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Josh + Melissa

Above the Mist Wedding Venue// Gatlinburg, Tennessee

This wedding has is ALL. A beautiful bride in a stunning wedding dress, stunning florals and greenery, perfectly smoky mountains, and an incredible love brought by both families . Josh and Melissa were planning a big wedding, but when they started feeling overwhelmed, they decided to live their dream and get married surrounded by their closest friends and family on top of a mountain in Tennessee. Besides a couple head over heels in love, there were two features of this wedding that gave me, Rosalie, chills all day: hints of Lord of the Rings tucked here and there, plus an amazing move of the Holy Spirit as everyone worshiped during their ceremony. But enough from me! I'll let our sweet bride, Melissa take it from here!

When deciding to get married in the United States, what made you choose the Smoky Mountains?

All throughout our engagement we were initially planning a bigger wedding in Canada and I had been feeling so stressed as those plans snowballed. I kept telling Josh “I just want to get married on a mountain or in a forest! I want it to just be a small and intimate ceremony and to be surrounded by the beauty of creation” When we finally came to the decision to go for it and make our wedding the day we really wanted it to be, Josh reminded me that a friend of his family named Rob (who is actually the pastor we wanted to marry us) lived in Tennessee, where there are gorgeous mountains! When we looked at pictures of the national park it felt like something right out of Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings is a big part of our love story) It was like a dream come true and as it all came together we knew it was meant to be

Planning from another country had to be difficult! How did you go about finding vendors to work with for your wedding day?

Initially when searching for vendors we did a lot of internet searches! Reading reviews, making calls and sending emails definitely made up a lot of our planning time! Having a family friend who lived at our destination definitely helped as they were able to recommend a few places as well! We also found our wonderful photographers through a photographer I had been talking with in Canada! She reached out on a wedding photographer community platform with our story and sent us a list of photographers that were interested in working with us (which was amazing)!

How did you get both of your families on board?

Both of our families were extremely supportive! They had known that the traditional big wedding wasn’t something that either Josh or I felt fit with us. They were incredible throughout the whole process: helping with contacting vendors, reassuring us when we were stressed and working with us to make our day match our vision.

What was your favorite moment of the day?

There are so many incredible moments from our wedding day that just fill my heart. Josh and I actually have top 3 moments from our wedding day. Seeing eachother for the first time as I walked down the aisle was such an emotional and amazing moment. Then during our ceremony when we were able to worship the Lord while holding each others hands and overlooking the beautiful mountains was definitely one of the highlights. Finally at the end of the night after our reception had ended we ran off and rode a Ferris Wheel overlooking the city as we soaked in the last drops of the day enjoyed our first moments alone as husband and wife ❤️

Annnnddd for Brides planning considering a destination wedding, what advice would you give them? 😍

It may initially be difficult when making the decision to have a destination wedding, with the opinions and expectations of so many people looming over your head. BUT, it is so worth it! Having a wedding day that is truly what YOU as a couple want is so priceless. Looking back and saying “that was OUR day” without a doubt is so amazing. We also absolutely loved being able to explore a new place together as newly weds. It was such an amazing adventure and I can’t recommend it enough!