Sean and Kelsey's Wedding in McCall, Idaho

After our first look at the venue we piled into trucks with the wedding party (groomsmen in the back) and drove to the state park to take some photos. It was so beautiful with all of the pine trees and sunshine; Sean and I love being outdoors so we knew we wanted to spend most of our day outside. Sean especially is a huge tree nerd and loves identifying trees so it was the perfect place for us to feel the excitement before our ceremony.

The ceremony was wonderful and emotional, we ended up having our siblings (all in their 20s) walk down the aisle together as ‘flower siblings’ in addition to their duties as Ring Bearer, Maid of Honor and Best Man. We also had a sibling table for dinner instead of a sweetheart table which allowed us to have some extra time with our new joint family and was really fun! Sean and I wrote and read our own vows which made the ceremony really intimate for all of our guests.

Following the ceremony our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we snuck away for some post-ceremony photos behind the venue which was nice to have some one-on-one time together. We caught the end of the cocktail hour with two signature drinks, the Idaroe, a huckleberry/gin/thyme beverage with a play on our last name Roe and Idaho and the Bronco, our college mascot which had whiskey/sweet tea/lemon.

For dinner we had everyone sit at their tables and had ‘his and hers salads’ (mine was stone fruit and goat cheese and Sean’s was panzanella) at each table for everyone to munch on while they waited for the buffet which was a really fun touch! We both love food so our caterers did a fun mix of foods that we both love for our buffet. This included al pastor tacos, chorizo manchego sliders, avocado sweet potato salad and salmon quinoa cakes.

We did speeches during the dinner beneath our Neon Sign which was extra special since we got the sign from my next-door neighbor growing up.

The dance floor was extra packed the rest of the night and we did a double bouquet toss on the dance floor which was really fun. I tossed my bouquet for the single girls to “Man! I feel like a Woman” by Shania Twain and Sean tossed one of the bridesmaids bouquets for the single guys to “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC which really brought out the competitive spirits of the crowd. I changed into sparkly Keds for the dance floor which I highly recommend since it was nice to put some flats on after a full day in heels.

We ended the night with LED sparklers and we used our decorated RAV 4 as our getaway car which was extra fun since we’ve been traveling around it in the last two years while working remotely. It was a perfect day filled with family and friends and it was so special to have everyone make the journey to Idaho to celebrate.

Some planning details: Scandia Inn is a very DIY venue, we brought everything in including catering, rentals, floral, etc.

Sean and his groomsmen rented tuxedos from the black tux which worked out great and we gifted them taupe bow ties to match the bridesmaids dresses which were from Birdy Grey. I got my dress from BHLDN and it had a removable back bow so it was two looks in one which I loved! I ended up wearing the same dress for the ceremony and the reception but it felt like two dresses.

We knew we wanted a wedding in Idaho, but both of us like more modern styles which is why The Scandia Inn was the perfect place to craft our vision.

My favorite color is pink, but we wanted the wedding to feel like both of us and feel like summer so we went with the a color palette of peach, sage, taupe and blush. We wanted neutral tones but wanted our flowers and tables to add pops of color. Our florist did such a great job with color creating ikebana arrangements with bud vases for the tables and we added in sage green candlesticks to add to the color.

Since we had to bring in all of the rentals we decided to be smart about our place settings. We rented flatware, water goblets and linen napkins but used biodegradable plates to save some space which worked out great.

We had a friend design our wedding signage based off of our invitations and then we printed them out ourselves which was a great way to save some money. We ended up doing a welcome sign, a bar sign, a large dinner menu before the buffet, programs, place cards and a restroom sign.

We also had a friend make our cutting cake and then we supplemented with a dessert table from catering with mini-desserts which our guests loved. We had our florist save some extra flowers for the cake and got a cake topper on Etsy which turned out great!

We got our favors from Etsy - we ended up giving everyone little keychain bottle openers with our names and the outline of Idaho engraved on them. This was perfect since most of our guests had flown in so it was small and useful.