Real Wedding | Kelly + Rory | June 26, 2021

Jan 26

With hearts of gold and the encouragement of mutual friends, Kelly and Rory were simply meant to be. Their love story was a long time coming, and every minute was worth the wait. Celebrating the Catinellas was easily one of our highlights in 2021, and we couldn’t wait to relive their wedding day with the lovebirds themselves! Enjoy!

From Kelly:

Rory and I are long time family friends! Back when he was in college, Rory became friends with my sister (Kendra) and his best friend (Ryan) separately – he introduced the two in 2008, and they were married in 2010. Rory and I don’t really know exactly when we met, but we were both in that wedding party, and over the years we spent many more holidays and special occasions together. In 2013 a bunch of us took a trip to Vegas, and he actually told my mom he was going to marry me one day! It took us another three years after that to officially start dating, and after four years together Rory asked me to be his wife just before Christmas in December 2020. We were so excited and couldn’t stand the thought of waiting to be married much longer, so we decided to knock it all out in six months & seal the deal that summer!

At the time, Rory and I lived half a mile away in the Bishop Arts area. We would go to Davis Street Espresso almost every weekend, and had noticed the adorable historic church next door… or so we thought. We loved our neighborhood and the local community, and it was really important for us to celebrate our wedding in the area, so when we got engaged we knew we had to check it out. Turns out the Cliff House was no longer serving as a church, but we thought it was beautiful that it did for so many years and that so many of its original elements were preserved. It’s a unique, intimate, inspiring space - everything about it made us feel at home. We just knew as soon as we walked in that it was where we would become husband and wife!

We were nerves on nerves on nerves! Don’t get me wrong, we both had so much fun hanging out with our respective wedding parties that day, but we are normally together all the time… so to be apart from each other on the most important day of our lives was super jarring! 5:30 PM could not come fast enough.

Our private last dance meant the world to us. We had never heard of a private last dance before, and we are eternally grateful to our Cliff House coordinator for giving us that moment we’ll always remember.

We also had so many great moments connecting with each of our guests. We felt like we were able to relax and be 100% present in every moment, which was only possible because of the amazing Boxwood Hospitality staff. We are deeply grateful for all of their hard work, and for giving us the gift of not having a care in the world.

As for the ceremony, it felt right for us to keep it simple and traditional. We wrote each other private notes that day with everything that we wanted to say to each other, but when it came time for the wedding it was important that we kept our vows rooted in our faith. We are so thankful for the time Dr. Al Taylor spent with us preparing us for marriage, and we included many scriptures in our ceremony that we had studied together beforehand.

After the ceremony, we walked down the aisle together to Viva La Vida by Coldplay as a nod to our first date (which was a Coldplay concert).

As for the reception, we were so excited to be able to hire Rory’s friend from high school as our DJ! Both he and his wife did an amazing job reading the room and bringing the party to life. I think the VW bus was a hit too!

Our day was sweet & simple. Classic. Elegant. Intimate. Perfect.

To future brides: have someone else open the champagne bottle for you. Or don’t – because you’ll forget all about it in two minutes because you are marrying your best friend and all your dreams are coming true and nothing else matters!

For a more serious answer… 😊 Do not lose sight of what is important to you. You receive so many opinions during the wedding planning process – sometimes solicited and sometimes not! Keep an open mind and receive it all with grace, but stand your ground on the important things. At the end of the day, it’s all about you two – do what you want & be proud!