1. Real Weddings

A Traditional Wedding in Ann Arbor, MI

Elizabeth and Joel met while working at an architecture firm. They loved taking long walks to the local coffee shop and after three years of dating, J

Elizabeth and Joel met while working at an architecture firm. They loved taking long walks to the local coffee shop and after three years of dating, Joel planned the perfect summer day together -- picnicking, canoeing and dinner. He was planning to propose, but random events throughout the day thwarted his attempts, like the drunken guys in the canoe next to them, and the friends who spotted them eating outside and joined them for dinner. The Bride Elizabeth Skrisson, 27, an architectural designer The Groom Joel Schmidt, 36, an architect The Date August 21 Finally, on the drive home, Joel just pulled over and proposed in a park. When it came to time to plan, they approached it like a design project and were inspired by the super-fresh sense of color in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

As a fresh summer favor, Elizabeth and Joel gave out tiny bottles of limoncello, for which she made favor tags that included the couple’s initials.
Instead of using flowers to add color, sugar-dusted fresh fruit decorated Elizabeth and Joel’s petite, three-tiered, buttercream-iced cake.
The couple got married at a historic church in Kerrytown. Elizabeth didn’t want to muddle the church’s beauty with decorations, so they brought none.
At each column of the shed, Elizabeth and Joel hung shadow boxes with pictures of their family members’ wedding photos from colorful ribbon. Their florist put little flowers in each one. It was a cute alternative to displaying framed photos.
One long table ran the length of the market shed. Joel and his mom hand-stitched brown paper to make them feel like cloth and old beer and wine bottles held white garden roses.
Rustic Reception Decor
All the bridesmaids wore pewter and champagne dresses in various styles to serve as a base for the colorful flowers they carried.
Elizabeth dipped plain manila tags in paint, wrote guests names, and table numbers on them and hung them with clothespins. To the tags, she tied rosemary she had spent all summer growing on her roof at work.
Elizabeth and Joel wanted their programs to feel like prayer books, so they stitched all the paper instead of using glue, so they’d feel softer. They added elastic straps to keep them shut and displayed them in a vintage box.