It’s been a few months since I updated my blog. But I’m back now, and ready to share with you the reason I’ve been away…
I got married!
And I’ve got to say, planning a wedding as a digital nomad was both a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand, I was able to take calls with vendors at any time. When deadlines needed to be met to make decisions or place orders, I could take an entire day off to work on them. And because I did a lot of DIY for the big day, I was able to put aside my work for almost a full week before the wedding to focus on getting everything ready. Unlike my fiancee, parents, and bridal party, I didn’t have to put in for off-time to attend my wedding.
But on the other hand, juggling the responsibilities of my career with this kind of freedom was much more difficult than I anticipated. It was tempting to put wedding planning before everything else. This meant taking on fewer clients, which of course meant less money. I never gave myself a second for personal projects like this blog. When things got stressful, it was always my work that I ended up neglecting.
I also struggled a bit with my family and friends’ misconceptions about what I do. I’ve found that people who have never worked anything other than a traditional job sometimes don’t think about what it means to be a freelancer. When they think about taking a day off, they don’t always think about the fact that means there won’t be a paycheck for that day.
I’m thinking about writing a freelancer’s wedding planning survival guide to go along with the other struggles I’ve talked about in the past. But for now, no more complaining. I want to tell you about the big day!
We got married outside of Branson, Missouri, at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.
My husband and I are both from Ohio. But we were lucky enough to both land graduate assistant positions at the same college in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, so we spent two years in the state.
Cape Girardeau is a beautiful town on the Mississippi River. But we were excited to be in a new part of the country, so we traveled a lot.
One place we loved to go was Branson. Branson itself wasn’t a big draw for us. It’s a lot of dinner shows, go carts, and Native American-themed gift shops. What we loved was just outside of the city, nestled in the Ozark Mountains.
There, Bass Pro Shops, the mega outdoor store, owns several properties. One is a resort called Big Cedar Lodge and another is a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer called Top of the Rock. Their final property is a nature preserve called Dogwood Canyon. At the park, you can hike, go fly fishing, take a tram ride, go horseback riding, and more.
The property is absolutely beautiful. There’s even a chapel constructed with recycled timbers from barns found in the region, nestled beside a creek with a waterfall behind it. You might see where I’m going with this…
We loved Dogwood, but didn’t want to ask our families to travel more than 10 hours to be at our wedding. So we decided not to invite them.
That sounds much worse than it is. What we did instead was book an elopement package. We invited our parents, our only grandparent, our siblings, and our bridal party. In total, there were 13 of us. Then, we invited the rest of our family to a reception held in Cincinnati two weeks later.
We still got our dream destination, we weren’t asking aunts and uncles to fork out hundreds on a long weekend trip, and we got to celebrate with everyone we love!
We held an informal rehearsal dinner at Hemingway’s, a buffet restaurant at the original Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri (our weekend had a bit of a theme!) Our wedding was a short, intimate ceremony. The elopement package covered everything from the officiant to transportation to a day-of coordinator, which took so much of the stress away. After the ceremony and pictures, instead of a reception, we all ate lunch at the park together, then went on a two-hour tram ride through the canyon where we got to see elk and bison.
If you’re planning a wedding now or might be in the future, I can’t recommend an elopement like this enough. Our day was so relaxed and intimate. We got to enjoy each moment and take it in, surrounded by the people we love the most. It was absolutely perfect!
I only have a portion of our photos back right now, but I thought I’d share them with you! I hope they inspire you to visit the Ozarks and Dogwood Canyon!
Photo credits to the incredible Lacie Holland of Holland House Photography! If you’re getting married in or around Branson or Springfield, I can’t recommend her enough! She’s a sweetheart with an eye for taking beautiful shots of all the special moments.
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Cate Goes 