Dotson Studios » Modern Photography & Design in Chattanooga

Tasteful, classy, and quite stunning—Katie and Chris’s wedding was beautiful. This couple was so happy and relaxed all day, and every aspect of this wedding was carefully considered. Both the wedding and the reception were at the Chattanooga Country Club and it was perfect. The flowers for this wedding were absolutely spectacular. Katie’s cousin is a florist (Deb from Billeann Flowers & Gifts) and brought flowers in a truck all of the way from Baton Rouge and did the arrangements in Katie’s mom’s house. I’ve never seen such large and unusual arrangements. They used tropical flowers and it was fabulous. Shooting this wedding was so much fun with such wonderful people and beautiful details everywhere we turned.

I hope you enjoy Katie & Chris’s wedding and story…

How did the two of you meet?
A mutual friend, who was one of our bridesmaids.  She went to High School with Chris, and then college and graduate school with me.  We all met up in Knoxville one night in 2004, and after talking to him for a little while, I took his phone, put my number in it, and told him to call me.  He waited 2 weeks.  He’s lucky I answered!

Describe the proposal.
I was at the beach with 2 of my good friends.  We had gone out shopping for the day, and little did I know he had worked it out to drive all the way to the beach with his best man and propose!  My friends were texting him all day, working out details, and delaying me as much as possible.  When we arrived home, there were roses leading up the stairs to the house, each with a different slip of paper describing a quality about me or our relationship that he loved.  Inside, he had brought every dress I own from home (I always said I wanted to look nice when we got engaged!) and laid them on the bed, ready for me.  I changed quickly and rushed down to the beach, where he was waiting for me with more roses, a ring, and of course the best man filming everything.  We talked, he asked, and of course I said yes!  It was a very special proposal because not only was it at the beach (the first place we vacationed together and also our family’s vacation home), but our very dear friends were there to celebrate with us.

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
Katie: BY FAR the flowers!  They were done by my cousin, Deb, who is a florist in Baton Rouge. She worked for 5 days solid, and the result was simply amazing.  But there really wasn’t anything about the wedding I didn’t love!  So many dramatic elements in a basically traditional wedding.  I loved it.

Chris:  The entire wedding was as close to perfect as it could have been.  The Photo-booth was a huge hit and it really provided us with a lot of very candid snapshots of most of the people that were at our wedding.

How did you decide on your dress?
I was never a girl who dreamed about a dress.  I swore I would never wear strapless, and what did I end up buying? Strapless.  I tried on a few, and this one just looked the best.  My mom and mother in law were there, and we all just decided consensus-style that it was the best one.  There was no ah-ha! moment, but I loved it then and at the wedding.  Kendra at Ever After Bridal was amazing to work with – she really helped me pick out the best dress for me!

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
Katie: Just one??  I actually had such a great time because I was so relaxed.  I think I freaked some of my bridesmaids out!  Getting to spend the day with them was very special.  But I think the ceremony, with our friend Jeff as the pastor, was really special.  It felt so tailored to us because he knew us, and not a standard generic ceremony.  Yet it still had traditional elements.  It was very “us,”  we laughed and smiled together, and it really felt like just the 3 of us in the room.  A perfect wedding: intimate ceremony still witnessed by all your friends and family.

Chris: I agree with Katie on most of those things.  Jeff was fantastic and getting to spend time with my groomsmen was also very special.  However, the most memorable moment for me was when I first saw Katie in her dress with her dad about to walk down the aisle.  It was a moment that I will never forget, she just looked so amazing and I knew that she was about to make me the luckiest man in the world.

How would you describe the way you feel about each other?
Katie:  Chris is the most kind, generous person I have ever met.  He never ceases to amaze me with his ability to give himself to people, me included.  He loves me and all my silly quirks, has been flexible with my rigid career and life, and has been my best friend  and favorite companion for the past 6 years.  I can’t wait for 100 more years of fun and adventures!

Chris: Katie is my best friend in the world and the one person who really challenges me in every way imaginable.  I love how dedicated she is and how hard she has worked to get to where she is.  I am so proud of her for accomplishing what she has done.  She continues to amaze me everyday with what she can do.  She makes me a better person and I love her for that.

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future?
One week after we returned from the honeymoon, we closed on a house and moved to Birmingham, AL.  I am starting my residency in Family Medicine, so we will be here for at least 3 years.  Chris is looking at going to physical therapy school while we’re here.  Whatever the future brings, I know we will have fun together – we’ve practiced for years to get that part perfect!

What an incredible day we had shooting Sarah & Matt’s wedding. Sarah was so excited all day and luckily the weather cooperated enough for us to get some pictures outside. Her dress was a masterpiece and every detail of this wedding was stunning. I remember when we did their engagement pictures Sarah said pretty much all of the planning was done since they were having a 18 month engagement…needless to say this couple was ready to be husband and wife and it was sweet to witness that.

How did the two of you meet?
We met through a mutual friend, Samantha Brown, who was the Maid of Honor at our wedding. She invited me out to dinner with a group of her friends and Matt was one of the people there. We hit it off immediately and had our first date a week later.

Describe the proposal.
Matt had mentioned that a meteor shower would be visible over Chattanooga on December 14th 2007 and that we should go out to Signal Point to see it. I agreed and forgot about it. On the 14th, we went out for our usual date night and then Matt started driving out towards Signal Point. I asked him what he was doing and he reminded me about the meteors. When we got there, it was way too cloudy to see anything and the wind was freezing. I asked Matt if we could leave and he seemed disappointed. He started fumbling for something in his pocket and I thought he was looking for his camera but no, it was a ring box! He got down on one knee, told me he loved me, and asked me to marry him. :)

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
It’s a tie between the train of my dress and the bridal cake. Both were exactly what I had always wanted.

How did you find and decide on your dress?
I knew that I wanted a lace dress with a long train. I tried on dozens and dozens of dresses before realized I should probably just give up for the day. Right before I left Boutique Couture, Emily, the owner, pulled a dress and told me I should make it the last one I tried on for the day. It was perfect! And I was able to add 4ft to the train!

Describe your flowers, cake and other decorations.
The bridesmaids’ bouquets were black and white anemones. They looked so classy and fit perfectly with my colors of black, white, and pink. My bouquet was all ivory flowers– sweet pea, lilacs, tulips, and peonies. The flowers in the chapel and on the tables at the reception were pink roses and pink ranunculus. The bridal cake was truly a work of art. It was pink and ivory with lots of details– lace and ribbon made out of fondant and rhinestone brooches on the bottom tiers. Matt’s cake was so fun! It was decorated like a tree stump with our names “carved” in a heart on the side. Every decoration was exactly what I wanted– classy and unique with little details that made everyone say “wow!”

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
The most memorable moment was when my dad and I were outside of the chapel right before we were to walk down the aisle. My music had started playing and the doors were about to open when my dad said, “This is the easy part.” Haha!

What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?
The next step for us is to finish our house. It feels like we have been remodeling it for forever! We’ll both be relieved when it finally feels like “home.”

Samantha and Brad had a beautiful wedding! We had lots of rain and even a threat of tornados but that didn’t change the spirit of these two people that are so in love. I loved all of the neat details that Samantha did for her wedding, it seemed like every time I turned around there was some little detail that had their style and personality in it and I just love that! Samantha and Brad were so excited all day long and it was a privilege to get to be there and to capture that love and excitement.

How did the two of you meet?
Brad and I met in high school where he had a little crush on me, but our lives went separate ways. About two years after that we met again through a mutual friend that was in college at Middle Tennessee State University with me. About a month later we went on our first date to a Christmas party. We officially started dating in December of 2005 and quickly grew to love each other more than we had ever imagined we would. I moved home to Chattanooga to complete Grad School and to be closer to Brad. Two years after that we got engaged. Now, four and a half years later, we are husband and wife.

Describe the proposal.
Every Memorial Day weekend we go to my Mom’s house on the lake. It was May 23rd, 2009 and we were eating dinner with friends at a restaurant across the lake. My Mom was at home with our Beagle, Lucky, who is an extraordinary escape artist. She text Brad saying the he got out some how and they just couldn’t find him. She instructed us to come home to help search for our missing pup. We apologized to our friends and told them that we would be back as soon as we found him. When we arrived to our dock the lights were out and I thought I could hear Lucky whining. I ran in front of Brad to the dock and stumbled upon hundreds of candles, our Lucky tied to a pole with a fake diamond hanging from his neck, and our favorite love song playing (Hummingbird by Chris Hennessee). I turned around to Brad without the slightest clue of what was about to happen and he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him!

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
My favorite detail of our wedding was all the wonderful music that we had. The two soloists in the ceremony were just beautiful, the small orchestra was made up of my cousins, the band at the reception was my sister’s boyfriend, and our first dance was sung by Brad’s cousin. We just love music and are surrounded by a lot of talented people.

How did you find and decide on your dress?
I knew from the start that I did not want a strapless dress because I wanted to feel covered and yet elegant at my wedding. Knowing that I wanted straps I decided that a low back would be the perfect touch. I had tried on many different dresses, but when I put on my first lace dress I just knew that’s what I wanted. I went to my favorite boutique and told them my requests. They pulled out this dress and it was love at first sight. Well, sort of. I had some minor things changed to make it more perfect, but in the end it was all I had ever dreamed of!

Describe your flowers, cake and other decorations.
Brad and his family are Kentucky fans and I cheered at Middle Tennessee State, which are both blue teams. This made it an easy decision to have a Blue wedding. When deciding on blue flowers I knew that hydrangeas were really beautiful and popular. I added in blue daisys, white mums, and a few other fillers to make the most beautiful flowers ever. The best part is that my Grandmother used to be a florist so she made all my girls bouquets and a few other things. For the cake I wanted it to be simple, white, and have a touch of blue. That is exactly what I got. For the groom’s cake Brad asked if it was possible to design Rupp Arena. To our surprise it was the most awesome cake I’ve ever seen! It looked just like the Kentucky Basketball stadium. It was also a big hit with our guest for being the most delicious of the two.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
The most memorable moment about our big day was walking into our beautiful sanctuary and seeing my husband just filled with joyful tears. Everyone said they could truly see the love we have for each other.

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future?
What’s next? Well, we have a new house that we are planning to do some yard work in and then who knows. We would like to go on a ski trip sometime in the next year and maybe even the beach sometime after that. We want to go on many fun trips together while we are young, and before we start our own family. I think our future holds lots of wonderful things filled with God’s love and happiness. We look forward to growing closer to God through each other and hope to learn how to have a happy life living with our best friend.

We had a fun and busy day shooting Kimmi and Jimmy’s wedding that we photographed as part of Fox 61’s I Do. It was the first time we shot a wedding while the whole thing was being shot on video so that was exciting. The wedding was beautiful, Kimmi was a gorgeous bride, and being with this couple who are so in love just makes me smile. They have so much energy and excitement for each other and their future…I’m so happy for them.

How did the two of you meet?
Me and Jimmy actually met online. One of those social networking sites similar to Facebook, etc. He noticed that I was from Cleveland and sent me an e-mail. We talked online for a few weeks and then exchanged numbers. We talked for probably 2 months via phone and IM, and kept trying to get together, but something would always happen and one of us would have to cancel. So one day I was at work and he texted to find out what I was doing. I told him I was on lunch and he was like Awesome…well I’m here. And that was the first time we met face-to-face. It was an instant connection. We made a date for the following night and the rest is history. We’ve been inseperable ever since!

Describe the proposal.
Jimmy proposed to me on Christmas morning 2009. We had opened presents on Christmas Eve, but he told me there was one present I had to wait until Christmas morning to open. So of course I was really excited to find out what it was, but I had no idea that it was going to be an engagement ring. I woke him up about 6 am Christmas morning, we went downstairs all groggy-eyed and in our pajamas. There was a really big box, so I unwrap it, and there’s a smaller box in it. All in all, I unwrapped about 4 boxes. I’d unwrap a layer and throw it on the floor in front of me and he’d push it out of the way and scoot a little closer. Finally I got to the last box, a jewelry box. At this point I kind of had an idea what it was, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. As I opened the box, Jimmy got down on one knee in front of me. He had this whole speech planned and it was so sweet. By this time we were both crying! Then he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him and I said Yes!

What was your favorite detail of the wedding?
I don’t think I can pinpoint just one detail that was my favorite. I enjoyed everything! Everything turned out so beautiful and exactly the way I imagined it! It was one of the happiest days of my life and I will remember everything forever!

How did you decide on your dress?
I tried on about 4 dresses before I found The One. I felt so beautiful the minute I put it on. Everything about it was perfect. I was looking in the mirror and someone asked me what I thought Jimmy’s reaction would be if he saw me in that dress, and I started tearing up. There were just so many emotions running through me and I could just picture him standing there, watching me walk down the aisle in this amazing dress and I just knew that it was the one.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
I’d definitely have to say my most memorable moment was when I was walking down the aisle. My mom walked me down and I could tell it was an emotional moment for her, giving away her baby. Then I looked at Jimmy and there was so much love and emotion shining in his eyes. I knew that this was exactly where I was supposed to be in my life.

What’s next for you as a couple?
I would say the next step for us is to just start our lives together. The past few months have been crazy and now we really get to enjoy each other as things start to calm down. I’m most looking forward to seeing how our lives grow together. We’ve decided that we definitely want kids, but not right now. We are concentrating on building a stable foundation for the future. I’m going into my second year of college to become a medical assistant and Jimmy is planning on starting back in the fall for business management. What I am certain of is that the future is going to be wonderful because I’m going to be spending it with my best friend. The years to come are going to be some of the happiest of my life!

Congratulations to Kimmi and Jimmy. We know you have a happy and exciting future ahead of you!