Attending Matt and Kari’s wedding was like taking a trip back in time and that’s exactly what Kari wanted. “I’ve always been captivated by the 1920s,” she says. “It was the decade of prosperity; boundaries were broken, gender roles questioned and modern culture was born.” And break boundaries they did. The Kuhn’s wedding was one that not only the guests, but even the venue – The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina – will remember for years to come.
We sat down with Kari to find out more about her dream wedding.
PYW: Why did you and Matt opt for a destination wedding?
Kari: We chose a destination wedding because we only wanted the people who REALLY liked us to come. By age 35 and 36 we’d both come to know so many people that we wanted to limit our guest list to only our nearest and dearest friends and family.
PYW: How did you decide on the location?
Kari: There was never any question for us. The Biltmore Estate is the Downton Abbey of the United States and that’s exactly what we wanted.
PYW: Did you plan the entire wedding by yourself?
Kari: Goodness no! I asked the Biltmore events manager to recommend the most detail-oriented wedding planner she’d ever worked with and that’s who we hired. Asheville Event Co.’s Becca Knuth is rated by The Knot among the very best. Our wedding presented many challenges. She found us vendors who could create every custom detail we desired.
PYW: What was the biggest hurdle when planning your wedding?
Kari: The decor. When you plan a wedding in Art Deco style, it’s not as if you can rent what you need. I wanted everything to be very detailed and stylish, but not overdone and garish. The only way to pull it off was to take a moving truck full of our antiques down to Asheville and have the decor elements that couldn’t be purchased, made. It all came down to the details! We pulled inspiration from The Great Gatsby movie premier and Boardwalk Empire in order to achieve the look we wanted. Matt even bought me a 7-foot Deco antique lady lamp from France and had it shipped to the Biltmore so she could welcome guests by lighting up the entrance to our reception. We hired fire dancers to perform during the cocktail hour and paired that with flaming martinis for guests. A burlesque style fan dancer performed during dinner and came back to the do the Charleston later in the evening. The jazz band we hired, called Cry Baby, had the best female vocalist I’ve heard. After the champagne glass fountain ran dry (the wine and liquor never run out at the Biltmore) a cigarette girl offered our guests parting gifts of candy. Not just any old candy, but varieties you would have found in the 1920s and 30s like Black Jack gum, Bit-O-Honey, Black Cow and taffy.
PYW: Any advice for couples as they plan their own big day?
Kari: If you want to ‘do it up big,’ hire a professional wedding planner who is living and working at your destination. I am a slave to detail. Still, I did not have the creative connections to bring my vision to life. The right wedding planner brings together all the best service providers and makes your wedding day run like a well-oiled machine. It’s the best investment you’ll make in the whole affair.
“Your wedding may be the fairytale you’ve always dreamed of, but marriage
won’t be. The fireworks will undoubtedly fizzle out over time, and the monotony of everyday life will settle in. Get used to no longer being the center of attention.
Don’t go looking for it again. Instead, seek the admiration that comes
from your spouse in the form of a shared look across a crowded room.
Earn your partner’s respect and trust. Don’t expect to just be given those things.
Choose to love your spouse every day. Make that choice, even when
it’s hard, because marriage is hard work. Marriage can and should make
us better versions of ourselves.”- Kari Kuhn
