Maggie and Lars went against the grain and spent the morning of their wedding together at their bed and breakfast venue Sunset Cove, enjoying the lakefront views, enjoying pancakes and bacon and sharing letters penned for one another. It helped ease the nerves and kick off the lovely celebration filled with gorgeous bridal florals by Parsonage Events, elegant stationery by Carleigh Courey Design, and a beautiful white tent reception decked out in greenery-covered cafe lights. Jenna Nicole Photo was on hand to capture all the details and we know you’ll be totally inspired by her fine art photographs of Maggie and Lars’ big day.
What made the wedding special and unique?
Part of what made our wedding day special and unique to us was spending the morning of our wedding together. Our wedding was held at a bed and breakfast, and as breakfast is one of our favorite meals to eat together we decided to spend the night there after our rehearsal dinner so we could enjoy that meal together on our wedding day. This made for a super relaxed morning filled with lots of pancakes, coffee, fresh fruit and bacon! We were able to spend those morning hours together sharing letters we wrote for each other, looking out at the lake, and enjoying mugs of coffee out on the porch. It definitely calmed our nerves to be able to spend that morning together and I wouldn’t have done it any other way!
Tell us about the gown and where/how you found it!
I found my gown at Atlas Bridal in Toledo, Ohio. At the time, my mother-in-law was living in Shanghai (China) and it was really important to me to include her in finding my wedding dress. Since I knew we only had one day to really go dress shopping we headed to a bridal shop that was recommended to me by a friend who had recently gotten married. I had my mom, younger sister and mother-in-law with me and we all agreed that this dress looked like the perfect one for an outdoor August wedding.
What were some touches added to make the wedding personal?
We had so many personal touches on our wedding day thanks to our wonderful family members! One unique touch was that Lars wore mismatched cufflinks with his suit – one was my great grandfather’s and the other was his great grandfather’s. It was really special to have both family lines represented. We decided to skip spending money on a DJ and had my brother (a sound engineering student at University of Michigan) run our Spotify playlists for us with the help of a couple of friends when he had to walk down the aisle. My dad choreographed a fun dance for him and I to Bill Wither’s ‘Lovely Day’, and practicing dancing with him in our garage and at the hospital he works in are some of my favorite wedding-prep memories. In addition, both of our moms were total rock stars. My mother-in-law previously worked as a pastry chef downtown Ann Arbor and made all of our wonderful desserts for us. She’s so talented and did an entire dessert table for us (along with homemade marshmallows and graham crackers to have at the bonfire down by the lake!). I was floored with how everything turned out and everyone raved about the cake – seeing the dessert table for the first time when we went to go cut our cake was so special knowing how much time and love she put into it. My mom also put her heart into making our wedding day a dream come true. She is such a great organizer and helped plan our wedding while I spent our engagement year in Nashville for my grad school program. She was so great about emailing vendors and keeping track of all the details – she did such a wonderful job and really made our wedding day turn out perfect.
What was the most memorable part of the day?
The most memorable part of the day was reading our vows to each other. We decided to write our own and I’m so glad that we did. We hadn’t shared them before the ceremony and tears were shed in the ceremony! We also helped write our ceremony and our officiant did a great job of keeping the ceremony focused on the themes that are most meaningful to us and our relationship – having a base of true friendship, growing together, and always putting love and time into the marriage.
Tell us how you met and became engaged.
Lars and I took a trip to Europe together after graduating from undergrad. We were staying in Germany (Lars was born in Germany) and visiting his aunt and cousins. One of the days we decided to take a day trip to Luxembourg. We were walking around the gardens together and when I turned around he was on one knee! We had been dating for 7 years and had talked about marriage, so the proposal wasn’t a total surprise, but I still cried on the spot. One of the best parts was being able to spend those first 6 or so hours engaged as just the two of us, as we were waiting until it was a reasonable time in both the US and China to call each of our families with the news.
Photography: Jenna Nicole Photo // Flowers: Parsonage Events // Stationery: Carleigh Courey Design // Venue: Sunset Cove Bed & Breakfast // Dress: Atlas Bridal // Suit: Suit Supply // Engagement Ring: Brilliant Earth // Wedding Bands: Consider the Wldflwrs // Tent set up/lighting/wooden tables: Parsonage Events // Catering: Katherine’s Catering // Suit: Suit Supply