Maroon and Blush Romantic Summer Wedding at Town and Country Events in Milford, Illinois

This day was filled with more tears and love than I ever could have imagined. And trust me, I’ll get there but let me start with the venue. Town and Country Events in Milford is OMGGGGG STUNNING!!! It has an upstairs area that allowed the girls to get ready in. It had lots of windows so of course, ya girl was all for it! The morning of was so smooth with on and off rain sprinkles, but since we live in Illinois you truly never know!

Erin’s colors were very on brand with me so of course no complaints there 😂. And the flowers…. THE FLOWERS!!! I’d have to say this entire day may be my new favorite florals I have seen to date at a wedding. Erin’s bouquet was stunning – the off centered maroon detail flower was such a unique touch that I LOVED!! I’m thinking we’re about to see a lot more off centered bouquets soon… The ceremony flowers at the altar were just, yeah I can’t – YOU’LL SEE!!

Erin + Anthony decided to keep it traditional and not do a first look – but Erin and her dad did one and UGH did it pull on alllll my heart strings. Dad was STUNNED and all but dropped to his knees when he first laid eyes on his little girl. Honestly this moment set the stage for the ceremony. This is the first ceremony in a LONG time that I’ve broken down during the ceremony – and simply because I was amazed at the way these two love each other.

When I say this, I’m being 100% honest – there was not ONE single dry eye in the house for this ceremony. Me, Erin, Anthony, family, friends, bridal party, and the Pastor ALLLLL were crying!!  The first look down the aisle. My God, get your tissues. The way these 2 look at each other is the shit you see in movies. SO MUCH ROMANCE!!! I’m seriously envious of it – it’s beyond amazing. This is going to sound cheesy but the love these 2 have for each other is something I have never seen before, until now, and I’ve seen a lot of relationships over the last 8 years in this industry… couple GOALZZZ!!! They wrote their own vows, and yes you guessed it – more tears. Some of the best vows to date. They also did a feet washing ceremony which was so sweet and unique. I truly believe this day was not centered around “a wedding” or “a party” but rather the love that these two have for one another and their commitment for the rest of their lives. It was one of those days that remind you WHY you get married in the first place. Love.

Now, I have blabbed on enough at this point BUT I do have to say, this day in the hands of anyone (ANYONE) else could have been a disaster. Following the ceremony and formal photos, we headed out to attempt photos outside, but as we pulled up in the limo, the heavens opened up and it was a DOWNPOUR. After just MINUTES communicating between two vehicles to see what we wanted to do, I was SOAKED. We saw no break in the skies anytime soon so we headed back to the Town and Country Events venue, which luckily is not only AMAZING but HUGE and full of different rooms with natural light, so we worked around the building getting our shots inside. During the reception, however, we were able to sneak away not only once but twice for portraits with SUNLIGHT and those are simply beautiful photos as well!

THE PROPOSAL

“Anthony proposed on September 22, 2020!!!! Anthony had a day off school and suggested they have a picnic at Perry Farm Park. He said he would make BLT sandwiches and get everything ready and pick me up for lunch that day. We were also going to go get frosty’s for desert before going to the park, but for some reason, the line for the Wendy’s drive through was all the way out of the parking lot. So, we settled for blizzards instead. After we picked up the blizzards, we started driving to the park. Anthony is rather notoriously bad at directions, but today he was especially struggling! Twice, when he asked which direction he should turn, he ended up turning the opposite direction of what I said! Still, I didn’t really think anything was out of the ordinary! Then, once we got to the park, I suggested we sit on a bench close to the parking lot to finish the blizzards before we went hiking into the back part of Perry Farm to find a place to eat lunch overlooking a wooded ravine. One of the blizzards we got was a snickerdoodle cookie dough flavor. All Anthony could manage to say while we were eating the blizzard was “Wow…it tastes like Christmas!” We finally finished up our blizzards and started walking to the back part of Perry. There had been a really bad, windy storm that had knocked down a lot of trees since the last time I had been there, so we actually had a difficult time finding the place we normally ate lunch. We walked around for quite a while before we came upon this picnic set up — It was absolutely gorgeous!!! There was this brown and white checkered blanket, a canvas backpack-style picnic bag, and two place settings with plates, silverware, and little stemmed glasses along with sparkling grape juice and a BEAUTIFUL mason jar willed with a dozen red roses and baby’s breath. When I saw this all set up, I look at Anthony and I’m like, Oh no, Anthony, we better hurry up and find a new spot, it looks like someone’s going to propose here or something. And Anthony says back, ‘Erin, I think that has our names on it’. Even at this point, I was still just thinking Anthony had surprised me with a really nice picnic! But then, I looked at Anthony, and saw the expression on his face, and realized…wait…this is set up for a proposal…its mine!!!! As soon as I realized what was happening, Anthony was getting down on one knee, and I saw one of Anthony’s friends who is a professional photographer step out from behind some trees, and Anthony asked me to marry him!!!!! AND I SAID YES!!!!! “ – Erin

Erin, Anthony, what an ADVENTURE your day was! From breathtaking moments to monsoon moments and everything in between, I couldn’t have imagined a better couple to take that on. Thank you for allowing me to stay by your side thrugh it all and capture everything from my perspective. I can’t wait to see where life takes you. 🖤

VENDORS // Town And Country Events // Grace Ahlden // Thrive Salon // Lindsey Lane Bridal // DaVinci Bridal // Statement Grey Jewelry // Birdy Grey // Bella Belle Shoes // Suit Shop // Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry // Dawn Zachgo // Dylan Lee Videography // Applewood Foods Catering // Live Audio & Events // Something Blue Bakery // Michael Pueschell // Sophie Hafer // Cody Byrum //