A Casual Outdoor Wedding at a Private Residence in Old Fort, North Carolina

A mutual friend invited Kyle Jahner (30 and a journalist) to the same bar where Leigh Allen (28 and a nursing student) was celebrating her birthday. Kyle and Leigh didn’t know what apparently everyone else at the bar did: he essentially was Leigh’s birthday present. But the set-up worked flawlessly and Kyle proposed after kayaking along the Chesapeake Bay. During the search for a wedding venue, the budget-conscious couple realized something: renting a house or cabin for a couple of days tended to be no more expensive than renting a wedding venue for eight hours. They decided to rent a secluded cabin on over 100 acres in Old Fort, North Carolina, which slept a few dozen people and allowed both immediate family as well as their wedding party to have a place to stay throughout the weekend. Leigh and Kyle exchanged vows on the deck of the rental home with gazebo and an altar made by Leigh’s brother as their backdrop. "The original plan was to get married by the river in a meadow opening, but we changed plans after I broke my foot the morning before!" Leigh’s sterling silver wedding gown inspired her gray and pink color scheme and she made her own paper flower bouquets to highlight the soft palette. "Neither Kyle nor myself are the type of people who get caught up in formality and convention for our own sake," says Leigh. "Kyle's father described our day as 'Rather than a wedding where a party broke out, it felt like a giant party where a wedding broke out.'"