During my touring days, I was lucky enough travel around States in a big bus with great friends and musicians but I must admit, after a few years… places started to look the same. Now, two years later, only a handful of cities spring to mind when I think of all time spent I spent on the road. One such place is Ann Arbor, MI, a really cool University town where we got to play in a great little venue called The Ark. Anyway, when I found out that today’s couple Anna Marie and Chris are actually from Ann Arbor, I was immediately drawn to them. Originally, Anna Marie and Chris were going to pack their bags and head to Mexico to get married but on a road trip from San Diego to San Francisco, they came across and fell in love with Monterey’s coastline… after seeing these gorgeous images from J Nelson Photography, I totally get it.
The absolutely stunning bride, Anna Maria is actually in the wedding business herself and she was more than happy to give us all the details!
“Chris and I are from Chelsea, Michigan – a small city outside of Ann Arbor. We met in 6th grade, however, did not start dating until after college. We hung out in the same circle of friends in high school and remained in-touch while attending two different universities. We randomly hung out after returning home days after graduating college. An attraction that had never been there before hit us both instantly. We hung out almost everyday after that until I moved to Colorado for my career. Chris followed a few months later. I am a wedding and event planner at the Vail Marriott Resort. Chris is the Head Golf Pro at the Vail Golf Club. After three years of dating, Chris was ready to pop the question. He wanted to ask me before I flew to Michigan for my brother’s wedding, so we could celebrate with my family. The ring that he designed with a jeweler in Utah didn’t arrive in time. In a bit of a panic, Chris drove eight hours roundtrip to meet the jeweler halfway to pick up the ring. I thought he was at a normal day of work! He made it home 30-minutes before I did. I walked into our condo and there Chris was, all dressed up and down on one knee! We went to a beautiful dinner and drank lots of champagne to celebrate!” – Poor Chris, I’m sure he was nervous enough about the actual proposal, never mind getting his hand on the ring! Top marks though!
“We were originally planning on having our wedding in Mexico, but decided to keep it a bit simpler and stay in the states. A year prior to our wedding planning, we had made the drive up Hwy 1 from San Diego to San Francisco. We spent some time in Monterey and fell in love with the dramatic coastline, fabulous wineries and world-class golf courses. We wanted to share this gem of a place with our closest family and friends. We did not hire a wedding planner as I figured I would just work a few more hours each week at the same type of thing! Even being in the business, it was pretty overwhelming at times. We only went to Monterey one time during the planning process. I found all of my vendors online except my photographers and my hair stylist – we flew both of them in. It was extremely helpful to read all the reviews for the vendors. I narrowed each piece of the wedding down to one or two vendors and then set up a crazy fun wedding planning weekend in Monterey to make final decisions. At some points it was difficult hearing back from the vendors (months in some cases), but they all came through in the end. I was patient and only hounded people when I really needed to”
“Every single thing in the wedding was us. We tweaked and tailored a traditional wedding to fit our personalities and tastes. For example, our wedding did not have a candle-lighting ceremony or sand-pouring ceremony. Instead we had a manhattan drink making ceremony! My grandparents had a relationship that I adored. And, they would make a manhattan each night and drink it together while discussing their day. So, I asked my Man of Honor (my brother, Nate) to honor them by mixing a drink during the ceremony. “Like Whisky and Vermouth, Chris and Anna Marie are better together than apart” 🙂 Too funny and so perfect for us. The audience had “John Daly” (golf related beverage – for Chris) drinks passed to them for the ceremony, so that everyone could toast the bride and groom. Although this was my favorite piece of the wedding that showed how we made it personal, the entire weekend was sprinkled with little pieces of us. Golf with the Groom – a golf tourney for our guests. Sip Wine with the Bride – a winery tour and tasting. The best decision we made was to do a destination wedding and to keep it at 50 guests. All the people that were our most cherished were there supporting us, and becoming friends with each other. “Every wedding should be a destination wedding” was a frequent comment throughout the weekend!”
Love the Manhattan Drink Making Ceremony! To Anna Marie and Chris – thanks so much for letting us share your story! Really looks like you had the best day of your lives! Special thanks also to J Nelson Photography for allowing us to share these amazing pictures! Have a great weekend everyone!
