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Aaron + Meg | We have our family photos taken, too!
Did you know that Aaron and I hire professional photographers to take our photos?! It’s true!!!
To kick off 2016, Aaron and I took the boys to Maui! It was our 10th year of being married and time to celebrate! I knew while we were there that I wanted to have our family photos taken. What an experience to remember! Our good friend (and amazing photographer!!) Jen Fox – who used to live in Hawaii and now lives just down the road – suggested we check out Wendy Laurel. I immediately fell in love with the colors, her style and contacted her right away! I knew that my kids were growing up faster than I could imagine, so now was the time! We woke up and I was having an amazing hair day – thank you salty air! At the time – Grant was the ripe old age of six and Declan was a saucy little three year old! Gone were the days of diapers, naps and bottles! These little boys could hang out all day at the beach playing in the sand, boogie boarding, and learning the time honored tradition of learning out to pee in the ocean! Haha!! I am so thankful for these cherished memories of a sweet window of time in our lives. We ordered up quite a few large prints for our house – so I am constantly reminded of our wonderful trip and to celebrate our family! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! I have them plastered all over my house :)
Photos by: Wendy Laurel Thank you, Wendy! You are incredibly talented and we are so thankful for these images!!
This last photo is of our front living room …from my iPhone :) And I’m pretty sure the boys are fighting over how to play the remote controlled crashing car game. But this is our life – and I love it!
A Destination Wedding | Pure Michigan
Emily and Nick executed to perfection!! They got family and friends from all over the country to this one beautiful spot for this fantastic wedding day! And they pulled it off beautifully!! The lake, the mountain, the ski lift wedding aisle and those starry skies… This wedding was pure Michigan!! I asked Nick and Emily to share three things that were important in the planning of a travel wedding. So much great insight! –
1. Make sure you visit the location, if you can, before you book it. (We thought we were going to choose the smaller venue before seeing that beautiful view from the mountain top)
2. Enlist a great support system especially in logistics. Since we decorated our reception hall beyond what the venue provided, we had to ship almost everything (Favors, chargers, welcome bags, candy for the candy bar, napkins, candles, lanterns, fake trees, strands of lights, bathroom kits, signs, knots, …. EVERYTHING). On the receiving end of the countless boxes were Nick’s Parents collecting and storing them, to drive up to Glen Arbor. My parents got to the venue almost a week early to buy food for little goodies, picked up odds and ends that we didn’t even think about (batteries for the flashlights in the goodie bags), talked to the venue, spa, florist and the cake company. Post wedding, we gave away alot of items so we wouldnt have to ship them back. Many went to a local wedding planner just starting up her business. We left for our honeymoon the next morning, so my mom shipped back the things we wanted to our aunt (who lives in Seattle) and took my dress home with her via carry-on and got it cleaned. We literally couldn’t have had the wedding we did without the logistics our mothers carried out.
3. Flying to your wedding with your dress can be stressful. My dress’ bust was stuffed so it wouldnt be crushed. If you’re on a flight without all the seats taken (we had 2 puddle hoppers). The Flight Attendant will let you treat the dress like a person in a seat (that i kicked my groom out of) with it’s seatbelt fastened. On full flights, talk to the gate agent and ask to get on the plane just after first class to hopefully grab coveted closet space and get your carry-on of I-have-to-have-this-for-the-wedding things in a bin. The FAA agents have scanned dresses before. When you walk through the airport with a big white fluffy garment bag (that shall never touch the ground), airport people know it’s a special one time high maintenance deal and try to accommodate you.
Thanks Emily for the great insight and again… Congratulations!!
Wedding Day Team –
Venue – The Homestead Resort
Flowers – Marla Courtney Wood
Cake – Celebration Cakes
Dress – Nordstroms
Caterer – The Homestead Resort
Live Trio – Mike Davis Trio
DJ – 2 Bays DJ’s
Coordination – The Homestead Resort
Hair Style – Spa Amira
Photography – Evantide