When I get inquiries for destination weddings, I always jump for joy! My favorite part of the job is getting to work as full planner for couples. Being a full planner for destination weddings mean I take care of budget management, vendor sourcing, and collaborating with you on overall design and even finding the venue. When Missouri locals Devon + Kaden came to me last year they dreamed of a mountain and lake-view wedding somewhere in the US. My work was cut out for me, but we quickly all fell for River Bottoms Ranch in Midway, Utah. Devon + Kaden dreamed of a weekend filled of events for their 190 guests. Together the couple and I decided on a welcome party, a rehearsal dinner, and finally the wedding.

Welcome Party

Welcome parties are always SO fun for guests as an introduction to the upcoming wedding. You + your partner can mingle with your guests you haven’t seen in years! I’ve noticed it allows for everyone to be more present on wedding day because they aren’t too busy catching up on years’ worth of stories when they get a few moments to see you.

Since this was a weekend-long affair, the couple wanted to celebrate with their loved ones as much as possible. Devon + Kaden wanted an outdoor summer-BBQ style event with lawn games, welcome bags, and great food. This wedding weekend was off to an amazing start!

We hosted the welcome party at the wedding venue’s lawn and it was the PERFECT day. The welcome bags included a custom newspaper about the couple’s love story, drinking recovery items, and custom cookies from a local bakery.

Rehearsal Dinner

After the rehearsal of the ceremony with the wedding party, the crew headed to a family friend’s house for a post-rehearsal dinner to celebrate. The design of this evening included jewel tones and pops of pale yellow. Natural linens with vibrant glassware was the perfect way to tie in the location’s natural beauty. As a planner, my team assisted with the set-up, timeline, and managment of the intimate night.

Wedding Day!

The year’s worth of planning, zoom calls, and plentiful emails came down to this day, July 30th. My team & I came early in the day to start setting up the ‘favorite things’ escort wall (see below), ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception spaces. The ceremony took place outside the barn with the large pond in view. Devon + Kaden looked AMAZING as they walked down the aisle to their forever. After tying the knot, guests made their way inside the modern barn to cocktail hour.

Devon + Kaden wanted a personal touch to their escort wall, the couple wrote 3 of their favorite traits about each of their 190 guests. This was SO sweet and made each guest feel loved by the couple!

When it was time to move to the reception, we ushered guests to the patio outside for a gorgeous true-ranch feel to the day. Golden hour was incredibly stunning and made for such amazing photos!

Our team was honored to help Devon + Kaden create their dream destination wedding weekend. Everything turned out even better than ever expected and I feel so lucky to work with the amazing Utah vendors with this weekend.

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