided to send September out dramatically. It was BRIGHT. It was sunny. The field was glowing. The mountains were showing off.

And instead of being tucked beneath the trees, Molly and Chris suddenly had this huge open landscape surrounding them. It was such a fun contrast with the first half of their wedding. The chapel had felt intimate and enclosed by the forest. The field felt bright, wide, and adventurous. And right in the middle of all that sunshine was Molly in a giant black wedding dress. YES.

That’s exactly the kind of visual contrast I want.

An Elopement Doesn’t Have to Be Neutral

One of my favorite things about Molly and Chris’s colorful Smoky Mountain elopement was how completely it ignored the idea that an outdoor wedding has to stick to neutral colors.

Don’t get me wrong. I love earthy wedding colors. Creams, greens, browns, and soft neutrals look beautiful in the mountains. But do you have to wear white and decorate everything in beige because you’re getting married in nature? Absolutely not. Nature can handle color.

Molly and Chris brought raspberry. Navy. Teal. Purple. Black. They mixed succulent florals with a dramatic wedding gown and a bright cake. And somehow, instead of competing with the natural scenery, those colors looked even better because of it.

The green forest gave them contrast. The open field gave them light. The mountains gave them scale. Their personalities did the rest.

Handmade Details Make a Wedding Personal

There’s also something particularly special about the fact that Molly made so many pieces of their wedding herself. Handmade doesn’t have to mean trying to DIY an entire wedding to save money or spending six months covered in hot glue. It can simply mean creating a few things that couldn’t have come from anyone else. Molly’s bouquet was hers.

Chris’s boutonniere coordinated with it because she made that, too. Their teal cake wasn’t something picked from a catalog of standard wedding designs. Even their tiny bride-and-groom duckies existed because Molly decided their wedding needed tiny bride-and-groom duckies. Which, to be fair, it did. 😂🦆

Those details gave their wedding texture and personality that couldn’t have been copied exactly by another couple.

Your Elopement Is Allowed to Look Like You

If there’s anything Molly and Chris’s wedding should convince other couples to do, it’s this: Stop worrying so much about whether your wedding looks like a wedding. Make sure it looks like you.

Want a white wedding dress? Wear one. Want a giant black wedding dress with a dramatic train? PLEASE wear that. Want a neutral cake with delicate flowers? Lovely. Want a teal cake with a national-park-inspired topper? Also lovely. Want tiny wedding duckies? I think we have already established my position on this. 😂

There is no prize at the end of your wedding day for successfully following the largest number of traditions. The goal is to get married.

Everything else gets to be personal.

The Perfect Way to Close Out September

Molly and Chris brought so much of themselves into their wedding day. The bold colors. The handmade florals. The teal cake. The vintage-inspired topper. The duckies. That incredible black dress. Their personal vows. None of it felt like they were checking boxes for what a Smoky Mountain elopement was “supposed” to look like. It just felt like Molly and Chris. 🖤🌈

They got to start their marriage quietly in the woods and finish their wedding adventure standing together beneath a huge sunny sky with the mountains behind them. That’s a pretty fantastic way to close out September. Congratulations, Molly and Chris!! May married life be colorful, slightly weird, completely yours, and filled with plenty of adventures worthy of the duckies. 🦆❤️

From the Bride: 

We met on Facebook dating…I don’t remember who messaged first. Chris was actually in TN on a family vacation at the time. Once he got back home, we started going on dates. Communication and intention never wavered and we soon became serious.For the first date, we went out for lunch after we each got finished with Sunday church service. 

Chris proposed. We went out to dinner, got ice cream, then went to a park to sit on a swing and watch the sunset. Then he got down on one knee and proposed. 

We both love visiting TN and have been several times. We wanted a special getaway that felt special for the two of us. We chose the date because we have both always wanted a fall wedding.

I’m most excited for Chris’s reaction when I’m walking down the aisle. I told him he better cry! Lol 

We both love traveling and exploring new places! Chris loves Buc-ee’s and weird roadside attractions, so he’s been introducing me to those lol

Colorful Smoky Mountain Elopement Vendors

Chapel Florals: Chapel in the Hollow
Bouquet + Boutonniere: Molly
Wedding Dress: Amazon
Menswear: JCPenney
Shoes: Amazon
Rings: Etsy
Wedding Cake: Molly
Hair + Makeup: Organic Infusion Hair & Nail Salon
Photography: Star Noir Studio
Venue: Chapel in the Hollow

Relaxed Smoky Mountain Micro Wedding

Cassie + Logan – September 29, 2026

Some couples arrive on their wedding day with an elaborate timeline, a million little details, and a list of things that absolutely MUST happen. Cassie and Logan? They were basically here to get married, hang out with their favorite people, and enjoy the vibes. 😂❤️ And you know what? That’s a pretty fantastic way to do a wedding.

Cassie and Logan chose a relaxed Smoky Mountain micro wedding surrounded by their daughters, a few people they love, the East Tennessee forest, and some beautiful mountain views. They kept everything simple and comfortable, which meant there wasn’t much pulling their attention away from the actual reason they were there.

They were getting married.

Everything else was just the fun stuff surrounding it.

Keeping Their Wedding Simple and Natural

Cassie and Logan kept the chapel décor soft and natural with cream fabric and bohemian florals. They brought some of their own lanterns to hang along the pews, adding a personal touch without completely transforming the space.

It fit the feeling of their wedding perfectly. Nothing overly formal. Nothing fussy. Just warm, natural details surrounded by the forest.

There’s something really nice about a wedding where you don’t feel like every square inch needs to be decorated. The woods were already green and beautiful, the chapel gave them a cozy ceremony space, and the little touches they chose made it feel like their wedding without requiring an entire moving truck full of décor.

Less time arranging stuff. More time getting married. I’m a fan.

Wedding Clothes You Can Actually Move Around In

Cassie looked beautiful in a sleeveless wedding dress with no train, which turned out to be perfect for their easygoing outdoor wedding day. Listen, I love a dramatic wedding dress.

Give me twenty-seven feet of train to fling around in the forest and I will happily find ways to photograph it. But there is also something wonderful about a wedding dress that lets you just…walk. No gathering up six layers of fabric every time you move. No worrying about dragging a train across the ground. Cassie could simply wander around with Logan and enjoy herself.

And that’s exactly what we planned to do with them after the ceremony.

Logan matched her relaxed energy in jeans and a dress shirt. He was dressed up enough to look like a groom while still looking completely comfortable and completely like himself. Together, they looked like Cassie and Logan. Wedding edition. Which is exactly how it should be.

A Micro Wedding Centered Around Family

Cassie and Logan’s three daughters stood beside them during the ceremony, along with one of Logan’s friends.

That made this wedding feel very much like a family event rather than simply a ceremony everyone else was watching from a distance. Their girls were right there. ❤️

I love when couples find ways to include their children in a micro wedding because the marriage isn’t happening in a vacuum. For couples who already have a family together, getting married can be just as much about celebrating the life they’ve built as it is about beginning something new.

Cassie and Logan weren’t just standing there making promises while their daughters watched from somewhere in the crowd.

Their daughters stood beside them while they did it. And there was another family connection waiting for them at the front. Cassie’s aunt performed the ceremony.

When Your Officiant Already Knows You

Having a family member perform your wedding ceremony adds a completely different layer of personality to the day.

This wasn’t a stranger learning a few facts about Cassie and Logan before the wedding. This was someone who already knew them, already loved them, and was now getting to play a pretty important role in making everything official.

With their daughters beside them and Cassie’s aunt leading the ceremony, their relaxed Smoky Mountain micro wedding felt wonderfully personal without needing a ton of extras. It was family gathered in the woods to watch two people they loved get married. Simple. Sweet. Done. Well… Almost. We obviously needed pictures. 😂📸

Mother Nature FINALLY Cooperated

Can we also discuss the weather? Because HALLELUJAH. 🙌🍂

After an East Tennessee summer that seemed deeply committed to never ending, we finally got a beautiful, COOL wedding day. Actual cool air. Outside. In Tennessee. We had nearly forgotten such a thing existed. 😂

It was the kind of weather where you could stand close together for photos without immediately regretting every life choice that had led to another human being producing body heat next to you. Very romantic. Much appreciated.

The cooler temperatures made Cassie and Logan’s whole wedding feel even more relaxed because nobody was rushing to escape the heat. We could enjoy being outside, wander around for photos, and let them snuggle as much as we wanted.

Fall had finally decided to make an appearance. We welcomed it enthusiastically.

Officially Husband and Wife

Once Cassie and Logan made everything official, we gathered everyone together for family photos at the chapel. With their daughters being such an important part of the ceremony, those family photos were obviously a big part of documenting the day.

Weddings change families in all kinds of ways, but sometimes the sweetest photos are the ones that simply capture the family exactly as it exists in that moment.

Everyone together. Parents officially married. Kids probably ready to stop taking pictures. 😂

Once we had the family combinations they wanted, we released the crew and turned our attention entirely toward Cassie and Logan. Now came the really difficult part. Wandering around somewhere pretty and snuggling. They handled it bravely.

Newlywed Photos Around the Chapel

We started their couple portraits right around the chapel, letting them settle into the fact that they were officially husband and wife.

Then we moved underneath the archway for another little pocket of forest photos.

Cassie’s dress was perfect for this part of the day because we didn’t have to spend a bunch of time arranging a train every time we moved. She and Logan could simply walk together, get close, laugh, and follow us toward the next pretty spot.

Which was basically their approach to the entire photo session. Snuggle here? Sure. Walk over there? Okay. Make each other laugh? Easy. They were completely content to roll with whatever we suggested. No elaborate posing agenda required.

Wandering Through the Vines

From the chapel, we headed toward the vines.

This gave Cassie and Logan another completely different forest backdrop while keeping that same natural, easygoing feeling they’d wanted from the beginning.

And because they weren’t taking themselves too seriously, their photos felt like them. They could joke around. They could get close. They could look at each other without worrying about whether they were doing wedding photography “correctly.”

Spoiler alert: There is no correct way to look happy with your spouse. If you’re having fun, we’re probably doing just fine. ❤️

Ending With a Smoky Mountain View

For the last part of their wedding adventure, we headed out to the field with the mountain view. 🏔️🌿 After starting the day tucked into the forest, it was such a pretty way to finish. The trees opened up. The mountains appeared in the distance. And Cassie and Logan got to enjoy a little time together with absolutely nothing left on the wedding-day to-do list.

They were married. Their family photos were finished. Their daughters had watched them say “I do.” Cassie’s aunt had officially done her job. Now they could just enjoy the view. And the vibes. Obviously. 😂❤️

A Relaxed Wedding Doesn’t Mean a Meaningless Wedding

I think sometimes people hear the word “relaxed” and assume it means a wedding isn’t planned or that the couple doesn’t care about the details. That’s not what it means at all. A relaxed wedding is often about knowing which details you do care about and being willing to let the rest go.

Cassie and Logan cared about having their daughters beside them. They cared about having someone they loved perform the ceremony. They added lanterns to make the chapel feel a little more like their own. They gathered their favorite people. Then they got married. They didn’t need to fill every available minute with another activity simply because weddings are traditionally supposed to have a long list of things happening.

Their day had room to breathe. And so did they.

A Micro Wedding That Felt Like Them

That’s probably my favorite thing about Cassie and Logan’s relaxed Smoky Mountain micro wedding.

It actually felt relaxed. Not “relaxed” while secretly following a color-coded spreadsheet with a mild panic attack scheduled for 2:15. Actually relaxed. 😂

Their wedding clothes were comfortable. Their décor was simple. Their ceremony was personal. Their daughters stood beside them. Their family was there. The weather was gorgeous.

And when it was time for pictures, they were perfectly happy to wander through the woods, stop wherever we found something pretty, laugh together, and eventually end up staring at the Smoky Mountains. No fuss. No stress. Just a really happy wedding day.

Enjoy the Vibes

There are so many ways to make a wedding feel important. Sometimes it’s an enormous celebration with a packed dance floor and hundreds of guests. Sometimes it’s three daughters standing beside their parents while they get married in the woods. Both count. Both can be meaningful. The important thing is building a day that feels right for the people actually getting married.

For Cassie and Logan, that meant keeping things easy. Gather the people they love. Get married. Take some pretty pictures. Enjoy the mountains. Enjoy each other. Enjoy the vibes. That’s a wedding plan I can get behind. Congratulations, Cassie and Logan!! 🤍🌿

We loved getting to spend this beautiful cool East Tennessee day with you, and I hope married life brings you plenty more days that feel exactly like this one did: Easy. Happy. Surrounded by your favorite people.

And preferably with a pretty darn good view. ❤️🏔️

From the Bride: 

How did you meet? 3rd time’s a charm #kryptonite For the first date, we took the girls to watch Moana. Logan and the girls proposed in the kitchen. We chose East Tennessee for our relaxed Smoky Mountain micro wedding because we visited the area previously and loved it. We are most looking forward to spending time with family on the wedding day. For fun, we enjoy anything we can do with our family.