ABC member planner: Janice Board, Spectacular Soirees Wedding & Event Planning, Terre Haute, Ind., 812.841.4311, spectacular.soirees@gmail.com, 
 www.spectacularsoirees.com.

Photographer: Vintage Spark Photography. Non-member business involved: Brandon Harris Event Lighting, Heinl’s Flower Shop, J. Lin Catering The couple: Betsy Young and Matt Dillin live in Colorado and share a great love of the outdoors and sports. They weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty with DIY projects, which made the experience even more enjoyable. They were invested in this wedding process more than the average couple.wedding Date: Sept. 8, 2012. Inspiration: Betsy and Matt were inspired by the outdoors and a casual sense of style. Color palette: Teal, yellow, white. Approximate budget: $15,000.
Guest count: 50. Most unique design element: Using the canoe as the bar, mismatched vintage plates for place settings, creating a clearing and aisle in the middle of the forest, hanging/draping a multitude of lanterns from wire 12 feet off of the ground surrounding the ceremony site, and using a great deal of burlap. Biggest challenge: By far, the ceremony site was the biggest challenge. We were excited to finally have a venue owned by the client. That meant we could take our time to set up both the ceremony and reception site over the course of seven days. We created a clearing in the forest and a hiking path to the site. The path was about a quarter-of-a-mile walk from the reception location on the family property. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. It poured the two days before the wedding, so we had to do the ceremony and reception site installations in one day. The site and the path leading up to it were mud pits. We covered the entire area with straw so guests would not sink into the ground. We also designed a temporary aisle made of heavy concrete blocks—the groom and groomsmen installed it. It was all hands on deck when the two days of rain truncated the schedule. Another challenge was the distance from the family home to the ceremony site. Everything had to be transported via “gator.” Additional challenges included widening the path to the family home for access by the coach bus transporting guests, clearing a pathway to the site so the gators/trucks could transport materials multiple times, and jury rigging table leg jacks under the reception tables so they didn’t sink into the wet ground. Hindsight: We really don’t have any regrets for this wedding, except the weather, which we could not control. Of course, one can always use more detail photos including—the visually beautiful vignettes of antique lanterns, hand-made wooden buckets/barrels, bales of straw, an antique wooden wheelbarrow filled with colorful mums, candles, and more, all set up along the lantern-lined walkway to the ceremony site. The family also had a fabulous old, red barn and rusty farm implements throughout the property.