Happy Valentine’s Day!!!! How exciting it is that we are sharing Our Wedding Story on a day about love! This was our first V-Day as husband and wife… Ryan was too cute, he wanted Nicole to open her gift last night so she could “use” it today. They were a pair of super cute Celtic Knot earrings with amethyst.It’s crazy to think that we are beginning our 5th month of marriage. We had an amazing couple of days, yes that’s right, our wedding was over 2 different days.

Nicole has always dreamt of an intimate wedding with just her closest family and friends, while Ryan wanted to have a big celebration with all his family and friends. Our compromise was to have a 2-part wedding. The actual wedding day with a small dinner after and then a reception a couple weeks later.

Our wedding day started out a little nontraditional, as we are not the most traditional people, where we woke up together and got Starbucks on our way to Nicole’s parent’s house where she would be getting her hair done. Ryan then proceeded north to meet up with his family. After this early part of the day, everyone headed to a small town in Ohio called West Liberty.

The ceremony was held at the Mac A Cheek house of the Piatt Castles in West Liberty, Ohio. Nicole fell in love with the location due to the old Gothic feel it radiated. This worked perfectly as the design of the wedding decorations were referred to as “Modern Medieval” (yes… Ryan was confused by this concept and as Nicole described it… a medieval feel without being constumey).

One of our favorite parts of a wedding day is the First Look, so it was only natural that we would have a First Look ourselves! This was an amazing part of our day and honestly, was the only part we had to ourselves until we made it back to the hotel. Our First Look was held at the second house of the Piatt Castles, the Mac O Chee house. (Yes we kept getting the names mixed up and finally Nicole just kept referring to them as the mac-n-cheese houses).

Of course, full of love and excitement, we had to do some more photos of us!

This is our Bonnie and Clyde pose without the crimes.

Our ceremony started right as the sun was about to start setting… which made for GORGEOUS light!!!!

Who else has a best man down on one knee to present them their rings!!!!! (Not to mention, it was the best man’s suggestion, not ours. We have awesome friends.)

During our ceremony we did a Glass Ceremony. Nicole loved the concept of the unity candle, but was not a fan of the actual unity candle. She wanted something that was able to be displayed. While searching the wonderful world of Pinterest, she came across the idea of a Glass Ceremony. The concept is like Unity Sand Ceremony but with a fantastic twist. After the ceremony, the glass frit is then created into a one of a kind art piece that can used to display in your home!

Once the ceremony was over, we did a few Just Married portraits while our families enjoyed a Cocktail hour… don’t worry, we caught up on drinks after our photos!

Nicole had WAY WAY WAY too much fun with the sword.

The last part of Our Wedding Day was spend having a dinner with our family and friends. The pictures will never give justice how BEAUTIFUL the dinner reception area was. The only light source was candles. No car lights. No street lights. No outside house lights (except near the bathroom). The ambiance screamed love and romance.

These “caters” are very special ladies in Nicole’s life… they’re her aunts who volunteered to help out when our cater fell through.  Just so you know, our wedding dinner was Bob Evans (and it was delicious)!

There was approximately 3 weeks between the Wedding Ceremony and Reception. After having some time to enjoy being married and celebrating our honeymoon, we were ready to celebrate our marriage with everyone! To bring in a touch of our honeymoon, we entered the hall and proceed right into our first dance with our mask we found in New Orleans.  As we entered the hall, our first dance song, A Little More by Skillet Played.  Most couples share sweetness during their first dance… well our motto and sayings were “Slow the F down”… according to our dance instructor, Bud, we danced a little fast for our song.  

How cool is our custom-made card box!!! Nicole’s mom free hand painted it.

Even though Nicole’s big sister, Candace was her maid of honor, she was not so keen on giving a speech.  (Honestly, can’t blame her… being the center of attention is not our thing either).  So, instead, her 3 best friends decided to join the best man to say a few words!  We may sound partial, because let us be honest, we are… but our Cake was perfectly beautiful. Our friend, Jenny, created this cake just by a few descriptions and one photo Nicole had sent her. Not to mention, the taste was super delicious!!!!!

OK… so our cutting of the cake may have gotten a little aggressive, but Nicole attacked first.

We hope you enjoyed Our Wedding Story because we did. We want to give a special Thanks to everyone who helped make our wedding an amazing day. Our family and friends are really awesome, and we couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to be a part of this special thanks goes to Nicole’s mom for being the mastermind around the design, execution and time she put into making sure the day was everything Nicole has ever wanted.

Welcoming ourselves to the married kids club!

Ryan and Nicole

Special thank you to all who helped and made our day amazing!

Photography | Rachel Spears Photography

Dress Store | David’s Bridal

Designer & Decorator | Debbie Jones

MUA | Laura Kersey-Jones

Hair | Mallory at Tangles Hair Designers

Ceremony Venue | Piatt Castles in West Liberty, OH

Reception Venue | Miami Township Community Center

Cake | Jenny

DJ | Hot Trax

Bridesmaid Dresses | David’s Bridal

Jewelry and Hair Piece | Custom Made by Tiffany Jensen

Dance Instructor| Your First Dance by Bud Walters

Guys Suits | JC Penny

Cater | Bob Evans

Glass Frits and Vase | Neusole Glassworks

Ceremony Music | Nicholas Jones