1. Real Weddings

A White and Navy Hometown Wedding at the North Shore Golf Club in Menasha, Wisconsin

White and navy with hints of green brought an elegant feeling to the nuptials of Kristen Buchta, a 31-year-old physical therapist, and Brian Musser, a

White and navy with hints of green brought an elegant feeling to the nuptials of Kristen Buchta, a 31-year-old physical therapist, and Brian Musser, a 30-year-old HR consultant. The couple met a Halloween party, and after some persistence from Brian, Kristen quickly fell for her future husband. Brian later proposed with an heirloom diamond ring at a Florida restaurant. "We were celebrating my 30th birthday, and Brian had the waitress put the ring on a piece of Key Lime pie," Kristen says. "The ring was full of whipped cream, but Brian grabbed it and put it on my finger. The entire restaurant stood up and started clapping." Following a 15-month engagement, the couple married in front of 160 guests in a church ceremony in the bride’s Wisconsin hometown and celebrated with a cocktail hour and reception at her family’s country club. "I wanted the wedding to be simple, but classic," Kristen says. Flowers were used as the main decorations for the day, and the couple made a special effort to only use local small business vendors. Kristen says that although there are little things that go wrong when planning a wedding, it's really not worth getting upset. "Don't sweat the small stuff," she advises.

The couple's simple yet elegant invitations incorporated the wedding's colors of navy and white, which Kristen says has always been her favorite color scheme.
Kristen decided to stick with a classic look for her wedding dress and chose a strapless white gown with a sweetheart neckline.
"I knew I wanted simple with no extra bling on the dress," Kristen says. "I knew the dress I got was the one as soon as I put it on."
Kristen added a personal touch to her look with a glamorous ring. "The diamond on my ring was given to Brian by my grandma," she says. "She was at dinner with us when he proposed, so it was very special."
Kristen's five bridesmaids wore knee-length navy dresses with nude heels. "I felt it could look good on anyone," she says.
"As far as the flowers go, I just gave the florist an idea of what I wanted," Kristen says. "I told her I wanted a lot of greens with white. I did go through a list of flowers I did and did not like and then she came up with everything."
"He loves 'James Bond' and 'Mad Men', so he wanted to go with a similar look," Kristen says of her husband, who chose the attire for the men. The couple also added a pop of color with green and navy bow ties for the ring bearers.
The bride and groom exchanged vows at First Presbyterian Church in Neenah, Wisconsin, the same church Kristen attended growing up.
The high ceilings and beautiful walls of the church provided a stunning backdrop for the ceremony.
The bride and groom posed for pictures on the country club's golf course while guests attended an open bar cocktail hour with shrimp cocktail, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, sundried tomato purses and spinach artichoke hearts.
Following the ceremony, the couple held a reception at North Shore Golf Club, a place where Kristen says she always wanted to get married. "The club knows my family very well and they were easy to work with and made the day flow without any issues," she says.
Green and white floral arrangements served as centerpieces at the reception, where guests dined on beef tenderloin, sesame chicken and a Portobello mushroom dish.
The bride and groom decided not to have a big wedding cake and served many small cakes and cupcakes.
"The one thing we really wanted was a good band at the wedding so everyone would dance and have a good time," Kristen says. "We had Boogie and the Yo-yo'z play and they were great! They played a good variety of music and most people stayed until the end of the wedding. I really think that was the best part of the night."