Wedding theme: our favorite place

Every summer since I was five-years-old I've spent as much time as possible there. When I am home, I count down the days until I can visit again.

So when I was old enough to start daydreaming about my wedding, I always imagined it on Lake Michigan in one of the beautiful bays of Door County. When Paul and I started dating he quickly fell in love with its sunsets and breathtaking views as well. Thank goodness because we were getting married there whether he wanted to or not.

Lucky for me, he wanted to. In fact, he wanted to start all of our wedding memories there and proposed there on top of a viewing tower we often stop at.

When I asked him why he chose there, he said because "it's your favorite place." So when I asked him that same weekend if we could get married there, he said of course.

It was a dream come true to share our favorite place with all of the people we love most. Many of our friends and family told us at our wedding how they understood now why we spent so much time there. And many plan to go back.

We tried to tie in the many things we love about Door County throughout our wedding. We had our ceremony on Anderson Dock, one of my husband's favorite places, and our reception at a restaurant on the lake that we spend almost every Fourth of July at - the Florian II in Baileys Harbor.

Our tables were named after bays, towns and places in Door County. The table names were written on photos of the locations taken by my husband.

Another small touch was using rocks from Door County beaches in the bottom of the vases of our centerpieces.

And every guest went home with a jelly from Bea's Ho-Made Products in Gills Rock. Every trip my husband and I stop for our favorite jellies: Chopped Cherry and Strawberry Raspberry.