6 MONTHS (and 2 days) ago, Andrew and I had the best weekend of our lives…We knew that 1 day of wedding celebration wasn’t going to be enough, so we planned 4 days of activities – which all ended up being as much fun as the actual wedding itself! Since Andrew’s family drove in from Ohio and a majority of our friends flew in from California, we wanted to show them a good time…especially since I’m always boasting that Milwaukee is the greatest city ever :)

We kicked off Thursday night before the wedding with a Wisconsin/Ohio State tailgate at my parents’ house with our wedding party and families. I am a Badger and Andrew is a very proud Buckeye, so my mom and dad made us this football to represent the joining of teams:

We aimed to give everyone a taste of Wisconsin with grilled brats, cheese curds, Spotted Cow beer and Sprecher root beer floats with Kopp’s custard. It was such an exciting night to welcome all of our best friends to town and kick-off the wedding celebration!

I absolutely loved sitting around the campfire after dinner with our wedding party, talking late into the night. My mom started a “game” where she passed a candle around the circle and when the candle came to you, the floor was yours to say anything you wanted. It turned into a bit of a roast session, with people telling some hysterical stories about Andrew and I…At this point, I keep thinking “I can’t believe our wedding weekend has arrived!”

Friday morning, after getting our nails done, the girls headed off to a gorgeous bridal luncheon with my best girlfriends and all of the “moms” I grew up with. It was so beautiful! The lunch was such a special time for me to get to thank all of the women who have been so important to me over the years with stories about them and gifts wrapped in gold sparkles!

Then, we were off to join the boys and everyone else who was already in town for the wedding at Sprecher Brewery, to sample their great beers and amazing homemade sodas. They gave us a private tour, which ended in the sampling room.

And before we knew it, we were in the church for the rehearsal! This moment on the alter certainly made it all feel very real.

After we all learned where to stand for the ceremony, we headed downtown for our rehearsal dinner at Trocadero in their private garden room. It was so beautiful and open in the 70 degree weather we had that weekend!During dinner, Andrew and I got up to share a funny story about each person in our wedding party and give them a silly gift to go with the story. Andrew had us all cracking up, talking about the night he played my brother in flip cup for my hand in marriage. He gave Mike a reusable Solo cup to remember that game.

Afterwards, we all went upstairs to the Red Star bar to join the rest of our wedding guests who were in town. It was an unbelievable sensation to have the entire bar full of people that I love! I kept bouncing from group to group overwhelmed by who to talk to next!

When our 11pm curfew arrived, Andrew and I kissed goodnight and the bar erupted in cheers. It was such a cool and exciting moment. I was instantly full of tears from all of the emotions! I had just had the best night of my entire life. And I knew that somehow Saturday was going to  be even better! Our last picture together before meeting at the alter…

**Thank you Bill Krugler, our close family friend and reader in our ceremony, for taking all of the great pictures in this post. I’m grateful that you captured all of these moments!

To see more of our wedding details, you can find more posts I’ve written here!