Emily and Wyatt's Flower Filled Minnesota Wedding With Lots of Handmade Decor. By Sabrina Benning Co

Well Hello Monday, how are you all? I have to say I’ve been better. I still have Covid and have spent most of the weekend asleep in bed. It has totally floored me, I wasn’t quite ready for how energy sapping it was going to be! I hope if you currently have it you are feeling better than I am. But the sun is shining and it looks like spring is on it’s way, so all is not lost! I am starting the week with this total beauty of a wedding from Sabrina Benning Co . Emily and Wyatt held their outdoor ceremony in Minnesota and adorned their ceremony and indoor reception with the most gorgeous blooms. They worked hard creating some amazing handmade decor in the form of their signage which looks spectacular, the overall look is fantastic! a Pinterest dream! And as for our happy couple what a dream of a couple they are, Just love this wedding from start to finish!

Our wedding was worth the stress, hard work, sometimes tears, and all the thought that went into it! Our guests made us feel so loved and blessed throughout the whole day.

Emily and Wyatt were married on 5th September 2021 at Gathered Oaks in Alexandria, Minnesota. ‘We have family in North Dakota and near the metro area in Minnesota, so Alexandria felt like the perfect spot to meet in the middle and have a mini destination wedding for our guests! We love the Alex area so it felt right. I loved the venue the second I walked in and knew it was the place right away! The barn venue was more our vibe and the grounds were amazing. We had around 180 guests. It took about a year and a half to plan.We actually had the wedding planned for January 9, 2021 but had to postpone due to COVID. (But we did still get married officially January 9 in a small ceremony and had the big wedding in September 2021!)’

How they met
We met at college in Minnesota. We had a sociology class together our freshmen year. We’ve been together for 7 years this March.

The proposal
Our proposal was very low key, as it was during quarantine in May of 2020. He proposed at my apartment and we celebrated with pizza and a puzzle ha! We are both very much homebodies so it was very much us.

How did you allocate your budget?
From the beginning I picked out things that I knew I wanted to splurge on and spent less on things that I figured people don’t care to notice at a wedding. To be honest, we didn’t do a great job at really setting a budget and sticking with it..whoops!

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on floral and decor, more than I thought we would have. Our families are big “real flowers” people so that was something we valued! It was so worth it though. I had a vision in my head and florist totally ran with it and did an amazing job bringing it to life. We also splurged on the videographer and felt the videos and photos would be the best investment and the thing we should splurge on! We saved on food for sure, but it was still great quality and it was delicious! We were able to lock in prices in 2020 which helped a lot!

How did you choose your photographer?
I had starting looking at the venue’s Instagram and looked through their tagged photos and that’s how I found Sabrina! I loved the look of her pictures and she knew the venue well! She was the best hypewoman and made my husband and I feel super comfortable.

The dress
Willow by Watters for my dress, my shoes were from Target, and earrings from Olive + Piper.

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits were rented from Generation Tux, bridesmaids dresses were mix and match, some from BHLDN, Dessy, Adrianna Papell

Theme or colour scheme
I knew I wanted neutral bridesmaids colors with light grays and beiges and then rust, oranges, deep reds, etc for decor and floral!

Decoration
Decorations were extremely simple, floral took up a lot of the decor, we had some signage pieces that were arch shaped that we had made, our neon sign, various candles, we had rugs lining the aisle for the ceremony that was I was obsessed with!

Food
Buffet with prime rib, chicken, baby red potatoes, mixed root veggies, and a salad!

Wedding cake
No wedding cake but a mix of bars, cookies, and cupcakes!

Who supplied the stationery?
Made all the invites and signage through a template off of Etsy

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
We actually did not go on a honeymoon, we bought our house three weeks after the wedding so we were saving up for that!

Personal touches
All of the signage we did ourselves, which took a lot of time and labor! We made large wood arch signs for our seating chart, head table, and welcome sign. A big thanks to family and friends for helping with those. Cricut work is no joke! One of my favorite personal touches was our guestbook, we took a plain cribbage board and had everyone sign it and now it’s full of signatures and we can always reminisce while we play a game of cribbage!

Special moments
Highlights of the day included our vows, I was so curious to hear what my husband’s vows were going to be! And they were perfect. I loved hearing the speeches as well, my dad’s was my favorite and it totally touched everyone’s heart in the room.

Advice for other couples?
They aren’t lying when it says it goes by so fast! Take it all in, take all the pictures, eat all the food, have fun! Try not to stress about the small things the day of, it’s not worth it and totally won’t matter! Also, if you can, designate someone to take pictures for you on your phone, having pictures to look at right after the wedding is so nice and something to hold you over until you get pictures back! Oh and another one, hire a day of coordinator. So worth it.

Biggest surprise
Biggest surprise was hearing my husband’s thank you speech at the reception. He’s not a big public speaker but he did so well!