Horses were grazing in the pasture right next to the wedding tent at Rusty Buckets Farm, and the ceremony itself sat at the edge of a marsh. That’s not staged. That’s just what the land does there.
Rusty Buckets is Casey’s family farm, 170 acres along the Wolf River near Winneconne, just outside Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Casey’s brother lives on the property now and runs it as a wedding venue with a guest house on site, but the land has been in the family for generations: a dairy farm first, then fur trapping. There’s still a channel cut through the water connecting to the lake nearby, dug decades ago to move trapped animals between the two. Most venues borrow their charm. This one earned it.
The detail that stuck with us: the family built a small cabin at the edge of that lake, reachable only by canoe. After the reception wound down, Tommasina and Casey paddled out to it together and spent their first night as a married couple there. We’ve photographed a lot of weddings. We hadn’t seen a send-off quite like that one.
The ceremony itself was full of family. Flower girls, readings, speeches from people who clearly meant every word; this wasn’t a wedding where two people stood up front and everyone else just watched. A live string band played through the ceremony, and the music carried out over the marsh in a way no speaker system could fake.
Later, the barn turned into a square dance, which is exactly the kind of thing that happens when a wedding takes place on land a family has owned for a hundred years. The food, the flowers, the small decor touches scattered through the tent: all of it had the feel of a backyard wedding done with real intention, not a venue trying to look like one.
Tommasina and Casey were easy to be around all day, the kind of couple who’d rather laugh with their guests than pose for a list of shots. That’s our favorite kind of wedding to shoot.
Here’s the full day at Rusty Buckets Farm: Tommasina and Casey’s wedding near Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
If a family farm and a marsh-edge ceremony sound like your kind of day, take a look at our guide to turning family land into a wedding venue, or browse our list of Wisconsin’s best wedding venues.
