A Gorgeous Tented Wedding on Mississippi's Gulf Coast

If there’s anyone (or anything) who can compete with your love for your S.O., it’s probably your dog—just ask Katie Sacca and Patrick Brennan. “We are both a little bit obsessed with our dogs,” says Katie of her black Lab and Patrick’s Brittany spaniel. In fact, it’s their pooches that brought them together when they met at a New Orleans dog park in April of 2015. “Patrick is a New Orleans native, and I’m from Massachusetts, so Patrick showed me some of his favorite spots in the city and the surrounding area,” she says. One of the places he loves most, though, is his family’s property on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. In November of 2016, the couple took a vacation there, where they took their new tandem bicycle out for a ride. Halfway through the ride, Patrick stopped to propose. “We spent the afternoon biking around and sharing in our excitement, then celebrated with champagne on a boat ride with our dogs,” the bride remembers.

As the couple started to plan their October 2017 wedding, they kept coming back to Patrick’s family’s property in Mississippi. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wiped out the home, so the thought of getting married there (with no restrooms, electricity, or venue!) seemed impossible,” explains the bride. “But we realized how excited we got every time we talked about it, so we talked to Sapphire Events about what it would take to make it happen.” They landscaped, added running water and electricity, and found the perfect spot for a tent—but yet another hurricane threatened to derail the entire thing. “The Monday before the wedding, there was a 20 percent chance of a hurricane forming on Sunday, but by Wednesday, a Category 1 or 2 storm was headed directly for our venue, set to arrive in the middle of our Saturday evening reception,” says the bride. At the last minute, they scrapped their Friday rehearsal dinner and planned to have their tented wedding a day early. “Amazingly, nearly all of our vendors (and most of our guests!) were able to accommodate the last-minute change,” she says. “It may not have been exactly what we planned, but the most important thing for us was to get married, no matter what!” The photographs by Michelle Boyd Photography prove that even last-minute changes can result in a totally gorgeous wedding day—and don’t worry, they celebrated on Saturday too!

After appointments at four different bridal salons, Katie says she was worried she’d have to settle for a dress that she didn’t love. But that's when she spotted her Amy Kuschel gown in the window of Wedding Belles NOLA. It featured a V-neckline and cap sleeves, was draped in Alençon lace, and was finished off with a swoop train. She paired her dress with Loeffler Randall wedges that were the perfect choice for the tented wedding outdoors.

Katie carried a feminine bouquet of garden roses, proteas, and elegant greenery. “We included soft blues and grays in our palette to mimic the ocean behind us,” she explains. Patrick and his groomsmen wore boutonnieres of olive leaves, with the groom’s featuring a soft pink protea.

Every detail of the couple's day (including the cups and napkins!) was personalized with their initials in the event's signature blue hue.

Katie’s bridesmaids all wore Jenny Yoo gowns in a variety of colors and silhouettes, picking up the tones of the nearby water.

The ceremony took place beneath an arch of greenery, framed by white hydrangea and Japanese blueberry hedges. Katie’s aunt, a judge in Massachusetts, performed the ceremony and included sweet anecdotes for a personal touch. “We laughed a lot through our ceremony,” says the bride.

A bridesmaid hand-painted the cornhole set, updated to reflect the last-minute change in date and the impending storm.

For dinner, guests gathered beneath a sailcloth tent decorated in vibrant greenery and arranged around a custom-built round bar. “We had a New Orleans-style dinner with food stations instead of a seated meal,” says Katie. Patrick’s father owns a restaurant group (and the groom himself is a chef), so the menu was a family affair. Guests dined on crab cakes, Louisiana chilled seafood, gumbo, Cajun fried turkey, and pan-braised gulf fish as they sipped Pimm’s Cups.

The centerpieces were wild arrangements of small blooms and sea holly.

“Our band couldn’t make it to our rescheduled reception, but Sapphire Events found a fantastic DJ at the last minute,” says Katie. The couple shared their first dance to Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend.”

In addition to late night chocolate shakes, Katie and Patrick served a three-tiered wedding cake with layers of vanilla and lemon, topped with sugar magnolias.

The couple rescheduled their “welcome party” at Napoleon House for the day after their wedding, but a hurricane curfew meant their evening celebration would have to be during the day instead. “We had an all-day ‘hurricane party,’ with jambalaya and bananas Foster, and the band we’d booked for our wedding came to play through the afternoon,” Katie says. “They ended up lifting the curfew, so that night we took the celebration to Bourbon Street!”