With trees blooming and a historical barn as the chosen venue, this special celebration is the epitome of romance. Hear the story from the lovely couple themselves:

“Andre and I met at a summer camp that we both had been going to since we were 6 years old. Boys and girls weeks were separate at the camp so we didn’t meet until the summer I became a staff member; I was 17 and he was 15. After the week I met him ended and Andre went home, I decided I was way too intrigued by this guy to never see him again. Andre and I exchanged letters (yes actual mailed letters!) that summer and began a friendship and most certainly my first real crush. The summer ended and so did a lot of our communication. Over the years, Andre would drift back into my life via sporadic text or phone call. Fast forward to 2011 and Andre had just graduated college and moved to Milwaukee for his first job. During his packing he rediscovered the letters he had saved from that summer as teenagers. Andre messaged me and we picked up our friendship where we had left off. Soon Andre asked me to fly to Milwaukee to see him; so I flew to see a guy I hadn’t laid eyes on in 6 years expecting nothing and hoping for everything. Well, I got everything I had hoped for!”

“The most important thing to us about our wedding was for it to be personal and fun. We also didn’t want to spend an extravagant sum of money so we chose to do a lot of DIY and stuck to a budget. That meant prioritizing where to spend money and the big one for us was the venue.”

“Once we found the Mayowood Stone Barn, everything fell into place. I wanted our venue to be a little different and not a golf course or event center. We both love history so the Barn was the perfect choice.”

“My favorite part of the day from our wedding was exchanging vows with Andre. It was what I had been looking forward to the most. Our ceremony was officiated by one of our best friends and that made it so special and personal for us. My favorite memory from our reception was our packed dance floor and seeing how much fun everyone was having. At about an hour before last call, the DJ announced that a shuttle to the hotel would begin and the entire dance floor booed and started chanting “we won’t go.” That makes all the effort of planning a big wedding worth it when your best friends and family are having a great time. Still four months later our guests remark on how memorable that day was and that they rank it in the top weddings they’ve attended. Such a nice thing to hear that the people you love enjoyed themselves!”

“We chose a romantic vintage theme, with pale mint and blush pink for colors. My mom, sister and best friend were incredibly helpful with all of the DIY we took on. My mom made the table runners, my veil, the wedding cake and did the floral arrangements for the ceremony and reception. My sister did the invitations, Save the Dates, our engagement photos, the menus, the wedding program, place cards, and table numbers. I did the signage, collected all of the decor from garage sales, goodwill, antique flea markets and all of the antique books were from Andre’s collection.”

“Andre and I also did 1,000 origami cranes that were the ceremony backdrop. All of these DIY projects resulted in hours of wonderful memories made with my family. Those origami cranes are a detail we will never forget because they took a good 6 months to complete!”