Amanda + Aaron
February 12, 2022 / Milwaukee, Wisconsin
How did your love story begin?: Aaron and I met back in 2018 when I was visiting some friends in Milwaukee! He has lived in Milwaukee his whole life, but I had only lived there during college, and had been living in my hometown of La Crosse at the time we met. While visiting some friends in town for the weekend, as I often did, my friend group and his started chatting to each other at a bar downtown. Aaron and I ended up really hitting it off this night, exchanged numbers, and he ended up asking me to dinner the next night. I, of course, had to tell him I didn't actually live in Milwaukee, so we made plans to meet up the next time I was around which was quickly followed by us texting everyday and visiting each other on the weekends. Luckily, the long distance didn't last too long, as I decided to move back to the Milwaukee area in the Spring of 2019. When Covid hit, I think this was the biggest turning point in our relationship. We spent so much time together, away from the distractions of our, normally very busy, social lives and realized we were on the same page of wanting to get married in the near future. On Halloween morning of 2020, we had some decently nice weather and Aaron suggested we take a walk to one of our favorite spots, Atwater Beach. When we went to sit down by the water, he kept making comments about people being around and how he wished they would leave...finally when it started to get quiet he started talking about our relationship and I knew something was going on! Then he popped the question and I said YES! We took the holidays to just enjoy the engagement without diving into wedding planning, and then hit the ground running in January 2021! I love planning things, so I took the lead - however Aaron was very involved and helpful for decision making!
What was your vision for your wedding?: My vision really depended on the time of year and the venue - I had many different themes I liked for each season and knew we wanted a modern downtown Milwaukee venue. Once we decided on Discovery World as the venue and February 12th (Valentine's Weekend) as our date, my vision really came together. I wanted a super romantic, cozy winter feel with a touch of Valentine's theme, without having red hearts everywhere! I knew I wanted an array of pinks as the main colors and lots of gold detailing, and thanks to Pinterest I crafted a general idea of how the day could look! As far as choosing vendors, I could not have been happier with the awesome people that pulled together our big day! I have Aaron to thank for finding a lot of our vendors, including our photographer (a friend from high school), our DJ (a friend from working the bars downtown), our late night food spot (a friend from college owns it) and Bakery (his family's go-to spot for desserts!). Finding a florist was something I really knew nothing about and luckily my photographer had tagged my florist in some photos and I suddenly became obsessed with her Instagram (I definitely got lucky that I had a February wedding and she happened to still be available when I booked her!). Then I found my makeup artist through my florist's posts! I loved how a lot of my vendors had worked together before!
Tell us all about your wedding dress!: My dress shopping experience was an interesting one! I knew I wanted sleeves and lots lace, but that's about all I was certain of. I bounced back and forth between wanting different silhouettes. I had actually thought I might use my mom's dress as the base and make tons of alterations to make it exactly how I wanted. But first, I knew I wanted to try dresses on to make sure the silhouettes I was leaning toward looked good on me. I first went to a different dress shop and honestly felt pretty discouraged after I left. I tried on quite a few dresses and nothing seemed right which made me think I should just use my mom's dress and find a really good seamstress to see what they could do. I decided to try one more shop to see if I could get a better idea of what I wanted. When I went to Strike, it was completely different. I felt like my stylist was picking dresses that I LOVED with my vague description. At my appointment at Strike it wasn't that nothing was fitting right or fitting my "vibe" for the wedding, but simply that I couldn't decide between all the amazing dresses! However, I kept comparing all the dresses to MY dress and all my ladies that came to the appointment knew it was the one as well. I tried it on one more time and said YES! The dress I chose was Azalea by Alena Leena! I was so excited to have such a fun appointment and check this big item off my to-do list!
You planned and you planned, but how did the day ACTUALLY go?!: The day was amazing! Everything pulled together so much better than I imagined and it was truly a dream come true. Considering it was in the middle of the winter in Wisconsin I knew what to expect weather-wise so there were no disappointments there! It was cold, but calm and overcast - perfect for pictures as well as the travel to town for our guests! With the advice of our photographer we did a First Look which was honestly such a fun moment and really calmed me down and made the day flow so nicely! The First Look was on the balcony of Discovery World's Pilot House where we shared the special moment just the two of us, but as we turned to start taking pictures after, we saw our entire wedding party/parents gazing back at us with big smiles and it was just so special! It's hard to choose a favorite part of the day because there were just so many! Some highlights include Aaron's high school friend doing an amazing job officiating the ceremony, the cocktail hour in the aquarium, "Ice-ing" our entire wedding party at the start of the reception, all the wonderful speeches, and our DJ throwing the absolute BEST party and keeping the dance floor packed literally the entire night!!
What is your best advice for future brides-to-be?: My best advice for future brides-to-be is to make timelines, yet be flexible! Having timelines of bigger tasks and smaller tasks leading up to the wedding can help you stay on track, without feeling overwhelmed with what to do. For the actual wedding weekend, it's so helpful to give your wedding party a timeline of what all is going on so people know where to be at what time, how to pack for the weekend, and just feel prepared! Otherwise you'll likely have people reaching out and end up sending the information out multiple different times anyway. For the wedding day, if you're having hair and makeup done for the bridesmaids you'll also want a timeline (with the vendors involved) to make sure things run smoothly - this was the one hiccup for me that caused unnecessary stress! Overall, just have a plan and make sure everyone is on the same page - but then also if things are not perfectly lining up, it's totally okay! It's your day and there's so many people that will make it come together for you :)
Vendors
Dress: Azalea by Alena Leena via Strike Bridal Bar
Photographer: Morgan Photo Co.
Florist: Remington's Flowers
Venue: Discovery World (Pilot House)
Caterer: Bartolotta Catering & Events
Event Coordinator Through Bartolotta: Madeline Cope
Makeup Artist: Ms. Lauryn Marie
Videographer: Best Man Media
DJ: DJ Quadi (Quadrasound Entertainment)
Bakery: Simma's Bakery
Late Night Food: Steny's Tavern
Hair was done by a friend :)
