Tam Party of 2

We finally tied the knot! It seems like we were engaged forever & that the planning would never end, but alas, the day has come & gone. Everything went off without a hitch! I'm not sure we could have picked a more remote location; however, looking back on the entire event I don't think we could have done any better. The entire celebration took place way up north outside of Traverse City, Michigan. We ended up changing our reception location at the last minute to the house we had rented for our wedding party, while we held the ceremony deep in the woods on a small private lake called "Lake Five". Due to the rough path neccessary to get these locations we ended up making almost every single thing from scratch... owning an awesome shop full of awesome dealers didn't hurt either when it came time for me to round up large quantities of lace & vintage silver!

If I had to do it all over again there isn't a whole lot that I'd change. Some of the most important things that I would recommend to future couples would be this:

-Make what you can because there's a lot of money to be saved here!
-Don't stress about the food too much. We ended up having a friend cook the meal for our reception & stuck to a serve yourself style. This way people who wanted to mingle with old or new friends didn't feel pressured to sit down or even eat if they weren't in the mood.
-Find an officiate you share a personal connection with! I'm so glad we went with a friend that we both respect, value, & look up to. The words he used were not what one would commonly hear during a ceremony; however, they were personal, honest, & will resonate with Josh & I for years to come.
-Write your own vows! There's just something so special about this part. I've watched our wedding video several times now and I'm amazed at the amount of love I can hear in our voices as we speak to one another. We were apprehensive about this at first, but I'm grateful we did so in retrospect.

While I can say that I'm still insanely happy about the endeavor there are a few things I'd do differently:

-Don't send everything out too early! It's so exciting & you've got all the invitations made, sealed, & ready to go but wait. We had a destination wedding that was tricky to travel to thus we sent ours out just a bit early. Most people waited until about 2 months before to book their travel anyways so that would have been plenty of time. If there's someone you think needs more time feel free to give them a ring a bit earlier. That's what the save the dates are for after all.
-Be understanding. Although you've done your very best to accommodate everyone's schedules just know that some will have prior engagements, other personal things come up, & might just flat out forget. It happens...I'm sure we are all guilty of this at times so don't be too hard on those that do.
-In hindsight, I'd also say over-organization on my part led to a few important items getting overlooked. I'd recommend lists- Make a list of must do's, items important to you both, & one of things that you would like to get but won't be too discouraged if they fall through.

Now, with all of that said I'd like to share with you a few snapshots I have from our special day. We could not have asked for a better photographer, Kara Mercer. She is crazy talented thus super busy. We expect to get our photos back in a couple of months. These are just a few of the ones dear friends & family snapped. (I'm sure the blog with flood with others once we see what the talented lady comes up with!)