We’ve photographed a lot of destination weddings in Wisconsin, and Doug + Lucy’s was one of our favorites. They live in Los Angeles now, but wanted their wedding in Wisconsin, where they’d both grown up spending summers at camp, and where they reconnected years later working at camps of their own. It was also our first Jewish wedding, with a chuppah, a ketubah signing, and a ceremony right on Delavan Lake.

They wanted the whole weekend to feel like a “J. Crew summer vibe,” with friends and family flying in from all over to spend a few days together at Lake Lawn Resort.

 

Lucy grew up in Highland Park, outside Chicago, and spent twelve summers at an all-girls camp in Northern Wisconsin, first as a camper, then a counselor, eventually on staff. After college, she took a job as assistant director at a boys’ camp nearby, and that’s where she reconnected with Doug, six years before their wedding.

Doug grew up a die-hard Chicago sports fan who somehow also became a Wisconsin Badger, and now works as an agent in Hollywood. Lucy teaches history, first at a charter school in South LA, now at a private school in the same city. Getting married back in Wisconsin, near the lakes and camps that shaped so much of their story, was never really a question.

Doug did a first look with Lucy before the ceremony, and it’s one of our favorite reactions we’ve ever caught on camera: three frames in a row of him just taking her in, completely unguarded. He had that same look again standing at the chuppah with his mom beside him, watching Lucy walk down the aisle.

This was our first Jewish wedding, and it’s stuck with us since. Doug and Lucy stood under a chuppah right on Delavan Lake, the water behind them for the whole ceremony, and had signed their ketubah beforehand, in a quieter moment away from the crowd. Little kids blew bubbles somewhere in the background the whole time, which might be the best kind of ambient noise an outdoor ceremony can ask for. We’ve since photographed several more Jewish weddings, including Dan and Michelle’s ceremony in La Crosse.

Lake Lawn Resort itself has a lower-slung, classic Wisconsin lake-resort look to it, older and unfussy in a way that works in its favor. A courtyard in the middle of the property, built around a water tower, gave cocktail hour a natural gathering point, and the whole resort is set up so guests can stay right on-site for the entire weekend. Doug and Lucy had people flying in from all over, plenty of them from LA, and having everyone under one roof for two or three days instead of just an afternoon made the whole thing feel more like a reunion than a single event.

Dinner and dancing moved upstairs into the resort’s main room after the ceremony. A live band played, and cocktail hour ran heavy on mini burgers and a full table of appetizers, exactly the kind of thing that keeps a reception loose instead of stiff. Lucy’s dress deserves its own mention too, with a ruffled, tiered skirt that even Ray, who doesn’t usually notice wedding dresses, still remembers clearly.

A quick note since this one’s from 2012: the cameras and software we used back then look nothing like what we use now, but the way we worked the day, staying out of the way and watching for real moments, hasn’t changed a bit.

A few questions we get about weddings at Lake Lawn Resort

Can you get married outdoors at Lake Lawn Resort? Yes. Doug and Lucy’s ceremony was right on Delavan Lake, with the water as the backdrop the whole time.

Is Lake Lawn Resort a good fit for a Jewish wedding? It worked well for Doug and Lucy. The lakefront ceremony site had enough open space for a chuppah, and there was a quiet spot nearby for the ketubah signing beforehand.

Can guests stay on-site for the whole wedding weekend? Yes, and it’s one of the best things about the venue. It’s a full resort with plenty of rooms, so guests can check in Friday and stay through the weekend instead of just showing up for a few hours on Saturday.

What’s the reception space like? Dinner and dancing happened upstairs in the resort’s main room, with cocktail hour beforehand in the courtyard near the property’s water tower.

Lake weddings are a theme for us. See Mae + Jim’s Horticultural Hall wedding in Lake Geneva, or Katy + Dan’s lake house wedding that ended with an amphibious car.