Wedding Advice From Laura // Lacrosse, WI Tent Wedding

I'm SO excited about this post. Laura and Travis are on of my favorite couples and it was definitely one of my favorite weddings, one I will always remember with a big smile on my face. Laura really thought about things like lighting! throughout the day ( a photographers dream client) and they both just let go and embraced the day with open hearts and free of any expectations. For lack of better words I like to think Laura wore her heart on her sleeve that day.  I mean that as a huge compliment, I believe Laura expressed her emotions freely and openly for all to see, capturing these moments made my heart burst inside, I actually felt her joy.  It was written all over her beautiful face.  That is the reason this is one of my all time favorite weddings.  I could go on and on but since this post is about wedding planning I will attempt to stick to that.  Laura is sharing some pivotal advice for planning brides including timeline, vendors (local vendors! YAY) and guest experience.  I can say, as a guest, having the local food and beer vendors made a big impact on the day!  Scroll ALL the way down for the full blog preview of this memorable wedding.  

1.  What was your favorite memory from the wedding?

I have so many favorite “little moments” from our wedding weekend but if I had to pick one favorite, I would say it was during the ceremony when Travis and I were finally seated together in church and I looked out to see the church filled with our family and friends.  All I could think was “when are we ever going to have all of our favorite people in the world all in one place TOGETHER?" I’ve never felt surrounded by so much love and and support in all my life.

2. What could you have done without?

I really enjoyed planning the small details and tried to strike a balance between having a wedding with a cohesive style while not letting all of the little details consume me. A detail I could have done without was the flowers/greenery on the dinner menus.  I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be the perfect addition to the place settings. It ended up being more of a hassle because half of the greenery wilted and half was misplaced; something that would never happen in Pinterest land! Our awesome catering staff improvised with some left over flowers/greenery from the centerpieces and it turned out beautifully, but I’m certain the menus would have been just as pretty without this unnecessary detail. Lesson learned- cut some of the smaller details and spend your time/energy on details that will have more of an impact. 

3. What is your best advice for planning brides? 
Before selecting a venue or hiring vendors, have a discussion your fiancé about top priorities for your wedding.  You will have to make some difficult decisions, but if you have identified your shared priorities, these decisions will be easier to make.  It will also help guide discussions with family and friends who offer their suggestions and advice for your wedding. 

Travis and I wanted to create a day that reflected us as a couple and gave our guests a glimpse of what our life is like in La Crosse. We identified priorities including serving guests a delicious dinner featuring locally grown food, top notch beer from our favorite local brewery, decadent desserts from my sister’s gluten free bakery and finding a venue that allowed guests to have a relaxing evening while enjoying the beauty of La Crosse. People are still talking about the food, dessert and venue at our wedding.

In addition to identifying priorities, try not to get overwhelmed with what you “should" and “shouldn’t do.”  We spent time thinking about many of the wedding traditions such as the grand march, wedding favors, a bouquet toss, etc. and decided only to incorporate the traditions that we found meaningful. No one missed any of those things! 

4. Looking back, what was the MOST important?

Travis and I wanted our day to be scheduled in a way that allowed us to spend time with our wedding party, our immediate family, our guests and most importantly, each other. I consulted with a few different people (including Dani) who helped me plan our “day of” timeline that allowed us to really have time with these people to celebrate. I had a relaxing morning getting ready with the bridesmaids and my mom at a local bed and breakfast, while Travis was able to spend time with the groomsmen.  A very special moment was the first look with my dad; it was incredibly special to have time with him. The wedding party and close friends went to our favorite brewery and enjoyed a beer after the ceremony.  As quickly as the day went, I am so glad we planned our day this way. 

5.  What did you plan/Book first? Dress, venue, Photographer ?

Photographer, venue, dress.  We like to do things out of order! I had been following Dani’s blog for some time and knew that finding the right photographer (Dani!) was a priority. Travis contacted Dani to inquire about her availability, etc. before he even proposed. 

After we got engaged, we booked a venue that didn’t end up being large enough. Although this was a very stressful discovery, it turned out to be a major blessing.  Once we decided on our new venue, then I started shopping for my dress. 

Travis and Laura's wedding preview can be found here: WEDDING

Wedding Advice from Amanda // The Waters, Oshkosh WI

Amanda and Jordan's wedding at The Waters in Oshkosh was perfect! The weather was amazing and the setting was brilliant. (Hint: Brides- if your setting is amazing, you will not need much for décor and could be a money saver in the long run!)  I loved what Amanda talks about here in her advice for wedding planning. I think there are two solid points  here you should remember #1- keep it simple and #2 choose what's important to you as a couple, you will not make everyone happy. Thanks so much to Amanda for sharing! 

1. What was your favorite memory from the wedding? 
It is really hard to choose just one favorite moment, because there were so many. I think that overall, seeing our family and friends there to support us in our marriage was awesome and the best feeling. When our officiant had us turn around and look at everyone that was there for us...it was just really special. 

2. What could you have done without? 
There wasn't really anything we could have done without...at least not something that comes to mind. 

3. What is your best advice for planning brides?
I think my best advice would be to not worry about the small things or the little things you cannot control. What I mean by this is that too many brides worry more about the superficial details that no one cares about. I definitely kept things simple and did not waste a ton of money on things that were not THAT important in my opinion. Also, I think to just not worry about what you cannot control-like the weather for example. It is hard not to think about, but it is also out of your control-so just go with whatever is handed to you that day. 

4. Looking back, what was the MOST important? 
To us, the most important thing was to have pictures done early, so we could mingle and converse with our guests. Pictures were very important to us, but the people and the memories we made together from that day were more important. I have been in weddings in which pictures consumed over 80% of the day and to me, that is just overkill. Also, it was important that we just had fun and enjoyed the day, which we definitely did :) Best day ever!

5.  What did you plan/Book first? Dress, venue, Photographer ? 
We booked our venue first, then photographer, We only had a 7 month engagement, so it was important to make sure we were able to get both the venue and photographer we wanted. It helped our wedding was on a Friday evening too! But, my advice would be venue and photographer as the two most important and first things to book. 

Wedding Inspiration from Ashton

My girl Ashton planned a sweet soiree in only 6 months! She is uber resourceful and had amazing details at her wedding at The Lageret.  I'm super happy to share her wedding inspiration with planning brides, she has a lot of really great points here especially how she felt about her ceremony, Pinterest, making it about you and not others and hiring a wedding coordinator like the sweet girls at Elevate Events! 

1. What was your favorite memory from the wedding? 
I think my favorite part of the day was our ceremony, which actually surprised me a lot. During all of our planning I wasn't very focused on the ceremony because I kind of figured it was just something we had to do to get to the party :) I also wasn't sure I was going to be comfortable being emotional in front of a big group of people, and I knew I was going to cry because I always cry. But I was really surprised how much the entire ceremony meant to me. From my dad walking me down the aisle to Josh's vows, there was so much emotion throughout the ceremony, it was far more special than I could have imagined. It made us realize how lucky we are not only to have each other, but to have the love and support from our family and friends. We also wrote our own ceremony and my cousin officiated it, so it was very personal to us, and I felt like it really represented us as a couple. I really just loved how relaxed but special it was to us. 
 

2. What could you have done without? 
I can't really think of anything. Throughout the entire wedding planning process we really tried to be thoughtful about our decisions and choose things that were important to us. We tried to make the wedding as personal to us as possible, and chose things to reflect this. I think it also really helped that we were working with a tighter timeline, 6 months, so there really wasn't a lot of time to over plan things. 
 

3. What is your best advice for planning brides? 
Don't let Pinterest get into your head! Don't get me wrong Pinterest is awesome to get inspiration and ideas from, I definitely used it during my planning process, but there is just so much out there. You can always find bigger and better ideas, or one more cute detail to add to your wedding. But I think spending too much time Pinteresting can give unrealistic expectations and make you feel overwhelmed. I think it is an awesome resource to use for inspiration, but knowing when to stop is an important thing. 

I also think it's important to decide first what is important to you and your future husband and then plan your wedding around those things. Your wedding day should really be one of the happiest days of your life, and if you makes decisions and plans based on other peoples interests it's not going to be. Start your wedding planning by identifying what parts of they area the most important to you and start planning from there. 

Last, I would say get a wedding planner, even if it is just for the day of. I initially had not planned on working with a wedding planner, I figured I could manage it all, but our venue required one. We worked with Elevate Events and they were absolutely awesome! I am a huge worrier, and they took all of the stress out of the wedding day. I did not worry about a single thing, and truly enjoyed the entire wedding day because of them. I even had a friend who had recently been married say she wished she would have had a wedding planner because she saw how beautiful and smoothly they made the day run. Definitely worth the investment in my opinion!
 

4. Looking back, what was the MOST important? 
Keeping the day personal to us made it a truly special day. From my dad building our ceremony podium and all of the crates we used for decorations to our favors which were my dad's homemade maple syrup and my mom's jam we really tried to personalize as much as we could. We chose to do a dessert table with treats from our favorite local bakery. We chose my cousin to officiate our ceremony. We even had people take Polaroids with cutouts of our cat for our guest book! In the end the we felt like we had a wedding that was representative of who we are as a couple, and unique and special to use. We felt so much love and support from everyone, it was more than we could have ever asked for!
 

5.  What did you plan/Book first? Dress, venue, Photographer ? 
Our first choice was actually the venue. We had been engaged for about 6 months, but hadn't done any serious wedding planning (when you date for 12 years, there really isn't a big hurry to tie the knot :). I came across a picture of The Lageret on instagram, and fell in love immediately. I felt like it was the prefect mix of relaxed, rustic, and classy. I knew it would be the perfect place for our wedding. After we looked at it we were in love and because it wasn't open yet we were able to choose a date in 2015, which was already booked for every other venue. A close second to choosing the venue was choosing the photographer, and I actually started emailing before we even had a date set. I think I sent Dani an email that just said are you available anytime in September? Because we were one of the first weddings at The Lageret we got to be a little flexible with the date and chose it based on Dani's availability. Quickly after those two things I ordered a dress because 6 months is about as close as you can get and still have a dress arrive in time. 
 

6. Anything you want to add!
Don't be afraid to ask for help! Your wedding vendors are professionals, and have so much experience. Don't be afraid to pick their brain even if it's not their area of expertise! And don't be afraid to delegate, I really felt like I wanted to be in control of every detail, even though my friends and family kept offering their help. The week before the wedding I ended up taking a lot of people up on their offers and my stress levels immediately dropped when I did!