The Tale of Two Weddings: Part 1

As a girl I dreamed of having my wedding in Northern Michigan. My extended family loves to spend time in the dinky little towns throughout Northern Michigan and we try to get up to the area as much as possible.

The western coast of northern Michigan is dotted with small towns set on picturesque bluffs with gorgeous views of Lake Michigan. I had always dreamed of having my wedding on the beach. As I got older I started to think that maybe a wedding on the beach wasn't the most practical and maybe the view would be better if the wedding was on the bluff and then we could traipse to the beach for the party.

The more I dreamed about this the more excited I got. A wedding in the middle of the summer heat with a beautiful ceremony on top of a bluff and a wonderful party on the beach.

So well before I was engaged, or even dating Jus, I tried to find a venue that wouldn't be too resort-ish and would be a better expression of me and whoever I would marry. I knew a resort would be easier to plan a wedding at but to me resort=cookie cutter and there's not too much that's cookie cutter about me.

My first thought was Blisswood, a lodge in between Goodhart and Cross Village, about thirty minutes south of the Mackinac Bridge.

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Blisswood was built in 1929 and features the large Lodge and three smaller cabins that in total sleep 16 people. There is also a small chapel on the property that seats about a dozen people.

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The problem with Blisswood is that you have to rent the entire property for three days and its capacity is 50 people, and while I know a destination wedding doesn't draw the crowd that a hometown wedding does I also know that my side of the family is 60.

So my next thought was Legs Inn. Legs Inn is a funky Polish restaurant in Cross Village that was built in the 1920s.

Its called Legs Inn because the owner lined the roof with legs from cast iron bathtubs. The inside is full of bent wood.

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Talk about unique and interesting. And the garden behind Legs Inn is gorgeous, perfect for a sunset wedding.

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Legs Inn also has four cottages on the beach that each sleep four people. Which would be wonderful for the bridal party/family to stay in. I imagined marrying in the garden at dusk going inside for a cocktail hour and then partying the night away on the beach.

The problem with this is that the rental fees for the cabins during "peak season" (June 26-September 7) are almost twice that of the rest of the year. And once you get much past Labor Day in Northern Michigan you don't want to spend much time outside.

Once we started dating we seriously talked about including Legs Inn in our wedding day. There are also two sweet little churches that we love in the area.

The first is St. Ignatius Catholic Church.

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St. Ignatius Church is located on the beach in Goodhart and is several hundred years old. It's right next to a creepy old Indian cemetery, which is actually pretty cool.

The second church is literally down the street from Legs Inn.

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The Redpath Memorial Presbyterian Church is a sweet little stone church with beautiful stained glass windows.

Luckily for me I had Weddingbee's local boards to help my search. I poked around the Northern Michigan boards and was pointed in the direction of the Headlands in Mackinaw City.

The Headlands is a county park with 550 acres situated right on Lake Michigan.

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There are two houses you can rent, one that houses 20 people and another that houses 22. The only thing about the houses is that they're kind of hard to get to and not really set up to host weddings.

So it was back to the drawing board, do we find another unique place in Norther Michigan, suck it up and go to a resort, or have the wedding somewhere else...

Wild Horses

Before we get into the planning I thought I'd start with our engagement story. I've posted this on my other blog but wanted to share it here too.

Fridays are long days for me. I usually work thirteen hours so when I come home I just like to shower and zone out in front of Say Yes to the Dress.

The day of December 4th was pretty typical, except I was worried about Jus because he had a stomach ache all day and I couldn't really get a hold of him.

That night Jus was in his guitar room when I got home. I went in and plopped myself on the sofa complaining about how long my day was.

The Rolling Stones' Wild Horses* came on and Jus asked me to dance.** I said that I didn't really feel like it and so he asked me again and I finally relented and got up to dance. I could feel Jus' hands shaking and started to worry that he was really sick.

While we were dancing Jus turned me around so that my back was facing him and I felt him pull something out of his pocket. We kept dancing and he wrapped his arm around me and opened his hand. He was holding the most beautiful ring and asked if I'd marry him. I started laughing hysterically and finally said yes some 20 minutes later.

Before we go any further on our little adventure I wanted to share some ring pictures with you, even though my stinky camera does not do my gorgeous ring justice.

*Wild Horses is one of those songs that we always say should be "our song" even though our song is Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay." Now I think Wild Horses will forever be our song.

**When good songs comes on I usually make Jus get up and dance, this has resulted in dance parties in the kitchen, living room, and guitar room many times.

Introductions all around

Hi, I'm Cole, a 24 year old from northern Indiana.

This is Jus, my fiance.

We're planning our wedding for October of 2010 in our hometown. We'll be DIYing a lot of projects and trying to use as many local vendors to help our wedding become a great expression of ourselves and our love for one another.

Along the way I'll tell you about our planning, projects and life. I'll probably throw some bits in about our dogs too so here's a short introduction.

This is Layla, our rescued mutt, who loves Jus almost as much as I do.

And Edie Sedgwick, our Bassett Hound puppy, who is pretty spoiled and pretty crazy.

So that's a bit about us, I'll expand more later, I promise.

But won't you join us on this ride that's a little crazy, a lot of fun, and full of love?