A Fall Wedding at The Greenhouse at Bittersweet

How long did you spend engaged? 

We were engaged for 2 years. Most of that decision was based on vendor availability because of weddings being pushed back due to the pandemic. We also loved that we got more time to plan everything and didn’t feel rushed during the process.

What was your wedding planning experience like?

Sami definitely took charge right away, she’s the planner. We used a lot of spreadsheets and mood boards to keep everything organized and to make sure everything was cohesive. Sami gave Natalie options for major decisions but Natalie knew there was always a “right” choice. We brought a binder the day of the wedding with EVERYTHING in it that anyone would need to know so that we didn’t have to worry about being asked a ton of questions.

Tell us about how you approached the wedding ceremony?

We both decided to write our own vows, we wanted the ceremony to feel more personal. Sami’s maid of honor is a writer so she volunteered herself to read both of our vows before the big day and make sure one of us wasn’t going to be reading a novel. 

Sami’s brother was our officiant and something he did during our ceremony was pass around our wedding rings and asked every guest to hold them and say a prayer, well wishes, anything they wanted to wish us luck in our marriage.

There were so many moments from the day that meant so much to us. But our vows, our loved ones speeches, and of course the dancing, stood out the most. We made sure to take a lot of intentional moments to say “holy shit, this is our wedding” and really take in everything.