Casey and Will wanted an intimate wedding where they could spend lots of time with their loved ones. Instead of booking a traditional wedding venue, they hired a holiday home that they could all stay in.
“I would describe the theme of the wedding as eclectic, charming, elegant, and intimate”, began the bride. “I didn’t really plan a themed wedding, but just went with everything that I thought was beautiful. I figured it was our only wedding and I was just going to do whatever I liked.”
“We were inspired a lot by how my sister had done her wedding because I loved how intimate it was. She had her wedding at a large vacation rental so we could stay up and celebrate all night and nobody was going to kick us out. I really liked that as a guest, so when Will and I started planning, we wanted to find a place that we could rent overnight and stay up and celebrate as long as we wanted. That’s how we found the Second Star Vacation Rental in Homer, Alaska and knew it would be perfect. All of the other details and ideas came from my own personal style mixed with ideas I liked that I found online.”
The ceremony was extra special because it was officiated by the bride’s stepmother. “I loved our ceremony!” Casey said. “My stepmom officiated and we wrote our own vows. It was very sentimental and personalised. It was really special writing our own vows and pretty cool to see how many of the vows Will and I wrote in private paralleled each others. One of my favourite things we did was having our guests participate in our ceremony by inviting them to encircle us in a chain of flowers laid on the grass. It was really beautiful and intimate.”
“The greatest expense we had was our venue”, she explained. “It was about a third of our wedding budget, but we had the vacation rental for three nights and it was an amazing place to hang out with friends and family. Having my family do the food for the wedding was awesome and saved us money. We picked favourite foods we had tried all over the world and incorporated it into our wedding menu.”
“I wouldn’t change a single thing about the day”, she concluded. “Not everything was perfect, but that’s good because it prepares us for married life! Marriages aren’t perfect, but what makes them work and be beautiful is how we work together and handle challenges. I’m glad things weren’t perfect because we got to laugh it off and appreciate the day for what it was – the day that I got to marry my husband and celebrate our love; imperfections and all.”
