Q&A with the bride and groom:

Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day? 

Our wedding was a destination ski lodge wedding in Breckenridge, Colorado. We really wanted it to be a weekend getaway for all our guests who were traveling in and prayed for snow so everyone could get the full experience.  It was the weekend before Christmas so used colors that really brought out the holidays feels. We were married out on a snowy deck in front of a mountain range by Kyle's father. 

Let's talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY? 

Since it was so close to Christmas, we had a lot of those kinds of decorations. We had 2 Christmas trees, twinkle lights, garland and fake snow.  We gave each guest a fleece blanket tied together that read, "to have and to hold incase you get cold." We did a DIY seating chart of a mountain range and hand wrote all the blanket notes. We also had DIY hot chocolate and s'mores bar, equipped with Reeses Cups, Hershey Bars, and Fudge Stripes Keebler cookies and each guest got to take home a personalized "Married & Bright #AisleToKyle" campfire mug. Kyle and I personally with the help of our brother-in-law created our triangle alter piece.  We went to home depot, bought 3 pieces of woods and a HAND SAW and went to work measuring the pieces for the triangle. Then the day of the wedding, our BIL nailed the pieces together to create the triangle. 

What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding? 

Our triangle was really the focal point for our ceremony and we wanted to showcase florals on the sides. These also matched the bridal bouquet with the draping flowers. Personally flowers were important for the bouquets and boutonnieres we didn't use them anywhere else besides the triangle. 

Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding? 

The night before for our rehearsal dinner, we hosted the party at the Stephen C. West Ice Rink in Breckenridge for all the guests attending the wedding. We thought dinner for a small group would leave people out and wanted the weekend to be for everyone. It was so much fun and we were so glad for the extra time with our loved ones. We loved our first look, it was so special and we got to spend so much time with each other alone feeling the excitement of the wedding. We also were so happy with the perfect day. It snow stormed all morning, the sun came out when we met for photos, and there was an unbelievable full moon to brighten the evening. Our family was able to travel and celebrate with us, no major problems occurred, and we finally got to marry each other. 

How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal. 

Kyle and I both went to the University of Illinois and met when we were studying abroad in our junior year of college. I was living in Rome, Italy and he was living in Bath, England. At our school, they celebrate "Unofficial St. Patrick's Day" the first weekend of March and when you're abroad, everyone goes to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend. We were both there with different groups but had some mutual friends and ended up at The Old Storehouse. We sat across from each other and just got to talking where we realized how much we had in common. We were both staying at the Issac Hostel so stayed up all night talking and getting to know each other and went on a few trips while we finished our semesters and the rest is history. We got engaged on Kyle's 24th birthday at a dinner I had planned for him. He worked with my mom to get the perfect ring and it was ready on the day before his birthday. Him and my mom decided to hijack the dinner I had planned and switched the location to Navy Pier in Chicago. When they brought out his birthday cake at the end of dinner, my dad began recording which I thought was super weird and then continued to record after we stopped singing Happy Birthday. The next thing I knew, Kyle was holding my hand and down on one knee showing me the most amazing ring that I could not have even dreamed up. Immediately after there were fireworks out over the lake. 

Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you'd like to share with other couples planning their day? 

I would say to try and do as much of the planning and decorations on your own as possible. You can save money this way but it is also so much more meaningful when you can say, "we bought the wood and built that triangle together."