by Lissa Edwards | Jan 20, 2022 | Counties, Live Here, Towns
After meeting on Lake Michigan, Lindsey and Danny decided on a gorgeous, lakefront wedding at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme, just north of Traverse City. Dive in for all the exciting details of their Northern Michigan wedding.
This article was first featured in the 2022 issue of MyNorth Wedding.
Picture Lindsey and Danny at age 13 meeting for the first time at a family and friends’ reunion somewhere on Lake Michigan along the Michigan coast. The get-together was inspired by Lindsey’s Uncle Kurt and Danny’s dad, Stu, who’d been fraternity brothers and remained best friends ever since. Shy middle schoolers, who were raised miles apart—Lindsey in Oklahoma and Danny in Grand Rapids— but they both recall a mutual crush.
Flash forward more than a decade. Although they’d seen each other several times over the years, Lindsey and Danny both moved to Nashville, Tennessee, after college by happenstance … or so it seemed. Lindsey’s parents had moved to the city and they invited her to move in with them for a bit and give Nashville a go. Meanwhile, three miles away, Danny had moved in with Lindsey’s Uncle Kurt (the one who was best friends with his dad, Stu) and his wife Sandy, because he’d just started a job with the insurance company owned by Kurt, Lindsey’s other uncle, Joe, and her dad, Don. Was it destiny or were Uncle Kurt and his old friend Stu playing cupid? Lips are sealed.
No matter, Lindsey and Danny became reacquainted in Nashville where they spent a year developing their friendship. A weekend together at Danny’s family’s river cabin in Manistee convinced them it was time for that friendship to become a romance.
Two years later, on the dock of that river cabin, Danny proposed. She said, “Yes!” and her family, who had snuck into town the night before, came out to share the moment.
When the couple began planning their wedding, they agreed that they wanted it on the water—and wouldn’t it be amazing if it could be on Lake Michigan where they’d first met all those years ago? Lindsey comes from a large family and Danny’s family has a bounty of friends—so they wanted a venue that could hold at least 250 guests. It didn’t take long for Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, located just north of Traverse City, to pop to the surface of their search.
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Related Read: 8 Unique Wedding Ideas for a Memorable Up North Wedding.
Their wedding weekend kicked off with a meet n’ greet in the resort’s swanky Lobby Bar. The bridal party (all 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen) and guests of the Roy-Hunt wedding got the bar rocking early and kept it that way until even after closing hours. “It usually closes at 10 p.m. but some of our guests were still there until midnight and they told us not to worry, that they would be happy to stay open,” Lindsey says.
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Related Read: 10 Stunning & Unique Wedding Venues in Northern Michigan.
After the ceremony, the Resort’s shuttles whisked guests to The Plaza where bistro lights hung over the terrace and inside the tent. The glow under the tent was amped with floating candles, hanging chandeliers encircled with rings of greenery and tall gold centerpieces topped with blush and white floral arrangements. After a lovely sit-down dinner prepared and served by the Resort, the DJs of Pluister Entertainment got the party going. “They played old songs, new songs, something for all ages … we had light-up batons for dancing—it was amazing,” Lindsey says. A final sparkler sendoff sent the tired but elated newlyweds off to their suite. At brunch the next morning in a beautiful courtyard at the Resort, they relived all of the memorable moments with their friends and family—and Danny announced (humorously) that he had married the boss’s daughter.
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Photo by Melina Massengill Photography
Related Read: Up North Wedding Proposal: Top 5 Places to Get Engaged.
Venue | Grand Traverse Resort & Spa Photography | Melina Massengill Photography, Instagram: @melinamassephoto Floral | Premier Floral, 231.947.1167 String Quartet | Bayshore Strings Music | Pluister Entertainment
MyNorth.com is the online home of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, the flagship publication of MyNorth Media, a Traverse City, Michigan company dedicated to sharing stories and photos about vacations, restaurants, wineries, the outdoors and more from Traverse City to Sleeping Bear Dunes and up to Mackinac Island.
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Photo(s) by Melina Massengill Photography