Katie Day wanted to impress “charming and handsome” former Tampa Bay Rays baseball pitcher and sports enthusiast Hunter Hill, whom she’d met at dinner with friends. So, she talked up her golf skills. Three dates later, “it was instant regret,” she says. Not only was Hunter an excellent golfer, “I was terrible,” Katie says. She even managed to chuck a ball into a house alongside the green. “It hit the front door and it made a huge ‘whomp’ noise, and the man came out and asked who had hit the ball,” Katie says. “I said it was Hunter, that he was a beginner.”

Hunter was amused—and smitten. “I knew there was something different about her,” says the Dallas native. “After we spent time together, I fell in love and knew my new priority was to make her as happy as I could. I had never felt that selflessness before.”

It was only fitting that when they wed four years later, they aimed for golf to play into their nuptials. Katie, a Texarkana native and graduate of Southern Methodist University, knew just the place: the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas. “We had built a life in Dallas, so I wanted it to be here and have a true wedding weekend where everyone got to know each other,” she says.

She also had long wanted emerald hues in her wedding and knew they would pair well with the vibrant colors of the course while setting the foundation for a classic Southern celebration. “We wanted it to be nice and beautiful, but just like us—fun and laid-back with a lot of character,” she says. She trusted Emily Clarke of Emily Clarke Events to dictate every detail.

Clarke incorporated muted oranges, corals, and pinks; crafted a clever “Oh Happy Day” seating card station; draped tables in emerald and blush-pink linens; wallpapered the band backdrop and cocktail bar front in a pretty tangerine motif; and commissioned the buttercream-iced strawberry cake. “I had no idea what the cake would look like or taste like—I was surprisingly a really laid-back bride,” Katie says.

The only request from Hunter was, naturally, the pre-ceremony golf tournament, which he dubbed the “Day Hill Invitational,” a play off the Arnold Palmer Invitational held at Bay Hill in Orlando. “I wanted everyone to be able to come out and relax and have fun,” Hunter says. He even had hats made (and won the tournament).

Clubs were stashed in just enough time for Hunter to spend an intimate, pre-ceremony moment with Katie, who was striking in a minimalistic mermaid Carolina Herrera gown, before she joined her father at the aisle. “When we walked out to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ played on the piano, the sun was setting and the wind caught my veil, and I remember thinking, ‘This is what it’s about,’” Katie says. “It was spiritual and sweet, and it was a reminder that it wasn’t just a party.” Seeing Katie at the foot of the aisle was Hunter’s most poignant moment, too. “She truly is an amazing partner in life,” he says. Or, should we say, lifelong caddie.  

“She truly is an amazing partner in life,” Hunter says.