ONE DAY: Josh and Sarah

Today’s ONE DAY feature is all about Josh and Sarah (both 28). They got married Friday, July 23, 2010 at in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Their ceremony and reception was held in the Riviera Ballroom and they held their cocktail hour on the Lady of the Lake! Sarah describes their wedding palette as “shades of green, pinch of yellow, white, and grey.” Learn more about their wedding day below:

1. What do you remember most about your wedding day? Our wedding day was one of the hottest days of the year and it rained, more like poured, the whole night before and right up to the start of our 5:00 ceremony. So, the one thing we remember the most about our wedding day was when the clouds parted, the rain stopped and a beautiful rainbow appeared over the lake.  How many people can say they had a rainbow on their wedding day?

2. What was your vision for your wedding before you actually started planning? How did that vision change by the time you were finished? I am not the type of girl that thought about their dream wedding ever since they were little, so I didn’t have a vision to live up to.  The only thing I knew was that I wanted to get married in Lake Geneva.  Josh and I spent many nights while we were dating at Lake Geneva, making it a very special place for the two of us. Our vision became very clear once we stepped foot into the Riviera Ballroom. We immediately fell in love with it’s decor and amazing view. The green subway tiles at the four corners of the ballroom sparked the idea of shades of green in our color palette. The view of the lake and boats gave us the idea to do a boat cocktail hour instead of the traditional after ceremony drinks. From there everything just fell into place and it was perfect!

3. What was your favorite and least favorite part of wedding planning? We truly loved planning every detail but having 120+ people look at us (all day) was the hard part. We are not ones that like a lot of attention so it was really hard to be the main attraction. I cried a lot about this!

4. How did you go about finding your wedding photographer? Our photographer, Kelly Vanderploeg, went to the same high school as us.  She was a few years older than us but had younger siblings Josh and I knew.  Of course we loved that we knew Kelly but we also truly loved her work.  Her pictures capture moments not poses and thank goodness for that!  As part of our wedding day schedule we planned for “picture time” before the wedding and after the ceremony but with the heat and rain both were canceled.  However, I knew I didn’t have to worry if our pictures would turn out or not because of Kelly’s specialty-capturing the moments not poses.

My sister is also learning about photography and has started a small business.  She was so happy when I asked her to take a few of me on a beautiful sunny day.  I loved getting all dressed up again!  Those day after photo shoots should be more popular-I was so relaxed.

5. Did you have any favorite DIY wedding projects? I had a few DIY projects and the nice thing is other people took on the tasks!

• My favorite project, of course, was collaborating with you to create our beautiful, one-of-a-kind invitations, programs, place cards, table numbers, and guest book postcards. Your hand drawings of the Riviera and The Lady of the Lake were my favorite parts.
• My sister-in-law monogrammed each linen napkin with a “B”. She did all 120 by hand! The napkins added a wonderful personal touch to the dinner tables without breaking the bank.
• My mother-in-law bought four large urns and planted several different green vines and white flowers in them. We used these at the front and end of the aisle during the ceremony. She tended to these flowers all summer long so they would be perfect on our special day. We now use the urns on the front porch and back patio of our new home.

6. What advice do you have for newly engaged couples that are starting to plan? Spend money on what is important to you…not what is important to others. To us we wanted to get an amazing photographer and a sunset boat cocktail hour. Knowing that these two things were very important to us, we worked with our budget and cut things that weren’t as important (wedding favors for example). We are so happy we did this because we love our pictures and everyone still comments about how fun the boat ride was.

Sarah also shared where they purchased many of the wedding party’s attire:

• Dress/belt/flower
• Shoes
• Bridesmaid Dresses
• Groomsmen Suits: Ralph Lauren Summer Collection
• Flower Girl Dresses
• Little Boy Shoes
• Cake Toppers: Vintage Pez (part of Josh’s large Pez collection)