Northern Minnesota Wedding Details · life's little charms

In sixth grade he asked me to be his girlfriend.

I said “no”. He said, “I’ll wait.”

In ninth grade he kissed me. I said, “I suppose we can date now.”

We went to college in separate states, but stayed together through the distance.

On March 11, 2017, while on spring break, he proposed to me in front of the frozen Minnehaha Falls.

On May 24, 2020, after much waiting and in the midst of a pandemic, we got married on a family farm surrounded my our closest friends and family.

That’s the details of our love story. Here’s the details of our wedding day:

The Venue

We got married at a family farm affectionately called the “deer farm.” This parcel of land hasn’t been farmed for a long time, but rather has been used as home base for years of deer hunting. My family put in countless hours painting buildings, leveling ground, and watering grass. Such property updates, combined with my mom’s decoration and detail expertise, erased all memory of deer carcasses hanging in garages and transformed this chunk of land into a magazine-worthy venue.

We rented the tent, farm tables, and linens. The folding tables and chairs came from our local fire hall. The lights came from Costco and were affectionately hung by a group of tall cousins. We took advantage of the multitude of outbuildings to use as photo spots and backdrops.

The door wall seen above was crafted by my dad for my sister’s grad party last summer. We utilized it here to cover the gaping garage door opening, but it also served as a rustic backdrop for the gift and guest book table.

The Ceremony Site

THE ARCH.

The arch will forever be one of my favorite parts of the entire day. I don’t know how my mom and Cousin Tina did it… but they so perfecting nailed the drapery of the fabric and the garland. It simply couldn’t be any better.

Our ceremony site was simply the tree, all draped up in fabric and garland, hanging over a large area rug, where we stood with our officiant, flanked by our bridal party on the lawn. The chairs were arrange as one group, without an aisle, to avoid the which side do I sit on? confusion. My bridal party and I walked in from the side, crossing in front of the crowd to take our appropriate places at the altar.

The Dinner and the Dishes

When it came to decorating, I had stated that I wanted the floral to be the main focus. The next highlight would be the dishes. I spent a little over a year collecting vintage dishes from thrift shops across Minnesota. Soon my hunt expanded to include bud vases as well. The silverware and linens were rented and the vine-like ribbon came from Amazon.

The head table was a rented farm table laden with special dishes from my grandma’s personal collection and a set of vintage green glasses that I had thrifted long ago.

The menu consisted of chicken and ribs, with macaroni and cheese, beans, coleslaw, Hawaiian buns, and lots of BBQ sauce. The beverage station was stocked with strawberry lemonade, iced tea, and a variety of beers and hard seltzers. Unfortunately, I don’t have a single picture of the food, but believe me, it was beautiful.

The Party

Honestly, I am not a fan of the typical wedding. I don’t like the structure of it, or the forced dancing, or the cheesy traditions of bouquet tosses and dollar dances. And so, I chose to forgo all of those aspects and opted for an ‘open house’ style receptions. People were welcome to eat when they pleased, come and go as they pleased, and hang out where they pleased. Dylan and I had been curating a Spotify playlist for the past three year that served as the soundtrack for the night. People hung out, they visited, they ate, they drank, they sat by the fire, and they just enjoyed themselves. It was a perfect evening enjoying the great Minnesota outdoors (and judging by the number of bug bites, I think the mosquitoes enjoyed it too).

The Dessert

My husband’s one request: cheesecake.

I found a local baker who crafted us the most amazing cheesecakes, which we complemented with a full topping bar. Again, the collection of cake plates was a combination of thrifted finds and family heirlooms. Oddly, we got the most amount of compliments on our paper dessert plates, which I admit were super adorable, but also kinda a weird thing to talk about all night. The freaking adorable wire cake topper came from a UK based Etsy shop, and I’m obsessed with how it pulled the table together.

Sparkler Send off

We ended the evening with a simple sparkler send-off, featuring two minute sparklers that were harder to light than expected. But one they were lit, we had more than enough time to make multiple runs down the aisle. It was an absolute hoot and we got some pretty great shots.

I know every bride says this, but my wedding day was absolute perfection. And frankly, a perfect wedding day is a charm of life every bride should get to experience.