Blended Family Micro Wedding

Kayla and Jason – September 19, 2026

Kayla and Jason’s wedding was about two people falling in love and deciding to get married, but their story was a little bigger than that. Because when these two said “I do,” they weren’t only beginning a marriage. They were bringing together a family.

Kayla and Jason chose the East Tennessee forest for their blended family micro wedding, surrounding themselves with their four daughters, family, and friends for a day filled with soft pink flowers, meaningful ceremony traditions, cowboy hats, homemade honey, mountain views, and possibly the cutest tiny ring bearer we’ve seen in a while.

There was also a cat.

We’ll get to him. 😂

Soft Pink Details for a Family-Focused Wedding

Kayla and Jason dressed the chapel in blush and sand fabric paired with our blush and bashful florals. The combination brought soft, romantic color into the forest without taking away from all of the greenery surrounding them.

Kayla also made little jars of honey for their guests as wedding favors, which was such a sweet personal touch. And yes, I realize “sweet” is the most obvious possible adjective for a honey favor, but sometimes the joke writes itself. 🍯😂

Those smaller handmade details are part of what makes micro weddings so much fun. When you’re celebrating with a smaller group of people, you can add little touches that feel personal without realizing three weeks before the wedding that you have somehow committed yourself to hand-making 175 tiny jars of something.

Kayla and Jason’s wedding felt thoughtful without feeling overly complicated. More importantly, the details supported what the day was really about: the people standing beside them.

Getting Ready With Her Girls

Before the ceremony, Kayla’s daughters helped her get ready.

Kayla wore a beautiful sleeveless wedding dress with a short train, but one of my favorite parts of her entire wedding look was hiding underneath.

Lace boots.

😍

Listen, I love a good wedding shoe, but give me a bride in boots any day.

They fit perfectly with the slightly country feel that popped up throughout Kayla and Jason’s wedding, especially once the cowboy hats made their appearance later in the day.

Having her daughters there while she got ready also made those final moments before the ceremony about more than putting on a wedding dress. They were getting ready to watch their mom get married and officially begin this new chapter alongside Jason and his daughters.

And all four girls would have an important role in the ceremony.

Four Daughters, Two Families, One Wedding Party

Kayla’s daughters stood beside her during the ceremony, while Jason’s daughters stood beside him.

All four wore coordinating dresses in a beautiful soft, dark pink, visually tying everyone together while still letting the girls stand with their respective parent. I really loved that arrangement for their blended family micro wedding. A traditional wedding party often has bridesmaids on one side and groomsmen on the other, but there was something especially meaningful about seeing Kayla’s girls beside her and Jason’s girls beside him.

You could literally see the two sides of the family gathered around them. And by the end of the ceremony, those two sides were becoming something new together. But before any of that could happen, the rings needed to make their way down the aisle.

Fortunately, Kayla and Jason had hired a professional. A very tiny professional.

In a cowboy hat.

The Tiniest Cowboy Ring Bearer

Their ring bearer came down the aisle carrying the ring pillow while wearing his little cowboy hat.

And COME ON.

🤠💍

There are certain wedding-day situations where you’re simply not going to compete for attention. A tiny cowboy carrying wedding rings is one of them. He understood his role. He understood the aesthetic.

Ten out of ten. No notes.

Once the rings were safely delivered and the rest of the wedding party was in place, it was Kayla’s turn to make her entrance. Her dad walked her down the aisle toward Jason, surrounded by the girls and all of the family and friends who had come to celebrate with them.

Then the ceremony became about something much bigger than exchanging rings.

A Ceremony for Their Marriage AND Their Family

Kayla and Jason incorporated a Cord of Three Strands ceremony into their wedding, adding a symbolic element to the promises they were making to each other. But they also wanted to recognize their daughters and the family they were creating together. So they had four customized necklaces made—one for each girl. During the ceremony, Kayla and Jason presented each daughter with her necklace.

🥹❤️

I love this SO much.

A blended family wedding can acknowledge something that a traditional ceremony sometimes overlooks: the couple may be the ones exchanging vows and signing the marriage license, but they aren’t necessarily the only people whose lives are changing.

Kayla wasn’t simply gaining a husband. Jason wasn’t simply gaining a wife. Their daughters were becoming part of this new family structure, too.

The necklaces gave each girl something tangible to remember that moment. Years from now, they’ll have something from the day that represents not simply Mom and Jason got married or Dad and Kayla got married, but this was the day our family began a new chapter.

For Kayla and Jason, this wasn’t just two people saying “I do.”

It was six people moving forward together.

Making Everything Official

After the meaningful family moments, Kayla and Jason officially became husband and wife. Then it was time to celebrate.

We gathered everyone together for family photos around the chapel, making sure to document the people who had shared the ceremony with them. With a blended family micro wedding, those group photos feel particularly important because family is such a central part of the story.

And once we had taken care of everyone else? We released the newlyweds. 😂 Kayla and Jason finally got a little time to focus on just the two of them. Because as much as this wedding was about bringing their families together, they were still newlyweds.

And newlyweds deserve some canoodling time.

Cowboy Hats and a Winding Road

We headed out toward the road for Kayla and Jason’s couple portraits, giving them a chance to relax after the ceremony. The formal part was finished. The family photos were finished. Everyone had successfully gotten married. Now they could play.

Their cowboy hats came along for the adventure, adding a little more personality to their photos and tying back into the country details from earlier in the day. I always love when couples bring something that feels like them into their portraits. Not every wedding photo needs to be a serious, romantic gaze into the distance.

Sometimes you put on a cowboy hat. Sometimes you laugh. Sometimes you flirt with your brand-new spouse in the middle of a road.

All valid options.

Mountain Views for the Newlyweds

From the road, we headed out to the field with the mountain view. It was a bright, warm East Tennessee day, and the open field gave Kayla and Jason a completely different backdrop from the intimate forest setting where they’d gotten married.

They brought their cowboy hats along and also had an elopement sign for a few fun photos together. Behind them, the mountains stretched across the horizon.

In front of the camera, these two finally got to soak in the fact that after all of the planning, coordinating kids, choosing dresses, making favors, and figuring out all of those million little wedding details…

They were married.

Husband and wife.

And when they headed home, they were doing it as a newly blended family.

But First, We Need to Discuss Nelson

Of course, I have left out one extremely important wedding guest. Nelson. 🐈

Nelson is a local stray kitty who occasionally decides that whatever we’re doing looks interesting enough to warrant his personal involvement. Before Kayla and Jason’s wedding, Nelson made an appearance. The girls absolutely LOST THEIR MINDS.

😂

Suddenly, nobody cared about the chapel. Nobody cared about wedding dresses. Nobody cared that there was an actual marriage about to happen.

THERE. WAS. A. KITTY.

Honestly, fair.

Nelson graciously accepted his role as pre-wedding entertainment and temporary celebrity, because apparently four daughters, a wedding ceremony, and a tiny cowboy were not enough adorable things for one day.

The cat needed a cameo.

A Blended Family Wedding That Felt Like Them

There were so many little details to love about Kayla and Jason’s wedding.

The blush and sand colors against the forest. Kayla’s lace boots. The homemade honey favors. Four daughters dressed in coordinating pink. A tiny cowboy carrying the rings. Kayla’s dad walking her down the aisle. Cowboy hats in the field. Mountain views.

And, obviously, Nelson.

But the heart of their blended family micro wedding was the way Kayla and Jason intentionally included their girls. They didn’t treat their daughters like guests who happened to be watching their parents get married.

They gave them a place beside them. They acknowledged them during the ceremony. They gave each girl a personalized necklace. They made the formation of their new family part of the wedding itself. That’s what made the day feel especially personal.

Six People Starting a New Chapter

Blending a family isn’t something that magically happens because two adults exchange rings. Real family life is built afterward, through all of the ordinary days that follow.

School mornings. Holidays. Family dinners. Vacations. Busy schedules. Inside jokes. Arguments over bathrooms. Someone inevitably asking what’s for dinner approximately nine seconds after dinner has been discussed.

All of it.

The wedding is simply the moment when you get to stop, gather the people you love, and acknowledge that you’re choosing to move forward together. Kayla and Jason did exactly that.

They got their romantic wedding day in the woods, but they also made space for the four girls whose lives are part of their story. And somewhere between the personalized necklaces, the pink dresses, the vows, the tiny cowboy, and a stray cat stealing everyone’s attention, two families became a little more connected.

Congratulations, Kayla and Jason—and congratulations to all six of you. 💗

Here’s to a whole lot of happy years ahead, plenty of new family memories, and hopefully occasional future visits from Nelson. Although based on the girls’ reaction, you may want to check your vehicle before leaving. There is a non-zero chance someone tried to smuggle the wedding cat home. 😂🐈❤️

From the Bride: 

Jason and I met through my brother. My brother said something to me about hanging out with Jason one time and then we had a casual cookout and bonfire one night and decided to invite Jason over and the rest is history. Between all our kids schedules, if we had time we spent it together. He drove 30 minutes almost every single night to my house just to spend time with me despite our crazy schedules. Our first date was at a new pizza shop downtown.

Jason proposed to me on Valentines Day 2026. We had went up to Blue Chip Casino for the weekend to celebrate and he made reservations at a nice restaurant that evening. Jason wrote a note to place on a table for someone to video the propsoal however, it wouldn’t work out without me catching him doing it. He proposed at dinner that evening. It was honestly so perfect.

We actually had our first little getaway with the two of us in this same area so I thought it would be special to go back and get married there. I also just Love TN. 

We are looking forward to the wedding itself. We both deserve this happiness, and I am beyond thrilled to make it forever in front of our closest friends and family.

Blended Family Micro Wedding Vendors

Event Management: Erin with Custom Love Gifts & Events
Venue: Chapel in the Hollow
Photography: Star Noir Studio
Videography: Yugen Productions
Officiant: Ian Parrott
Florals: Chapel in the Hollow
Wedding Dress: Azazie
Rings: Neil Lane and Ridge
Invitations: Canva
Hair & Makeup: Southern Strandz