Real Weddings: Kelsey & Jeremy
June 16, 2012: VanLandingham Estate
Jeremy Markovich, a producer for WCNC-TV, met Kelsey Richards when her co-worker at the Charlotte Chamber set them up over a game of The Settlers of Catan at Amélie’s in NoDa. Fifteen months later, he surprised her with dinner at Carpe Diem, a moonlit walk on the greenway, and a proposal DVD of family photos set to music. The couple chose the VanLandingham Estate for its springtime blooms of azaleas, dogwoods, and rhododendrons. Choosing a dress was more difficult, and after trying on thirty gowns, Kelsey found a floor-length, ivory organza Monique Lhuillier gown from Nitsa’s—light enough for a Charlotte summer, but with a dropped-waist bodice for structure and a side-draped skirt, sweetheart neckline, and floral corsage for romance. The couple wanted their first look to be in the church. On the day of, Jeremy said, “I was standing up there and saw her backlit in white over everyone’s heads, and she just looked amazing. I couldn’t stop smiling, and it hit me at that moment that the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with was walking toward me down that aisle.”
At the reception, four-piece band In Full played Jack Johnson’s “Better Together”—the song from Jeremy’s proposal—sending the newlyweds straight into their choreographed first dance, in which they outshone even Jeremy’s parents, who are semiprofessional ballroom dancers. Bridesmaids wore sea green J. Crew dresses and carried pink rose bouquets by the Flower Diva wrapped in matching green ribbons. The groomsmen added a dash of color with pink Gerbera daisies on black tuxedos from New York Bride & Groom. Hints of pink and green added a fresh springtime accent to the bride’s elegant white-on-white linens, flowers, and textured white buttercream cake from For Goodness Cakes.
Even their send-off was sweetly romantic, with sparklers and a ’61 Rolls Royce; and their Executive Limousine & Sedan Service driver kindly stopped en route to the Omni for a final wedding photo by the Bechtler Museum’s glittery Firebird.
