August 2nd, 2020 / Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
How did your love story begin?: Matty and I met while working together at a Milwaukee church! After working together for nearly two years and becoming great friends, I asked him to be my date to a wedding several times and was turned down repeatedly! Shortly later, I took a new job in Florida and announced I'd be moving across the country in about a month. I guess it was the thought of distance that made him realize he wanted to be together because we started dating just about instantly.
After a month of Milwaukee dates, he drove with me down to Orlando and we dated long distance for 6 months before I decided I missed him and wanted to move back home! Fast forward another few months, and Matty (finally) proposed! We had a relatively short period of dating and being engaged, but I have such a vivid memory of one of our first dates just looking over at him in the car knowing that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with anyone else.
What was your vision for the wedding?: We had started talking and loosely wedding planning before he proposed, but we knew we wanted to do it together. He wanted good food and, as a musician, had a very specific vision for the music including what the ceremony looked like. I wanted ALL the flowers and a photographer that would get every aspect of the day candidly. I wanted it to feel like us and our relationship - not too serious, warm and inviting, and with lots of little memories and mementos. Plenty of inside jokes, polaroid's, and trinkets from our relationship were going to show up throughout the day.
We started seriously planning in February/March of 2020. By the time we were ready to book, COVID had hit. We booked a venue, photographer, and florist pretty early on but as the months past we felt nervous to book anything else. Soon we had a DJ and caterer but started to wrestle with having to cut down our wedding to a mini wedding or post pone until 2021.
Our planning soon just centered around the safest options. Our taco buffet from our favorite restaurant turned into a plated meal from a caterer. A full day of wedding festivities with 80 people became an abbreviated day with only 20 of our nearest and dearest (masked and distanced!). And a big party with a DJ became a single first dance for us performed by two of our closest friends. I'm not sure we would have booked any of these anyways, but we did agree to cut everything we could to limit the number of people and exposures - no hair/make up or salons for the girls, no rented transportation, no extra service/rental staff, etc. Also, cutting back the wedding size saved quite a bit of money, so we did end up hiring a videographer (a good friend of ours!) that there wasn't originally room in the budget for.
Huge shoutout to Maxwell Mansion, Lily Forest Floral, Evan Davies Photography, and Paloma Wilder Jewelry! Maxwell Mansion was not our original venue, we booked them about 2-3 months before the big day since we felt nervous about the protocols our original venue was following with COVID (and it would've been far too big for 20 people!) They worked with our vendors to make sure everything would work seamlessly. Lily Forest Floral was SPECTACULAR. Every phone call meeting with her left me laughing and excited for our day and I trusted her implicitly. The only guidance I gave her was that I wanted local and native flowers that looked like they had just been plucked and loosely put together and she came up with pure magic! Evan was so flexible with our rescheduling and became a good friend of ours! He was laid back, calming, and had such an artistic eye! Paloma custom made both our bands in a two month time. She drew up so many detailed and thoughtful versions of both until we decided. Had I know of her earlier, I probably would have request Matt get my engagement ring designed by her!
Tell us all about your dress!: I actually purchased my wedding dress before he proposed! I called his mom to join my mom and sisters at my bridal appointment at Strike, which is the first place I went. I'm normally pretty laid back and came into my appointment knowing I wanted an open back, modern cuts, lace, and open to a non-traditional dress or color.
The first dresses we pulled were all close but not perfect. I liked some of the lace designs or the colors, or the necklines, but didn't feel it all pull together. Finally I was between two pretty similar dresses and was torn. The dress I liked more, Alena Leena's Serruria, had beautiful lace and the neckline I liked better but had a big slit on one leg that I just wasn't feeling. The other dress had a different colored fabric under the lace that matched my skin tone much more closely which I liked.
At my appointment I asked Emily if I could see what the dress would look like without the slit and once we had it pinned shut, I knew that was the dress for me!! I was ecstatic and giggly and didn't cry like I thought I would! I ended up customizing the first dress to get the that colored fabric from the runner up dress on the final dress as well as closed up the slit. Couldn't be happier with the final result and it fit like a glove when it finally came in!!!
You planned and you planned, but how did the day ACTUALLY go?!: We had gotten engaged about a week before everything had shut down - I had already felt a little robbed of the "normal" engagement celebrations and wedding planning but knew that a mini wedding was the right choice for us, we just didn't want to wait to get married. The hardest part was telling a lot of our guests that we would be moving online, when we made the decision it was early on in the pandemic and we got a lot of flack for our decision. I was worried that would overshadow our day but everything turned out PERFECT.
Matt and I had breakfast with a few of our friends that morning and all packed up our stuff together before splitting up for the day. I got ready together in my soon to be in-laws hotel room with my mom, sisters, officiant/friend, and one other friend. This morning was one of the best surprises - a slow morning with people that I loved dearly. I'm not sure it would've worked out that way had we had the bigger wedding.
We ended up cutting so much of our guest list, we only had our immediate families, 2 grandparents, and 5 friends with their spouses so we elected to not do a wedding party. When everyone arrived and was seated, we immediately started the ceremony with my dad walking me down the aisle - AND I FORGOT MY BOUQUET! The only thing to go wrong ALL DAY was because of me! I realized it when I got to my sister who was supposed to take the flowers from me and I had nothing to had her. The photos of this exact second are super cute because Matt went from crying to laughing. One of our favorite moments of the day!!
Immediately as we walked down the aisle, it started to rain out of nowhere! I'm told every guest picked up their chairs and helped save our flowers but Matt and I had already gone around the corner to sign our marriage certificate. Every moment of the day felt like this, our families and friends taking care of everything we couldn't attend to or taking initiative before it even got to us! We were so so grateful for all of them. It allowed us to actually eat dinner, get a drink, and enjoy celebrating!
What is your best advice for future brides-to-be?: Take it slow, don't over think it, and focus on what is important!
That having a great photographer and videographer is one of my favorite decisions - I look at them both regularly and still cry!!
Our wedding day was the easiest day of the planning process and I think it's because we didn't take it too seriously! A few weeks before the wedding we had a date night where we agreed to not talk wedding planning at all. It was after that night that we really didn't talk wedding planning AT ALL. We had done all the planning we could and we were content with just being engaged and being excited.
Trust the experts and prioritize being with the one you love!
Gown: Custom Serruria from Alena Leena at Strike Bridal Bar
Photographer: Evan Davies Photography
Videography: Teal & Red Videography
Venue: Maxwell Mansion
Suit: Topman
Rings: Natalie Marie Jewelry & Paloma Wilder Jewelry
Floral: Lily Forest Designs
Food: Tall Guy and a Grill Catering
