A “Tunnel of Love” Led to an Epic After-Party at This Wedding in the Smoky Mountains
Interior designer Emma Williams grew up in Los Angeles, and real estate developer Atticus Shorr was born in London before his family moved to a farm in Pennsylvania. “When they eventually landed in California, our families—who’ve known each other for 50 years—reconnected and thought it would be nice to get us all together,” Emma explains. “This is how I ended up, at 16, on Hope Ranch beach in Santa Barbara in 2014, instantly smitten with a handsome newcomer who was far more interested in body surfing than being introduced to old family friends. He gave me a quick, polite handshake before sprinting back into the ocean. He swears he remembers that first meeting; I remain unconvinced.”
They stayed friends over the years. “[But] I always felt like we were closer than we actually were,” Emma admits. In the spring of 2023, things shifted though. “After one of those family dinners, we started texting—a lot,” Emma remembers. “He was living in Boulder, I was in New York, and I didn’t think much of it…until he announced he was coming to New York for June, staying with his brother Jake, to ‘try the city on for size.’” As it turns out, this potential move was as much a veiled excuse for the real estate developer to take her out on a few dates as it was to relocate.
On Atticus’s first night in New York, they went to Casino, an Italian restaurant in Chinatown, with Jake and Jake’s girlfriend, Virginia—and from that night on, things moved quickly. Atticus’s month-long stay was extended week after week, and soon, he had more of his things at Emma’s apartment than he did at his brother’s. “Like most do when head over heels, we were convinced we had invented falling in love,” Emma remembers.
In July, after cooking a meal at home together, Atticus pulled Emma into his lap and told her he loved her. “When I returned the sentiment, he asserted, ‘We are going to get married,’ to which I replied, ‘I know’—and we both keeled over with laughter knowing how absurd it sounded and how true it was,” Emma recalls. “As my cousins—who are more like sisters to me—said in their wedding toast to us, Atticus and I were never really dating—we were always going to get married.”
Atticus eventually proposed to Emma on the last night of August in 2023 on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art late at night. They had both studied art history in school and had had one of their earliest and most memorable dates there. “It was just us, the Nathan’s hot dog vendor, and the city,” Emma recalls. “He chose the stone and designed the ring with Leslie Tcheyan, a dear family friend of ours who owns the jewelry brand Of Rare Origin. She also made my mom’s ring 40 years prior.” The next day they flew to Ireland to celebrate with Atticus’s family.
The couple got married at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee in early August. While she loved many aspects of her wedding journey, planning didn’t come easily for Emma. “I would be lying if I said I loved planning, but there were elements of it I really loved,” she admits. “I loved designing an experience for our friends and family, I loved working with so many talented artists. Augusta Cole of Augusta Cole Events and her team took care of so many logistics, it allowed my imagination to run wild with details and to be particular and maintain complete trust in the execution of my elaborate requests. She and her team worked tirelessly to make my dreams reality.”
The invitation—based on folded Victorian valentines with an embroidered handkerchief hidden inside of the folds—set the tone for some of the bride’s more elaborate requests and the flawless execution of such ideas. The couple tapped illustrator Fee Greening to carry out the entire paper suite. “She was a dream to work with and designed a world in itself for our wedding,” Emma says. “What I really hoped to achieve for the weekend was an intimate feeling of grown-up summer camp. We were capped at a certain headcount and family made up for the vast majority of that group. We have huge families and wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Emma worked with her friend, stylist Thomas Kikis, on her wardrobe. “It was the most fun aspect of planning for me,” she says. “He expertly guided me through the absolutely insane world of bridal and made it all feel fun and easy. Also, he didn’t bat an eye when I told him I needed a new dress to change into after the ceremony two weeks before the wedding, he just sprung into action.”
