Chelsea Batten & Andrew Knopp
June 8, 2019 / Brookland
Houston’s Venue
Chelsea Batten and Andrew Knopp met at their college ministry campus at one of the church's service nights. The two hit it off and eventually, Andrew proposed in a truly romantic way. Chelsea thought it was just any other day. She was doing a photoshoot for the boutique that she worked for at the time.
The photographer convinced her to go to the park to continue the shoot. Once they got there, the photographer led her up a hill and she saw a gazebo decorated with her future husband waiting for her.
"Then I understood.... he decorated a gazebo with thousands of rose petals, candles and pictures of us," she says. "It was so beautiful."
The two tied the knot on June 8, 2019, at the new Houston's Venue in Brookland. Read on for more details from their beautiful day.
On finding her dream dress: I have dreamed about my wedding dress since I was a little girl. I just knew no matter what, I wanted to feel like a real-life princess and feel like one, too! Boy did I! My dress was a flowy white dress with a long train, that flowed beautifully behind me when I walked and had the most amazing sparkle.
On the venue decision: It’s actually funny how we came about choosing this venue. I always knew I wanted an all-white venue that was very elegant but there was nothing like that or what I envisioned in the Paragould/Jonesboro area. So we decided we would do a big white tent with cathedral draping and make it elegant and all-white that way. We were at Elegant Party Rentals looking at tent options, I was getting discouraged thinking it wasn’t going to look how I dreamed when Angelia and Jamie of Elegant Rentals at told me about the venue being built in Brookland. I immediately called the venue and the owners, Kim and Walter, met me out there that day. It wasn't even complete yet but I could tell by the location, the framing and the pictures that it was going to be my dream venue. We decided to book it that day!
On the ceremony set-up: [We had a] double-sided arbor draped in white fabric, dripping with white roses. The aisle runner was 18,000 white rose petals and the outdoor space was flanked on each side by two tall all-white arrangements. White linens and more floral adorned the ceremony and welcome tables. Since it was outdoors and very hot, we had white custom fans made with the reception schedule and pictures on it.
On the cocktail hour: We had what we called our wedding snack shack set up outside for the guests to enjoy after the wedding while the reception hall was being photographed. We served iced coffee and frozen hot chocolate along with an assortment of sweet and savory snacks. It was an 8-foot table draped in white satin with various individual snack containers and popcorn containers in blush and gold, as well as personalized glasses and napkins. It was the cutest little setup and guests really enjoyed it.
On the planning process: My mom and I had so much fun picking out all of the elements, planning the layout and adding all of the special touches such as customized napkins and glasses for the snack shack, designing the candy bar, picking out table settings as well as the details for all the gorgeous floral that would make my dream wedding a reality! So many little details, so much fun!
On her florals: My bouquet was an absolute dream! I knew I wanted a very large bouquet with lots of roses. Vase and Vine did an awesome job of making my floral dreams a reality. My bouquet contained polo roses, blush roses, white and pink ranunculus and silver dollar greenery and my bridesmaid's bouquets were the same just a tad smaller than mine. They were stunning!
On the reception decor: I love flowers and had envisioned very dramatic floral displays of alternating heights. I knew I wanted lots of floral with a touch of blush accents. The bridal table was covered in an 18-foot long stage arrangement full of white and blush florals, that perfectly complemented the guest table arrangements that were over 3-feet tall. We had a floral photo wall in one corner of the hall and a white floral arbor in the other corner framing the cake. We had a beautiful 20-foot long food table with silver dishes of alternating heights layered with blush fabric, hydrangeas and two large arrangements. It was a beautiful display and it tasted as good as it looked!! We also had satellite tables that were draped in white and blush linens and included a punch fountain, a mashed potato bar, root beer float bar, as well as a candy bar that was adorned with two 3-foot tall silver vases with blush florals and a center crystal candelabra topped with more blush floral.
On the cake station: I had three large satellite cakes on stands of varying heights. The icing was overlapped and had swirl details on the top, then accented with floral. We had a 4-layer strawberry cake with strawberry filling and a 4-layer chocolate chip cake with cookie dough filling. The largest cake was a 4-layer in which the top two layers were almond cake filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and the bottom two layers were chocolate with chocolate fudge icing. It looked and tasted amazing. Kudos to Abby Shannon at Abby Cakes!
The Details:
Photography: Emilee Gill Photography
Day-of coordinator: Kim Hall of Houston’s Venue, Brookland
Florist: Vase and Vine, Clarksville
Rentals: Elegant Party Rentals, Jonesboro
Lighting: Houston’s Venue, Brookland
Cake: Abby Cakes, Jonesboro
Caterer: Leanne Tyler
Iced coffee and frozen hot chocolate and snacks: Batten’s Donuts and Bakery, Paragould
DJ: Brian Osborne
Wedding dress: Inverness Bridal Couture, Conway
Bridesmaid dresses: Lulu’s
Groom/groomsmen attire: Men’s Wearhouse
Jeweler: Sissy’s Log Cabin
Hair: Alexis Horner
Makeup: Leighton Clower
