Not only did Kenny & Elise have an adorable wedding by Pearls Events with shades of grey and fun pops of oranges and corals, but their day was bright and so much fun too! A reception filled with lanterns, tassels, beautiful bright floral provided by Hey Gorgeous Events, and mercury glass candle light illuminating every table, it’s hard not to fall in love… but upon reading more about Elise & Kenny, it’s hard not to fall in love with them too!
The bride and groom spend the morning getting ready for their big day at adorable cabins in Grand Haven. The bridesmaids wore matching board short outfits, and got their hair (Kayley Heeringa) and make up (Hanna Wagner) done for the big day. Meanwhile, the boys played guitar and tossed around a football on the beach. After, they headed to church where Elise slipped into her beautiful gown by Enzoani which was covered in rosettes, swoon!
The couple danced the night away at the Spring Lake Country Club with friends and family, and ate a delicious orange cake by Mirabella Confections that was adorned with fresh peonies, and covered in edible gold flecks, Yum!
Not only did the groom get a custom made necklace for the bride as a remembrance of her mother, but wait until you hear this proposal story… it’s just too sweet! Here it is from the groom’s perspective!
When Elise and I starting working together she would draw “stick-figure cartoons” on sticky notes and give them to me. These sticky notes were typically depictions of inside jokes, or chronicles of time we spent together. Over the past couple of years I have accumulated quite a few sticky notes and wanted to somehow incorporate them in the proposal.
I ended up creating a book with characters that resembled the ones Elise drew on her sticky notes. The book chronicled our relationship and the very last page has my character proposing. I planned on giving Elise the book after our date that night and proposing at the end. Sounds like a foolproof plan, right? Wrong.
Maybe this means I am completely naive, but proposing to Elise was one of the most stressful things I have ever experienced. I started looking at rings at the beginning of April 2012 and wanted to propose at the end of May. Between the countless hours ring shopping, problems with the original diamond, drawing and printing the book, and Elise attempting to go out of town the weekend of the proposal, I was on edge. After weeks of planning and finally getting everything in order, I thought nothing else could go wrong. Again, I was very, very wrong…
I asked Elise to go on a date with me that Saturday night (*not out of the ordinary because I am the most romantic guy in the world) and she said yes. Three days before the proposal Kaitlin asked us to get together for a double date. Of course, the girl who introduced me to Elise is now unknowingly about to ruin my plans. I could have easily said no but Elise would have been on to something so I decided to agree to the double date and figure out how to get out of it later. After coming up with no alternative solution, I called Kaitlin the night before and told her I was proposing the next day. She agreed that she wouldn’t say anything (I may or may not have threatened her with her life) and would call Elise the next day and cancel.
Saturday afternoon Elise and I went to Pinot Picasso. Turns out, I am not a very good painter. Regardless of my sub-par artistic skills, we had a great time. Kaitlin called Elise about half-way through painting and canceled the plans for that night, so it was just going to be us two for dinner. We went to Max’s Wine Dive for dinner and then headed back to my place to hang out for a bit. When we got back to the house I gave Elise the book.
I had originally placed the ring under my bed, right next to where I assumed she would sit to read the book. This would make it easy to pop down on one knee and get the ring out; I thought this plan was fool-proof. Strike three, wrong again. Elise grabbed the book and plopped down on the other side of the bed. It is very hard to get down on one knee and ask someone to marry you when they are on the other side of the room. Needless to say, none of it mattered in the end when she read that last page. I asked her to marry me, told her I had a ring under the bed, and she said yes!
