Our Wedding Recap

It’s so hard to believe that this beautiful day was one year ago (yesterday). To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to recap our wedding on the blog today.

I get asked a lot if we built the barn for our wedding and then decided to make a business out of it. That’s the story of a lot of family-owned venues, but it wasn’t the case for us. I didn’t know Brice when I first started dreaming about the barn and by the time we started dating and got engaged, we were just months away from opening for business. Brice and I got to be the third couple to get married at Hawks Nest and I was 100% okay with that. It gave us a few good opportunities to figure things out and be able to delegate some responsibilities so we could enjoy the day as a Bride & Groom instead of Venue Owners/Coordinators.

It was SO special to get married at the place I dreamed of for years and my family poured blood, sweat, and tears into. It was years of planning, renovating, dreaming, and banging our heads into the wall. Going into business with family is FUN but it isn’t always that fun! Still, it’s a support system like no other and I’m so thankful to serve our clients with the ones I love most at the place we love most!

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Brice and I got engaged at the farm on July 13, 2019 and immediately started talking about wedding dates. I always knew I’d rather not have a long engagement if I didn’t have to. We debated back and forth on having a fall wedding or waiting until the next spring, and I’m so glad we chose November. We were able to have the big wedding I’d always dreamed of and it was such a blessing we didn’t even know to be thankful for until the pandemic began in March.

I want to be totally honest and say that I didn’t love wedding planning. I definitely love weddings, helping people plan, and ALL the little details. It brings me so much joy to help people do it! We had a short engagement (only four months) and were crazy enough to launch a business smack in the middle of it. Work was busy, Hawks Nest was crazy, and wedding planning didn’t get a lot of my time or attention until after the Wedding Barn was launched. It felt overwhelming and hard. I still look back on it as the best, most dreamy, beautiful, amazing, fun, and special day of my life, so even the tough parts of planning are totally worth it in the end.

I’ve always loved arts & crafts, DIY things, and recreating anything I see on Pinterest so we really didn’t think twice about doing a lot of the things ourselves. I designed all the florals, bouquets, and centerpieces, and designed and custom ordered the coffee sleeves and stickers to put on the ice cream cups. I also did almost all of the hand lettering for signs and my dad built our pizza boards. My parents put together the most dreamy + romantic backdrop with white layered fabric and twinkle lights.

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We also worked with some great wedding vendors that helped make our day amazing. Our photographer, Abbey, did an incredible job capturing our day and making us feel comfortable in front of the camera. And we’re so thankful for Vladimir with First Choice Videography who made a wedding video that makes me want to cry every time I watch it. We love Jeff at Donato’s in Andover, Adam O’Donnell, and Randy Trent (an excellent DJ in the Central KY area!).

I found my dress at Meant To Be Boutique and then got it altered by Betty Thorwart with Your Special Day Alterations. I’ll make a blog post about Wedding Dresses soon and share that story, but they helped me create the dress of my dreams within a reasonable budget. It’s truly a one of a kind dress after the alterations and design overhaul it went through, but I can’t recommend MTB (now shop Twirl) and Betty highly enough!

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I always dreamed of a summer wedding. Lots of colorful flowers and on a warm, sunny day. That was NOT the wedding we planned. Getting married in the late Fall/Winter forced me to dream up a new wedding style, but it turned into be something I absolutely loved. The gold and silver toned glassware and white flowers created a romantic and intimate vibe. We wanted it to be elegant yet comfortable, so we opted out of a serious dinner and had some of our favorite pizzas, cookies, and ice cream, and focused on creating a big dance floor that stayed packed the entire night!

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Going back, there’s not much I would change. I would’ve planned a first look with my brother, I would’ve told someone where the refills to the coffee sleeves were so that they could refill them when they ran out, and I probably would’ve let my bridesmaids choose long sleeve dresses (sorry girls!). But my critiques are so small. I married the man of my dreams and everything flowed according to schedule. We were so lucky! So instead, here’s three tips I’d share with any current or future bride:

Love and respect your family (and their opinions). Even when you don’t want to have the conversation, be gentle and respectful of their investment in your day. They have a right to care about your guest list and choices for how everything goes. It reflects on them too.
When you get stressed, go on a date and don’t talk about the wedding! Remember why you’re planning this wedding in the first place. It’s easy to get lost in details, but don’t forget to plan intentional time together along the way.
Plan for your marriage more than your wedding. To the best of our ability, Brice and I focused on this. We did premarital counseling with our pastor which was helpful in starting conversations about things we didn’t know we needed to talk about. Your marriage lasts forever and your wedding lasts a day. We love beautiful weddings, but it’s far more important to us that you have a beautiful marriage when your day at Hawks Nest is over. Don’t miss out on investing in your marriage before it starts.

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