A bride skipped the traditional wedding dress and spent $10,000 on a skirt and a separate corset she could rewear
Channing Price
- Katie Fawn and Chase Estep got married on October 19, 2024.
- They tied the knot on Fawn's family farm.
- Fawn wore a one-of-a-kind bridal look made of three pieces worth $10,000.
A lot of things about Katie Fawn's wedding were relaxed and understated.
She said her vows on her family's farm, and her guest list was under 40 people. On the morning of her wedding day, she did her own hair and makeup with her best friend.
However, Fawn's one-of-a-kind wedding ensemble made of bridal separates from different designers was anything but simple.
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Fawn, 26, and Estep, 25, grew up in Corbin, Kentucky, and they ran in the same circles, attending the same high school and church.
"Our families always went to the same church," she said. "His family literally sat behind mine, but I never thought a thing about it. And I don't think he did either."
Estep is a professional baseball player. When he was drafted in 2022, Fawn, a content creator and owner of both a beauty brand and fashion label, reached out to congratulate him, not thinking much would come from the interaction.
"I was so not looking for a relationship, not even a little bit, and I don't think he was either," she said. "Then we just hit it off."
"After about a week, we were like, 'Yeah, I think we actually might be getting married,'" Fawn told Business Insider.
They've been an item since, and Estep proposed in December 2023. Fawn and Estep are still based in Corbin.
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Fawn wasn't a bride who grew up dreaming of her perfect wedding.
"Growing up, I didn't care if I ever had a wedding," she said. "My parents never had a wedding. They got married at the courthouse. My brother did the same thing."
When they got engaged, Estep and Fawn decided they actually did want to celebrate their union with a wedding. Still, they kept it small, partly because Fawn had also heard stories of couples regretting their big, expensive events.
They invited just 32 people to watch them say their vows at Fawn's family farm on October 24, 2024.
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Fawn didn't start shopping for her wedding dress until July 2024, despite knowing she wanted a unique bridal look.
"I'm very into fashion. It's what a lot of my content is based around," she told BI. "When I turned 24, I really stepped into the person I wanted to be and the person I wanted to dress like."
She wanted her wedding dress to reflect that vibe, and she soon had her heart set on a dress that had yet to be released. Fawn reached out to the brand, and they agreed to send the dress to a store in Nashville so she could try it on.
However, during her trip to Nashville, Fawn stopped into Dress Theory with her best friend, and with the help of stylist Ali Gray, she fell head over heels for a look made of bridal separates.
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Fawn said her stylist suggested combining three separate bridal pieces to create her wedding look.
"She pulled a bunch of different things for me to try on, and I kept putting things on, and I was like, 'Yes, this is a beautiful dress, but it wasn't the one that I saw myself in or saw myself feeling great in,'" Fawn said.
When Gray suggested a two-piece ensemble instead of a dress, Fawn was intrigued. Gray then created a bridal look for her made of pieces from three separate collections β and Fawn loved it.
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The top of Fawn's wedding look was made up of a corset from Sept by Sarah Seven.
"She showed me the corset first, and at that point, I think all the common sense I had about cost went out the window," Fawn said. "I was like, 'I don't know what I'll do, but I will get that corset.'"
The semi-sheer corset had a pointed, strapless neckline, and the fabric was covered in floral detailing. Thanks to the transparent fabric, its boning was delicately exposed. It hugged tightly to Fawn's figure and ended in points on either side.
Fawn thought the corset would be beautiful for her wedding, but she also loved that she could rewear it with more casual pieces for future anniversaries or special trips with Estep.
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Sarah Seven designed Fawn's skirt, which had a mermaid silhouette and flared into a train. It sat in the middle of Fawn's torso, overlapping with the corset.
Fawn loved that the sleek skirt created a clean look, contrasting with the more intricate top. She also said it was comfortable, as the train gave her more room to walk.
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"I wanted people to look at my wedding gown and not know if it was from the '20s, the '50s, if it was from now," Fawn said of her vision for her bridal look. "I wanted it to be a timeless, elegant, and very chic look."
The skirt and corset were beautiful on their own, but Fawn said adding a statement scarf from Danielle Frankel transformed the outfit.
"It changed the entire look," she said. "It brought it together. It enhanced the little pieces of the corset and the lace. It brought out the different textures."
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The floor-length scarf flowed out behind Fawn like a cathedral veil for much of the day.
Fawn said she knew she didn't want a veil and loved how "unexpected" the scarf was in its place.
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Fawn also posed with the scarf flowing over her shoulder, pulling the semi-sheer fabric wide.
The effect created a cape-like look in some of her wedding photos, which Channing Price took.
"It just felt like it completed the look," Fawn said of the scarf.
Fawn kept her other accessories simple because she wanted the scarf and corset to shine. She wore $12 earrings from Amazon, a tennis bracelet, and a ring that belonged to her mom.
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When Fawn saw the corset, she knew she already had the perfect shoes for her bridal ensemble: a pair of $1,350 Dior kitten heels she had waiting in her closet.
She bought the shoes as a gift to herself when she was invited to her first brand event as a content creator.
"The lace on my shoes matched my corset perfectly," Fawn said.
The shoes were meaningful to her, so it felt extra sweet for Fawn to rewear them for the wedding. Not having to buy a new pair of shoes was a bonus.
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Fawn initially hoped to spend under $5,000 on her wedding gown.
"As soon as I saw the set, I thought, 'Well, that's gone out the window, unfortunately,'" Fawn said.
She spent around $10,000 on the look, but it was worth it to Fawn, especially because so much of the wedding was affordable, and she could rewear the top.
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"I felt like the most confident version of myself," Fawn said of how she felt when she wore the ensemble on her wedding day.
She also loved that the separate pieces were light, so she was comfortable throughout the wedding day.
A video of Fawn trying on the look for the first time went viral on TikTok, spotlighting how taken she was with the ensemble.
"It was bringing high fashion to the farm," she told BI of the outfit.
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Estep and Fawn didn't do a first look, so he didn't see her bridal ensemble until she walked down the aisle. He cried as soon as he saw his bride walking toward him.
"I don't think there was a dry eye anywhere, actually," Fawn said of her guests' reaction to her arriving at the ceremony.
Estep thought the outfit suited his bride perfectly.
"As soon as we kissed and said our vows and everything, I said, 'What do you think of my dress?' And he was like, 'It's the most you thing I have ever seen, and I love it,'" Fawn said of Estep's reaction to her outfit.
Estep wore a black Giorgio Armani suit to the nuptials.
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Fawn took her bridal and family portraits on the farm before the wedding, and she said spending time with her loved ones before the ceremony was one of her favorite parts of the day.
"We were all just outside. We had music playing," Estep said. "It was just a very calm atmosphere on what I feel like is a nerve-racking day."
"To just see everybody before and calm the nerves and get to hang out with one another was wonderful," she added.
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"I did my own hair and makeup," Fawn said. "Neither of us had bridal parties."
Fawn spent the morning of her wedding with a friend, having breakfast and prepping.
"We sat on my living room floor and got ready together, and we just drove over to my parents' house afterward," Fawn said. "It was very low-key, very relaxed, and not some sort of big, stressful, awful thing."
"It was so lovely," she said of her wedding. "There wasn't a part of the day that I was like, 'Oh, I wish I would have done this differently.'"
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The couple's loved ones gathered around estate-style tables featuring florals from Betty's Flowers.
"When my family built their house, they positioned it so that the sun would set in the backyard," Fawn said. "In the evening, you can see the cows graze and the sunset, so that's why we put the tables over there."
The sun set throughout the reception, making it feel even more romantic. Fawn's mother, who has done some interior design work, handled the decor for the day, which Fawn described as "beautiful."
"She and my sister-in-law, literally right before the wedding, set everything up," Fawn said.
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Fawn said she and Estep's first real moment alone together on their wedding day was when they took sunset photos after dinner during their reception.
"We actually got to speak to one another and take our pictures together," she said. "It was just the best."
Fawn and Estep had fun with their wedding portraits, posing with a cowboy hat and a convertible.
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"I think a lot of brides that I've spoken to buy a dress really early and then end up disliking it or wishing they would have gotten something different," Fawn said. "They bought it, you know, a year to two years or however long it is before their wedding, and sometimes their style might change, or they feel less pressured later on."
She thinks more brides should take their time searching for their dress to ensure it's what they want.
"They can kind of loosen the reins and say, 'What do I want to wear to my wedding? What do I want to show up as? What is gonna make me feel like the best version of myself?'"
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"He just brings out a side of me I didn't know I had, and I love that about him," Fawn said. "I love that he is who he is and he's first and foremost kind, but also that he challenges me to be a better version of myself and makes me a better person."
"I know relationships are hard, marriage is hard, life is hard, and doing it with somebody else is not always the easiest thing," Fawn said. "But there's no other person I would ever want to do it with or even consider doing it with."