Lizzie and Dan’s story began like many millennials—“we met on Bumble,” the couple laughs. The pair matched five years ago while studying in Cleveland and have been inseparable since.
When planning their wedding, they decided to go back to Lizzie’s Southern Tier roots.
“My dad works at Holiday Valley, so I had grown up there,” Lizzie says. “We just love Ellicottville and going snowboarding and skiing, so once we saw the opportunity to get married in a lodge there, we were like, ‘This is it.’ ”
The scenic summery slopes of Holiday Valley provided a destination wedding feel for many of their out-of-town guests, and played host to their welcome party, ceremony and reception. The Yodeler Lodge at the base of the mountain offered the couple an ideal blend of indoor and outdoor space for the wedding festivities.
As their second postponed date, the wedding happened a year after it was originally planned.
“Ultimately we think waiting the extra year was the right thing to do,” Lizzie says. “Everything had been planned so far ahead of time, it was actually not super stressful waiting, leading up to the event.”
Bright pinks, blues and yellows dotted the invitations, dessert table and custom balloon photo wall. The colorful details not only served as a backdrop to their wedding, but truly made it feel like a celebration of the day finally happening for the couple.
“Danny and I just wanted to have it be really happy and fun, and that’s just how we are as a couple, we’re not super formal,” Lizzie says.
“They wanted something that was true to them and something that would just stand out,” says Sam Nelson, owner and principal planner at EVL Events. “Something to really reflect their personalities and their happiness.”
The night ended with a surprise firework show for the guests. “That was like our big send-off,” Lizzie says. “It was the perfect ending.”
Day-of details
The bride’s “something blue” was a handkerchief from her grandma. “She also had this embroidered light blue floral pin that I put on my bouquet for the ceremony as well,” Lizzie says.
Instead of separating place cards and favors, the couple combined them into a tasty treat. Lizzie’s friend and home baker created custom cookies with each guest’s name on them to be placed at their seat.
For their dessert table, Lizzie and Dan listed off 20 desserts, and Marisa Battaglia, owner of B Sweet Designs, was able to include them all in the impressive display.
“It was fun because it was kind of a surprise,” Lizzie says. “We had an idea of what she was doing but then when we showed up, we got to kind of see the final product.”
“I’d never really done anything with these bright colors,” Marisa says. “Yellow in there paired beautifully with anything lemon so we did lemon shooters, lemon French macarons. It was really fun to play with the flavors and match them up to their color counterparts.”
Rather than having a memory table, the couple dotted the cocktail tables with photos of passed loved ones and childhood memories.
“We wanted to make sure we could incorporate memories from people who are no longer here,” Lizzie says, “and also just highlight our memories with our family, and friends when we were younger since they’re so special to us.”
Another idea from the couple was to have a grab-and-go seltzer bar that they appropriately labeled “Slopeside Seltizers.”
“It’s such a popular drink that they really wanted to showcase that in a fun way and not just have it available at the bar,” Sam says.
The dream team
Who helped the couple make it happen
Planning & Design / EVL Events
Beauty / Blush Makeup & Hair
Florals / Beck & Forth
Balloons / Balloon Masters
Dessert table / B Sweet Designs
Rentals / B in a Bonnet, Quaint Rentals & Tesoro Event Rentals