A Lovely Homespun Wedding

It was Christmas morning. Nicole and Mike (and their dog, Scooby) went to Nicole’s parents’ house to open presents. Little did Nicole know that Mike would give her the gift she’d been asking for all year.
“A dog?” Nicole asked, thinking Scooby was gaining a brother for Christmas. “No,” Mike replied as he got down on one knee.
He asked, “Will you marry me?”
A flood of emotions waved over Nicole. She was nervous and honestly shocked. But of course, she said “yes,” but handed Mike the wrong hand!
In October, Mike had bought the ring and kept it hidden in his car. Nicole didn’t find it a miracle, but all of their friends and family knew before Nicole did. Nicole thought it wouldn’t happen until June or July when the couple went on vacation. But that was the beauty of the surprise.
That was the best Christmas surprise she could ever ask for. Although it was a bit unsettling how well everyone kept a secret from Nicole!

Despite our restrictions at a family member’s property, we had a gorgeous wedding. The ceremony took place on the hill overlooking the beautiful pond with a fountain in the background, and the reception was just a short walk to the barn with white twinkle lights. Due to COVID, we added 3 additional tents outside the barn for additional outside seating. Our DJ and Caterer were canceled because of COVID. We had a family friend step in to be our DJ, and our families gave a helping hand in the morning to ensure the food prep and ready to go. My favorite memory is all of my bridesmaids waking up at 5 am the morning of the wedding to make 36 boxes of Kraft Mac n Cheese. It wasn’t the wedding we had planned for, but we made do with what we had to work with at the time. The night went perfectly. The weather was perfect. Our biggest compliment was that it was nice to have a little bit of the ordinary, even for a few hours. 90% of our decorations were homemade, including all of the flowers, signs, centerpieces, and cake toppers, to name a few. A moment we will both cherish is when I surprised the groom during the garter toss by having the best man put a dress on and blindfold the groom, and he took off the garter before knowing it wasn’t my leg he was taking it off of, haha! All in all, it was the perfect day!

I am so glad I went to Bridal and Formal. A 2-hour drive, well worth it. I went to a few other stores before and wasn’t finding anything I liked. I don’t dress up often and wasn’t sure what style of dress I wanted. We pulled a TON of dresses, and I probably tried on 50 total. My favorite memory is when my consultant told me my dress made me have a JLO booty!
My consultant, Maddy, was truly remarkable. She took on the challenge of going in with no idea what I wanted. She was honest when dresses weren’t “me” and narrowed it down to 2 dresses. Once we added my belt.. it was game over. That dress was PERFECT for me in every form of the word.

Wedding Location – Prospect, OH
Photographer – Photos By Dawndee
Bridal Gown – Rebecca Ingram, style Destiny in Ivory
Bridal Belt – Kenneth Winston, style DA43 in Ivory