landlocked bride® | midwest + mountain west wedding inspiration

Did someone say color?

Weddings with bright bold color tend to land at the top of my list. I love when a couple just goes for it, using color in every opportunity – from clothing and accessories to flowers, lighting and linens. I mean, I love a classic white on white look, but color speaks to me. Camille and Jeremy used ABODE’s beautiful urban space as the canvas to pop blues and pinks against. So colorful and fun.

Oh, and how could I forget the ceremony in-the-round. Genius idea for ensuring your guests can all see, and to create a more intimate setting.

Amber’s choice of bold blues and purples give her classic wedding a modern touch. Plus the simple flowers and feathers create the perfect balance of decor. It’s great to see when a bride’s vision of elegance and simplicity come to life, because sometimes it’s what’s not on the table that makes the difference (sort of like that rule take a look in the mirror and remove one accessory, and you’re good to go!).

Jaclyn Marie Photography

From the Bride:
Starting early morning, I and my bridal party arrived at the church eager to start the exciting day. While getting our hair and makeup done, we turned on some music and hung out in our monogrammed robes; a gift to them from me. We ate lunch, catered in sandwiches, in between turns sitting in the hair and makeup chairs. Once we were all done “primping”, we gathered for a champagne toast to wish us all luck and what the day had ahead.

We headed outside to take group pictures, just the me and my bridesmaids to start, followed by the my family. Meanwhile, Thomas and his guys gathered in the basement of the church. As they were all dressing, the photographer snuck around to get as many candid pictures as possible. Once dressed, the guys headed out for pictures. Once they wrapped up their groom shots, the downtime mean lots of goofing around and even a couple rounds of Trivial Pursuit.

After all the separate wedding photos are taken, Thomas stood alone, facing the chapel and awaited my arrival for our first look. All he could hear was the clicking of my heels inching closer to him as I approached him from behind. We both had huge smiles, knowing that this moment is easing both of our nerves and all we can think about is how happy we are. We shared this special moment together as our photographer captured a few moments to freeze in time.

At the ceremony, the feeling of love and romance came alive with live music playing thanks to the musician who was a friend of mine and Thomas’. The music continued as the wedding party procession starts and the ceremony begins. The live band performed “Marry Me” after our vows were exchanged. As the ceremony wrapped up, the planted a big kiss and the hard part was over – it was time for our reception!

I had worked on our wedding book long enough, so I was very eager to see all of my hard work and planning come to life. Moving toasts from the Maid of Honor, Best Man and Father of the Bride reminded our guests that love is priceless and it was the reason we were all there. Guests of all ages were dancing, laughing and crying together. It was the perfect way to finish up our beautiful day!

Ceremony Venue: University Congregational Church | Reception Venue: The Wichita Boathouse | Photography: Jaclyn Marie Photography | Florist: Stems Floral | Baker: Cheri’s Bakery | Catering: Blue Moon Caterers | DJ: Northern Lights and Sounds | Wedding Gown: San Patrick from Ida’s Bridal | Bridesmaids Dresses: Ida’s Bridal

Bold and bright colors are just too much fun for me. And, it’s easy to play with their balance to create a different affect, including using them in subtle ways for a minimalistic look. Or, adding pops of color everywhere to make a statement. And, surf blue, apple, hot pink and white are the perfect Spring and Summer palette. Although, I challenge any couple to give a palette like this a try in Fall or Winter – now that would be a statement!

row 1: Kay English Photography via SMP; J.Crew; Katie Stoops Photography / Flower Girls via SMP; Nicole Welch Photography via SMP
row 2: Cut and Paste via Oh So Beautiful Paper; Amanda Rae Photography via SMP; Thompson Photography Group via Every Last Detail
row 3: Charlotte Geary Photography; Amelia Johnson Photography via SMP; Angie Silvy Photography via SMP; SOTA via SMP

I love featuring photos from the wedding ceremony. Sure, the details are pretty and important, too, but the ceremony is where all the action is. And, Meghan and Michael’s ceremony had so many emotions and moments of love. One shot in particular shows their wedding party circled close behind them with their hands around / over them during a prayer. Truly beautiful.

Photography by David E. Jackson

From the Bride:
When Michael and I began planning our Wisconsin wedding, we knew that we wanted our day to be focused around our creativity, love for fun, and our faith. Rustic, intimate, and fun were three words we kept coming back too. Homestead Meadows was the perfect farm to hold our wedding and reception- especially since we had the entire farm from early morning through the whole night! This made planning and designing so much more fun- playing off the transitions that all the guests would make between the wedding, dinner and then the dance.

As an interior design student at Madison, I loved every moment of planning the design. I drew my inspirations from etsy, knot.com, Anthropologie and designsponge, along with many other design blogs. Once the farm was chosen, rustic-thrifty pieces quickly feel into place: old bell jars wrapped in twine for centerpieces, gerbera daisies for decoration and floral arrangements, tissue paper pom-poms in the trees, and recycled wood signs to direct guests around the farm. We spent hours wrapping the jars in twine, but the most time consuming design feature was the party favor name card. Using recycled brown-paper bags, we constructed little seed packets (all farm flowers and veggies, of coarse) that were hand stamped with the guests’ name and table number.

Following the country-rustic theme, our reception was catered by Van Abel’s, which provided the most delicious and classy country-style buffet I have ever had! Food ranged from premium burgers, to grilled chicken breast sandwiches with homemade beans, coleslaw, and kettle chips. All the meat and bread were from local sources, which made this Wisconsin wedding even more perfect!

While designing your own wedding definitely brings unique challenges, I would have never traded all the special touches we were able to place on our day! Our wedding was hands-down the most fun and beautiful day we had ever shared together. From our best man forgetting his pants, to Michael and his mom breaking into “Rock Lobster” during their dance, our rustic-Wisconsin wedding was perfect.

Ceremony / Reception Venue: Homestead Meadows Farm | Caterer: Van Abels | Photographer: David E Jackson | Event Design: Meghan Ann Carey | Wedding Gown / Bridesmaids Dresses: Veras Bridals | Grooms Attire: Banana Republic | Florist: Sterling Gardens

Love this color combination for a winter wedding, as featured on Flights of Fancy.

Flights of Fancy

The colors are a great balance of winter-y hues. The combo is a great early Spring choice as well!

It’s color day at the Landlocked Bride. Stay tuned for another great combo this afternoon!

I definitely love a red, white and blue wedding.  Nothing to do with patriotism, red and blue are just two of my favorite colors, and I absolutely love them together.  I especially love when a bride (or groom) does it right, like this Australian one.

It is fantastic when the details are so well thought out. The bride placed photos of her grandparents in little blue frames and strung them from her bouquet on blue ribbon.

All images courtesy of Craven Images via Polka Dot Bride

The navy and the red just make me swoon. They are such classic colors! And the guys’ blue suits with the striped shirts? Ahh! So great!

And, I can think of one lovely American bride who also did red, white in blue in such a fantastic way.