I feel like some background info about us is needed. My now husband and I decided in January of 2015 we needed to have our wedding ASAP, as we were very concerned grandparents woul...d not be there in 2017 when I graduated from school. We are in our 30's, have been dating for 5 yrs, and I was NEVER the girl that wanted to plan a wedding. Between personalities, time constraints and writing a thesis for my current MS, we needed something simple to plan. We live in NC, my friends and family live anywhere from FL, to HI, to NH. My husbands family is entirely in MI. So we started to process of finding a location in MI. We found there were a few things that were VERY important to us. We needed to have some kind of emotional connection to the location, we wanted to get married outside, we wanted it to FUN and relaxing for everyone, we needed it to be as inexpensive as possible while still a great day, and LOCAL products. We LOVE craft beer. BREWERY? Could this be done? Would it be in our budget? Would it be as fun as it sounds? An emphatic, YES!!!! I stumbled across Frankenmuth Brewery. I sent an inquiry and within 24 hrs, my very own HERO responded. Dezarae would be there to help us out from that moment on!
About the brewery... We were able to get married on the rooftop overlooking the river and covered bridge. Then we went downstairs into an amazing area!!! There was a bar just for us, the brewery decor is so naturally gorgeous. The area for our dance floor/games has amazing glass walls that completely open up making it such a great feeling. All of the produce was locally purchased and there was plenty of Frankenmuth Brewery beer on tap and even local wine selections for the non-beer drinkers! What was even better, the pricing for the venue was very reasonable in the first place. But because we wanted a Thursday, lunch wedding anyway the venue became incredibly affordable for us! The icing on the cake... So much was immediately taken care of by picking this venue. The only things we needed were cake, some personal touches of decor, music, flowers, photographer, and guests! I came up one weekend in May and was able to get everything I needed in place! Mainly thanks to Dezarae. She made EVERYTHING so simple for us. She had the food laid out for us to choose, gave me suggestions for florist and cake, and even helped us with details we ever would have thought of. The hotel was directly across the street to be easily stumbled to post-wedding shenanigans!
THE DAY WAS PERFECT! We had a gorgeous, warm summer day with a perfect, FUN ceremony outdoors. We decided the morning of we wanted to cheers with the wedding party at the end of the ceremony. Instead of bouquets (Saving $) we had them all carry a tiny taster of beer down the aisle. She made this happen in moments. She was there to get everyone in place and make sure we were doing it right. During there ceremony we joked a few times about my hubby's obsession with hot sauce. When we got downstairs to eat there was a bottle of hot sauce at our sweetheart table for him, thx to Dezarae's attention to detail. The staff serving the wedding was PERFECT! I was even able to recycle the majority of the decor that we made ourselves to a server planning a wedding for her daughter. Dezarae helped us make this wedding completely US! We are very fun-loving, beer drinking, outdoorsy, relaxed people. And so was our wedding.
We couldn't have found a better venue or a better person to get us there!