Danielle & David’s Snowy Winter Wedding at Hotel Marshfield

How they met…

Danielle and David have both worked at the same company for several years. They often saw each other across the break room at lunchtime, never speaking. Two years later, a project finally brought them together. “We started chatting over instant messaging and emails,” Danielle fondly recalls. “At one point, David bet me a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on the outcome of the project, and I won. On our first date, he brought me a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Later for our wedding, we set Peanut Butter Cups on the tables, since that treat is so special to us.”

The Proposal…

The happy couple got engaged over Danielle’s love for Harry Potter. One June night in 2018, David had three gifts waiting for Danielle, representing the three Deathly Hallows in the seventh Harry Potter book. There was a cloak, a wand, and a golden snitch that opened to reveal an engagement ring, representing the resurrection stone. “I said yes immediately,” Danielle says. “David had done all the ring shopping and picked it out himself. It made the day even more surprising and special.”

The Planning…

Originally, Danielle says she didn’t want a winter wedding, yet the stars aligned to make February 23rd, 2019, the perfect day to say “I do.” “I don’t regret it at all. We were blessed with a beautiful day and a weekend we will always remember! We had a formal wedding. Traditional and simple, yet elegant. Our primary colors were navy blue and burgundy, with some pink and metallic accents. The blue worked out very well since both the ceremony and reception site had blue furniture, so it tied right into our theme. We both loved choosing the colors.”

The perfect wedding dress…

Danielle found her Stella York gown at Elegant Occasions in Wausau. One of her favorite parts of the day was walking down the aisle in that gorgeous dress and seeing David for the first time. “We opted not to do a first look, so we were both fighting back tears as my father walked me down the aisle,” she says. “We were so happy and excited to begin our lives together.”

The wedding portraits…

After the ceremony, photos were a bit of an adventure. “Choosing outdoor photo locations was definitely interesting since we knew they would all look different once the snow came.” And the snow did indeed come in buckets. “A few days prior to the wedding, we went out to all the photo spots and decided one of the locations would no longer work, unless we wanted the wedding party to trudge through knee-deep snow.” Instead, most of the photos were taken at Joe and Bernadine Weber’s Nature Park. “There was a paved path surrounded by pines, and a couple days earlier, David and his dad went out to shovel paths in the woods.”

The bride and groom also stopped at Wildwood Park for more pictures, while the wedding party headed to the reception. “The photo session was one of the more fun parts of the day,” Danielle says. “We were able to leave the crowd for a little while and spend some time with the wedding party in a less formal setting. We also had some alone time at the second photo location, which gave us a chance to take a deep breath and enjoy the day.”

The Wedding Reception…

At the Hotel Marshfield reception, cocktail hour was held in the atrium outside of the main ballroom. “We had several hors d’oeuvres, including meatballs, cheese and crackers, deli sliders, and spinach dip.” To wash it down, David and Danielle opted to host beer and signature drinks for their guests the entire night. “Dinner was held in the grand ballroom. BLT salads were served first, then guests were able to choose between broiled haddock, beef tips, and chicken cordon bleu.” There was also chicken tenders for the kids, as well as a coffee and hot chocolate station — “for everyone to keep warm from the weather.”

Overall, David and Danielle were especially impressed with their experience at Hotel Marshfield. “They treated our wedding as if it was their own. They were always there to help us work through decisions. Jenna at Hotel Marshfield was very organized and helpful, which made planning easy. She responded very quickly to all of our questions and gave great advice on food and beverage quantities, timing, and setup for the reception. We could tell the entire staff was striving to make sure everything came together just as we envisioned it.”

Advice from bride…

Danielle’s final bit of advice to other brides: “Don’t expect perfection. Not everything will go as planned. The weather threw off many of our plans and the plans of our guests, but the change in photo locations actually worked out for the best. We loved our wedding and wouldn’t change a thing.”

Wisconsin Wedding Vendors:

Make-up Artist~Cheveux Salon (Hollie Vandre)– Marshfield WI
“Most of the wedding party doesn’t wear makeup on a day to day basis, so we basically gave Hollie free reign to do what she wanted. She did a fantastic job making the makeup look natural and everyone looked beautiful. She even had us try fake lashes which was a first for us and they looked amazing.”

Hair Stylist~Cheveux Salon – Alisa Barlow – Marshfield WI
“I had booked Alisa after getting high recommendations from some of my coworkers. I only had a couple pictures to show her to get an idea of what I wanted and she was very good at altering the look to work the best for my hair. Everyone’s hair style looked great and we received many compliments from our guests.”

Rehearsal Dinner~Hotel Marshfield (same as reception) – Marshfield WI

Ceremony Location~Cornerstone Community Church – Marshfield WI
“Everyone at the church was very supportive of us through the planning process. It was very nice that the church had decorations on hand so we didn’t have to drag in a lot of extra decorations for the ceremony. We are extremely blessed to have strong Pastors involved in the church who mentored us through marriage classes, provided beautiful piano music, coordinated custom lighting and sound for the ceremony and put together a very thoughtful message. We had great reviews of the quality of service with some even saying it was one of the best wedding ceremonies they had attended.”

Reception Location~Hotel Marshfield – Jenna Zebro – Marshfield WI
Cake Designer/Dessert~Kazia Karpinski
“The tiered wedding cake that was on display was designed by my sister Kazia (also the matron of honor). She designed the front in our wedding colors with several roses to match our decorations. The back merged into a Harry Potter scene complete with castle, quidditch, and the well known Severus Snape quote “Always”.”

Cake~A Slice of Heaven -Marshfield WI
“The sheet cakes that were served after the meal was provided by A Slice of Heaven. Ruth was great to work with. She gave us several flavors of cake to try to help us decide which flavors we wanted. We ended up going with chocolate, white with raspberry filling, and lemon poppy seed. All of them tasted fantastic and we even had some engaged couples contact her after the wedding for their own reception. She also provided cookies for the rehearsal dinner which tasted amazing as well. She does also make cheesecakes and dessert bars if you wanted something a little more non-traditional.”

Chalkboard/Custom Signage Artist~Danielle Naugle (bride)

Flowers~Linda Dietel (mother of the bride)
“My mother did a great job at designing the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages to match the wedding colors. She also helped design the flowers in the centerpieces. Dave and I are very good about changing our minds which I know can be frustrating, but she was able to be flexible and design very beautiful arrangements.”

Music/Entertainment~CMC Music – Chris Burr – Marshfield WI
“Chris was easy to work with and responded to questions very quickly. When the meal finished earlier than expected, he was very flexible at moving up the dance time at no charge to us. He helped us pick out lighting and came in to set up while we decorated to ensure that everything was set up the way we wanted ahead of time. He is a very popular DJ for weddings in the area.”

Photographer~Cj Photography – Jeremy and Chelsea Kraemer
“Chelsea and Jeremy were great to work with! They did both our engagement photos and wedding photos and we couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. The only problem was picking our favorites as there were so many. They were very flexible at changing locations when the weather changed. Despite the beautiful day for photos, it was still around freezing temperatures outside, so we didn’t want to stand around too much. They were very efficient at getting quality photos so that we weren’t out in the cold too long. They were both willing to go to any measure to get the right shot by either trudging through snow, standing under pine trees, or standing on a narrow beam. They kept the photo shoots fun and entertaining. The whole wedding party had fun out in the snow!”

Wedding Dress Designer~Stella York

Bride’s gown ~Elegant Occasions – Wausau WI

Formalwear/Suit~ Thelma’s Bridal – Rothschild WI

Photobooth~  Forever Moments– Appleton WI
“Despite the weather, they still drove over 2 hours to get to the reception and even had to spend the night, but they were very understanding. Guests had a lot of fun with the large variety of props and they put together an album of the photos that we were able to take to remember the evening.”