Our Wedding

On September 17, 2021, almost exactly one year after the date we had originally set for our wedding (2020 brides, you know…) we had the wedding we always dreamed of! We will forever hold on to the feeling we felt of being surrounded by our favorite people and how it felt to finally get married and celebrate after having to postpone our big day due to the state of the world at the time. I am writing this 5 months later, and we still feel as lucky and happy as we did that weekend.

The Engagement

Matt proposed to me on July 27, 2019 in Chicago where we were living at the time. That day I was sent on an emotional rollercoaster of emotions and was given the best surprise of my life. If you’re interested in reading both my side of the story as well as Matt’s, click here for our proposal story. I’m sure everyone says this about their own proposal experience, but trust me, the story is a good one.

This day was, and I truly feel always will be, one of the best days of my life.

The Postponement

As mentioned above, we did end up making the difficult decision to postpone our wedding a year out from our original date. With the… you know what… (am I even allowed to write the word on the internet?! ha!) we felt it was best for us to push back the wedding celebrations so that we could celebrate with all our friends and family while also feeling safe to do so. Both Matt and I always dreamed of having a bigger wedding, so we didn’t want to scale things back. It was worth it for us to wait, and we are so glad we did! Plus, the extra year to plan the wedding was just a little bit helpful!

We considered getting married officially just the two of us or even with our family on the original date, but ultimately we decided to do it all at once and wait. It was the best choice for us!

In terms of the process of postponing the wedding, we were so lucky to have such understanding vendors. All of them were able to switch to our new date and we were (and still are) SO grateful for them, their kindness and their flexibility.

The Planning

If we’re being honest, the wedding planning started before the engagement happened. About two months into our relationship, Matt and I talked about marriage and knew that we wanted to get married to each other one day. It was always an open and honest conversation, so we have always been on the same page with what we wanted our wedding to look like some day.

Because marriage was something we discussed early on, we started looking at venues and researching vendors prior to the engagement to get an idea of prices and availability. We quickly realized that the vendors and venue that we were most interested in were booking quickly, so we ended up booking our venue and our photographer before the proposal. No regrets here, as those were the two of the most important elements to our day!

The Rehearsal

Our rehearsal was the night before our wedding on Thursday, September 16, 2021. Because the rehearsal dinner felt like a kick off to the wedding weekend with just our closest family and friends, we felt it was important to make the night really special. Luckily for us, we were able to have both the rehearsal and the dinner that followed at our wedding venue. The venue had a beautiful space that was designed for cocktail hours and smaller gatherings, so we were able to transform that room into a tuscan style dinning experience for our 50 guests made up of our wedding party and aunts, uncles and grandparents.

We practiced the ceremony with our wedding party, then headed inside for dinner and drinks. My mother in law set the table with dainty plates, gold flatware and white florals in vintage vases. I spent the prior months sourcing vintage glassware for each seat and gave each guest the option to take their unique glass home with them. To really make everyone feel our appreciation for them, both for the part they played in our wedding and in our lives in general, Matt and I had wrote a letter to each person that served as a name card at their seat.

Matt and I kicked off the night with a speech and a champagne tower toast. Then, Matt’s dad said a few touching words before we enjoyed an Italian dinner from Marcella’s (they have great gluten free and vegetarian options!) hosted by Matt’s parents. They even brought cannolis for dessert from a bakery Matt’s mom grew up going to in NE Ohio.

We hired our wedding photographer team to come a day early so that we were able to have photos to remember the night with and we’re so thankful we did. We also had a few disposable cameras floating around that we got some fun photos with as well.

To end the night, we walked around the venue and saw the reception space all set up for the following night. We turned on some music and danced until it was time to clean up and head out for the night.

My bridesmaids and I stayed in a beautiful airbnb downtown (click here for the link!). If you’re staying in the Columbus area for any reason, I highly recommend it! We played music, snacked on frozen pizzas that the girls picked up on the way there, and popped some champagne (but just a little). It was so much fun to spend the night with everyone the night before. It felt like a big sleepover and I loved every bit of it.

The Morning Of

I had given my bridesmaids custom satin pj sets to sleep in and get ready in the morning of the wedding. My mom brought us Bob Evan’s (a Columbus classic, lol) for breakfast and we all got ready slowly. We all opted to do our own hair, myself included, and my cousin came to do my makeup as well as a few others. I wanted everyone to feel beautiful and look like themselves, so it was the perfect set up.

The Details

The Timeline

Incase you’re interested or are planning a wedding yourself, here is our official timeline that we shared with our wedding party and our vendors to keep organized:

The Venue

We had our hearts set on Jorgensen Farms Oak Grove for about a year before even getting engaged. We fell in love with the greenhouse ceremony space, the courtyard lit with hanging lights, the modern cocktail space with gorgeous wooden bar, and the reception room featuring floor to ceiling windows and lights that hung from the ceiling that replicated the night sky. There was plenty of room for guests to gather, but not enough so that guests would be spread out. There was the outdoor element we wanted and enough indoor space to pivot our plans if it were to rain. The staff was great to work with and the venue quickly felt like home to us.

The Photo/Video Team

As soon as I saw Mann and Wife’s photography back before Matt and I were engaged, I knew I wanted them to shoot our wedding day. Kalyn and Adam Mann are a husband and wife team that have such an amazing talent both with a camera as well as making their subjects feel comfortable. They are truly story tellers and working with them was one of the highlights of our wedding planning experience. Kalyn truly understood each and every one of my visions and by the end of the wedding, they felt like our friends. I can not thank them enough for all they did to make our experience so wonderful.

While we had a lot of trouble with our original videography company due to shifts the company made during the state of the world at the time, we ended up being very lucky that Nick Roth of Euphoric Imagery shot our day. He was so comfortable and fun to be around. The footage he gave to us captured our daily perfectly. The footage was edited by our friend McKenna Crosby and we are so grateful we were able to collaborate with her!

The Dress

To be honest, my wedding dress experience was pretty simple. I had been pinning wedding dressing I love on Pinterest for years, so when it was time to actually start thinking about the one I wanted to officially wear, I reviewed the photos I had been saving. While scrolling, I realized there was one that was saved multiple times and it ended up being the one that stood out to me most. I wasn’t sure how it would look on me, but I had to find out. I booked an appointment at Alice in Ivory in Chicago in the fall of 2019 where I was joined by my mom, my sister and my grandma. The space is a dream and the dress selection follows suit. My stylist was so helpful and fun, the kind of person that feels like a friend you’ve known for years. The experience we all had there was the wedding dress experience I dreamed of!

The first dress I tried on was the Avril Gown by Rue De Seine, which was the dress I was pining over for years, without even realizing. When I put it on and showed my family, it felt calm and it felt right. It felt like my decision was made. There were no tears, just comfort and ease. We all knew it was the one!

I continued to try on dresses there, just to make sure, and because hello, I’m only doing this once! When else would I get to try on wedding dresses?! It was fun and the other dresses were gorgeous, but my first dress was the one for me.

During that time was when the custom denim jacket trend at weddings started to kick off, and Rue De Seine had a collection that I was absolutely in love with. My sister ended up buying me my favorite one as a wedding gift, which was SO beyond generous and makes me cherish it even more. I eventually had it embroidered with our original wedding date and mine and Matt’s initials. We obviously changed our wedding date, but I kept the embroidery as a nod to our original date and wore it to a couples shoot Matt and I did on our original wedding date with our wedding photographer as well as on the dance floor during our reception. It’s something that I will keep forever and I have even worn it traveling with Matt.

I had my dress altered at Valentino’s Bridal & Tailoring where the owner did an amazing job. Because of my measurements, my dress fit my hips but was much too big on me everywhere else. She had to cut apart pieces of the dress and put them back together, but you’d never know. I’d highly recommend her if you’re in the Cleveland, Ohio area!

The Suit

Okay, this was a bit stressful. Matt and I had decided that we wanted to go with a neutral suit for him and for the groomsmen. This task slipped away from us and we really cut it close. Matt even ordered a custom suit online that he ended up hating and we sat on our bedroom floor trying to figure out what to do about a month out. Luckily, we went to Indochino the next day where they created a gorgeous suit for Matt that he loved (and was ready in time). VERY thankful that ended up working out the way that it did!

The Decor

We wanted the decor to feel like us and help tell the story of our relationship. One way we did this was by naming each table something that is significant to our relationship, from places we’ve lived and where we went to college.

To keep things practical, because let’s be honest, wedding decor is expensive, we aimed to use pieces that we would actually use as home decor, where possible. A lot of the decor was found by thrifting (which I have grown up loving) and pulled from our home spaces.

Outside of thrifting and gathering pieces from home, I found a lot of great additions to our day on etsy. I worked with a decal shop to create decals that matched our decor that I added to mirrors for signage and decor. I also ordered custom match books, gifts for our parents, and our guest book from etsy, to name a few.

All of the paper materials from the invitations and signage I designed myself to ensure everything matched and again, felt like us. I printed our Save the Dates through CatPrint, ordered the deckled edge paper for our invites through LCI Paper and printed them at home. I did commission a custom sketch of our venue for our “Change the Dates” after postponing the wedding.

As far as florals go, we wanted to keep it classic with lots of greenery, pops of white and varying textures to give an imperfect garden-like feel. We worked with Villager Flowers to make that happen.

The Wedding Party

Our party consisted of 12 groomsmen, 10 bridesmaids, our parents, our grandmas, two ring bearers and a flower girl (which ended up being a flower girl & her dad that carried her down the aisle, which everyone loved!). Our party was big, yes, but we loved every minute of it and have no regrets. Everyone was so respectful, paid attention when needed and made our whole wedding experience SO much fun. We are so lucky to have such amazing family and friends.

Once everyone was ready for the day, they went outside while my mom and my sister, who was my maid of honor, helped me get into my dress. We had the bridesmaids and groomsmen line up, forming a walkway with my dad at the end for a first look. It was a fun way to do a type of first look with everyone, but also give special attention to my dad. It was also really fun for me because I got to see the groomsmen and bridesmaids all together for the first time and see my vision for them come to life!

Bridesmaids

I wanted my bridesmaids to look and feel like themselves, so I let them all pick their own dresses. The only guidance I gave them was I wanted shades of tan, gold, ivory, cream, etc. and didn’t want them to have long sleeves since my dress did. I absolutely loved everyone’s dresses so much and felt that each girl looked beautiful individually and together!

The dresses were from various places including: Free People, BHLDN, Lulus, Baltic Born, VICI Dolls and Zara

Groomsmen

The groomsmen and our dads rented/bought suits from JoS. A. Bank and I felt like the colors looked great with Matt’s suit. The guys seemed to like them as well!

The First Look

When I first explained the concept of a “first look” to Matt, he was hesitant. It was something I always knew I wanted, as I thought it would be so special to share that moment with just him. To have the time together just the two of us to see each other and talk and laugh and prepare for the ceremony. Matt thought it over and agreed it was the right choice for us as a couple.

Being the emotional guy he is, Matt also expressed that he wanted to read our vows privately. We always knew we wanted to write our own to each other, but he wanted to share it with just me. We decided to read them after the first look, just us two, but were sure to have our videographers record it so that our family and friends could hear it later on and so that we could relive the words as often as we like.

The first look is probably the part of our wedding day that I dreamed about most. I couldn’t wait for Matt to turn around and see the dress I picked to marry him in. I couldn’t wait to read him the vows I poured my heart into. I couldn’t wait to hear his. When the moment came, I walked towards Matt with him facing away from me. I could hear that he was already crying, which made me cry too. I wrapped my arms around him in a hug and he turned around. His reaction was better than I spent all that time day dreaming. We cried, we laughed, we read our vows and we walked away calmer and ready for the rest of the day.

It was the most perfect experience that I will remember forever.

The Portraits

After our first look, we look all of our portraits with our wedding party and our family, extended and intermediate. We had a shot list that we shared with our photo team and they wasted no time getting these photos done for us. It was quick, it was fun and it gave us freedom post-ceremony to enjoy the cocktail hour that followed.

The Pre-Ceremony

After the portraits, we went inside to find our wedding party and hide away as guests arrived. I laughed when I found my bridesmaids in the lounge with a bottle of wine that they quickly shared with me. I seriously love them.

The girls headed to the bridal suite and the groomsmen to the grooms suite. The bridal suite was attached to the women’s bathroom, which ended up being hilarious for the guests as they heard us blasting music and laughing while we touched up our hair and makeup. Honestly, that short period of time before the ceremony with my friends was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was unplanned and such a fun moment that we will always remember!

The Ceremony

The ceremony did not go perfectly, but guess what? That’s what makes it memorable and in the moment, I could not have cared even slightly. Matt started off by standing on the wrong side, the ceremony music was supposed to be instrumental but the lyrics version was played, and the flower girl refused to go down the aisle which resulted in her dad carrying her and tossing the petals himself. Honestly, I love that those things happened, especially the flower girl. We didn’t realize how much our guests would love the surprise flower boy appearance!

Everyone walked down the aisle to Invisible String by Taylor Swift. Outside of the lyrics feeling super relatable to our lives and our story, the song came out when we were in the thick of a big life change on top of deciding to postpone our wedding. It was the exact right sound that was romantic while being just upbeat enough. Also, I have always been a huge Taylor Swift fan, even meeting her when I was 19, so it was all around a very meaningful song to walk down the aisle to.

We knew we wanted our ceremony to be a personal and a very “us” experience, so we asked our friend in advance if she would be open to writing our ceremony and one of our best friends to officiate the wedding. They worked together with my sister to craft the most perfect ceremony for us. We did not hear the ceremony until it was being read officially and we soaked in every word. Our friend spoke it so beautifully and it was so special. We laughed and smiled through the whole thing. It was perfect.

Matt and I had both cried enough during our first look and vow readings, so the ceremony felt exciting and fun. We didn’t cry, but we laughed and smiled with teary eyes throughout the whole thing.

The Rings

Matt and I got my engagement ring and both our wedding bands at Sam’s Emporium where his family has been getting their heirloom jewelry pieces for years. My brother in law (on my side of the family) even ended up getting my sister’s engagement ring there, so it’s really become a whole family affair.

Matt took me to look at rings, diamonds and bands back in the winter of 2018. I had always known what I wanted for an engagement ring, and Matt was so sweet to include me in the selection process. We picked out my dream diamond and band, and then I didn’t see it again until 7+ months later.

When it came time to select wedding bands, we both had an idea of what we wanted. I wanted a vintage inspired band that wrapped around my engagement ring and fully expected that I would have to custom make one that I loved. When I explained what I was envisioning, they showed me the perfect band that sparkled with thin baguettes and round brilliant cut diamonds that sat on either side of my oval solitaire engagement ring. Matt knew he wanted a gold band to match mine, but wanted to make it a little unique. He opted for a custom florentine gold band and had our wedding date engraved on the inside. We both love our rings so much and it was so fun to create them together.

The Reception

We had our wedding party introduced as a group to avoid singling anyone out and forcing them to do a silly entrance/skit situation, which they all loved! As they came in as a group the DJ read off their names and it ended up being really fun.

The Speeches

My dad kicked off the reception with the sweetest speech, followed by my sister who has been writing hers since she was 15 (no seriously) that did not disappoint and my brother in law who stitched together a video of family that couldn’t attended that ended with a cameo from Kevin from the Office. Each speech was so meaningful and special to us. I still replay them in my head and am so grateful for the love we felt.

The Food

Our guests sat down to a seasonal cheese board display in place of a traditional centerpiece. Matt and I love cheese boards (I love putting them together and Matt loved eating them, ha!) and it was such a fun way to include them in our wedding day while giving our guests a different surprise to sit down to. My dad is a talented wood worker and custom made all of the cheese boards which made it extra special and I was able to gift some of them to my bridesmaids and close family.

Both the cheeseboards and the dinner was catered by our venue. We had a BBQ buffet which was complete multiple meat options, a variety of sauces, mac and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad and fruit. It was a hit and a fun contrast from the traditional plated meals that just didn’t feel right for me and Matt.

Around 10:00 pm when everyone was on the dance floor, we had french fry boats with ranch dipping sauce passed to the guests. Matt and I LOVE french fries and ranch so it was a must for us. It was such a fun late night bite!

The Drinks

We had an open bar as well as a signature cocktails that we each created for the night. I cannot tell you how many people complimented them! I saw either an espresso martini or an elderflower spritz in just about everyone’s hands. Because they were so delicious, I shared the recipe for them on here so you can enjoy them too! Click here for our signature drinks recipes!

The Desserts

Matt and I both picked our favorite cake flavors to share with the guests. Mine was gluten free chocolate with peanut butter icing and Matt’s was funfetti with an almond buttercream. We got them from Our Cupcakery and absolutely loved them! I’m still thinking about my remaining slice in the freezer that we’re saving for our first anniversary…

Aside from the cake, we had a whole display of various desserts for our guests. There were so many that I honestly don’t even remember them all!

The Dances

First Dance: Die a Happy Man by Thomas Rhett

Father Daughter Dance: For My Daughter by Kane Brown

Mother Son Dance: Home, Home, Home by Phillip Phillips

Before we opened the dance floor, Matt and I stood for a quick surprise speech to honor our parents. We both had such amazing examples of love set for us which impacted our entire lives and our view of love and partnership. Because of them, we saw what it was like to be in a loving, happy and healthy relationship. We then asked them to come to the dance floor to dance to a song we knew each of them loved, Perfect by Ed Sheeran. About half way in, Matt and I joined them on the dance floor, and near the end, everyone was invited to grab someone they love for a dance. From there, the dance floor was open!

The DJ

Loren Miller from Luminary Productions was a hit! He was amazing to work with and was so helpful during the planning process. He made sure that the reception ran smoothly and he was sure that the dance floor was packed at all times.

The After Party

We were lucky that a hotel had recently opened just 6 minutes from the venue. We rented out their meeting room so that guests that weren’t ready to call it a night could gather and keep the party going. Honestly, we were probably a bit too loud because we didn’t expect literally half of the wedding guests to show up, but it was so much fun. We all changed into comfy clothes and cheers’ed a few more times before heading to bed.

My Takeaways

When the night ended and we were cleaning up after the guests had headed to sleep or were waiting for us at the after party, we were beaming. I expected to be sad when it was all over, but we were so happy with how our day panned out that it was almost impossible to be upset. There were plenty of things that went “wrong” but honestly, none of that mattered. I know everyone says that, but truly, all that mattered was that undeniable feeling of pure joy.

Now that it is has been 5 months since the wedding, I wish I could go back and tell myself not to stress. What people will remember is how much they laughed, how much love they felt and how much fun they had. They’ll also probably remember the food too IF it’s good. My take on it all is that if you have the right people in your life, no matter the type of wedding you have, your day will be perfect.