Mandi & Thomas’ Gorgeous Intimate Smoky Mountain Elopement

From the beginning of our relationship it was clear to both of us that we would be together for a long time because we get along so easily. Since we started dating so young (19 and 20) we took a long time to grow into who we would be as individuals, and luckily we grew together instead of apart. Now that we are older and becoming more proper adults it has been a natural decision to finally get married.

Thomas inherited a family heirloom diamond from his grandmother. He is the fourth man in his family to give the diamond to his bride. When we received his grandmother’s ring her setting was very damaged, so we took it to a local jeweler and redesigned it to my taste, but keeping some aspects of it the same as how his grandma had it. Thomas proposed on December 23rd, which is actually the anniversary of my grandparents (he did not know this beforehand!). We always open gifts together at home before going to family celebrations, so the ring was wrapped under the tree as a gift!

Mandi: Thomas is very easy going and supportive of any goals I set for myself (I like to throw myself into hobbies and interests. I have lived abroad in France two times during our relationship, a Master’s degree, a yoga certification and a master gardener certification, I’ve also filled our house with about 100 plants! I have many interests and he always goes along with my crazy ideas.) He is calm in situations where I may tend to over react which is usually helpful.

Thomas: Mandi is a motivating force for me when I want to try new things. She knows how to get things done and encourages me in creative projects.

We have always had a strong friendship from the beginning of our relationship. This has allowed us to grow together over the last 10 years, while still growing as individuals and pursuing our individual dreams. We both realized that when we are happy and fulfilled individually, we are able to nurture our relationship. We have great respect for one another and value each others opinions and ideas.

We are both shy/introverted people and have never loved the idea of being the center of a bunch of people’s attention on our wedding day. We are each other’s best friend and love to celebrate special moments together. It felt more “us” to keep this day to focus on just each other and enjoy each other, instead of also worrying about other people and throwing a huge party. It was perfect to spend that day just the two of us and it was so low stress. We plan on having a reception to celebrate with our family and friends when it is safe to do so!

I became aware of elopement companies through social media and did a lot of research Googling them and reading reviews.

We thought their elopement packages included a lot of important things we wanted to included in our ceremony at a fair price. We thought the quality of the photographers and videographers that work with Simply Eloped was superior to that of other companies I was looking at. We also loved the wide range of location options!

We have always wanted to elope in a national park, because our bucket list dream is to visit all of the national parks in the U.S. So we looked at locations that specifically offer ceremonies in national parks! Neither of us had ever been to North Carolina before and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park offered a lot of different and beautiful settings for our photos! We were able to have the gorgeous mountains as a backdrop for our ceremony, and also explored the nearby forests with our photographer and videographer!

We rented a beautiful cabin outside of the national park for the entire week of our wedding, and just spent the week hiking and exploring the park! The day of our wedding was very relaxed and peaceful! We spent our day getting ready together and enjoying the day!

Planning with Simply Eloped was extremely easy and stress-free! I found the [staff] coordinators to be very helpful and thorough; they took all the time needed to answer our questions and concerns and I felt that they really cared about making us comfortable with our experience. Our officiant took the time to get to know us before the ceremony, giving us a questionnaire and talking to us on the phone during the weeks leading up to our ceremony. She really made the ceremony personal to us, which was impressive and so appreciated! On the day of our wedding we spent a lot of time exploring the venue with our photographer and videographer and it was genuinely so much fun spending that time with them and taking our fantastic photos!

We enjoyed dinner and drinks together at our cabin and then spent the rest of the week exploring the beautiful Smoky mountains! We plan on celebrating with our friends and family as soon as it is safe and responsible to do so!