Trying to write something about this wedding in a concise way is really overwhelming right now.

Overwhelming, in a good way.

When we received Jonathan + Ariel’s initial inquiry they told us their wedding – in three words – would be: simple, small, and lovely.

We tell our couples that we come to their wedding as family or close friends — and Jonathan and Ariel took us seriously.  It was only their immediate family.

And us.

So we, along with less than 20 other people, gathered at Norskedalen in Coon Valley to witness  them exchange their unique, hand-written vows, which were filled with passion and delivered with no reservations on an unusually warm and very sunny October day in Wisconsin. With just enough leaves on the trees to still make it feel like fall.

After the ceremony, on our drive back to Jonathan’s parent’s home, we saw a horse training facility in the Middle of Nowhere, WI. Ariel is an avid horseback rider and is the manager of an equestrian facility outside of LA, so we knew we had to pull over and ask the owners if we could take a few photos there. :) As you’ll see, they kindly let us wander their grounds and it was so fun watching Ariel with the horses. She was in her element and it was beautiful. Jonathan is an extremely talented graphic designer, you can thank him for a few TOMS catalogs :) but he’s also into photography and  architecture. His appreciation for architecture most likely comes from his father, who is an architect in the area and recently designed his own home, where the reception took place.

We could tell you more about their families and more about the non-showy speeches and lovely reception, because there was no pressure. No big crowd. No script needing to be followed. Just love conveyed through words and actions, confirming that their parents love them. But we’re trying to keep this from becoming a novel.

I’ll end with this – one of my favorite images from the day is of Ariel, sitting on the floor of her brand new in-law’s beautiful home, sharing dinner with… us. When we say we were honored to be a part of this wedding, we’re not exaggerating. We truly felt like honored guests, who happened to be taking a lot of photos. :)