My good friend and wedding planner extraordinaire Lizzy Thomas introduced me to her clients, Kathleen and Niko. We hit it off and started putting the details together for their October wedding. Soon after we met, Kathleen asked me one day if I wouldn’t mind officiating their wedding as well. She was reading my blogs and noticed that I have, in the past, MC’d AND officiated weddings on the same day. I was honored to be asked, and we went to work customizing a ceremony just for them. I always love getting to know my couples and telling their story in front of their friends and family is such a joy. Their story was a classic tale of boy meets girl…boy and girl couldn’t stand each other at first but then grew to love each other. You know…the usual story.
After the ceremony, Kathleen and Niko wanted their guests to enjoy a relaxing, prolonged cocktail hour. With games like Corn Hole and Jenga to keep people busy, an open bar with “his and hers” drink specialties, delicious appetizers by The Original Taco Man, and a musical playlist of Reggae from around the world, the guests relaxed and got to spend some much wanted time with Kathleen and Niko, who made sure they had time to join in on the fun. When it was time to begin, I introduced the newlyweds, and they thanked everyone for coming, paid tribute to those who could not be there, and then Nico asked Kathleen to dance for the first time as husband and wife.
Kathleen and Niko wanted to treat their guests to something different instead of traditional wedding food, so our caterers whipped up three different kinds of tacos and all the fixings for a meal everyone absolutely loved. During dinner, I had a surprise for both Kathleen and Niko’s parents. October just happens to be the anniversary month for both sets of parents, so I played their wedding songs for them and anyone else who wanted to come out and dance. Everyone else soon joined them on the dance floor, and we kicked off the high-energy part of the night until the sun went down. The McCormick Home Ranch always makes for a beautiful backdrop for an outdoor wedding.
Kathleen’s family is Polish, and Kathleen surprised her mom by asking her make a traditional baby apron. The tradition is that the bride’s mom will remove the bride’s veil and replace it with an apron with baby dolls attached to symbolize how many children the couple would have. We amended the tradition a bit due to a lack of a veil but followed it up with some Polka dancing for Kathleen’s family. However, we didn’t want to leave Niko’s Serbian family out of the fun, so we played some “Kolos,” and Niko’s whole family (led by his uncle who sang along) came out and danced.
As the party continued into the night, the guests enjoyed dancing, drinking, more games, and some delicious cake and cupcakes. We finally wrapped up the night with a big circle of guests surrounding Kathleen and Niko on the dance floor. Kathleen said “Everything was perfect” while we were saying goodbye. I couldn’t agree more. When you have such an amazing venue, food, music, friends, and a spectacular coordinator like Lizzy, you can’t help but achieving perfection at your wedding!
Dave’s recommended vendors for this wedding are:
- Lizzy Thomas and Company Wedding Coordinators – www.lizzythomasandco.com
- MCCormic Home Ranch – www.mccormickhomeranch.com
- The Original Taco Man – www.taco-man.com