Emily + Russell
Summer Barn Wedding at The Farm at Dover
Emily and Russell’s wedding at The Farm at Dover
Emily and Russell enjoyed the most beautiful summer wedding at The Farm at Dover. While the rain threatened to dampen their day (<- see what I did there?! 😉), it did not succeed. They enjoyed a beautiful ceremony under the trees, a lovely cocktail hour in the picturesque gardens at The Farm, and a really fun night celebrating it all.
These two met as teenagers but didn’t become friends until they got put in the same class together – high school math. They were friends for a while, but Emily realized something more was in store for them when she attempted to set him up with one of her friends… only to realize that she really didn’t want him dating anyone else. Russell said, “I feel like I’ve always known that we were meant to be together because being with Emily has always just been easy. She’s always been supportive of me. She’s always been there for me. I’ve never really had that kind of connection with someone before.”
The Proposal
From Emily: “We had gone ring shopping the November prior, and I knew that we would be getting engaged at some point during the summer (per my conditions that I wanted it to be nice outside and to be tan lol). Once June hit, most all of my patience went out the window, the anticipation was killing me. As our 7 year anniversary approached, I was hoping and partially expecting that there would be a proposal. For our anniversary, I was told that the plan was to go to dinner in Milwaukee and go on a walk beforehand by the lake.
One of the other important components to being proposed to was to have my close family and friends around. In order to throw me off, Russell and my best friend (and now MOH) Cassie, came up with a great (but horrible) plan to throw me off. Cassie found a way to post an old picture on her snapchat story and make it look like it was taken in real time. (She lives in Madison, and they knew if she posted something from there I would assume a proposal couldn’t be happening.)
As we got into the car to drive downtown, I saw her post and was immediately convinced that she was still in Madison and that I wouldn’t be getting proposed to today. I was a tinyyyyy bit unhappy thinking there would be no proposal and my sour attitude didn’t want to go to dinner or on a walk. We still arrived downtown and parked across from the art museum. Russell really wanted to grab a selfie by the lakeshore over by Harbor House. I reluctantly went along with it.
As we started walking over there, I started to calm down and put all of the pieces together. I was analyzing Cassie’s post over and over and thinking how it could be fake (and realizing that there was, indeed, something going on.)
As we approached, I saw two photographers taking different pictures and sarcastically said “Oh what are they for us?” Russell didn’t say much.
We walked over to the rocks and he asked me to stand up on them. I finally got up on the rocks with him and he knelt down almost immediately. As that happened, out of my peripheral I could see both of the photographers rushing over to start taking pictures. Russell had a romantic and meaningful speech, but I hardly remember most of it because I think I blacked out from nervousness. I was crying almost the whole time, even though I was partially expecting this it was still such a rush of emotions. I was blown away with the ring, and it fit perfectly on my finger.
As he put the ring on my finger, I suddenly heard a group cheering and celebrating. My mom, dad, sister, Cassie, Russell’s mom and his sister were all running towards us. They had been hiding behind Discovery World watching most of the proposal from there and then ran over to us. We were able to take all of our photos of just us and with our families, and then head to dinner.
The next bit of surprise was that all of us were going to dinner together at Third Coast Provisions. One of Russell’s groomsmen is a chef there and the two of them were able to work out a special menu and host us in a private room to celebrate. Best anniversary ever!”
From Russell: “Emily had been talking about getting married for a long time, but I just wasn’t in the position yet to do it. I wanted to make sure we had both finished school and that I was in a position financially to be able to afford a ring and a wedding. After 6 years together, Emily and I went to look at rings in November of 2022.
I do have to say first that Emily is VERY particular. Let me list off the criteria that she wanted: She had to be tan, nails done, it had to be summertime, she had to have her close friends and family there, but also not know that they were there, and it had to be in a public location…but not too public.
After Emily had gone and looked at rings, I had gone about 15 more times to make sure that I had gotten it right. After I had gotten the ring, it came down to a matter of when. Emily already knew that it was going to happen this year, and the most obvious date was our anniversary. I had told her that I was going to do other random dates throughout the summer and that it could be any one of those. I ended up settling on our anniversary because it’s so obvious that it’s not.
Leading up to the day, two weeks beforehand, I met with her sister (Olivia), and we went to Lakeshore State Park in Milwaukee to pick out the proposal location. We spent hours there looking for the right spot and settled on a location with the city skyline in the background.
I talked to my friend, Mike about having a special dinner at his restaurant afterwards with a special menu. Over the next week, Mike and I created a 4-course meal, and I coordinated with all of the family and friends to be in the location when it happened.
The day before the proposal, I talked to Emily about our “anniversary dinner” and said that I had planned to go to Milwaukee for a nice dinner, but beforehand I wanted to walk through Lake Shore State Park; we typically like to take a nice walk on our anniversary and just in general. Emily wasn’t a fan of this idea because she was going to wear heels. I told her if she can think of something better to do beforehand we can do that, otherwise we’re going for a walk.
Emily is a very observant person, and I knew that she would put everything together pretty quickly without something to throw her off. I also knew that when she gets mad, she’s not as observant as she typically is, so my goal was to get her as mad as possible. I talked to her best friend, Cassie about making a snapchat post that makes it seem like it’s in real time and that she’s still in Madison, where she lives.
As we get in the car and start driving, I tell Emily to look at a post on snapchat that my sister posted. Instead, she sees the (fake) post from Cassie in “Madison”. She turns to me and says “so we’re not getting engaged today”. The rest of the car ride was filled with discontent. She did not want to go to dinner anymore.
We parked across from the art museum and I grabbed the ring box, which was in the car door, and put it in my back pocket. We made our way across the street and headed towards the water by the Harbor House. At this point, Emily started to calm down and started putting things together. She sees the photographers taking pictures of the lake and sarcastically asked if they were for us. I didn’t reply and we made our way over to the rocks.
I knew I had little time to do this and immediately went down on my knee. I grabbed her hands and started giving my speech. She immediately started crying. The photographers rushed in to capture every moment. After my speech, I reached into my back pocket to pull out the ring box, struggling as it got stuck. I finally got it out, opened the box, and asked her to marry me, to which she thankfully said yes.
I put the ring on her finger, and as we hugged and kissed, we heard cheering in the background. We turned to our family and friends who rushed out from behind Discovery World, where they were hiding. After lots of hugs and happy tears, we spent some time taking our engagement photos.
After the photos, I told Emily it was time for dinner. She was a little disappointed because she didn’t want to leave everyone, so then I told her that everyone is coming to dinner. We got to the restaurant and went into a private room with custom menus for us.
After an amazing dinner, Emily and I went home and she was still trying to process everything that had just happened. She even made me redo my speech because she said she blacked out during the real thing!”
Vendor Love:
Venue: The Farm at Dover | Cake Artist: Aggie’s Bakery | DJ: MKE Sound | Hair Artist: Piccola Salon & Spa | Bridal Boutique: Bliss Bridal | Bridesmaid Boutique: Azazie | Catering: Saz’s Hospitality | Photography & Films: The McNiels Photo & Films
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