We met in high school in 2011. However, we were only good friends through band and several other classes. It wasn’t until college that we started dating.

John secretly planned his proposal to happen during a family camping trip at a lake that is special to Katy’s childhood. While Katy was on a snack run with her dad (really just a distraction) John set up a picnic table with a tablecloth, candles, and music. He hid behind some bushes and started playing the music when Katy got back to the cabin. When Katy came over to where the music was playing, John surprised her and popped the question! A funny memory was that a group of people across the lake were watching John the whole time and started cheering after the proposal and kiss!

We really wanted the wedding to be representative of the things value: simplicity, privacy, and family!

We got married at John’s favorite place on Earth: Carnelian Bay on Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Katy did a couple of things to really make her wedding special. She wore her Mom’s wedding dress and veil, and she also wore golden shoes which was a reference to her Dad wearing shoes with golden laces from his wedding. Katy’s Mom also got ordained to officiate the service!

We really wanted a small service, so we only invited our parents to the wedding.

Katy’s favorite part of planning was getting her wedding dress redone with her Mom. John’s favorite part was changing the location of the service the night before the wedding! We had a really awesome dinner at a restaurant called “Garwood’s” the night before the service. They had this amazing pier that went out into the lake as well as a nice grassy area and beach right at the lakeshore.

The most challenging part of the wedding was finding out what we truly wanted the service to be. Covid really made us continually change our plans.

Our first dance was to Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life.” We picked it because it wasn’t too slow or serious. Instead, we had a short, goofy first dance which is honestly more representative of our relationship anyway.

We knew we wanted to do a champagne toast after the ceremony, but we didn’t want to pack glassware on since we were traveling by plane. A couple days before the ceremony we went to several different shops in Tahoe to find glasses, and we eventually found these nice little vintage pink glasses. We loved them so much we shipped them back home and still use them to this day!

Evidently, there was another wedding ceremony sometime before ours at our location. We never saw them, and there were no time conflicts, but they left their wedding arch and flowers at the location. So we just used theirs! It made for some really awesome pictures.

We weren’t really that nervous about the wedding. I think planning a small ceremony really allowed us to be calm and take in the day to its fullest.

ONLY SPEND MONEY ON WHAT YOU TRULY WANT. Don’t listen to anybody else, even if it’s your own parents. Also take time to really enjoy the day and not rush through it.

You are literally the best, and we constantly talk about how lucky we were to have found your page. Thank you so much!!!!

Hair and Makeup: Tahoe Hair N Makeup