Thank you Jessica + Ben for writing this beautiful blog entry about their wedding at Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks Michigan!
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Like all couples getting married, we envisioned our wedding day full of personal touches in a beautiful setting surrounded by the love of our friends and family. For us, that meant romantic, eclectic, vintage details that reflected the rustic-meets-modern architecture of Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks, Michigan. A former corset factory owned by a staunch prohibitionist turned distillery, Jessica fell in love with the venue in October 2016 and told Ben this is where she knew she wanted to marry him. Almost three years later, we made it happen along with 180 of our favorite people.
Our stylist/coordinator (and friend), Lisa Tvrdy, helped us put together a beautiful summer color palette full of shades of dusty rose and blush with touches of stormy blue, marigold yellow, and sage green. This color palette is where we drew inspiration for the bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen ties, along with our flowers and overall design. Our wildly creative and thoughtful florist, Lisa Dummer of Linnaea Floral, completely understood our vibe and brought our vision to life with funky, local, seasonal blooms in the shades of our color palette, potted herbs and plants, and colorful votive candles on the tables. Jessica's vintage-inspired Martina Liana gown was draped in beautiful French lace, so we used that design element and incorporated lace into our tablespace, dessert table, and our chuppah. The cover for the chuppah was incredibly special to us, as it was made from Jessica‘s mom's wedding dress from 1985 and transformed by a local seamstress into the covering under which we stood as we were married by our dear friend, Virginia.
The ladies got ready in the gorgeous bridal suite at Journeyman Distillery, pampered by the team at Patty McGuire Hair and Makeup. One of the bridesmaids was still breastfeeding so we got a special visit from her adorable son, Charlie, which is a really special memory for Jessica. Next door at Lily's Cottage, the guys cracked open some craft beers and got dressed before joining the bridesmaids for group shots offsite at Beer Church Brewery. Before the ceremony, everyone gathered again in the bridal suite where a spontaneous sing-a-long broke out of Garth Brooks' famous hit, I've Got Friends in Low Places. It just goes to show that you can take the groom out of Arkansas, but you can't take the Arkansas out of the groom!
We encouraged a device free ceremony because we wanted Jamie and Eric to have the full reign of the aisle without cell phone cameras getting in the way. In today's society, everyone is connected constantly to their devices and we wanted to invite our guests to be fully present with us in the moment instead of trying to capture a picture - we left that to the pros! Other than our officiant, two other friends participated in the ceremony; one read a short story about dinosaurs in love and one recited a poem written by Neil Gaiman, a favorite author of ours. We also did the traditional Jewish custom of breaking the glass, which was followed by a roaring "Mazel Tov!" from our guests - the evening quite literally started with started off with a bang.
We opted for stationed charcuterie for cocktail hour along with two signature cocktails created by the mixologists at the distillery, aptly named "The Beard" and "The Bangs", our respective nicknames due to our distinguished hairlines. In lieu of portraits for our Save The Date, Ben designed a custom graphic of our silhouettes which we also used on our cocktail napkins and a canvas for our guests to sign. We even received a few customized gifts with the graphic print, we just love how our guests thought to incorporate it into something personal!
One of our favorite moments of the evening was right after cocktail hour, standing behind the curtain watching the "pre-dance party". We really wanted to keep the energy going from the moment our guests arrived, so we asked the band to play a few songs before we were introduced into the room - it really set the tone for the night! The high energy dance party didn’t stop there. Our band, Recycle The Day, played during the reception for three straight hours. Our guests commented to us that they felt like they were at a concert. At one point, the floors were shaking and we weren’t sure if they could contain the party going on in Warren Hall!
Jamie and Eric made the great suggestion for our guests to surround us on the dance floor during our first song, rather than being seated at their tables. It was really special to be so close to everyone during this moment and, looking back at our photos, it's heartwarming to see the sweet reactions of everyone around us.
Another favorite detail from our big day was the pie bar, something we have been talking about since day one of our engagement. Our favorite local pie shop in our neighborhood is Hoosier Mama Pie Company, located in Ukrainian Village. As we had a lot of gluten free guests, we picked up up a few gluten-free pies from Flur, a 100% dedicated gluten-free bakery owned by a friend of Jessica's sister. We spent nearly a year on a treasure hunt looking for cake stands for the pie bar and we love how the eclectic look complemented the vintage mismatched plates we used on the harvest tables for dinner service.
Despite the pouring rain, Jamie and Eric were able to capture beautiful photos of us outside, which ended up being our favorites. From the moment we met them, they immediately put us at ease and made us feel comfortable. We are so lucky to have stumbled upon this amazing husband/wife duo and are grateful for how they captured our perfect day. - Jessica + Ben, June 15, 2019
