On a June weekend in 2022, 300 guests descended upon an enchanted family property in Crossville, Tennessee. What would unfold was an unforgettable storybook weekend, with whimsical details around every corner.
Kimberlin Rogers and T.J. Ajello met at the University of Alabama through mutual friends. She was from Atlanta, and he came from a boarding school in New Hampshire. “No one thought it would last,” she admits. T.J. proposed at The Faena during a New Year’s trip to Miami. He surprised Kimberlin in front of Damien Hurst’s “Gone but not Forgotten” sculpture — the famous gold mammoth skeleton visible from the South Beach boardwalk. This would be a premonition of the mystical, creature-centric nuptials to come.
Kimberlin spent summers at her family’s lake house for as long as she can remember. “It was special to be married at our house, which is my mother’s labor of love. All of my friends stayed together like [it was a] summer camp for adults,” she adds. “A wedding at home takes more effort than a wedding at a venue,” Kimberlin points out, so their 18-month engagement was a comfy length to put the pieces of this complex, imaginative puzzle together.
Kimberlin’s easiest decision was tapping event designer extraordinaire Rebecca Gardner to take the reigns on this unicorn of a wedding. “Working with Rebecca is a dream,” says Kimberlin, who’s worked at Rebecca’s company, Houses & Parties, for five years. “She thinks of everything. I knew I wanted something colorful, fun, and offbeat. Rebecca coined the term ‘Wildflowers in the Moonlight’ and ran with it.”
The Ajellos hosted the rehearsal dinner on Friday evening in the “Fieldhouse.” “The structure was SO new,” Kimberlin says, “that my mother was hanging art as guests arrived!” At the welcome party and hoe down, they ate juicy Tennessee BBQ and competed for the longest ride atop the mechanical bull.
After Friday afternoon’s floral jumpsuit and Friday evening’s lace mini, everyone knew Kimberlin’s ceremony gown would be out of this world. “I was so unsure of what type of dress I wanted,” she says. But the second she slipped into Oscar de la Renta, she knew. “I found the wispy fairytale dress of my dreams and rehearsal dinner wild thing in under an hour!” Her mother also found a colorful ode to the “wildflowers in the moonlight” theme (pictured below), and her engaged sister also found her wedding dress!
After some tender moments and several hours worth of getting ready with friends, it was time for the bride and groom to meet at the altar. They saved their first look for the dramatic walk down the “aisle,” cut from the five-foot-tall grass. “It felt like a dream,” Kimberlin recalls. “I walked down the aisle with my father to ‘You Are My Sunshine’ performed on the banjo by Alan O’Bryant (of O’Brother Where Art Thou fame).
Wagons filled with colorfully clad guests descended toward the flower-studded shoreline of Turner Lake. The slope was steep, so there was limited bench seating, and most guests stood for the heartfelt exchange of traditional vows.
One of the more spirited groomsmen grabbed a giant flower and led the pickers and guests down a winding path to cocktails in a nearby wooded forest. “My cousin Charlie built a floating bar out of giant tree trunks that looked like it had been growing there for years,” Kimberlin says. Servers donned woodland creature masks and passed delicious Southern fare by Daily Dish.
After nibbles of Benton’s ham and biscuits and sips of hand-poured cocktails, it was time to move things under the big top. From the cocktail forest, guests assembled under a nearby sailcloth tent for the next chapter: a seated dinner by a 15-foot moon and hundreds of glittering starbursts.
As the celestial landscape lifted, the newly wedded Ajellos made their grand entrance. First, they danced to “Volare” by Dean Martin — a nod to their Italian honeymoon, Kimberlin “becoming Italian,” and a secret nod to what would come later …
“In homage to my husband’s Italian roots, I disappeared during dancing to become Kimberlin … Ajello,” the bride says. She slipped into a Dolce & Gabbana satin sheath, a brunette Sofia Loren wig, and a Houses & Parties “spaghetti & meatballs” party hat. Once she re-emerged, the energy surged to stratospheric levels.
“My mother-in-law was floored!” she recalled. Kimberlin overnight shipped boxes of Aginetti from her new family’s favorite bakery, Lucibello’s, in North Haven, Connecticut (where T.J. is from). “Not one guest, no matter the age, sat down the rest of the night. We danced like mad and ate heart-shaped pizzas for sustenance,” Kimberlin says.
When it was time for the revelry to wind down, it took Lindsey [the event manager] ten minutes to find the bride while everyone waited outside, sparklers in hand. A still-brunette Kimberlin and T.J. finally got through a tunnel of sparklers. “When T.J. dipped me for our kiss, my wig fell off,” Kimberlin says. “It was perfect.”
After an Italian honeymoon along the Amalfi coast — Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, and Naples — the Ajellos settled back into life in Atlanta, Georgia. We’re thrilled to publish this wedding feature on the heels of their first wedding anniversary.
Thank you, Kimberlin, TJ, and the Houses & Parties team, for letting us experience this storybook weekend vicariously! All photos by Houses & Parties.
RESOURCES
Event Design and Production: Houses & Parties
Event Management: The Lindsey Baer Company
Florals: Fox Fodder Farm
Floral sculptures and hay sculptures: Trish Andersen
Entertainment: Turnipblood Entertainment
Welcome Party Music: Rodney Atkins
Ceremony and Cocktails Music: Alan O’Bryant
Reception Music: 12 South
Gown and Friday Night Dress: Oscar de la Renta
Late-Night Dress: Dolce & Gabbana
Groom’s Tuxedo: custom from Guffey’s
Hair: Raina of Bristle + Bride
Makeup: Jessica Marie Beauty
Catering: Daily Dish
Cake: Reignbow Baking Co.
Pressed Cake Flowers: Eat Your Flowers by Loria Stern
Stationery Art: Lia Burke Libaire
Calligraphy: Traci Green Designs
Lighting: Bright Event Productions
Tent: Sperry Tents Southeast
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