Casey Baumer and Scott Kaufman met during the first day of freshman year at Indiana University. By the next day, the two students were completely inseparable and in love. “We knew we had something special, but freshman love typically doesn’t last,” Casey shares. “We parted ways, hoping that we would find our way back to each other someday.
Five years later, I slid into his DMs and we shared a moonlit ride on his family’s boat. We quickly found our way back to what always felt like home. Six months later, we moved in together and have never looked back.”
“A WEEKEND OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY, AN UPROARIOUSLY GOOD TIME, AND A PERFECT CELEBRATION OF OUR LOVE.”
After living together for three years, Scott popped the question on his birthday, in a park where he and Casey grew up. With a photographer hiding in the bushes and their entire family nearby, he got down on one knee and asked Casey – and her dog, Kilroy – to be his forever. “Planning the wedding was both seamless and impossible,” Casey recalls. “My mother has been a luxury wedding and event planner for twenty years, while I joined the family business one year prior.
Throughout the planning process, our extensive knowledge of the industry and the matrix of possibilities sent me into overdrive. It was almost like I knew too much and felt paralyzed by indecision. With my mother’s help, we painstakingly thought out every single choice and every detail, one by one, until we’d planned the wedding of my dreams!”
“It was incredibly important to Scott and I to have an entire weekend with our family and friends – one night was just not enough,” she continues. “I do not believe you have to travel across the world or country to have a ‘destination’ [wedding]. Destinations can become difficult for guests and sometimes make them feel as if your wedding is a burden. Cedar Lake Estate offered the unique opportunity to have a local destination!”
On Friday, the couple’s friends joined them for lunch and semi-competitive games. Everyone was gifted with custom name pillows on their bed, along with t-shirts with their nicknames in their respective color-war team color. After lunch, smoke bombs were lit as they marched to the playing fields for an afternoon of dodging, throwing, catching, running, and laughing. It was as if they were 12-year-old campers again.
The bride’s favorite part of the wedding weekend was the ceremony, during which a waterside clearing in the woods was transformed into an enchanted fairy tale forest. She walked down the aisle to music that was composed and pre-recorded by her father, and each keepah was handknit by her grandmother.
Cocktail hour led to a barn reception, where clouds of baby’s breath covered the ceiling. The newlyweds and their guests danced for hours, as a 90s band performed all their favorite hits, and guests were asked to come to brunch in their pajamas the next morning. When they left, everyone was given bouquets of flowers to take home – all of which, were repurposed from the entire weekend.
“We made our wedding exactly what we wanted it to be,” says Casey. “A weekend of friends and family, an uproariously good time, and a perfect celebration of our love.”
WEDDING TALENT
Planner and Event Design: Imagine Party & Events, New York, NY: Wedding Dress: Oscar de la Renta
Rentals: Luxe Event Rentals & Decor, Brooklyn, NY: Stationery: RedBliss Design, Boston, MA
