The couple exchanged vows on the bridge where they got engaged
Credit: Danforth Neal
NEED TO KNOW
- Musicians Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor tied the knot on Aug. 22 in Santa Cruz, Calif.
- The whimsical forest wedding incorporated nature-inspired details, live music, and fresh produce
- The newlyweds plan to continue settling in Nashville with Secor’s children and make more music together
Musicians Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor are married!
The singer-songwriter and guitarist, 33, and the frontman of Old Crow Medicine Show, 48, said “I do” in an “enchanting” wedding described by Secor as “straight out of Alice In Wonderland, encircled by the world’s largest trees, with a clear blue river meandering through, and little bit of mist in the air.” The “whimsical fairytale” nuptials were held at a private park in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 22.
“Northern California is Molly’s home. She grew up in its stunning environment, her voice echoing through redwood forests, strumming her guitar beside steely blue waters,” Secor tells PEOPLE. “I’m a Southerner, and we make our home together down South, but California sure feels like the right place to be the jumping off point for our marriage.”
Credit: Danforth Neal
The couple was joined by 122 guests and married by the groom’s father, Jay. They exchanged poetry and handwritten vows on the same rustic wooden bridge over the San Lorenzo River where they got engaged on Thanksgiving last year after five years of dating.
The forest wedding reflected Tuttle and Secor’s love of nature with earthy colors, wild flowers, and local produce. The invitations also resembled state park postcards. The couple wanted the event to be “natural and elemental,” like the acoustic music they’re both known for.
Credit: Danforth Neal
“[We wanted to] make the whole experience feel like an extension of the beautiful landscape where we are getting married,” Tuttle tells PEOPLE.
The two-time Grammy winner continues, “We were so excited to host both of our families and close friends together for the first time. We wanted the experience to be about them having fun and making beautiful memories together as much as it is about celebrating our love.”
Credit: Danforth Neal
Naturally, music was a major part of the musicians’ celebration. Secor jokes that his wedding must-have was “a fiddle within arm’s reach.” There was a jam session during cocktail hour, with music stations around the redwoods with instruments for people to pick up and play with each other.
Credit: Danforth Neal
Throughout the evening, Tuttle and Secor were serenaded by their loved ones with songs special to them. They shared their first dance to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” sung by AJ Lee, accompanied by Tuttle’s brother and father, and some of Secor’s bandmates. The song was first recorded just a few miles away.
The reception also featured a square dance led by Tuttle’s mother and performances by The Hot Club of San Francisco. The newlyweds even joined the band for a few love songs.
Secor says he sees his love with Tuttle reflected in the incredible music they compose.
Credit: Danforth Neal
“Together, we’re an unstoppable team ready to roll up our sleeves and make a difference in the world,” he shares. “Music is medicine. It’s restorative and healing and the two of us have our work cut out for us in a world as topsy-turvy as this one, by providing the joy and transcendence of music everywhere we go.”
For dinner, guests feasted on a family-style meal centered around fresh Northern California produce, carefully selected by John Silva of Culinary Eye Events. They ate grilled summer veggies, gnocchi, farro salad, California-style tri-tip and chicken fresh off the grill, and more. For dessert, they indulged in blackberry cobbler à la mode and grilled peaches topped with mascarpone.
Credit: Danforth Neal
Family was at the center of the celebration. Secor’s two children from a previous relationship were in the wedding party — his daughter was a bridesmaid while his son was the best man. Tuttle’s father walked her down the aisle to a song he composed himself, played by her brother and Lee. The “Crooked Tree” singer’s niece was the flower girl and an empty seat was saved for her late grandmother, who she believes was “there in spirit.”
Tuttle and Secor first met at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 2019 when Tuttle opened for Secor’s band, Old Crow Medicine Show. They became frequent collaborators, and by the pandemic their friendship turned into something more.
“Molly is so undeniably my person, every bone in my body says so,” Secor shares, adding, “I love Molly for her kind and caring heart, her incredible talents and gifts, her staggering beauty, her easygoing nature, and her devotion to me. I am so incredibly lucky to have found a love like this relatively later in life, and with the wisdom and self-awareness to know just how genuine it is. At night before sleeping I see us together in my mind, traveling the world, sailing seven seas, our lives rich and abundant, our hearts joyful with song.”
Credit: Danforth Neal
Tuttle gushes that Secor is the man she’s always dreamed of.
“For me, marriage means being there for each other through life’s ups and downs. I’ve always dreamed of having a lifelong companion and when I met Ketch I knew he was my person. We’re already committed to each other in our hearts but getting married makes that bond even stronger,” she says. “Ketch makes me feel so loved and cared for. He always puts others before himself and is the most generous and kind person I know. I love all of the adventures we have and all of our shared hopes and dreams for the future. We’re best friends and I cherish every day we spend together.”
Credit: Danforth Neal
Tuttle and Secor began planning their wedding in February with the help of their wedding planners and event designers, Lally Events‘ Lally Clark and Peyton House. Despite planning much of their wedding physically apart, the couple says the experience brought them closer emotionally.
“A lot of our wedding planning experience has been done from a tour bus racing down the highway in some far-flung locale. We’ve had wedding planning calls in dressing rooms coast to coast, sometimes with Molly and I together but often with us separated by many miles, or even oceans apart,” Secor says. “Yet still our wedding planning has drawn us closer and closer together as a couple as we’ve sought opportunities to learn, listen, compromise, and be more and more receptive to each other’s hopes and dreams.”
Credit: Danforth Neal
The night before the wedding, Secor’s parents hosted a welcome dinner at The View Restaurant & Bar at Chaminade Resort & Spa in Santa Cruz. Guests enjoyed a meal of pasta, wine and spritzes, and Italian folk music performed by local musicians Paul Rangell and Emily Abbink.
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For now, the honeymoon is on hold, but the newlyweds will take a three-day “mini-moon” to Carmel-by-the-Sea and Big Sur. They hope to fit more “just us time” into their busy schedules soon, and are currently focused on settling in their home in Nashville with Secor’s two children.
Credit: Danforth Neal
“The four of us have so much fun when we’re all together, and I think married life is going to be a wonderful new chapter that brings us even closer as a blended family,” Tuttle tells PEOPLE. “I’m excited to make more music with Ketch in the years to come and weave our lives together more and more.”
She adds, “We both love Nashville but also hope to eventually spend more time on the West Coast.”
Additional Credits:
Videography: Wedlock Films
Floral Designer: Jacqueline Ching
Florals and Decor: Wildcraft Floral
Rentals: Found Rental Co., Theoni Collective, Chic Event Rentals, Flowers by Edgar
Stationery and Paper Goods: Render Creative Studio
Bride’s Rehearsal Dinner Dress: HER.I
Bride’s Ceremony Dress: Maggie Sottero
Bride’s Dinner Dress: Tess Mann Atelier
Bride’s After-Party Attire: Dame & Maiden, Fraulein Boot Company
Bridal Boutique: Brides by Glitz Nashville
Ring: Vintage
Jewelry: David Yurman
Hair and Makeup: Ariane Victoria, AV Beauty Bar & Bridal Beauty
Wine: Reeve Wines
Transportation: Corinthian Transportation
Groom’s Welcome Dinner Suit: Todd Snyder
Groom’s Wedding Ceremony Suit: Billy Reid
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