The nature of having grown up in one place, gone to college in a completely different place, and currently living in an even MORE completely different place, means that many of our loved ones were not able to attend our wedding. Of course we understand this, but we just want to recap some of the highlights of our wedding for those who couldn't be there. It was such an important day, as we began our life of sole commitment to one another, and we want to share it with everyone we know and love!
Many people who came to our wedding asked us, ¨How did you find this place??¨ It really is a story, which is somewhat humorous simply because I don't know anybody else who changed their wedding plans as many times as we did. So we wanted to share with you the whole process, and how we landed where we did. Backing up to when we first got engaged, this is the journey of our thoughts and plans:
1.We first planned to have a destination wedding in Colorado with about 30 people. We were going to rent a big house and spend all weekend hiking and playing games and then have a tiny ceremony in the back yard with a mountain view and a bonfire afterwards.
2. Then we thought, "Wait... there are so many people we still want to celebrate with, so we will have the intimate wedding PLUS a reception in both Oregon and Iowa. So... then we will be planning three events instead of one... of course all while Rachel is in Europe, and Devin in the USA!" So we reluctantly gave up the Colorado dream, but thought we could still have a ¨destination¨ wedding... in Iowa City. We would just have a really intimate ceremony as if we were far away, and then a big party a couple of days later. This felt like a nice compromise.
3. Logistics, logistics, logistics. They were so sticky! Who would come to what, how would traveling and timing and venues work out... so finally we thought, "Okay, maybe we'll only have ONE event, and we will embrace the idea of the Iowa wedding, (because after all, Rachel is abnormally in love with Iowa), and it is the first place we lived near each other as adults, so it holds a lot of meaning. We will have one event here, but we will still keep the guest list intimate, and won't let it get out of hand just because it's in our hometown."
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| One of the places we considered doing a small ceremony. |
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| Trying to visualize this place for the ceremony (this is where we got engaged, and where we ended up doing our first look as well). |
5. All summer long, Rachel was working in Switzerland and Devin was in the States, but every time we chatted about the wedding, we both were disappointed that despite all our efforts to find something truly unique for our wedding, we ended up with such a normal, functional venue. But again, with unpredictable weather in August, and no possibility of doing it after school had started, we felt we had no choice. When Rachel moved to Barcelona, she was given a copy of the Spanish ¨convenio¨ - which is basically the worker's bill of rights. One line caught her eye: ¨Every staff member receives 15 days for marriage.¨ Hold up. Say what?!
6. Rachel immediately asked other staff members about this and sure enough - you are allowed two weeks of paid time off to get married! Through much conversation, we realized that the better option would be to have the wedding later on so we could spend the summer actually PLANNING the wedding, rather then doing all of it from far away. We could experience a couple of months actually being engaged and being together; we could get married in a time with better weather in Iowa; it was sounding better and better...
7. We decided to move our wedding date to October 5th. We both were exploding with excitement at getting to have a Fall wedding, as we are both strangely obsessed with the Fall season. We contacted our venue to change the date (we already checked that it was open), and it turns out that the 5th was U of I homecoming, so the cost of the venue was triple what it was in August. Hm, were we going to pay triple the price for a venue we never wanted in the first place? No! So... we cancelled! Back to ground zero!
8. Devin and Norma, Rachel's mom, took on the duty of re-visiting all the barns, farms, shelters, and really going back to the drawing board. Through a friend of a friend, Devin heard of this farm out near West Branch which had an unused barn. The woman who owned it was recently widowed and was hoping to do something with the barn. So Devin went out to look at it, and what he found was really... a barn. Just a barn. Full of dirt, cobwebs, goats, old machinery and furniture... but being the visionary that he is, he noticed the potential. Through much conversation with the owner, she agreed to let us use it if we would help fix it up. I don't know if we realized what a HUGE undertaking this would be when we committed to it, but we loved the idea of having a space that we have poured ourselves into, that we created ourselves, and that nobody else had ever used. So, we decided to go for it!
9. The next year was spent working out logistics of how to hold an event someplace that has no electricity, bathrooms, water, level flooring, or a safe and secure layout. There were many times that we asked ourselves, ¨What were we thinking??¨ But we believed it would be worth it. As soon as the winter weather moved on, Devin began spending hours on the farm - little by little clearing things out, tearing up boards, cutting and burning brush in the grove outside. When the summer came, he was at the barn every single day, basically dawn to dusk. Rachel was taking care of all the other details, but Devin was working day in and day out on the barn itself.
The original state of the barn:
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| We had new cement poured. |
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| And even got to put our initials in it. |
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| A new staircase was built from old barn wood. |
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| Trying to put things together a couple of days before the wedding. |
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| We covered up the garage with lattice and laminate board for a projection screen. Copyright Expressions Photography |
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| Devin tore out shelves all along this wall, and had to go around and level each of the tables with shims. Copyright Expressions Photography |
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| A chandelier that Devin made out of wagon wheels found in Rachel's grandparents' yard. Copyright Expressions Photography |
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| After major dusting, we used the furniture that was in the barn for our beverage station. Copyright Expressions Photography |
This sums up the evolution of our wedding venue. Hopefully it answers some of your questions, or gives you a better idea of our thought process along the way. We may have only spent a few hours in it at our actual wedding, but we really felt that the heart and soul of everyone and everything that went into it transcended the mere space and time. It created a kind of warmth and comfort and celebration of our new union that we hope all can say, as we can even now, continues with us to this day and beyond. Many thanks to everyone who helped in this incredible task; we couldn't have pulled it off without you.
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So what about you? Have you ever taken the long road intentionally? Was it worth it? Tell us about it!
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