Brianna and Andrew Coy Wedding Story

Wedding Theme

Country, DIY, Rustic, Vintage

The Day We Said Yes

Saturday, October 1st, 2016

Our Love Story

Having an outdoor wedding in October in the Black Hills is a risk,  it could be 80 degrees or it could be snowing. Thankfully, we were blessed with a gorgeous 75 degree day with not a cloud in the sky. One of the biggest benefits of a fall wedding is the fall colors, and Spearfish did not disappoint. My favorite color, and our main wedding color, is mustard, and the hills were painted with it; it was perfect. 

We were so humbled by the amount of friends and family who volunteered hours to help us set up and take down. I'm still not sure how everything ran so smoothly and somehow, it turned out even better than we could have ever hoped.

How We Met

Andy and I are both from Hill City, SD, so we have known each other every since we were little. We dated on and off throughout high school and were together throughout college. Andy finally asked me to marry him in December 2015.

Planning Our Day

I should first point out that we did not hire a professional wedding planner; however, my sister Cheri was basically our unofficial planner who put everything together. She was my Pinterest, I told her my ideas, and somehow she made them all happen.

When Andy and I got engaged in December, we knew that we wanted to have the wedding in the coming summer/fall instead of having a longer engagement. Our good friends, Shelby and Josh Hicks with JD & Liana Works, are amazing photographers and I knew I wanted them to take our pictures on our special day, so thats how we picked our day- October 1st; it was the only one they had open the rest of the year! 

Andy and I are from Hill City, so we have always known that we wanted our wedding to be in the Black Hills. Selecting the venue, on the other hand, was a little bit trickier. Since we only had one day as an option and it was just 10 short months away, a lot of the venues were already booked. Also, we knew we wanted a laid back wedding, and we didn't want to spend a fortune. It became apparent that catering was the most expensive, so we decided to cut that out completely and make our own food. So, we had to search for a venue that would allow us to do our own catering. 

I finally stumbled upon Frawley Ranch at Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort and Campground, and it looked like they offered everything we needed. 

Frawley Ranch is made up of four old barns, two brick and two red, that come together to form a courtyard in the center where we could hold our reception. The upstairs of one of the red barns is redone to look like an old church, which is where we held our ceremony. They have also redone two rooms upstairs, one for the bride and bridesmaids to get ready and the other an old library where the groom and groomsmen get ready. Downstairs is redone to accommodate an area for food and another area for the guest book and gift table. The only major thing missing is running water, so we rented rent port-o-potty's from M&M Sanitation. 

After having the big things figured out - the photographer, the venue, the date, the food - we then had to figure out how to decorate everything. 

I love rustic/ vintage things - suitcases, typewrites, globes - so we took that theme and ran with it. Basically, all of our decorations came from either my house, Cheri's house (who also loves vintage/rustic things), or one of the many antique stores we visited throughout the year. We placed globes, small pumpkins, and other antiques throughout the venue. Andy's mom, Cindy, painted Mason jars for the centerpieces.  Andy's dad, Rusty brought in hay bails that we placed throughout the courtyard for an extra rustic touch. Finally, we added in a typewriter as the guestbook, which turned out to be a really neat addition! 

Keeping with the DIY theme, many of the other features were built from scratch. The wood slabs we used as centerpieces were made by my dad, Randy, which were adorned with flowers that came from Hobby Lobby's 40% off sales. My brother in-law, Rick, and my dad built our entire dance floor from scratch. My uncle, Jim, even built a bar for us that was set up to serve two “pony” kegs - this was offered to our guests for free during the social hour right after the ceremony. 

Being a fall wedding, we opted to create our own soup and sandwich bar. We made four different kinds of soups about a month before the wedding and then froze them until the big day. We ordered sandwiches to go with the soup, which we brought in the day of the wedding. A few of my moms friends volunteered to finish preparing the soup bar and the rest of the food for us while we were having our ceremony. 

I loved Frawley Ranch because they basically give you an entire empty venue to decorate however you'd like. This, and the fact that they let you do your own catering, allowed us to add a unique “DIY” touch to our wedding! We couldn't have pulled this off without the generosity of our family and friends.

Wedding Hint

Don't be afraid to spend a little extra money on a photographer and videographer. Your wedding day will go by so quickly, it's nice to look back at high quality pictures to remember even the smallest details.