Wedding Date on Sep 2, 2018

Our relationship is the result of a compatibility algorithm generated by Match.com. We joke they're secretly recording our life to use in their next commercial. Brady messaged first, confidently stating we were "right down the street from each other" which actually meant an hour's drive. After a few messages back and forth, we had our first date at Bergen Bar. It's a little restaurant in middle of nowhere, but the steak melts in your mouth; I had filet mignon, Brady had a hamburger. We spent the rest of the summer falling in love on Fish Lake, deleted our accounts, and never looked back. Since that first summer, our love story has been full of adventures! We are an extremely active couple and spend our free time remodeling our 1960’s fixer upper. Brady was renting the home when we first met, we even had part of our first date in our kitchen! After living there about a year, we decided to purchase the house and turn it into our forever home. Brady is a super handyman and together we have completely gutted the original home and even added a huge addition the summer of our wedding! I’m very proud to say I planned my entire wedding down to the detail. If I was the master planner, Brady was the head architect. It was important our wedding day represented who we are as a couple. We wanted to have a modern, moody and luxurious vibe! Brady custom made my ring box out of steel and walnut with our date lasered in. We used that as inspiration and designed the layout for our Save the Dates, Wedding Invitations, and signage for the entire event. Brady and I also custom designed and built our wedding altar from scratch to match the ceremony space’s light fixture. We wrote our own vows and special letters to read the morning of the wedding. We also put together fun and custom Minnesota themed welcome bags for all our guests since everyone had to travel to our event. Another fun touch was our "Love Story" video that played during dinner at our reception. We did a fun interview session on our deck and used the footage along with home videos to give our guests an in depth look into our relationship. It was silly and romantic, there wasn't a dry eye in the house! We had so much fun spending time planning and doing fun creative projects for our special day, it really made a difference. With our big day in the rear-view mirror, I’m so proud to look back with overflowing feelings of pride, love and happiness. My advice to other brides would be, spend as much time as you need planning. Never feel rushed or silly with the tiny details. I spent countless hours mulling over ribbon widths, flower colors, and other minute details. However, make sure you set a cutoff date when you shift from wedding planning goddess to blushing bride. Your wedding day is so quick and it’s hard to absorb it all. Get your ducks in a row, delegate day of details, and enjoy every single second. Each detail will not go exactly to plan, but your day will be perfectly imperfect. Remember to stop and look around you. Let the overwhelming love and support sink in. If you’re a foodie, eat; a dancer, dance. It’s your day and you only get one! Spend it at your new spouse’s side and maximize your enjoyment, whatever that means to you. I would also recommend finding a rockstar videographer. They’re expensive and a more modern vendor concept. I had to talk my spouse into it over countless foot rubs, but we now agree it is the most important thing we spent money on!