It just took a spirited debate over who was the true champion following their beer pong match at the Silver Eagle in Monona for a lifetime of playful competitions to ensue.
Among many other common interests, was Nikki and Brock’s love for country music. They were fortunate enough that their close friend’s radio station had sponsored a Josh Turner concert which they excitedly attended. They had already met Josh prior to the show so how much better could the night possibly get? Nikki was about to find out. There was a giveaway of two tickets to Country USA but with all of the concert’s attendees, the likelihood of them getting selected would’ve been slim to none if it wasn’t for a carefully planned proposal by Brock. To Nikki’s surprise, their names were called and they enthusiastically joined Josh Turner on stage. After congratulating their win, Josh handed the microphone to Brock, causing Nikki to have a gut feeling that they may be a bit more than just “lucky” winners and this very well might have been a rigged contest. After making the crowd smile and further confirming Nikki’s suspicions, Brock got down on one knee and asked for Nikki to spend the rest of his life with him. After an elated “yes!” they were able to enjoy their first dance as an engaged couple on stage.
Did you know your significant other was going to propose to you?
I had no idea. I assumed that we would be getting engaged fairly soon, but the night he did it, I was clueless. I thought we were just going to a concert!
What advice would you like to share with future brides and grooms?
Everyone always tells you to enjoy the planning and that everything goes by so fast. They were not lying! We had a fairly short engagement (7 months), and it truly felt like time flew by. Luckily, we were both very involved in the planning process so we really were quite organized and knocked stuff off of our to do list pretty quickly. We had a nice plan set up that we could make most of our decorations and arrangements. The day of our wedding just flew by. There were guests that were there that we did not even see. We decided against doing a receiving line because those always seem to take so long, but are somewhat torn on if we would do that differently just so we had the opportunity to talk to each person and thank them for sharing our special day with us. I know they all understand because we were able to talk to them after the fact, but we just kind of felt guilty about that. The nice thing was that Adam, Matt, and Steve went around to each table and took pictures of all of our guests so those were nice to look back on.
What unique touch did you add to your reception?
One idea that we did that we loved was Brock made a box and we had guests write a message to us. We put the notes in the box and for our unity moment during the ceremony we nailed the box closed. At our 1 year anniversary we will open the box and read the notes.
Ceremony Venue/ Reception Venue: The Gathering Barn at Busy Barn Farms in Fort Atkinson
Florist: Our friend Erica Wiley
Makeup Artist: Erica Wiley Also did my makeup
Hair Artist: Chelsea Cashin from Vogue Salon and Erica Symons of Allure Hair Studio
DJ/ Band: Super Dave Ogden of Q106
Cake Artist: We decided to go with donut holes from Millers and Sons
Bridal Gown: Brandi’s Bridal – That was the only place I went to look. I had been there a few times in the past with my sister and friends and knew that when I got married, that was where I was going. Everyone is so nice and helpful there. Such an awesome experience!
Bridesmaid Dresses: We also ordered all the bridesmaid dresses from Brandi’s. Each bridesmaid had a different style dress and we divided it up amongst 3 different colors. We loved how it looked!
Tuxedos: We decided to go with the more relaxed look for our guys. No tuxes. They wore grey dress pants, white dress shirts and tan suspenders with brown shoes.
Transportation: LaVigne Bus Company – Since the ceremony, reception and dance were all at the same venue, we only used the transportation to get our guests back to their hotel safely in town.
Invitations: We ordered our invitations from Minuteman Press. We worked with Brooke and she was beyond helpful and so creative. We told her what our venue was like and kind of the theme we were looking for and she nailed it!
Rings: We ordered Brock’s ring from Manly Bands online. We were pleasantly surprised with their quality and customer service.
The Busy Barns Adventure Farm could not have been a more perfect setting for the wedding of these country enthusiasts. Their special day was spent surrounded by their closest friends and family. Even Josh Turner sent them his apology for not being able to celebrate with them. Their day flew by in a flash but they soaked in every moment. We were so happy to be able to spend it with them!
