Dylan and Kate's Wedding in Keuka Park, New York

The story of our wedding

We’ve been through it all in the last year. As I’m sure many COVID brides are and were in the same boat as us. We started this journey over a year ago, when Dylan proposed to me & completely swept me off my feet. We’ve hit more than a few curveballs since then. So let’s back up Dylan & I met in college. It was the last weekend of his undergraduate journey when he stumbled upon me! Who would’ve thought the city girl & country boy would fall in love that night?! He, with the help of a dear friend Matt to capture the most perfect moment, popped the question & completely swept me off my feet! This was right before he was preparing to go away for 6 months for his career. For 6 months we communicated everything wedding over the 20 minutes that was allotted for “phone time” at 8pm daily. Then we received some news that this long distance was to stay longer than expected. For over a year, we planned the most perfect, dream wedding we had imagined with 250 of our family and friends in attendance. We had meetings with our wedding vendors the first week of March 2020 & I remember looking into Dylan’s smile & saying “this is really coming together & I’m so excited.” Then COVID happened. Our venue closed, we booked a new venue that just didn’t feel right, & planned a whole new wedding at a third venue in a month’s span. As we like to say, the third time was the charm. We went from a guest list of 250 to 50. We went from an extravagant experience to breaking it down to the things that really matter in life; our love, the people that mean the most to us, & health/happiness. In my planning, I read that the average wedding in 2010 costed about $10,000. In 2019, the average wedding costed $40,000. That resonated with me. We were planning that larger-than-life experience for our guests, when that isn’t what matters. We married at a small wedding ceremony and reception at our family’s generational lake house on Keuka Lake, NY. It has been in Dylan’s family for over 100 years, but we are the first wedding! The day was absolutely lovely. We stayed in neighboring houses, so the morning of the wedding I felt some Romeo & Juliet vibes while I watched our wedding come together and we exchanged heart-felt notes. Dylan’s uncle wed us in a beautiful ceremony that commenced with “Sweet Caroline” on the violin & piano. We were introduced to our reception via boat. On our way to the reception, we saw all of the boats converge to congratulate us! Our bridal party wanted to take the jet skis for a spin, so suit & gown they had a blast! We danced the night away underneath a star-filled night that was illuminated by bistro lighting on the water’s edge. The night commenced with “Blessings” by Florida Georgia Line. In that moment, it sure wasn’t hard to count my blessings: we had health & happiness & our loved ones surrounding.