When a bride and groom are seasoned travelers who have explored more than 30 countries together, a standard one-day wedding simply will not suffice. For their recent multi-day celebration, a couple with a shared passion for food, culture, and family history curated an unforgettable weekend that seamlessly blended international inspiration with deep Southern roots. Spanning multiple venues—including a childhood church, a local museum, and a generational family estate—the festivities offered guests an immersive experience filled with classical music, bespoke stationery, exceptional dining, and a surprise tribute to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Food & Drink
As self-proclaimed foodies, the bride and groom placed culinary experiences at the heart of their wedding weekend, weaving their love for global travel into every meal. The celebrations began with a Friday evening seated wedding dinner inspired by Tantura, a beloved Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal, that ranks among the couple’s all-time favorites.
Guests were treated to a family-style feast featuring rich Labneh and Muhammara dips, marinated olives, savory lamb kofta, and an almond date cake for dessert. Every course was served on locally made pottery, complete with a rotating selection of plates that highlighted thoughtful design details, including a favorite ruffled-edge gold butterfly plate.
For the Saturday reception, the culinary focus shifted to an elevated, seasonal Southern buffet. Servers circulated through the crowd passing inventive bites, including homemade potato chips topped with caviar and dill crème fraîche, delicate crab cakes, and mini tamale bites served on fried saltine crackers. The main buffet featured smoked beef brisket, charred elote, a crisp apple and pear salad, and mini sweet potato tartlets.
The food display was anchored by two massive wooden estate tables running down the center of the reception space, adorned with a lush, colorful garland of orchids, roses, and bittersweet cascading to the ground. In the middle of the arrangement, the bride placed two quilted deer handed down from her aunt, while scattered table lamps cast a warm glow over the spread as the sun went down. Twinkly paper lantern stars, mirroring those floating above the main reception tent, added a magical canopy overhead in the food tent.
Florals & Decor
The visual landscape of the three-day weekend was a massive undertaking that required the expertise of three distinct floral designers working in concert. Thursday night’s rehearsal party set a bright and joyful tone with a Tuscany-inspired aesthetic designed by Bankhead Flower Shop.
For the wedding day on Friday, local florist and family friend Tracy Proctor transformed the bride’s childhood church into an overgrown, wild secret garden. Greenery and florals completely overtook the historic church’s architectural arches, creating an untamed, organic atmosphere. Proctor also designed the dramatic florals for the wedding dinner at the museum, which featured a massive hanging floral arrangement suspended directly over the head table.
Saturday’s reception boasted what was arguably the visual showstopper of the weekend: a wild, overgrown entryway arch created by Oxford Floral in Oxford, Mississippi. The arch was constructed using branches and vines gathered earlier that day from the bride’s family land, resulting in a deliberately unfinished, organic look that became a primary photo backdrop for the newlyweds. Tabletops throughout the reception featured heavy handcrafted iron and glass Jan Barboglio containers created by a Mexican artist, surrounded by countless candles, bittersweet, and vibrant pink orchids and dahlias.
Wedding Cake
Breaking from traditional wedding conventions, the couple enlisted a favorite local bakery to craft two distinct, personality-driven cakes. The bride, who admits she is not typically a cake person, opted for a colorful, funky design for her confection, featuring handmade three-dimensional flowers, strawberry cake, and bright pink icing.
The groom’s cake offered a rich contrast, showcasing a warm, autumnal chocolate espresso flavor adorned with fresh fruit and meticulously crafted edible acorns.
Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs
Music provided the emotional backbone for the weekend, beginning with a deeply personal ceremony held inside the bride’s childhood church. With the assistance of her mother—a classically trained opera singer—the bride curated a processional program utilizing the church’s historic pipe organ, a string quartet, and a trumpeter.
Family and guests listened to pieces rich with personal history. The mothers walked down the aisle to Marcello’s Psalm 19, a soloist performed Mozart’s Alleluia, and the wedding party entered to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Spring. The bridal processional featured Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary blended with custom musical additions composed specifically for the occasion by the church’s organist. The ceremony concluded with a triumphant recessional of Widor’s Toccata from Symphony No. 5.
For the father-daughter dance at the reception, the bride and her sister shared a particularly sentimental moment dancing to "Little Girls Like These," a song written expressly for them by their father, a songwriter and musician, when they were children.
Special Details
The weekend was punctuated by unique touches that reflected the couple’s personality and heritage. Following Friday night’s ceremony and dinner, guests were treated to a high-energy afterparty 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 surprise performance by Nashville-based Elvis Tribute Artist Riley Jenkins, who performed in full costume complete with authentic dance moves. Guests were outfitted with Elvis sunglasses featuring attached sideburns and custom baseball caps emblazoned with "From Tupelo, with Love" and "From Mississippi, with Love." Following the Elvis tribute, the bride’s father’s band, Two Drink Minimum, took the stage to perform 1960s and 1970s classics accompanied by a saxophone, keeping the dance floor packed until the venue closed at 1:00 AM.
The paper goods and stationery throughout the weekend were another standout element, coordinated by stationer Molly Chain Savage of Molly Chain Collectiv. The invitation suites and save-the-dates featured custom envelope liners displaying a Monet painting. The ceremony cards were printed on thick cotton paper with green letterpress ink, while the reception cards featured white ink on green cotton stock. A three-page blue oval details booklet titled "The Finer Details" included a personal note from the couple, schedule information, and hand-drawn dress code illustrations specifying black-tie for Friday and black-tie optional for Saturday. The suite was tied together with gold vellum, burnt orange velvet ribbon, and a gold tassel. Additional post-toast invitations modeled after the iconic Las Vegas sign were designed by Kim Root of Flourish in Tupelo to tie into the Elvis theme, while Eliza Bishop of Paper Eliza designed the rehearsal party invitations.
Ultimately, the most profound backdrop for the weekend was the venue itself: a generational family estate where the bride and her sister were born and raised. The property features a rich family history, including a primary home built by the bride’s great-grandmother after the Great Depression, a home built by her grandfather where her father grew up, and the house where her parents currently reside. Having grown up playing in the gardens, boating on the lake, and exploring the grounds, the bride ensured that celebrating their marriage on the very land that sheltered generations of her family provided the ultimate tribute to her roots.
