Eric and Orchid's Wedding Celebration in Wisconsin

Back in May we went to NYC for Eric and Orchid's wedding ceremony at city hall.  Their ceremony was Friday followed by a small dinner with 12 family members.  Saturday night they had their local friends come to a bar and we had a little celebration.

Two weeks ago we went to Wisconsin to celebrate with a bigger party.  My parents hosted 90 people at our family lake house, or as we call it, "the farm".  My great-great grandfather built the house in 1903.  So I guess it was a mini 100 year party?! It was such a beautiful, casual event.  All of our extended family came and some close friends.  

I flew in Thursday night and Matt flew in Friday night.  He missed out on the Friday activities, but was able to meet up with us at the end. Friday afternoon we headed towards Milwaukee and tailgated before the Brewer's game. There were about 30 people, a mixture of friends and family, and we had brats, hot dogs, chips and beer.  We had plenty of beer but somehow forgot all napkins, silverware and plates!  Oops. It was SO hot!! It was the last day of a serious heat wave - it was 95 degrees while we were tailgating.  After the game, we checked into the Double Tree, where all of the young ones were staying.

Matt met me there around 11:00 and we took a cab to meet up with the group who had moved on to an Irish bar.  By that time everybody was having a good time and decided to eat some late night chili.  Matt and I were definitely not craving chili at 1am so we decided to snap a pic then head back to the hotel!

Saturday morning we headed back towards Oconomowoc to do the final preparations. My mom and her friends prepped all of the appetizers the night before so that really helped out!  We had servers pass around appetizers and then barbecue was catered.  The food was AMAZING! The ribs were falling off the bone and the mac n cheese was to die for (cheese + bacon, yes please!).

They did a great job of transforming the lawn and included a ton of activities.  There was croquet, cornhole, pontoon boat rides around the lake, campfire, etc.  The buses took the guests to and from the hotel, so most of the crowd was there from 3:30 - 11:30.  It was a long amount of time, but it definitely went by so quickly!

Sunday morning Matt was able to sneak in 2 laps of slalom skiing around the lake before we had an open brunch for the guests.  Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and it poured the whole afternoon!  Definitely didn't spend as much time as we would have liked at Pauly Farms; we're already looking forward to next