Gatlinburg Weddings, Simple, Romantic, Inexpensive.

What is it about the mountains that are so romantic? Is it the hills rolling away from you making you feel so close to heaven? Maybe it’s the idea of a cozy log cabin tucked into the woods with a fire crackling merrily in the grate? Whatever it is, the Smoky Mountains in general (and Gatlinburg, Tennessee in particular) have become the “wedding capitol of the south.”

Every year about 20,000 couples venture to the Gatlinburg area to exchange their vows. Because of this healthy number quite a brisk wedding business has bloomed over the last ten years. Starting with chapels, then outdoor weddings, and finally in-cabin weddings, visitors now have a variety of wedding services to choose from.

The chapels in the Gatlinburg area range from very formal Victorian-style to rustic log cabins. Visitors can spend anywhere from around two hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the number of guests and the services contracted. There are several websites, such as “Rod’s Guide to the Smokies” and “Smokies Guide” that can help the newly engaged sort through the many choices.

A growing trend in the Smokies is the “in-cabin” wedding. With the large number of rental companies offering a variety of cabins from very simple to very elaborate, sleeping from two people to 50, the in-cabin wedding affords the visitors the widest variety of settings for their wedding. If you want a streamside wedding, search out a streamside cabin. Want a killer mountain view as your backdrop? Well, that’s simple just make sure you have enough deck space to accommodate your wedding and guests (oh, and a killer view). The other advantage is that you save a lot of money. A simple in-cabin service can run as little as one hundred dollars, and usually not much more than five or six hundred dollars.

Jodie was ordained in 1994 and started her wedding ministry soon after, going from cabin to cabin to marry couples. Her favorite part of her job is interacing with the many brides and keeping them on an "even keel" and calm. When you call Smoky Mountain Cabin Weddings it will often be Jodie that you talk to, so feel free to avail yourself of her years of experience with thousands of couples.