Kaelyn Kristine Scott met her future mother-in-law, Merridy, at her soon-to-be roommate’s birthday party. After about 15 minutes of conversation, she told Kaelyn she needed to meet her son and promptly texted him. Kaelyn then met her future sister-in-law, Morgan, and after only a few moments, she, too, insisted Kaelyn meet her brother, Tanner Scott. “My mom AND my sister were texting me about setting me up,” Tanner remembers. “I shut my phone off.”
After a few weeks, they had their first date at a Cubs game, and after dating for three-and-a-half years, he proposed at her childhood home with her parents’ blessing. And they only found out after they were engaged that Kaelyn’s roommate, Caroline, had actually been the mastermind behind them meeting months before Kaelyn met his mother and sister. Once engaged, they found a wedding date four years exactly from their first date on September 1st, 2015, and it was a natural choice for Caroline to officiate their ceremony.
The couple’s priority for their wedding was that it was outdoors, and they quickly realized that Jackson, Wyoming was the perfect place to host. They had both grown up visiting, and Tanner’s parents later moved there full time. The two stumbled upon Diamond Cross Ranch and loved the unobstructed views of the Tetons, big red barn, and wide grassy fields. Kaelyn took on most of the planning and brought on Elizabeth Kelleher of In Any Event to help with coordinating, and to help set the tone for the day, they hired Xowyo Paper + Press to design the invitation suite.
Finding Kaelyn’s wedding dress was harder than expected because she kept liking too many. “It felt like dress-up, especially since it was just my mom and me, and we used to love that game when I was younger,” she remarks. At Alice in Ivory in Chicago, she ultimately chose Lihi Hod’s Alex dress from the 2017 Dreams collection. “I found myself so insanely comfortable in it that I didn’t want to take it off.”
To complete her look, the bride chose the Sophie veil from a.b. Ellie, diamond drop earrings from her friend’s store, Browning & Sons, and Jimmy Choo stiletto mules, which she switched for white booties later on in the day. Before the ceremony, Kaelyn got ready in a Kiki de Montparnasse slip and robe with hair stylist Tanya Crocker, makeup artist Stephanie Broome, and her bridesmaids, who wore gray Yumi Kim wildflower robes. Then the ladies changed into various Shona Joy bridesmaids’ dresses.
Kaelyn’s mother was her daughter’s “something blue” in Carolina Herrera, and to the rehearsal dinner, she wore the same Oscar de la Renta dress that Meghan Markle’s mother wore to the royal wedding. “It’s safe to say, since I’m her only daughter, she went BIG,” the bride remarks.
Under crystal clear skies, the bride walked down the aisle with her father to Coldplay’s “Yellow.” “When Kaelyn first appeared from the barn with her dad, my heart swelled even further with pride and love,” Tanner says. The two shared personal vows under a floral arch by Fleur de V, and Kaelyn couldn’t get the ring over her groom’s “mangled” knuckle without bursting into laughter. As they sealed their ceremony with a kiss, horses majestically burst onto the scene—a wildly romantic start to married life.
Immediately following the service, cocktail hour commenced outside. “It was hilarious to see so many people taking selfies with the horses!” Kaelyn says. Then guests found their seats with escort cards that had personal longitude and latitude coordinates that marked a special location. And on the back of the place cards were letters explaining that specific place and thanking them for making the trek to celebrate.
During the family-style, local dinner by Genevieve Catering, Tanner’s best man and brother and Kaelyn’s best friends and maids of honor were so nervous for their speeches that they snuck a bottle of Patrón to their table and were taking shots before speaking. They all delivered their words thoughtfully and with incredible poise.
The newlyweds had their first dance to “Mean to Me” by Brett Eldredge—“a Chicago guy and a BIG Cubs fan!” Then the energy didn’t stop on the dance floor. “We all got drenched as people started showering each other in alcohol,” Tanner explains. “And we were all wearing eclectic headpieces of animal heads and other random objects while Changing Lanes kept everyone amped for hours.”
Once the formal reception came to a close, they all boarded buses headed for the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in town. Guests were given beer from Snake River Brewing and fried chicken biscuits with sriracha honey—a nod to Kaelyn’s days at UNC. “We were a freaking SCENE,” Kaelyn says of her group at the bars. “I was definitely wearing a tiger mask going into Cowboy Bar, and the guy checking IDs was not amused, even though I was clearly the bride!”
The party continued until the lights came on, and strategically, knowing their friends partying capabilities, they stayed at Hotel Jackson right around the corner from the bars. The next day, Tanner’s parents hosted an intimate BBQ at their house in the Snake River Sporting Club. The bride adds, “It was the perfect sendoff before we headed to Italy for our honeymoon!”
