I came across Ariel and Dave’s pictures on Jessie of Simply Jessie Photography’s blog. What struck me instantly about them was how casual, relaxed, and genuinely sweet they felt. I thought they’d be a perfect couple for Middle of the Map. Ariel and Dave decided to have a private ceremony in January, but then threw a big celebration party with all their friends and family in the summer. Since these pictures aren’t of their actual wedding day, I thought it would be a perfect post to share as “inspiration”.
I asked Ariel some questions about her and Dave’s planning process, and why they decided to have a separate ceremony and reception:
Our main goal was to keep things as simple as possible, we knew we wanted our party to be stress free, authentic, and facilite opprotunities to genuinely celebrate with our guests. This is what led to us splitting our wedding ceremony and reception to begin with. Having already exchanged our vows in a ceremony with our family prior to our reception, we were free to relax and enjoy celebrating with everyone we love.
Ariel and Dave are both casual by nature, but they still wanted their event to have unique flair. Ariel spent countless hours researching Etsy and wedding blogs to get fun ideas for their decor and favors. They both love BBQ’s so they decided to go with an outdoor celebration with lots of good food, and fun yard games to keep their guests entertained.
Thank you to Ariel for sharing some of the details of their sweet summer reception, and to Jessie for her lovely images.
