Paola Town Square Ceremony

To ensure guests were able to truly enjoy themselves all evening, Alexis and Andrew carefully planned every moment of their wedding to a T. The couple did a first look and took all their photos before the ceremony and provided guests with snacks and drinks as they arrived, since many came directly to the wedding from work. “It was important to us for the guests always to have something to do,” Alexis says. “All too often there is an hour period where guests are stuck in this lull, while the wedding party is off doing things. We didn't want that.” As soon as the couple exchanged vows, everyone headed downstairs to the reception, where they found food stations and a bar ready and raring to go. “We also didn't want to have ‘obligation after obligation’ like cutting the cake,” Alexis says, “because we wanted to be able to enjoy the night as well, instead of feeling like we were being dragged in 100 directions. We had guests rave about our schedule and how smoothly things transitioned—they loved it.”