When it came to planning our wedding, Sean and I had been quite indecisive. In the end, we decided on a very intimate wedding in the Idaho mountains. This was the best thing we could have ever chosen!
We only had our immediate family at the wedding. I know this was hard for some of our other family members, but it really made the day special for us. We were able to focus on just us two, nothing felt rushed, and we were able to truly enjoy the day without distraction.
We want to thank everyone that supported us with this decision and patiently waited to celebrate with us in Illinois!
Now, let’s get into the details of our wedding day.
Color Palette
Because we were having such a small wedding and we each only had one person to stand by our sides during the ceremony, we chose to ask all of our family members to coordinate. Blue was the name of the day. We decided to let everyone pick their own attire as long as it was between the Shades of Navy blue and Slate Blue – it turned out amazing!! Every single person coordinated perfectly without being too matchy-matchy. We also left it up to the guys to choose their own ties.
Hair and Makeup
I got my hair done by a local hairstylist. I liked bits and pieces of it, but not sure if I loved the overall style I ended up with.
I’m so happy I decided to do my own makeup! It’s something that I do every day and felt completely comfortable with. I knew that if someone else did my makeup, I wouldn’t have felt like myself.
All-in-all, I did my regular everyday makeup routine and only threw in one extra, lipstick! Also, I did my makeup sitting outside on the patio as that’s where the best lighting was. It was nice and relaxing as the patio faced the lake and mountains.
The Dress + Accessories
I’m so grateful that I got to travel to Chicago to pick out my dress with my family. I ended up finding ‘the one‘ at BHLDN. I went into dress shopping with a completely open mind because I had no idea what I wanted. I learned fairly quickly that the dresses looked entirely different on my body than they did online on the model. If I had only ever seen my dress online, I would have never picked it – but I loved how it looked on me! I also ended up adding a belt to the dress which really tied it all together!
I found my Jewel Badgley Mischka shoes and Swarovski bracelet on Nordstrom Rack, they were both perfect! For my veil, I knew what I wanted but didn’t want to spend a gazillion dollars. So I headed to Etsy, picked one that I felt like represented what I was looking for, and went with that! It was a simple tulle veil with small rhinestones along the entire edge.
Flowers
Our flowers were designed by an amazing local florist, Farm to Market Floral Design. We discussed what we needed and made sure it fit within our budget. I gave her some overall desires – white flowers with greenery – and she did the rest! Let me tell you… THEY WERE PERFECT!
The Ceremony
The day was perfectly imperfect in its own quirky ways.
We chose to get married at Ponderosa State Park, overlooking the lake and mountains. It felt so right to get married while surrounded by beautiful nature.
We had a local McCall party rental company drop off and pick up chairs. We arranged them ourselves about 5 minutes before the ceremony. I wanted to call that out because the day was flexible and we loved that! We were able to make the day what we wanted and had no reason to stress about anything.
My bother was my Man-of-Honor and Sean’s brother was the Best Man. We felt so loved having our siblings stand by our sides and help us get married.
During our ceremony (which was short and sweet) there were a few laughs. When it came time for Sean to say the BIG words, he was conflicted. Is it already time to say it? I don’t want to say too early! So after pausing to reflect, he stated, ‘YES!’ instead of the standard ‘I Do’.
Our family group hug, after walking down the aisle, will be something we always remember.
The Food (+ Dancing)
After our ceremony we headed back to Shore Lodge where we were all staying, to enjoy a private dinner and dancing on the patio. The chef at The Narrows Steakhouse prepared our meals and was extremely accomodating to my vegan diet. We worked with them ahead of time to create a three-course meal with plant-based foods and it was perfect for our vegan photographers as well!
We had the private dinner room and balcony booked until 10pm which gave us plenty of time to enjoy our food and dance the night away around a cozy fire. Music was provided by our personal Bose speaker and random Spotify music.
The Cake
We chose to go with a local Baker in Boise, Figgy Bakes, to make our cake. We wanted something that was 100% vegan and would taste delicious (she did not disappoint). We knew we’d want a layer of chocolate, a layer of strawberry, and vanilla frosting. Our baker deemed it a Neapolitan cake! Every single person loved it and our photographers from Portland said it was the best vegan cake they’ve ever eaten!!
Our cake survived the two-hour road trip to McCall from Boise, up windy mountain roads. To put it lightly, I was terrified the whole drive up. We picked it up the day before, put it in a cooler with ice, and strapped it into the backseat of our car. Thankfully it made it up there without a hitch and looked absolutely perfect! Until the chef came to cut the cake… lol. It was offered to have the chef cut our cake as a special treat. Needless to say, he was not a baker and ended up cutting the cake with a steak knife – he butchered it!
The Photographers
I cannot thank and recommend our photographers enough!! Kiara was amazing at helping us figure out the timeline for the day and even helped us mitigate when we had to switch things up at the last minute. Her and David are a fantastic pair to not only capture your day, but to have as friends – their personalities are fantastic! We are so thankful that we chose Indwell Weddings to take our photos and create our wedding video that we’ll look back on for years to come.
