As an entrepreneur, now married to a fellow entrepreneur, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that we opted to do things our own way when getting married. We took advantage of our flexible schedules, desire to pave our own path, and creative minds to envision the Midwest Wedding Tour: a unique and nontraditional way to celebrate a marriage by traveling to visit multiple groups of friends and family.

Opting out of a big ceremony, formal reception, engagement party, bridal showers, paper invitations, and many other traditional things made way for us to create a celebration that was unique and true to us. The concept of the Midwest Wedding Tour began over dinner with a client and friend, Bailey, as we dreamed up a potential business idea and unconventional way of getting married. Daniel and I ran with the idea and made it our own, with an intentional focus on connection.

Through the Midwest Wedding Tour we spent a total of 74 hours celebrating with close friends and family over 17 days. With a total of 13 events across three cities, we prioritized intimate celebrations and supporting local.

13 Events Make for One Unique Celebration

We used a Fujifilm Instax Mini Instant Film Camera to capture countless candids across the thirteen celebrations…

A rundown of the events:

1. A courthouse wedding and dinner with the family

2. A family party in Brookfield, Wisconsin featuring family photos, local catering, a thoughtful speech from my dad, dancing (including some non-traditional first dances), and an after-party at the house with poker

3. An intimate backyard BBQ party (moved indoors due to rain) featuring a list of 10 lessons learned from 10 years of marriage

4. A homemade-breakfast-for-dinner themed party with small business friends

5. A backyard party with old friends featuring catering from a favorite local restaurant

6. A happy hour party at a favorite local bar

7. A Spanish-themed dinner party at a friend’s condo

8. A brunch party at a neighborhood friend’s apartment featuring catering from a favorite local restaurant

9. An intimate reunion lunch at a favorite local restaurant

10. A First Friday Art Studio Party featuring local artwork, performance from local band Projekts, and a blog feature from Meanwhile Back in Peoria

11. A chill house party with pizza, drinks, and extreme laughter

12. A brunch at a friends’ house featuring thoughtful catering from a local chef (and friend) and a locally made wedding cake

13. An intimate back yard dinner party featuring a beautiful homemade wedding cake

The Midwest Wedding Tour Got Press Coverage!

Marty Wombacher of Meanwhile Back in Peoria featured our First Friday Art Studio Party on his blog. Find the blog post here.

Midwest Wedding Tour Custom Branding

The colors were inspired by our engagement photo shoot in Granada, Spain and I had fun building out branding around the concept of the Midwest Wedding Tour, including happy flowers, hearts (to represent Daniel’s last name), and travel elements.

Assets included a logo, graphics for the wedding website, registry and party favors.

The Courthouse Wedding Day

We tied the knot at the courthouse in Downtown Chicago on May 24th, 2024 around 2:30pm surrounded by our parents and a sibling each. We then took photos at and around the courthouse, in front of the Picasso statue, along our walk to the Chicago Cultural Center, and inside the Cultural Center, too. We celebrated with our immediate families at a lovely dinner at Sepia in Chicago’s West Loop.

Local Business Shoutouts:

Photos: @lillerphoto / Flowers: @fleurinc / Rings: (hers) @mineralogy + (his) @torresomarjewelers / Earrings: @vintageroyalty / Hair: @thebleachbunny at @twistedscissorschicago / Hotel: @thehoxtonhotel / Food + Catering: @sepiachicago, @omarcitoschicago, @gloriososmarket, @goldaandbob / Music: @projekts.music / Event Venues: @indigoandvioletstudio, @centralparkbarchicago, The Chef and The Baker, @north.art.studios_peoria

The Family Party in Brookfield, Wisconsin

Our first stop on the tour after our courthouse elopement was the family party in Brookfield. The guest list was limited to immediate family and a few close family friends, including my dad’s kidney donor, Bob. It was held at the neighborhood clubhouse where my parents live with the Poker boys, Michael and Matthew. My family did a wonderful job decorating and making it a truly memorable celebration. This party won the award for longest celebration, as it lasted 11 hours!

Photos of the Courthouse Wedding Day and Family Party by Liller Photo.

Midwest Wedding Tour Swag

I designed a neon sign, which served as our main traveling decoration throughout the celebratory tour, as well as stickers and coasters to give to guests. I also had a jean jacket custom painted with the logo.

Additionally, it was fun to see how some of our hosts ran with the theme and branding themselves. From custom koozies to photo booth props and decorations to an improved photo slideshow featuring elements of the branding to on-brand glassware, our hosts made many delightfully on-brand choices.

On-brand elements created by our hosts…

The Midwest Wedding Tour has been my greatest project of 2024 so far. It was filled with joyful celebrations and so much connection and quality time with friends and family. Pouring effort into everything from the planning to the designing to the executing and attending made for a truly memorable way to celebrate our marriage. A million thanks to our families, generous hosts, and attendees for embracing this concept and making it such an unforgettable experience.

And it’s not quite over yet! Over the course of the next year, we plan to make intentional trips to visit additional friends and family outside of the Midwest who were unable to celebrate with us. If you’d like for us to make an extended tour stop to your city, send us a message! We’d love to make a visit and keep the celebrations going. So much so that we even included “Keep the Wedding Tour Going” as a cash fund gift on our registry. We will be visiting friends and family in England this September and are looking forward to adding more trips to the calendar.

PS - If you are looking for custom branding for your wedding, non-profit or corporate event, or small business, Lettering Works can help! We also offer custom portraits which make a perfect gift for special occasions and specialize in custom merchandise design and have over 200 designs available for purchase in a wholesale capacity.