Interior designer Yancey Kenna and Jack Martin are a Bumble success story. They had known of each other for years and have a lot of mutual friends from college and ultimately matched in Atlanta, when she was visiting her family and he was in town on business. Jack asked her to get a drink that night, but she chose to watch HGTV with her mom instead.
He was persistent and called her the next morning for lunch. “There were instant sparks at lunch, and after a little convincing, he ended up joining me on my road trip back to L.A.,” Yancey reveals. The two spent three weeks driving across the country and camping throughout Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming. He eventually flew home, but the couple reunited a week later to move in together in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “We moved in together after only six weeks of dating which seems a little wild, but when you know, you know!”
A few years later, Jack proposed to Yancey at her family’s home in Savannah, Georgia. They were in town to celebrate a close friend’s wedding, and on Sunday morning—after a late night of reveling—Jack’s alarm rang at 6:00 a.m. Yancey was frustrated, when Jack suggested they watch the sunrise from the dock. As they reached the end of the dock, she turned to find Jack down on one knee, just as the sun was coming up on the marsh. Yancey’s family had been watching from the porch and greeted the newly-engaged duo with mimosas and breakfast.
Yancey and Jack knew they wanted a smaller European wedding, and the bride-to-be had fond memories from her cousin’s wedding in Greece 15 years prior. “I loved the idea of making Greece some sort of family tradition, but we wanted to avoid the crowds and find a place off the beaten path where you could still order a good cocktail,” she shares. Yancey and her wedding planner of Mart Mari for Chancey Charm stumbled upon a Vogue article that called Zakynthos “Greece’s best kept secret,” and their ears perked up.
They read on to discover The Peligoni Club, and when they phoned the hotel, they discovered a cancellation opened up one wedding date in 2022. “Clearly, I’m not afraid to make a big commitment when it feels right, so we booked the venue sight unseen,” Yancey shares. To set the tone for the weekend, Momental Designs created a beautiful invitation suite.
“Being an interior designer, I’m used to having an idea and turning it over to my incredible vendors to have it brought to life,” the bride says. “I treated my clothing for the wedding in a similar way.” For her welcome party at Villa Meraki, she turned to local designer Haven Howell to put her own spin on a designer’s runway look.
And for her wedding dress, Yancey’s close friend and bridal stylist, Alex Sachel, sent her a photo of her dream gown, and the bride went straight to Britt Wood to have a custom version made. “I ended up finding the overlay fabric on Etsy from a woman who collected dead-stock fabrics from Paris, making my dress truly one-of-a-kind,” the bride shares. On the day-of, she got ready with Gabriella Bordo of Lived In Make Up, who made her look like the best version of herself.
Her last look of the night was originally a vintage, beaded dress from Happy Isles, but altering the item proved to be too difficult. Instead, Alex and the bride took the beads from the initial design and Haven transferred them to an old Solace London dress that Yancey had actually worn as a bridesmaid dress previously.
Jack also went the bespoke route and turned to Sid Mashburn to create his complete wedding weekend wardrobe.
On July 7, 2022—the three-year anniversary of Yancey and Jack’s first date— the bride walked down the aisle to “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones. Jack’s godfather conducted the service on a white-washed deck above the Ionian Sea. “Feeling that surrounded in love changed us both,” Yancey shares. “Luckily my veil was trying to blow off my head and provided just the right amount of comic relief to keep me from crying my eyes out.” The couple’s siblings read passages about love and kindness, and after exchanging vows, “Good Vibrations” carried the newlyweds to the cocktail reception.
At the beach club, rows of flowers from Fiorentinos Flowers and Events lined the tables, set with block-printed linens that Yancey had sourced from India via Made in Jaipur on Etsy. A family-style dinner of favorite Greek dishes like dakos, spanakopita, and roast lamb was served under romantic string lights. And the couple cut their cake by Cupcake Fantasia.
After dinner, the just-married pair snuck away to share a few dances together. Then, guests were treated to a table full of margaritas—the bride’s personal favorite—and flashing dance floor accessories. Everyone danced the night away with DJ Benny Bianco and saxophonist Lea Sax.
The bride had big dreams of partying all night and making their grand exit around 3:00 a.m. In reality, “I made it to the stroke of two before telling my husband it was time I ate grilled cheese in bed,” Yancey laughs. “Our exit photos are hilarious, there are about 10 people still standing holding sparklers—our seven-year-old flower girl—still in her kitten heels—was one of them!”
