Voice Alum Adam Wakefield Marries Jenny Leigh — All the Details from Their Garden-Themed Wedding
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
Life is "As Good As It Gets" for Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh.
On Sunday, The Voice season 10 runner-up, 38, and the country singer and actress, 35, tied the knot at "True North," a private venue and farm owned by family friends Jim and Toni Turner, in Fairview, Tennessee — and PEOPLE has all the exclusive details.
Leigh tells PEOPLE that "True North" was the perfect place for her and Wakefield to wed because of its special meaning in both of their lives.
"The property is meant to be a compass for always finding home there," she says. "I went to college with the Turners' sons at Elon University, and they are the farm owners. When I did my Kickstarter to make an EP and move to Nashville, they were supporters."
When Leigh moved to Nashville with Wakefield and their songwriter friend, Ryan Sorestad, in 2013, she says the Turner family offered to let them stay in the cabin on their property while they got their "feet wet" in Music City.
"We ended up staying in the cabin for almost a year!" Leigh says. "It was a tiny one-room cabin with three bunk beds, but we fished, wrote songs and started building our music community there so it is a very special place to us. Ryan prepared an amazing message and married us where it all started for all of us here in Nashville."
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Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
After getting engaged last September, Leigh says that she and Wakefield — who first met at a music festival in Baltimore nearly 10 years ago — "went back and forth on the date and size of our wedding" due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"When we got engaged in September, [we didn't know] what the coming year would look like," she says. "Although there was a ton of family and friends that we would've loved to include, we decided to scale back to include immediate family and mostly local friends/colleagues to minimize travel and allow for the safest environment possible."
"We've been dating for the better part of 10 years and have our sights set on starting a family, so having a long engagement and pushing the wedding back to the fall or next year didn't appeal to us," she continues. "One of the toughest parts of this decision is that some of our closest family members were the furthest away. Adam's mom, Marsha, lives in Scotland so we had to make sure she could safely make the journey."
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
In order to keep everyone safe, Leigh says that they asked all guests to get COVID tested twice: once before traveling and again before entering the wedding.
"We purchased rapid tests and had three different testing sites/time slots available for guests in Nashville to test at before allowing admittance to the venue," she says. "We also collected copies of vaccination cards to ensure a safe environment for all guests. All vendors were masked for the duration of the event as well."
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Ahead of the wedding, Leigh admits she was "totally intimidated by the task of dress shopping and considered buying a white sundress and calling it a day." That all changed though when her sister connected her with the "amazing" Posh Bridal in their hometown of Frederick, Maryland.
"The owner, Brandy Tan, presented me with the most amazing collection of dresses I'd ever seen, and I ended up with two gorgeous gowns from designer Martina Liana," she says. "We went with a formal mermaid gown with a long train for the ceremony and a playful (comfortable!) gown for the reception paired with my favorite white snake skin cowgirl boots, of course."
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
Leigh accessorized in par with the "something old, something new, something borrow, something blue" tradition. For her "something old," she wore her heirloom engagement ring, which she brought to local Nashville jewelry shop Consider the Wldflwrs for customizations and to create a matching wedding band.
For her "something new," Leigh wore a necklace Wakefield's mom custom-designed for her in Scotland. The gold back necklace was made by Shetland-based designer Karlin Anderson to go with the open-back design of both of her dresses.
"I absolutely loved the outcome!" Leigh says. "Karlin is naming the necklace after me and adding it to her line of jewelry, which is such an honor."
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
For her "something borrowed," Leigh wore her mom's gold diamond bracelet, and her "something blue" was her garter.
As for the groom, his suit was customized by western wear designer Ashlyn Evans, who also recently designed a banner for Wakefield with the name of his band, Texas Hill, to adorn his organ with for performances.
"We sent her pictures of a floral embroidered jacket that Jimi Hendrix wore in the '60s as inspiration, and she created a scaled back version with a matching hat band for him to wear on his Stetson," Leigh says.
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield
Keeping his musicianship in mind, Wakefield's wedding band was finished in brushed gold to "withstand wear and tear that will inevitably be caused by keyboard playing," Leigh says.
During the ceremony, Leigh says there were plenty of memorable — and hilarious — moments.
"It was windy on the hill, so both of us were holding on to Adam's piece of paper with his vows for dear life so that it didn't blow away," Leigh says. "We also had to warn our officiant of several 'boobie traps' that were surrounding the arch to keep it in place so that he didn't trip. Adam and I built the arch out of willow branches, and my dad stepped in to secure it with pipe clamps and fishing wire. The florals were heavy so it took a group effort to make sure it stayed in place!"
"I also was wearing my engagement ring on my left hand so I had to make a quick switch before we did the wedding ring exchange," she adds.
Jessi Vaughn Photography Casey James, Jenny Leigh, Adam Wakefield and Craig Wayne Boyd of Texas Hill
For their big day, Leigh says it was very important to her and Wakefield that they "support local business" in order to bring their "garden theme" to life.
"All vendors were local to Nashville (florals, rentals, lighting, catering, coordinator, even down to local beer) or my hometown (dresses and photographer) or were friends/colleagues (entertainment and video)," she says. "We had dried flower confetti made by TN Cut Flower Co. for guests to throw during the recessional. I am a passionate gardener, so florals were of utmost importance!"
"Alina with Petals & Fields designed the most amazing installations and turned an already beautiful landscape into a dream setting for our celebration," she continues. "Our sweetheart table was so lush and gorgeous with florals that I took them home and have them hanging in bunches in my greenhouse to dry and preserve."
Ahead of the reception, Wakefield and Leigh welcomed their guests with a champagne toast in front of the property. There, they were able to thank their parents for their generosity in making their wedding weekend a dream come true.
During the intimate dinner — which featured a three-course meal with ravioli, strawberry fields salad and filet and scallops with risotto and asparagus prepared by their neighbor and longtime local caterer, Johnny Haffner — they "were touched by a number of impromptu speeches from close friends and family," says Leigh.
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
After coffee and cake, the wedding band — comprised of Blake Shelton's fiddle player Jenee Fleenor (whom Wakefield met on The Voice), the Statler Brothers' Jimmy Fortune and multi-instrumentalist and singer Mike Rogers — kicked off Wakefield and Leigh's first dance as a married couple to Fortune's original song "My Only Love."
"The high notes and the harmonies brought the house down," Leigh says. "We were jumping and screaming during half of our dance because we were so moved by their collective talent."
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
Wakefield also surprised Leigh with a performance of a song he wrote for her titled, "You Hold Sway Over Me," during which he sang, "When the trees can turn their backs on spring / And the whippoorwills have no more songs to sing / The spell you cast will brake and I'll awake from this dream / 'Til the day, you hold sway, over me."
"I came up with the idea from a Bonnie Raitt song I was listening to, actually," Wakefield explains of the song. "I misheard a lyric (how I get my best ideas) and thought it would make a nice song to write for Jenny for our wedding. I think she liked it."
Leigh corrects, "I loved it. It was beautiful and heartfelt."
Jessi Vaughn Photography Adam Wakefield and Jenny Leigh
With the wedding now behind them, Wakefield and Leigh are looking forward to the day they can safely embark on their honeymoon.
"We had loose plans to travel to the Caribbean," Leigh says. "Adam's mom Marsha surprised us with flexible flight tickets to St. Lucia while staying with us before the wedding. In lieu of gifts, we started a honeymoon fund so now we will start the planning process and hope to travel shortly!"
