Originally set up as a styled photo shoot, Jon and Lauren decided to make the most of the situation (gorgeous setting, professional photographer!) and actually elope! The day took place in their family’s barn in Forreston, Illinois.
“It was freezing on the day”, Lauren began, “0 degrees Fahrenheit, but that wasn’t going to stop us! We had a vision for an intimate, low key elopement that was quite literally made for us. David, the husband of our photographer Roni, officiated the ceremony which was pretty cool.”
“I guess we would say that the theme was just ‘us'”, she continued. “There was no one else we had to please or impress. When the whole day was just a tiny idea, it was originally going to be a styled shoot planned by our photographer, but once we saw what was coming together, it quickly became the perfect day for our actual wedding. We realised it was the perfect opportunity to do what we’ve always wanted.”
“We love DIY so most of what you see was crafted and personalised for us. Many of the decorations were handmade but the big thing for me was hand making our wedding rings. I had my heart set on it. Jon has skateboarded his whole life (we actually met when I was working in a skateboard shop!) and he has loads of his own decks saved. So I used one of them to carve out our rings. Both rings were made from the same deck, carved, sanded and finished by me. There is no other set of rings on this planet that could tell our story better.”
“We really didn’t spend any money to get married, we had no reason to”, she concluded. “Everything around us was handmade or thrifted, and we wore clothes from Goodwill or that we already owned. My outfit was from Goodwill and cost $15 and Jon’s shirt cost $5! I have never been a fan of the crazy amounts of time and money that can go into weddings. We love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together. The only thing that might have been nice was to have my mother there, she is the best. But having one mom would mean having two.. plus dads, grandmas, aunts, uncles… and then the whole world. I’m glad we didn’t settle for something we didn’t really want.”
