Jenna & Matt
SUM-UP OF THE WEDDING VIBE: A barefoot, vivacious dinner party underneath the stars!
FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE WEDDING
We took a leap of faith and moved to the countryside of Illinois from Australia, then organised a wedding in six weeks! Our family and friends joined us from down-under for our barefoot wedding bash, which turned out pretty amazing!
OTHER COOL STUFF WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
We moved to the USA two months before we were to be married, so planning, organising, and becoming familiar with the foreign surroundings and customs all took place within this time frame. Not only did we have a challenging deadline, but we also had the task of meeting the extended family for final approval to marry on their countryside property. An Australian city girl can definitely have different ideals and expectations to a born and bread American Country family, but in the end I received an overwhelming amount of support from my new American family.
Small town folk with big connections, definitely worked in my favour in terms of securing a hairdresser, makeup artist, florist, and musician within the first week I landed, which helped us power through the groundwork. My husband also played a pivotal part in making our wedding a success not only through his emotional support but by involving himself in preparations that are “typically” assigned to the bridesmaids as all my girlfriends and family were back in Australia. He is a strategic, practical thinker, whereas I am more of a visionary idealist so we made a dream team in that respect. We couldn’t have made it to the day of without the love and generosity of practical strangers and of course the many spreadsheets that guided me up and kept me on track up until the day!
The luscious, green countryside property overshadowed by maple trees was the perfect setting for our wedding beneath the trees. An overabundance of fairy lights filled the sky, glass bottles and shabby chandeliers hung from branches covered with flowers and tea candles, vintage books dangled next to intimate photographs to tell our story, and rose petals and lace curtains suspended from our handmade alter. These were all DIY projects which were beautifully executed with the help of our talented florist, Lindsey Daily.
The day was a big success and all our special touches were captured through the lens of our creative photographer Lisa Diederich, who really made our day come to life. It was a barefoot, vivacious dinner party underneath the stars, and now it’s our story.
