T-Plus 14 Days!
Hi everyone!
We're now two weeks into our lives of wedded bliss and so far so good!
We wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who attended both virtually and in-person. We had a wonderful time in Escanaba and were so happy to share it with so many of you!
There are some additional thanks and recognition that we'd like to extend.
Our much delayed anticipated wedding was a beast of spreadsheets, kanban boards, word documents, and group chats that took many hands to translate into an 83 guest, destination wedding (complete with pinball!). We were prepared for a hiccup or two, but with the wedding now behind us we can confidently say that things went more or less without a hitch. This would absolutely not have been possible without the amazing help of family, friends, U.P. businesses, and more.
Firstly, we'd like to extend our special thanks to Pastor Bucky for being our amazing (sword-wielding) officiant! Suffice it to say this ceremony was novel for everyone, but Bucky did not shy away from the challenge.
Secondly, we'd like to extend our special thanks to my brother Kent for being our Master of Ceremony (MC) and keeping the evening on schedule. All of the nitty gritty behind the scene details and solving last minute emergencies (like not enough internet in the middle of a park) were largely Kent. He also had to stand up in the wedding on top of all the other stuff so big shout-out to Kent for his work with the wedding, he was quite literally running the show, day of.
On a related note, special thanks to my other brother Quang for letting me throw him in the hot seat to run the Zoom and A/V for the ceremony. Quang got about 5 minutes of direction from me and managed to figure out how to run the sound system, microphones, two computers, a camera, and still hit all the cues on time. For those of you who attended virtually, thank Quang for making that happen as smoothly as it did.
Special thanks also to Escanaba's Yachtsman of the Year 2024 (better known as my Mom, Lori) for being our on the ground liaison to secure the Escanaba Yacht Club for our reception, as well as the City Park for our ceremony. Although my Mom isn't from Escanaba, the vessel she captains is, and her municipal and nautical connections were invaluable for getting us such an amazing venue to host our dream wedding.
One humongous special thanks goes out for Iris Wiinikka for being our wedding designer. Iris's creative vision is responsible for the gorgeous table decorations and many design details including my entire outfit. Without Iris, this wedding wouldn't have looked anywhere near as cool as it did, so thank you so much for all of your work in the months leading up to the big day.
We also extend special thanks to our Photographer Katey (KT Creative Photography), for jumping in with both feet and working with us to capture all of these lovely photos of our wedding (more to come). It was a bit of a whirlwind getting her onboard due to an unfortunate late cancellation with our original photographer, but she absolutely didn't let that hold her back. Thank you Katey for coming out to capture our special day!
One final personal thanks goes to James Fekete for being our chauffeur (with a Mercedes!) and ensuring that we arrived exactly at 5 o'clock for the ceremony.
Finally, some thanks to the many Michigan businesses that helped make our wedding happen:
House of Ludington catered the delicious dinner and provided much flexibility for housing the wedding party at their historic downtown hotel. Many thanks to the staff at the Ludington for helping to make this event happen.
Stenberg Bros furnished us with a tent, tables, and chairs so that we could host this wedding rain or shine. Many thanks to their employees for timely and professional work.
Suzy D's provided us with delicious (and stylish) cake and cupcakes for all to enjoy. Our thanks for accommodating our requests and beautifully laying out the dessert table.
Ever After Decorating provided us with a dance-floor, risers, and lights for the tent. Thank you for your (extremely last minute) work to get everything setup.
The Yooper Pinball Collective, provided us with free-play pinball machines that we didn't order enough of. The pinball machines were so popular we had to extend our rental another hour, so thank you for your flexibility with us. We will be less conservative in our estimates for pinball rentals in the future.
Celebrations Bridal Shop provided the impressively volumetric wedding dress worn by the bride. Many thanks for getting all the adjustments done just in time for the wedding.
Wickert Floral provided the lovely bouquets for the bridal party.
Archangel Steel custom forged the (really awesome) sword used in our wedding ceremony, complete with copper inlays in the handle. Our thanks for their expert craftsmanship, we look forward to many decades of adorning both our home and selves with said sword.
Many thanks again to everyone who attended and particularly to those who helped us do setup and tear-down. I could try to list everyone but it would mostly just be the entire guest list of the wedding so as a courtesy I will refrain. We hope that you had a fun time and will let you know next time we've found an excuse to throw a big party in da Yoop.
We'll be taking it easy this fall (back to grad school and work) but be on the lookout for a postcard from us in the next few weeks.
– Juxta & Lauren Sprague
p.s. If you have photos or video from our wedding, please feel free to share them with us at this link.