An Elegant Tropical Wedding in the Bahamas

Kelsey and Casey

After shopping countless trunk shows and bridal salons, Kelsey Adams was frustrated: She had spotted the gown she wanted online but couldn't find it anywhere. A marketing analyst for a department store, she was about to order a "good enough" choice when divine (fashion) intervention struck. "The dress I'd been obsessed with was just hanging behind a counter at the store," she says. After a try-on, tears (from the sales associate), and FaceTime with Mom, she became its proud owner.

The gown wasn't the first time fate had Kelsey circling back to a first love. She met Casey Flanagan, a financial research analyst, when they were freshmen at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2008, and they dated for almost three years before breaking up when each went on a semester abroad. The separation lasted 18 months, but by 2013, the Dallas duo were an item again. In 2014, during a trip to Napa, California, for a wedding, Casey proposed on a beach outside San Francisco. "I was shocked!" recalls Kelsey.

As with the gown and the groom, there was really only one choice for the venue: the Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas. Casey's parents own a residence there—and even lived in the Bahamas when he was a baby—and he and Kelsey had visited often. On Labor Day weekend of 2015, the pair hosted a rehearsal dinner for family and attendants at the resort's yacht club, before leading a "Junkanoo" processional to a beach shack where other guests awaited them. After the Christian ceremony the next day (at which her childhood friends recited a psalm they had all memorized in school), she and Casey wanted to treat their 215 guests to a true Bahamian experience. The reception was full of island touches, from the hors d'oeuvres—including conch fritters with guava sauce served on the terrace during cocktail hour—to the six-tier coconut cake soaked in local coconut rum. "It was amazing to be surrounded by all our friends and family on an island that was already so special to us," says Casey. Some might even say that, like the dress, it was meant to be.

Watch Kelsey and Casey's Wedding Video