Our deep winter wedding

After a long engagement, Lisa and I finally set a wedding date last summer. Neither of us wanted a 'typical' wedding (in theme or in cost), and we felt we could put together something romantic and unique for our special day, without driving ourselves into deep debt. We knew the barn would not be finished by January, but it would be far enough along to provide an intimate venue right here in our back yard. Thanks to the collective efforts of our families and friends, we turned the place into a fine little wedding chapel for one day. My original plan was to have the staircase and 2nd story flooring installed so that we could hold the ceremony on the upper floor and the reception on the main level. But delays and difficulties prevented it, so we shifted to "plan B". After painting the arched ceiling above and mounting the ceiling fans, we removed the plywood subfloor to give the building a cathedral feel. We also strung some LED Christmas lights from the fans and wrapped them around the massive exposed timbers. The silo was outfitted with our friends' leftover christmas tree and decorated with a variety of homemade treasures.

Our only 'splurge' item for the wedding was to hire a professional photographer, and she did a fantastic job capturing the event (even though the pics can never do it justice). We took some outdoor photos before it got dark...wearing our mukluks, of course.

With all my lumber, tools and sawdust removed, Lisa and company did an amazing job of bringing the barn to life.

After the wedding ceremony was over, we set up for dinner and enjoyed a fine ethnic meal, music and socializing without having to leave the barn (which was nice, since it was another cold day in northern Minnesota). The day was magical, and we couldn't have enjoyed our wedding more! Lisa is posting more details at http://www.lisaandshawnwedding.blogspot.com so you can go there to see it all.