From a church transformed into a secret garden to an after-party headlined by an Elvis tribute artist at a private downtown club, a recent three-day wedding weekend in Mississippi blended deeply personal family history with international culinary and artistic inspirations. The bride and groom, both self-described foodies and avid travelers who have visited more than 30 countries, wove their global adventures and generational roots into every aspect of the multi-day celebration.
The festivities began on Thursday evening with a rehearsal party designed to evoke a happy and bright Tuscany-inspired setting, featuring floral arrangements crafted by Bankhead Flower Shop. The momentum continued into Friday with a ceremony held in the bride’s childhood church, a setting infused with classical music chosen with the help of the bride’s mother, a classically trained opera singer.
Because the wedding took place in her childhood church, the historic organ served as a focal point of the ceremony. The bride’s mother helped select music that the bride grew up listening to. The mothers walked down the aisle to Marcello’s "Psalm 19," followed by a soloist singing Mozart’s "Alleluia," and the wedding party’s entrance to Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons: Spring." The bridal processional featured Clarke’s "Trumpet Voluntary" alongside custom additions composed by the church organist, while the recessional concluded with Widor’s "Toccata from Symphony No. 5." The music was accompanied by a string quartet and a trumpeter, creating an acoustic experience in the old church that the bride described as the most memorable and special part of the entire three-day weekend.
Following the ceremony, the wedding party and guests transitioned to a seated wedding dinner on Friday evening hosted at a local museum. Drawing inspiration from their travels—specifically Tantura, a cherished Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal—the menu featured items such as Labneh and Muhammara dips, marinated olives, lamb kofta, and almond date cake. The meal was served family-style on locally made pottery, with a new plate designated for each course, highlighted by a ruffled-edge gold butterfly plate.
The florals for Friday’s events were designed by Tracy Proctor, a local florist and family friend. Proctor turned the church into an overgrown, wild secret garden with greenery and florals overtaking the church’s architectural arches. He also designed the arrangements for the museum wedding dinner, which included a massive hanging floral installation positioned directly over the head table.
The Friday evening celebrations did not conclude with dinner. Following the reception, guests attended an after-party at the Silver Moon Club, a classic private venue in downtown Tupelo filled with Elvis memorabilia and Mardi Gras beads. The highlight of the evening was a performance by Nashville-based Elvis tribute artist Riley Jenkins, who wore a full costume, executed classic dance moves, and energized the crowd. Guests were provided with Elvis sunglasses featuring sideburns and custom baseball caps reading "From Tupelo, with Love" and "From Mississippi, with Love." The club served frozen margaritas and a full bar until the venue closed around 1:00 a.m. The entertainment also featured the bride’s father’s band, Two Drink Minimum, which performed 1960s and 1970s music complete with a saxophone section.
The Saturday reception shifted locations to the bride’s generational family estate, a site carrying deep personal significance. The land features historical homes, including the first house built by the bride’s great-grandmother after the Great Depression—a structure bearing a striking architectural resemblance to a Monet painting used as inspiration for the wedding’s envelope liners. Other homes on the property were built by the bride’s grandfather and aunt, creating a landscape where the bride and her sister were born, raised, and spent their childhoods playing in the gardens and boating across the lake.
The floral design for the Saturday reception served as a major visual centerpiece. Oxford Floral in Oxford, Mississippi, constructed a massive, wild, and overgrown arch at the entrance of the reception tent, utilizing branches and vines gathered from the family’s land earlier that day. Tabletops featured heavy handcrafted iron and glass Jan Barboglio containers from a Mexican artist, filled with bittersweet, vibrant pink orchids, dahlias, and numerous candles.
The reception catering leaned into an elevated seasonal Southern buffet. Servers passed homemade potato chips with caviar and dill crème fraîche, crab cakes, and mini tamale bites on fried saltine crackers. The buffet offered smoked beef brisket, charred elote, an apple and pear salad, and mini sweet potato tartlets. The food was displayed across two massive wooden estate tables accented by a colorful orchid, rose, and bittersweet garland running down the center to the ground, anchored by two quilted deer created by the bride’s aunt. Table lamps illuminated the displays as the sun went down, matching the twinkly paper lantern stars floating inside the top of the food tent.
The wedding cakes, produced by a local bakery, reflected distinct stylistic choices. The bride’s cake featured a colorful, funky design with handmade three-dimensional flowers, strawberry cake, and pink icing. In contrast, the groom’s cake was a chocolate espresso flavor styled with a warm, autumnal aesthetic using fresh fruit and handmade edible acorns.
Music remained central to the Saturday reception, highlighted by a sentimental father-daughter dance. The bride and her sister both danced at their respective receptions to "Little Girls Like These," a song written for them by their songwriter father when they were children.
The paper goods throughout the weekend were designed by stationer Molly Chain Savage of Molly Chain Collectiv. Save-the-dates and wedding suites featured a Monet painting on the envelope liners. The ceremony cards utilized thick cotton paper letterpressed with green ink, while reception cards featured white ink printed on green cotton paper. A three-page blue oval details booklet titled "The Finer Details" included messages from the couple, scheduling information, and hand-drawn illustrations outlining the dress codes—black tie for Friday and black tie optional for Saturday—secured with gold vellum, burnt orange velvet ribbon, and a gold tassel. Additional post-toast invitations, modeled after the Las Vegas sign to complement the Elvis theme, were designed by Kim Root of Flourish in Tupelo, while the rehearsal party invitations were crafted by Eliza Bishop at Paper Eliza.
