Our Really Neat and Very Fun Wedding

This wedding was the biggest passion project I’ve ever worked on. I dedicated about a year of my life to getting every detail right and perfect, trying to design smart but also thoughtfully. I wanted our wedding to be the most us thing that our guests would experience, and that no other wedding could really match up to. Being my own client was exhilarating and exhausting, and I wouldn’t trade our wedding day for the world. The best part about this project was how I surprised myself with not only designing the website, but coding it; for this project I went above and beyond my own expectations and created something I will forever be proud of. 

Designing this wedding was more than just making pretty invites, witty signs, and legible name plates; it was designing an experience. How it would be perceived and enjoyed not just by Jake and I, but by our guests and the venders we had help from. We wanted to get married outside, but it also had to accessible for a wheelchair; we wanted pizza, but had to be mindful of our friends with food allergies; we wanted to be in Door County, but we needed to provide a place to stay for our family and friends coming from distances as far as Hawaii. The wedding was more than just a celebration of Jake and I; it was the most ultimate gathering. 

The ceremony was held at Whitefish Dunes State Park, with a reception following at Sawyer Farms Door County. Getting ready happened at Camp David, in the same barn I lived in for three summer seasons while working at various restaurants and hotels. I wanted to honor the women in my family and our strong sense of craft in textiles, so my dress was sewn by my maternal grandmother who had also sewn my mother’s wedding dress (the dangling beads are actually up-cycled from her dress), and my shrug was knitted and crocheted by my aunt. Drinks were slung by bartending friends, and wood-fired pizza was served as our dinner from a food truck with cheese curds as our main appetizer. I wore Birkenstocks and gifted pairs to all my bridesmaids, being they’re my favorite shoes and I wanted everyone to be free from the horror of heels. We danced, we laughed, we cried. I loved it.

Dress by Evelyn Hackl

Shrug by Roxane Abel

Shoes by Birkenstock

Wedding photography by Kaley Rae Photography

Flowers by Radiant Floral Arrangements

Getting ready location is Camp David

Reception Venue is Sawyer Farms 

Ceremony venue is the shelter at Whitefish Dunes State Park

Art Director, Designer, Illustrator, Copywriter, Creative Director, Web Developer, and Bride is Claire (Bauer) Meulemans