Planning a Tennessee State Park Wedding
Read why we chose to get married at a park & what our experience has been like planning a Tennessee State Park Wedding!
This post is written in partnership with Tennessee State Parks
Today’s post is a bit different from the usual recipe/food post. Over the past few months, I’ve been in planning mode for our WEDDING taking place at the end of September! We are super excited about the big day, and celebrating with our family and friends.
Planning a wedding on the tail end (fingers crossed) of COVID has been interesting, and there have been a few moments where we were unsure if a September wedding would still be feasible. As of right now, though, we are moving full steam ahead and just making sure we ask each of our vendors about their policy for having to reschedule our date.
We are about two months out from our wedding date and we’ve secured our venue, photographer, wedding coordinator and caterer. I also managed to find a dress early on (eeek!) so we’re feeling good about our wedding planning timeline. It’s been super helpful that J has pitched in whenever to help with tasks. He’s definitely a keeper 😊
One of the first items on our to-do list was to decide on a venue that met the following:
- somewhat centrally located for all our family and friends
- budget-friendly
- felt special to us
We are outdoor enthusiasts and wanted a ceremony and reception that reflected that. The budget-friendly aspect was the biggest challenge when it came to searching for a venue, and it took some creativity and thinking outside the box before we came across the perfect option—Tennessee State Parks!
Getting Married at Tennessee State Parks
After a lot of ‘Googling’, I finally typed in weddings at Tennessee State Parks and came across their page. I remember being so impressed looking through photos of the venues at many of the parks across the state. We’ve visited several of the Tennessee State Parks to go hiking, camping, or mountain biking. Radnor Lake is close by and a favorite weekend hiking spot! This summer, we’ll be visiting Montgomery Bell State Park for mountain biking, and Paris Landing State Park to camp. Our love of the state parks and the outdoors is why getting married at one seemed like the perfect option for us. The other important box the state parks marked off was our desire for a budget-friendly venue.
While neither of us had previously visited Norris Dam State Park, looking at the venue photos online made us want to go check it out. Plus, it seemed like the best choice when considering the drive time for family and friends located both in Tennessee and Indiana. We visited over the Christmas holiday, and driving through the park and touring the Tea Room, we knew it just felt right. The primary venue is the Tea Room, a cute, rustic building that was constructed in the 1930’s as part of the Norris Project and Roosevelt’s New Deal effort. The Tea Room was previously a restaurant but now serves solely as an event venue. There’s a beautiful amphitheater across from the Tea Room that is perfect for an outdoor ceremony!
Another reason we loved the idea of a wedding at Norris Dam was that when you rent the Tea Room as a venue on a weekend, you have full access Friday through Sunday. This was important to us since all of our guests would be traveling in. We’re hoping that our family and friends can stay and join in on a fun-filled weekend, starting with pizza and a movie on Friday evening. The availability of quaint, historic cabins also appealed to us so that our guests had a place to stay nearby.
Planning a Destination Wedding
While our wedding is taking place in the same state that we live, I still consider it a destination wedding! And Norris Dam State Park is a gorgeous destination, with incredible scenery, great hiking, and the most beautiful blue-green water I’ve ever seen.
All our family and friends will have to travel in for the wedding, with the shortest drive being 2 hours. With that in mind, we felt like the cabins and campground at Norris Dam State Park would be perfect for those who wanted to stay overnight. There are several quaint, historic cabins within walking distance of the Tea Room, and there are additional larger cabins on the other side of the park, only about a 5-minute drive from the venue.
You can read my post about the wedding planning process on the Tennessee State Park website and see my 5 Tips for Planning a Wedding at a Tennessee State Park by clicking here.
