Winter Wedding at Heritage Hill State Historical Park

Lauren & Mitchel’s Green Bay Winter Wedding was Simply Elegant!

How it started

Lauren & Mitchel met while playing on the tennis team at Carroll University. They were friends for about two years before they started dating. Every weekend the couple would go for a walk and grab a cup of coffee. One day this walk turned into a wedding proposal. But Lauren says the biggest surprise was the ring. Mitchel has been given his grandmother’s ring by his late grandfather. He re-designed the ring with their diamonds in the middle and added two to the sides to always keep theirs safe. Lauren says she, “absolutely love that we have his grandparent’s love with us.”

Planning a Winter Wedding

Planning a winter wedding in Wisconsin can be a little tricky. So, the couple attended The Wedding Show at the Resch as part of the planning process.

The Dress

Lauren knew exactly what she wanted in a wedding dress, so it only took trying on two dresses before she found the perfect one. Even better, the dress came from the clearance rack.

The Venue

When it came to finding a venue for their ceremony and reception, the couple could think of no place better than The Moravian Church at Heritage Hill State Historical Park. Built in 1852, the church is the oldest one still in existence in Green Bay and was the site of the wedding of Lauren’s great, great grandparents. Lauren had always dreamed of getting married in the church. Also, the couple wanted to try to keep their guests from driving more than they had to in the middle of winter, so it was important to them to be able to have the ceremony and reception at the same place.

The Ceremony

Lauren says her favorite part of the ceremony was including their family. “I no longer have my grandparents with me, and Mitch has only his grandma. We asked her to be our Flower Grandma and Ring Bearer, we knew giving her a special role and having her carry the rings up the aisle one last time meant the world to every single person in the church.” Mitchel had placed the rings into a little bag tied to his grandma’s bouquet from Nature’s Best Floral & Boutique. When the moment came, she joined Lauren, Mitchel and their pastor at the alter and prayed over the rings with them.

The Photos

Lauren & Mitchel hired Simply Vintage Photography to take their wedding photos. Not wanting to drag their entire wedding party through the snow, they opted for more intimate photos. Walking the grounds of the park with their photographer, they took photos in several places, including at the gazebo and the library.

The Reception

Keeping the reception on the same site as the ceremony worked out great for Lauren & Mitchel. Moving from the Moravian Church to the reception hall at the top of the hill allowed the couple to spend plenty of time with their guests. The couple joined their guests for the cocktail hour before dinner was served. “We wanted to be able to talk with everyone during the cocktail hour and dinner so then we could be on the dance for the entire night! Which worked out perfect, we never left the dance floor.” As their guests were leaving, they’d join them on the dance floor for a quick dance and goodbye well wishes.

The Food

“Having a winter wedding, we really wanted a cozy meal for our guests, that is exactly why we went with a family-style meal.” The meal from Cobblestone Creek consisted of beef tips, friend chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, candy carrots, pasta salad, coleslaw and rolls. Served in large quantities on each table, this style of meal was perfect to ensure that their guests were not sitting around waiting for their dinner to be served. If the bowls ran out on a table, the servers would quickly refresh it.

Special Touches

In addition to having Mitchel’s grandma play a special role in the ceremony, Lauren & Mitchel added several personal touches to their day. “Our wedding favors were goodie bags full of treats for everyone’s dog. Both of our families are major dog people, and we were unable to have our fur-baby at our wedding so we did cute goodie bags to their dogs addressed from ours! We had pictures of our dog with a sign next to the bowl of goodie bags saying, ‘Take a treat fur my friends who couldn’t make it to the pawty! Love, Abby.”

Another unique touch to their wedding was their guest book. Instead of a book, Lauren & Mitchel had an old-fashioned rotary phone from After The Tone. Lauren says, “We did this to match our theme and also instead of just our guests’ signatures, we could hear their lovely voices! We will cherish the messages forever, we had so many meaningful messages and also some very funny messages.”

Lauren also included her dad in a very special way. At her sister’s wedding, Lauren’s dad couldn’t get through his speech without crying. And he really wanted to wear a top hat to Lauren’s wedding. So, they promised him that if he could get through his speech at her wedding without crying, he could wear a top hat. “When we wrapped up his speech at our wedding, we presented him with his top hat, and we have so many great photos of that moment. He wore the hat the entire night and looked so classy!”

Working with the vendors

Lauren says she loved working with every one of her vendors. “All of our vendors were amazing and so caring. I felt I could reach out to every single vendor with any question, and they would re-assure me!”

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