Three words that describe my fiance and I (and consequently our wedding) are sentimental, out-of-the-ordinary and thrifty. After some initial wedding planning, we were becoming increasingly stressed out over all the details and ways that a wedding can so quickly become about everything other than the marriage. So we decided to focus on what mattered most (cut the guest list from 400 to 175) and get married in just 6 short weeks!

Not only did we plan an entire wedding, but turned my parents fully functional dairy farm into a wedding venue. We had to move over 5,000 hay bales, deep clean a barn that had never been cleaned and make several structural improvements for safety reasons. My husbands father is a carpenter and built the stairs to connect the two floors. Our small town (population 213) came together in true fashion- from helping clean, letting me cut all the flowers you see in the reception space from their lawns, climb atop five tiers of scaffolding to hang lights and helping decorate the days before the wedding. In fact, almost all of the food (cocktail hour, reception and dessert) were made by friends (and it was some of the most unique and delicious food I had ever seen at a wedding).

We are also incredibly thrifty. Tanner (my husband) brewed and bottled his own beer and made personal labels. Each beer title was chosen from meaningful parts of our story (the story behind each one was explained on the back of our menu that sat atop each plate). My in-laws distilled the moonshine. We brought kittens upstairs for the kids area (although many people ventured downstairs to see the cows). My center pieces were comprised from previous family weddings. Tables were borrowed from the church and community hall. We served fresh milk from the cows downstairs.

Tanner grew up in the same small town, attended the same K-12 school and have been friends since before we can remember. He even used to come help throw hay in that very hay mow, where he also proposed. (We have pictures to accompany each detail I’ve mentioned.) The wedding was personal from top to bottom. The sentiment of having my wedding in the barn that raised me, left few dry-eyed and most expressed the lasting imprint the evening has made.

Other Personal Touches:
-Speakers were our mentors.
-Unity cross, made from wood on the farm.
-The wait staff were former students and mentees.
-The song that played while I walked down the aisle was the song Tanner listened to the night I led him to Christ.
-THE FOOD (there are so many stories about this).
-Photographer and videographer are close friends of ours.