Oakleaf Cottage

Did you know that a 60 person wedding can produce two truckloads of garbage? Oakleaf Cottage is a sustainable wedding and event venue just outside of Chattanooga working to lessen the load of wedding waste. That’s why we’re featuring them as our March Sustainability Spotlight. How do you see weddings becoming more sustainable?
Read more on our blog at https://bit.ly/OakleafCottageMarch.

FUN WEDDINGS — we had a few epic, super fun weddings this past Fall, and can’t wait to share the photos as we get them in!
This is the first of a sneak peek set of a wildly fun Key-West-Meets-Lookout-Mountain theme.

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Photobooth: .photobus
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Cake: .baking.co
Hair:
MUA: the bride is a pro!

Forest walks with your best friend on the best day ever…

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Catering: India Sitar Chattanooga
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Words cannot describe the joy and love we felt from these two and their families on their wedding day.

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Caterer: India Sitar, Chattanooga
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A few more amazing shots from J&J’s wedding from .woodphoto — love seeing our couples in our Cottage as they get ready! 💚💚💚

Cloudy weather is the best weather for photos! The rain came down not long after this photo was taken, but it was a warm rain that lasted all of an hour (so only cocktail hour had to move indoors!). We always work with you to be sure we have a solid rain plan ready to go - part of that stress-free-wedding-goal!
Photos by .woodphoto

22 years today!
Last year, we both forgot. October is wedding SEASON and in the middle of the reception dinner, it hit me what day it was. I looked at Dave, who had just come back up in the shuttle and said ‘do you know what day it is?’ He looked blank, and I said ‘October 7.’ We both forgot.

Our venue manager, Autumn, was appalled and immediately worked out a plan to bundle us both out of the venue to go have dinner. Not comfortable being very far from the venue during an event, we picked up pizza from , opened a bottle of our favorite California wine, and sat out at a hidden place with a stunning view.
We remembered this year… but barely. We plan to head out to a casual dinner after tonight’s rehearsal.
Yes we booked Oct 7 already. No, we didn’t think about the date. It doesn’t matter when you celebrate it, as long as you do. It can be a quiet toast after putting kids to bed (or closing the venue for the night, in our case) or a big elaborate trip to Europe, whatever feels right to you.
First photo was by Smithley Photography, when the venue was still very new. Last two are by

Rain on your wedding day is said to be good luck. We know many photographers who tell us they love rain for the effects it brings - like the beams of light and fog that .woodphoto caught here! Joy and Jake totally rolled with the brief downpour and didn’t mind at all — these photos are stunning!

Sunday’s ceremony setup in the Forest View location. M & V wanted all our handwoven rugs, layered. Southerly Flower Farm created a gorgeous install on the arbor. Guests were welcomed by with champagne while the sounds of the harp by floated through the air.

Once again sharing this amazingness from last week!

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More fabulous shots from Jenny and Andrew’s wedding back in June!
We love that ‘just married’ glow and BOY they had it all evening!

HMUA: Kim Frazier
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Yes the setting is lovely, but it’s also the combination of vendors and planning and effort that goes into creating the event of a lifetime that hits allll the details.

Poured champagne welcomed Jenny and Andrew’s guests as they exited the shuttle.

Floral install over the sweetheart table made it the focus of the room the moment you walked in, by

The photo lounge for the guests — Jenny ordered extra yards of fabric from her bridesmaids’ dresses, and we used one of our arbors and artfully installed to make a fun backdrop.

Well… we could not resist the epic dip photo.

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Makeup: Kim Frazier
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Jenny and Andrew’s wedding was SUCH A BLAST. Sharing more of the details from this beyond awesome wedding this weekend!

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Makeup: Kim Frazier
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New inventory! We now have a matching set of Mosser glassware in BLACK and AMETHYST! Just in time for our Fall weddings to add a whole new level to their tables, cocktail hour or welcome drink.
Glassware is ALWAYS included in all of our packages, and as we love an elegant event, it’s not uncommon for a wedding to use three to five kinds of glassware (welcome drink, cocktail hour, champagne toast, wine and water glass…). You can also use glasses twice as our industrial washer will have the welcome glassware ready to go back in service at the bar at supper time. So if there’s color you love… 💚💚💚

What’s NOT to love about a fabulous champagne tower? Make it SUPER special with edible flowers for some colorful garnish. So many flowers are edible as well as beautiful. Cris, one of the venue owners, is a ‘backyard herbalist’ who knows of many yummies of the forest and field.
Florals shown: pansies
Provided by:

What’s NOT to love about a fabulous champagne tower? Make it SUPER special with edible flowers for some colorful garnish. So many flowers are edible as well as beautiful. Cris, one of the venue owners, is a ‘backyard herbalist’ who knows of many yummies of the forest and field.
Florals shown: pansies
Provided by:

Christine and Jon know how to throw an EVENT. Guests were treated to the best of everything, and details details details were everywhere.

Cheers to Monday!

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Celebrating the victory of photos over video (at least for now) with this fantastic shot of the epic wedding of Christine and John (and their sweet little dog!). There were SO MANY creative touches in this wedding that it’s hard to decide what to gush over first.

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Because some things should be still.
After being among the folks irritated at this platform for punishing accounts that don’t spend hours making reels… thinking of what new marketing direction we should take and feeling forced about the whole thing… we realized this morning that some things should be still. Only in the stills can you drink in the details. Oakleaf is a place of calm, and beauty, and it opens itself more when you sit with it. Yes it has exciting wedding days and dancing, but the beauty of this place is it’s stillness.

The more we talked about it among us, the more video feels *wrong* to do all the time. Wedding decor, wedding photos, all those details and time and thought and effort need to be appreciated. Instagram used to be a little like paging through a design magazine, almost as relaxing as opening a copy of but not quite. Print still has its place, and so does fantastic photography.

We will do some reels, when they feel appropriate. We will keep sharing beautiful photos as posts, and more can be found on our website. We’re working on really making a better resource for our couples while designing and planning their wedding.

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When supplies your wedding with skulls… a few creative photos are in order!

This was such a fun wedding! Kelsea and Gray have such a great spirit of fun about them — their wedding was a fabulous mix of dark and moody and found objects.

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Morning photo from Sarah and Nick’s wedding. They opted to skip the arbor, having only Grandmother Oak as their backdrop. Ferns and plants are from , and the driftwood pieces were raided from venue owner Dave’s stash of interesting wood.
Dave has created a number of things here at Oakleaf, but prior to the (crazy busy) life of building/remodeling this place, he made super unusual furniture pieces. Hence the stash. 😁

The details of Sarah and Nick’s wedding reception. made the sweetest table florals, mixed in with mushrooms from . Rafter greenery was by us. Napkins from and photography by

Sweetheart table!

We are ready for another fabulous wedding weekend! Here’s one of the sneak peeks from Allison and Jesse’s wedding a couple of weeks ago. So much fun and SO pretty!

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Photography: .fugate
Catering: Lone Star Catering]]
Cake: Lone Star Catering]]
Bar: Lone Star Catering]]
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Ceremony Musicians:

This was SUCH a lovely June wedding. We love June, our shaded, mountain forest location means it isn’t hot here. We are often 10* cooler than downtown Chattanooga, which is a short 23 minute drive away.

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This June wedding was a dream come true with a floating reception and a massive charcuterie setup right inside the front doors of the barn when you walked in. We had so much fun working with Racheal and her mother, Amy, while pulling the details together for this amazing day.

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It seems unimaginable how our place transforms season to season! Now, everything is a happy shade of spring green, and here, the rocks play superstar with all of their shapes revealed.

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DJ: .connection
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Month: December

We do love a good table setting! This one is all dark and moody, using our amber, smoke and clear glassware, vintage plates and silverware.

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DJ: .connection

All the winter wedding vibes 💚

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DJ: .connection
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