For Kirsten and Jordan, their community of friends and family have always played a key role in their relationship. The two met in 2021 while Kirsten was out with friends celebrating her birthday; her best friend’s brother introduced her to Jordan. Two years later, he proposed at sunset on the beach while the pair were on vacation with 10 of their nearest and dearest. And when they began planning their wedding, they had a simple guiding principle. “Don’t get caught up trying to compete with social media trends/ideas—focus on the bigger picture and know that the people make the entire wedding weekend,” says Kirsten. 

As the owner of When We Were Young custom bridal, Kirsten spends her days surrounded by one-of-a-kind wedding designs, creating bespoke alterations of vintage wedding gowns for modern brides. It came as no surprise, then, that she and Jordan chose Lion’s Gate Estate in Marietta, Georgia, for their 85-guest wedding on October 12, 2024; the private event space allowed the couple to customize every element of their day. “We were able to bring in every vendor of our choosing with no strict guidelines or minimums to follow,” says Kirsten.

The couple worked with Lisa Formaro of Willow Jaymes Events to design a fully-outdoor affair—a garden ceremony, cocktails on the terrace, and dinner under the stars—with a “romantic, intimate, European feel.” They traded lavish florals for dozens of gleaming taper candles placed along their reception table, sourced individual black vintage gowns for each bridesmaid, and took vendor advice from Kirsten’s clients. “I definitely think being in the industry, and working with brides, gave us an advantage when it came time to plan our wedding: Hearing about vendors that my brides suggested saved us a lot of time in general,” says Kirsten. “Luckily I was very decisive, and ultimately this made the wedding vision come together quickly and efficiently.”

As Kirsten and Jordan finalized the details of their day, they focused on staying within their budget and highlighting their shared priorities. A 60-guest rehearsal dinner included speeches from the best man and maid of honor, and an unforgettable moment for the couple: the first time their fathers met. “It was better than we ever dreamed of,” says Kirsten of the rehearsal—and the entire wedding weekend. “In the end, I am so grateful to have had the mindset that some things just didn’t matter. The people, weather, and making the promise to marry the love of my life were the most important parts and most memorable moments from the wedding.” Ahead, see all of those memories unfold in photos by Katie Gracen.

Lion’s Gate Estate, a private gathering space with overnight accommodations for 20, offered a cozy atmosphere and elegant backdrop for the couple’s close-knit guest list. “The space is truly stunning on its own, and provided the perfect intimate and romantic setting that we were going for,” says Kirsten, who posed for a few pre-wedding shots with her 'maids (in custom robes!) in front of the property on the morning of the big day.

Kirsten created her basque waist, silk mikado ball gown alongside experts from Designer Loft Bridal. “Every aspect of the gown was thoughtfully chosen by me,” she says. “I took elements of many dresses that I tried on; as soon as I was able to try on a full ball gown, I knew that was the direction I wanted to go.” The final frock turned out better than she imagined, says Kirsten: “My wedding dress was everything I hoped—and more.”

Kirsten’s sister, a bridal hair and makeup artist, pulled Kirsten’s hair into a sleek bun—a formal take on her go-to daily style. “I always feel my most beautiful with a slicked-back look, so it was an easy choice with the fullness of my dress, to do a classic slicked-back bun,” says Kirsten. 

The bride did her own makeup, opting for a “very glowy and soft” effect using the Dior Backstage Glow Face palette. The natural look also highlighted her simple skincare routine—“[I] religiously wash my face with Dial bar soap—that’s all I live by!” says Kirsten—which she boosted with a pre-wedding bio-collagen face mask. “I really wanted my skin to be the focus, allowing my bridal look to just feel like a polished version of myself,” she says. “I wanted my makeup to feel natural and let the dress be the pop!”

Kirsten designed her own choker necklace by looping a cross pendant—an heirloom piece passed down by her mother—onto a chiffon silk scarf. A trio of sparkling hoops and her marquise solitaire engagement ring added classic shine, while her bouquet of all-white Clooney ranunculus blooms served as the only floral element throughout the wedding.

Kirsten took the lead on gowns for her wedding party. “I hand-selected and sourced each of the bridesmaid dresses—all secondhand/vintage,” she says. “I wanted an ‘80s feel to the dresses, with exaggerated accessories and a mix of textures, all black.” The matron of honor—Kirsten’s sister, Jahna—also donned the same pearl necklace that Kirsten wore for the rehearsal dinner.

Classic black tuxedos for the groomsmen complemented the bridesmaids’ gowns, while Jordan took his cues from the bride in an off-white dinner jacket. “A fresh haircut, and the man was ready to go," says the bride.

A first look before the ceremony allowed the couple “to have a moment of privacy—and to save time on photos after the ceremony,” says Kirsten. Seeing each other for the first time was “a dream come true,” she says. “The most anticipated moment of the day, second to sharing our personalized vows in front of family and friends—a moment that we got to take in each other's presence, alone.”

Kirsten and Jordan chose to let the venue’s striking architecture provide the décor for their ceremony. The dramatic staircase—down which Kirsten’s father escorted her to the aisle—stone walls, and landscaping served as focal points. “[We] kept it really minimalistic,” says Kirsten. Their one-year-old flower girl was “the star of the show,” says the bride, walking down the aisle with help from her four-year-old brother (and with the promise of a lollipop at the end).

Kirsten and Jordan invited her brother-in-law to officiate their ceremony. “This was so special to us,” says Kirsten. “We get to hang out with my sister’s family most weekends, so when thinking about who to officiate our wedding, my sister’s husband was the obvious choice!” 

The couple included religious elements—“Jordan’s grandfather gave a prayer, and our family stood up to lay hands on Jordan and I as we had a moment of worship,” says Kirsten—and exchanged their own personalized vows. “I’m so happy we chose to share these intimate feelings with our guests, since they have all played a significant role in who we are today,” says Kirsten. “Hearing each other's promises to one another, before our loved ones, was really special.”

Guests decamped to the cocktail hour on a terrace overlooking the single, long dining table in an L-shape. A monochrome white-on-white tablescape was dotted with mismatched candleholders and glimmering tapers. “I loved the idea of a really bare tablescape with candles and candelabras flooding the tables,” says Kirsten. “This created the most beautiful ambient lighting outside, with the most perfect weather we could have ever asked for, allowing the exposed candles to stay lit all night.”

The newlyweds and their guests dined on a menu of Mediterranean dishes from Mersi Chef Persian Food while sipping the couple’s two favorite drinks: margaritas based on a family recipe and frozen espresso martinis mimicking the ones from Lapeer, an Alpharetta, Georgia, restaurant. “We got the exact recipe from the bartenders and rented a frozen machine to replicate the recipe,” says Kirsten. “The week of our wedding, we batched out the recipe so that it was ready to pour into the machine on our wedding day. It was such a hit!”

Mother Nature provided the couple with a dreamy atmosphere for their entirely al fresco event. “Everything took place outside, and we were so blessed with the most perfect weather that allowed our reception to glow with candles which was so incredibly romantic,” says Kirsten. “Taking in the moment, looking out to all of our friends and family in one place was a moment captured in time. The exposed candles burning throughout the reception felt like a scene out of a movie.”

The bride changed into a two-piece dress for the after-party, adding intricate beading, lace, and rosettes to a reworked vintage frock which “paid tribute to my passion of redesigning vintage wedding dresses for brides all across the United States,” she says. “The opportunity to do it for myself was a highly anticipated moment.” (While she often uses a bride’s mother’s gown as the base for a made-over dress, she kept her own mother’s gown intact: “You may be wondering why I didn’t rework my mom’s wedding dress—I chose to keep the original dress untouched, and shot it for my engagement photos instead,” she says.)

Kirsten and Jorden cut a two-tier salted caramel cake piped with pretty buttercream icing details from Lush Cakery. The dessert was a sweet finish to a day that was “so intimate, so special,” says Kirsten, as the couple celebrated with their friends and family. “Each person having shaped the people that we are today—I couldn’t have dreamt for a more beautiful evening,” she says.