wedding images credit: Taylor Lang
Following the release of her new single “Aspen”, Southern Bride caught up with country music artist Katelyn Clampett to discuss all things wedding, fashion, and her music journey!
SB: Katelyn, congratulations on your recent nuptials! Tell us about your proposal, wedding planning and of course the honeymoon!
KC: Thank you, and thanks for having me! My husband Jon and I have been together for three years. We got engaged in February and had our planned elopement in Hawaii in October. For anyone who wants a no-fuss wedding, I highly recommend a planned elopement. While there was still quite a bit of planning involved, we were able to do it ourselves in an efficient, intimate and relatively stress-free way while maintaining our other work responsibilities. Eloping is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it really worked for us. Thankfully we had family that respected that.
Our first stop was flying from Nashville to California. We visited Sonoma Valley, biked around, did some wine tastings, enjoyed the atmosphere there and had one of the best meals of our lives at the Glen Ellen Star. We really enjoyed starting in Sonoma Valley, because it helped break up the flights nicely, so we didn’t have too long of a travel day going all the way out to Hawaii. After a little time in Sonoma, we flew out from California to The Big Island. It was 4.5 hours of being over the ocean the entire time, which normally would freak me out a little bit. But I just shut the blinds and it was a smooth Southwest ride!
PS wedding hack: get a great garment bag. I was nervous about getting my wedding dress all the way out to Hawaii. I did some internet sleuthing and found this incredible garment bag. I was literally carrying this thing across the country, on every flight like it was nothing, and I was able to fit a whopping 5 dresses (including my wedding dress), my shoes, jewelry and veil ALL in it. It zipped up on the sides, was compact, pretty light but protective and fit right in the overhead compartments on the flight. I told Jon that he had some competition, because I wanted to marry that garment bag. It was a game-changer.
We stayed at the beautiful Kona Village Resort on The Big Island of Hawaii. The service was truly incredible there and made us feel so taken care of, helping manage the details of our ceremony every step of the way. We also really loved that we got our own “hale,” which is basically our own hut-like cabin. Us two introverts loved having our own space versus just staying in a hotel that was connected to a lot of other rooms. The day of the ceremony, we got married there on the “black sand beach,” by the water and under a full moon at sunset (which felt pretty darn magical). The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, as October is when Hawaii starts transitioning from the intensity of summer heat, and you kind of catch the ideal “in-between” temperature. It wasn’t too hot, and wasn’t quite “cool” yet. There was a small crew with us, including a photographer, videographer, makeup/hair stylist, our officiant and a member of the resort management staff. Even with a small crew, it felt like we had the ocean to ourselves. It was intimate, beautiful and really special!
SB: Seems that a music career was predestined for you. Tell us about your earliest memories of singing and the attention it garnered.
KC: I think my parents started noticing my love for singing early-on. Actually, my dad was in the grocery store with me when I was 3, and he ran into a friend of his, Larry Gatlin from The Gatlin Brothers. There was a song on the radio, and I was allegedly singing along in perfect harmony to it. Larry told my dad that that wasn’t normal, and my dad took note. My parents started to encourage me to sing at church, dinner parties, etc. My mom actually sang opera when I was growing up, but her vocal coach told her that I was too young to take lessons. I didn’t really take lessons until I decided I wanted to audition for Berklee. But the part I loved most about music was writing songs, and I really started to get into that in middle school. I was always the girl that would write songs with study material, so I could remember the answer in my tests and exams. Other students started to catch on and I ended up teaching my classmates some songs to help them remember too. I vaguely remember some songs being about the different types of clouds, tectonic plates, and the periodic table, haha. But writing songs just happened naturally, as a way for me to process both information and my feelings in grade school.
SB: What was your experience on American Idol like? Do you think it provided a stepping stone into the music industry?
KC: When I went on American Idol, I was young, a bit sheltered and didn’t fully know who I was yet, naturally. During Hollywood Week, I had actually prepared 2 songs. One was the song that I really wanted to do, which felt true to me (I had actually changed the lyrics to a popular song to make it a clever ode to one of the judges). The other was a song that a family member wanted me to do. The people-pleaser in me chose the song that my family member wanted me to do, and I didn’t go through to the next round. It was an unfortunate but important lesson early-on in my career in always trusting my instincts and doing what feels right for me, no matter who that may disappoint. It’s definitely helped shape the level of trust in myself and authenticity that I try to carry with me in whatever I do artistically. Even though I was just bébé Katelyn back then, I still have some close friends that I met on that season of American Idol. It’s a massive show, so just being associated with the name alone helped me a bit when I moved to Los Angeles afterwards.
SB: After years of singing pop vocals as a background singer, how did you settle on country music? What appeals to you about country music?
KC: I think it was the songwriter in me that was always drawn to country music. I was raised in North Carolina, in a very traditionally-Southern culture, so it felt very close to home. Living in LA, pop production really interested me and helped me in that regard, but my heart had a very strong pull to country music and Nashville as a songwriter. Nashville is a songwriter’s town and the caliber of song here is so high, so it’s always felt like home to me as a songwriter.
SB: What are your music plans for 2025?
KC: Writing songs, producing songs, releasing more songs, and playing them live for anyone who will listen (or anyone who won’t haha). I love connecting with people through laughter, song and stories. So if you’d like to connect, feel free to find me on social media!
