Amy & Ryan: Soaking Up Their Special Day 

Today on the blog we feature Amy & Ryan! We love being able to chat with our former couples to share their love story and wedding memories—especially when they are as genuine as these two.

The Back Story

Amy and Ryan met while living in a small college town and the rest was history! When the two got engaged and it was time to pick a wedding venue, holding the ceremony and reception in one place was important to them:

“We chose HORIZONS because we didn’t want to be worried coordinating different vendors for each piece. Andrea was fantastic to work with, and it was just about as ‘one-stop shop’ as you can get for this sort of thing. That saved us a lot of time and mental effort.”

We love meeting all our couples and seeing their unique visions for their wedding day! Sometimes, these visions involve a complete transformation of our ballrooms, some match our look already; creating a versatile space has always been our goal. Amy and Ryan prioritized the feel of the day—they wanted to simply have fun with their family and friends.

“When we chose HORIZONS as our venue, I knew that I wanted it to feel like having friends over for a party in an old-fashioned Downton Abbey or Jane Austen kind of way. The style of the rooms we used fit perfectly so we didn’t feel like we needed extra decorations … The table designs and florals that we chose turned out to be plenty since the space looks so good on its own.”

The Planning Process

During the engagement, Ryan was working hard in grad school, so Amy did most of the planning while he helped as much as he could.

“My favorite part was seeing it all come together. The planning process was really hard because I’m not great at making decisions, especially when a lot of money is involved. I liked the floral consultation when HORIZONS had an example table set up for us. That was when I could really see how it would all come together.”

As Amy mentioned, wedding planning can be stressful when you are presented with what seems like endless decisions. To help with this, she recommends attending one of HORIZONS Wedding Showcases to get a look at all of the options.

“It gave me a lot of ideas and helped us decide on our table design and the overall feel we wanted for our wedding.”

However, their biggest takeaway from the planning process is to have someone to coordinate:

“You need to have someone who isn’t family coordinate things for you. If you have your family running things, they won’t be able to enjoy the day with you. Having Andrea help walk us through all of our decisions during planning and keep things running on schedule on our wedding day was a huge relief. And I don’t think our wedding would have turned out so well without her help. Our guests are still talking about how much they enjoyed it two years later!”

The Big Day

Amy and Ryan held both their ceremony and old fashioned-inspired reception in our ballrooms. While reflecting on the day, Amy talked about how memorable the little moments she and Ryan shared alone that day.

“I’m thankful that my husband and I scheduled some time for the two of us to be alone with each other. We did a first look, so the photos were done earlier in the day. It was nice to have some time with our wedding party before the day got too busy. And then Ryan and I had a few minutes to ourselves immediately after the ceremony, which was a really nice way to reflect on the fact that WE JUST GOT MARRIED!!!”

After going through the wedding day, Amy and Ryan want to share with other couples the importance of not stressing over anything.

“The day will go by way too fast to waste a moment of it worrying about details. Just let the day happen and enjoy it.”

And we know this was so true of Amy and Ryan. You can see their enjoyment in every photo. Even when asked what they would change about the day, the two couldn’t give an answer; we think this had every bit to do with their laid-back, content attitude.

Now that they are an “old married couple,” they were able to impart some relationship wisdom …

“Don’t expect your partner to be a mind-reader. If you want something, whether it’s for your wedding or just in your everyday life, you need to speak up and share with your partner. Tell them why it’s important to you, and be open and accepting when they do the same with you.”

What great, practical advice … and knowing these two, we would follow it! Thank you, Amy and Ryan, for talking to us about your love story and wedding. We loved reminiscing about the beautiful day with you!

~All photos were taken at HORIZONS~

Photos by: Brian and Stacey Photography and Cinema