Lake House Wedding Weekend

Last weekend we had the joy and privilege of witnessing my sister Heather marry Andrew, a guy we've been loving getting to know this year and welcome warmly into our family.  Heather's vision for her wedding was a pretty unconventional one.  She wasn't interested in any of the typical traditions or hoopla.  She just wanted a weekend with all her people in her favorite place.  As 40 of her family members and dearest friends assembled from all over the country, it was to share much more than just a ceremony and dinner one night, but an entire 3 days together in this gorgeous lake house in Michigan.

Heather's family and Andrew's got rooms in the amazing home, everyone else stayed in the hotel or cottages next door.  It was a real pleasure to get to know Andrew's family better during this time of shared living space!

Dave was also asked to officiate the wedding, which was a real honor for him.  He did a wonderful job!  I snapped a few pics of him preparing himself and the happy couple for the ceremony.

Soooo, the weather for our Lake House Wedding Weekend was actually pretty insane!  One major storm system rolled in after the next!  This video was taken about 2 hours before the ceremony.  Though an indoor Plan B needed to be quickly thrown together and workers had to scramble to reset tables and dry off chairs, it actually cleared up beautifully for the actual ceremony.  And Heather stayed surprisingly chill throughout it all!  Later during cocktail hour, the rain came down again, but the party was small, so everyone could huddle under the awnings of the beach house.  We all kept singing, "It's like ray-e-ain on your wedding day..." :)

Here we are getting ready.  Delia got lots of spiral curls in her hair and Ella headed up an effort to decorate the boat with Just Married signs, balloons, and cans.  Funny story: we didn't pack and couldn't find string or twine, though-- so all the decorations are tied up with dental floss!

 I include this picture to show the crazy Midwest humidity that we've become super wimpy about!  My phone and glasses kept fogging up!

 Here's Uncle Andrew's first look at Auntie Heather.  Most of the guests were able to witness it from the balcony on the lake house.  

And here we are headed down to a beautifully landscaped wall of flowers where some family pictures were taken.

 A real wedding weekend highlight was getting tons of time to catch up with Anna and Derek!  I'm SO thankful for all the deep talks and laughs we got share!

The ceremony was right on the property of the lake house.  It was intimate and personal and perfect for Heather and Andrew.

A favorite wedding memory will be a boat driving RIGHT past blaring the song "Love Shack".  Dave was unfazed, but the rest of us had to stifle giggles and the desire to dance in our seats.  

These are a few pics we've gotten to sneak peek from the photographer.  Another blog post will probably appear when we get the full set.  Wasn't this the most picturesque setting?!  It was such a special and beautiful wedding!

Heather and Andrew escaped for a bit on the boat we decorated for them for some Just Married photos.  

After multiple thunderstorms during the day, the sky cleared and turned the most magnificent shades of pink-- a backdrop gift for the photographer!

Since the crowd was small, Heather wanted her reception to feel like an intimate dinner of friends and it did!  The food and drink were delicious.  We all took turns playing DJ and putting our favorite songs on.  Uncle Andrew taught both girls how to swing dance.  We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  And Anna, Derek, Dave and I played a fierce game of corn hole...in our formal wear!

After the wedding night, the festivities were not over!  We still had a whole day to spend together taking boat rides...

 Swimming in the lake and hotel pool...

 Lounging lakeside...

 And playing lawn games.  (This one pictured is called "Flippin' Chicken".  It's bocce ball with crazy, bouncy rubber chickens instead of balls and it was hilarious!)

All in all, it was really the perfect wedding weekend.  I love that Heather was bold enough to imagine and pull off a different kind of wedding-- one where uniting her most important people for some quality time together in an idyllic setting was the main focus.