Raquel and Joshua’s Wedding Day Pros

PREMIER HEARTLAND WEDDING IDEAS VENDOR:
Floral Shelly Sarver Designs

Photographer Kyndal Elise Photography | Ceremony & Reception Venue Bride's Parents’ backyard | Caterer Bride's mom | Hair & Makeup Myself (salons were still closed) | Wedding Dress Stacy’s Bridal | Menswear Kohl’s | Calligraphy Letters From Quinn (Brooke’s sister, she did the large backdrop with writing) | Bridesmaid Dresses Azazie | Ceremony Music Cousin's son played guitar & Cousin's husband sang | Decor Design, De Graaf Designs (Bride's mother) created the trifold backdrop | Rental Pella Rental | Officiant Bride's Brother-in-Law

See all the vendors we LUST for, that can help you with your big day!

Q: Did you think about canceling your wedding due to the pandemic? 

A: Honestly, yes. I had put so much thought, planning, and time into our original date (April 25th) so the idea of having something so different from my original dream was really hard to accept. I wanted to just go to the courthouse, but (shocker) they were closed too! 

Q: Did you have to make changes to your original plans? If so, what did you do differently? 

A: OH BOY. We moved the wedding back a week to comply with the 10 people or less mandate and weren’t allowed to have a “reception” because the mandate was only lifted for religious ceremonies. Our reverend was unable to make it due to her living in a separate state, so my brother-in-law got ordained a week or so before. We cut all our guests for the private ceremony who weren’t in the wedding or immediate family and notified all our invited guests that we would be having a “public” vow exchange and reception in August. We moved our venues to my parents’ backyard. I did the nails for the bridesmaids and myself, we did our own makeup and hair. My mother (with help from my aunt) cooked our meal. We used live music instead of the DJ we originally had booked. And we moved the ceremony to the morning to help our photographer who also had an evening wedding (bless her!). Overall, nearly every plan we made had to change or be modified. 

Q: Why did you decide not to delay your wedding? 

A: There were many reasons, but mainly (and as silly as it sounds) I just didn’t want to wait to marry my best friend. 

Q: What was the best thing about your intimate wedding? 

A: There were a lot of positive things about our wedding. The biggest one was that everyone who watched us get married had an important role in our lives, whether it was family or best friends. Another amazing one was that since I wasn’t nervous about walking down in front of 200+ people, I was able to enjoy the morning and all the aspects of our day. We were able to relax and joke around. But one of the best parts of all was that after everything was said and done, we got to go home and take a nap! 

Another funny thing about our private wedding was that when Josh and I had begun talking about getting engaged and married early on, I told Josh that my ideal wedding would be small and intimate and would take place in my parents’ backyard. Josh told me that he had always wanted a more traditional, larger wedding. Due to the pandemic, we got the “best” of both worlds!