Country Camp Reigned Supreme at This Wedding in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains
Kimberlin Rogers, director of events for Houses Parties, and banker Thomas Joseph “T.J.” Ajello met through mutual friends at the University of Alabama. The pretense wasn’t a setup—actually, quite the contrary: “He came from a boarding school in New Hampshire, and I was from Atlanta. No one thought it would last,” Rogers admits.
But as the saying goes, opposites attract. On New Year’s Eve several years later, T.J. asked Kimberlin to marry him at the Faena Hotel in Miami. Afterward, their families gathered for a Champagne toast in the garden before heading off to dinner at Casa Tua.
The bride quickly decided three things: (1) that the wedding would be held at her family farm outside Crossville, Tennessee; (2) that Rebecca Gardner—Kimberlin’s boss, who is a renowned event planner and founder of Houses Parties—would orchestrate the affair along with Lindsey Baer Co. (“Rebecca thinks of everything from overall decor to your father’s socks and is truly the most creative person I have ever met,” says Kimberlin); and (3) that they wouldn’t take themselves or this event too seriously.
On a warm summer weekend in June, a series of wild wedding festivities began. On Friday, there was a bridal luncheon overlooking Turner Lake. Pastel paper lanterns hung overhead, and colorful crackers graced the table. The drink of choice was Bud Light, the cans arranged in wicker baskets while a taxidermy fox looked on.
At night, it was time for the Dolly-and-Kenny-themed (short for Dolly Parton and Kenny Chesney, mind you) rehearsal hoedown. The couple adorned the Rogers family barn with heirloom quilts, while Fox Fodder Farm sourced native wildflowers from Kimberlin’s beloved Cumberland County to adorn the tables. Bourbon flowed liberally (so liberally, in fact, that the mechanical bull parked outside got more use than expected). As for the bridal outfit? That was an Oscar de la Renta white minidress—paired with a rhinestone cowboy hat and boots.
On Saturday, Kimberlin and T.J. wed just before sunset in a horse pasture on the banks of Turner Lake. Guests took horse-drawn wagons to the ceremony, meandering through fields of intentionally overgrown hay. “Rebecca had the idea to let the hay grow wild for the entire season to create a dramatic ceremony aisle winding down the hill to the edge of the lake. I’m not sure if it was harder to mow the thick grasses or convince my father to let his field loose to our master plan—the grass was over five feet tall,” says Kimberlin. Lining the pathways were giant, surrealist paper poppy flowers by fiber artist Trish Andersen that, recalls Kimberlin, “danced in the wind.”
The bride walked down the aisle in an Oscar de la Renta dress to a banjo rendition of “You Are My Sunshine,” performed by famed bluegrass musician Alan O’Bryant. (You may recognize his version of this very song from the Coen brothers’ 2000 cult classic, O, Brother Where Art Thou?) After the couple exchanged their vows, an antique horse-drawn carriage whisked them away for a romantic joyride.
Meanwhile, the guests were ready to get the party started at cocktail hour. Kimberlin’s cousin built a floating bar out of giant tree trunks that “looked like it had been growing there for years,” says Kimberlin. Servers wearing eccentric woodland-creature masks offered up classic Southern fare like Benton’s ham on biscuits. Hanging from the trees were silver pails filled with longneck beers. A collection of early-American chairs, sourced from a vintage shop in Savannah, were arranged artfully in the clearing.
Then it was time for dinner and dancing under an unexpected set of stars. The couple hung a giant 15-foot moon—and a hundred glittering pointed orbs—from their sailcloth tent ceiling. It rose during the couple’s first dance. “We danced to ‘Volare’ as the giant moon and her galaxy were raised above the middle of the dance floor, clearing room for the raucous dance party,” says Kimberlin. On the dinner tables, Fox Fodder Farm arranged wildflowers and exotic lilies. For a touch of humor, they added tiny toy garter snakes and grasshoppers that poked out of the blooms—or, on occasion, decorated a dinner plate.
In a nod to T.J.’s Italian heritage, the couple served up boxes of anginetti cookies—shipped from T.J.’s mother’s favorite Connecticut bakery, Lucibello’s—as well as pizza on the dance floor as the party raged on. “Not one guest, no matter the age, sat down the rest of the night. We danced like mad and ate heart-shaped pizzas for sustenance,” Kimberlin says.
Photo: Houses and Parties1/41Gigantic hay sculptures added whimsy down the long drive to our property. I’ve known fiber artist Trish Andersen from my years at Houses Parties, so this was a joyful collaboration.
Photo: Houses and Parties2/41The celebration began with a luncheon honoring my bridesmaids on Friday morning. Gauze lanterns the colors of Sweet Tarts marked the spot overlooking Turner Lake.
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