Kaitie + Jonathan
March 13, 2021
How their love story began
Kaitie and Jonathan first met through mutual friends during their Junior Year of college. Close friends arranged a casual backyard barbecue for the sole purpose of introducing the two. Kaitie says, “We instantly hit it off, and made plans to hangout later that same week. It’s cliche, but the rest is history! We’ve been together ever since!”
The proposal
Jon proposed to Kaitie during their 4 year anniversary trip to Charlottesville. Kaitie was suspicious, but didn’t let on. Once at King Family Vineyard, they walked around the grounds then Jon stopped, dropped to his knee and professed his love. Kaite recalls, “He told me how much he loved me, how much he loved the life we’d been creating, and then said he wanted to be teammates and partners forever and asked to marry me! Of course I said yes! Our friends (and photographers) came running out from their hiding spots to congratulate us and do a proposal session with us. After awhile, we headed back to the tasting room and I was saying I couldn’t wait to call our families. He knew I always wanted them to be a part of this day. I was sad they weren’t here with us. Jon asked me to wait to call until we had found a table. But, to my absolute shock, we rounded the corner to the patio and there was all our family and friends gathered together for a surprise engagement party! Jon was so thoughtful with every little detail of the whole weekend.”
The big day
For the venue, they went for a simple, clean, rustic theme for decorations with white, green, and navy as the main colors. The ceremony was in the chapel, where the two shared special readings, a hand tying ceremony, and personal vows. “We were so excited to officially be announced as husband and wife! The ceremony lead straight into a cocktail hour before we danced the night away with our family and bridal party at our reception. It was such a magical day!”
“Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were only able to have 25 people attend the reception. However, since the chapel was open air and our ceremony was a religious ceremony, we were able to have 75 people attend. Due to this obstacle, Jon and I really wanted our ceremony to be meaningful, heart-felt, and memorable for not only us, but our guests as well. We selected songs important to us, we set up a zoom for guests unable to attend, we had two different non-traditional readings preformed by family members, we participated in a hand-tying ceremony, and we exchanged personal vows. At the conclusion of the ceremony we passed out cupcakes to our guests. It was important to us that everyone knew how much it meant to us to have them travel and support us for a short 30 minute ceremony. We loved being able to thank them personally!”
Favorite parts of the day
Kaitie: My first look with Jon before the ceremony and my Father-Daughter Dance with my Dad. “With my first look, I was so incredibly nervous. I saw him waiting for me and he looked so handsome in his new suit. I could tell he was nervous too. Butterflies were racing through me as I approached him, but once he turned around and embraced me I was finally calm. That moment brought such a sense of peaceful excitement and I was ready to begin our forever. My father daughter dance was equally special because I surprised my Dad with choosing a song he had written and recorded for me when I was a baby. The look on his face was so priceless and I could tell that dancing to his song for me, with me, was a moment we both would never forget.
Jon: Seeing Kaitie walk down the aisle to me. “When Kaitie walked down the aisle I was struck by, and overwhelmed with my love for her and I felt so lucky to know that she was my person forever.”
Biggest challenge
“Our biggest challenge was dealing with COVID-19. We did not want to put our loved ones in harms way or make anyone uncomfortable. We also were not initially comfortable with adjusting our wedding from 200+ people to 25 people, so we moved our wedding date back by 8 months, thinking things would be better by March. The majority of our vendors thankfully worked with us and were able to make the shift from July 2020 to March 2021. Our vendor team was truly incredible and they are a huge reason that our our wedding was such a dream. However, it was difficult for us to not get discouraged and frustrated by constantly pushing back bridal showers, bachelorette weekends, our honeymoon, etc. in the end everything was perfect, but initially, finding new vendors and accepting the setbacks was challenging.”
