It’s not often you can say you have guests from more states present than missing at your wedding, but Shanleigh and Matt’s traditional Catholic wedding managed that feat. With over 300 guests from 28 different states, their wedding was planned perfectly down to every last detail. With nods to the Irish traditions from Shanleigh’s family and Welsh traditions from Matt’s, every part of their wedding reflected something important to them!
From the bride, “We had a hand fasting, did a river rock table, and used the celtic trinity symbol as a part of our logo and on my engagement ring. We had a special groom’s cake and a design on his ring to honor his Welsh/Nordic family tradition. I wanted the entire event to feel personal, classic, elegant, and fun. We included pictures of us from each age to match the table numbers and personalized the favors to include both coffee and tea (coffee for him and tea for me). While we were supposed to have our event outside under tents, we moved it inside because it was so cold! Lots of DIY elements, like doily banners, shutters, and side walk chalk decorations were used, and the ceremony was highly infused with personal things like a family bible, a 6 pence from ireland, and a special rosary. Matt loves Captain America (he’s a pilot in the Air Force), so we included a superhero theme into the groomsman’s outfits and into the photo booth. We included lots of elements at the reception to make sure our guests felt taken care of, such as shawls, flip flops, and glow sticks for dancing. The signature cocktails were fun too (mine was Seahawks G & T and his was a nod to Captain America, called the Boy from Brooklyn and was a manhattan)! Our love story in and of itself is pretty spectacular (I’m biased, I know, but it is!) as we had known each other for over 10 years before we reconnected and started dating. We dated long distance for our entire relationship and are finally now together almost 2 years later.”
