A Joyful Wedding Day Highlighted by Meaningful Touches and Family Moments.

How They Met

Katelyn and Joey met and started dating in 2014 while in Madrid, Spain for a study aboard program during law school. Even though they both came from New York City, they owe that time over seas to their meeting as in the states they were both attending different law schools and pursuing separate career paths.

While in Spain, they started out as friends traveling around Europe together during free time. They became so close that everyone around them assumed they were dating before anything actually took flight. To Katelyn’s surprise, Joey saw their friendship as something more and asked Katelyn out during a trip to London. Their first date took place when they returned to Madrid from that trip.

How They Got Engaged

After seven years together, often long-distance across multiple cities and countries, Katelyn and Joey got engaged over the phone during the end of the pandemic. At that time Joey was living in Oregon while Katelyn was in Brooklyn, NY. Both moving to Portland, Oregon in 2022 to finally be in the sample place!

The couple then eloped, just the two of them, at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas in 2022 thinking they would soon plan a big ceremony and reception to celebrate with all of their family and friends. Plans changed a bit when they moved back to New York City in 2023 and had their son in 2024, this meant saving the big wedding for 2025!

Looking Back

Three Words that Described the Day:
“Elegance, Joyful and Stormy (from the huge lightning and rain storm)”

What Vendors Impressed You the Most?
“Amanda Klein of Flowers for Dreams; Lidia Sharapova of Seminomadic Photography – every photo is gorgeous and she kept the day moving with the photo schedule; Eliza from SewWhatAndWhere in NYC – she tailored my two wedding dresses with a week’s turnaround, just 3 weeks before the wedding; Manda Gill from événement – expertly handled obstacles during planning and on the wedding day, we could not have pulled off this large wedding without her!”

What Moment Sticks With You the Most?
“The junior bridesmaid (8) and ring bearer (6) pulling our 7-month-old son down the aisle backwards in his rolling baby seat (decorated in sequined fabric) to the delight of the audience. A massive storm rolling in off of the lake during the ceremony and hearing each other’s vows.”

Special Tips or Advice to Future Couples?
“Do not plan a wedding freshly postpartum with a newborn at home. However, should you decide to, make them as big a part of the wedding as possible. If you choose to work with a wedding planner, get started as early as possible. Make yourself a schedule for when you need to finalize each part of the wedding planning. Even with a full-service planner, we still had to make so many decisions that we wish we had done earlier in the process. Send save-the-dates as early as possible! We sent ours only five months before the wedding, when some of our intended guests had already booked summer travel!”

Wisconsin Wedding Vendors