After spending nearly a decade together, Joline and Jim tied the knot in a country-fashioned wedding, staged in a big, red barn.
The couple met at a mutual friend’s barbecue—and sparks flew immediately. Joline informed her friend Sarah (a future maid of honor) that Jim was “really good looking,” and the message was immediately relayed to the attractive stranger. “Who can pass up a country boy with blue eyes like his?” says the bride.
“Right off the bat, we hit it off. We have so much in common. We love doing anything related to the outdoors and always being together,” she adds. Jim also felt the instant connection and knew the day they met that marriage was in their future.
The couple’s date nights were few and far between, but always special. One particular date in December became extra special when Jim pulled out a ring and proposed at Chicago Fire.
About eight months later, the couple wed at a friend’s ranch in Lincoln. The sprawling 10 acres, boasting horses and rolling hills overlooking a pond, was the perfect spot for a late summer wedding. “The scenery couldn’t be beat for us,” Joline says.
To formalize the barn reception, the bride and groom opted for satin curtains in the doorway, and the walls were adorned with strings of white lights behind sections of tulle. Even more elegant were the three iron chandeliers giving off soft light from candles.
Guests dined at tables dressed in white tablecloths and burlap table runners. Each table had two to three wood rounds, topped with hurricane glasses and filled with floating candles and cherry blossoms. Fittingly, each table was named for a country song, which helped guests find their seats and was a cue for those guests to dine when they heard the DJ playing their assigned song.
While the night was filled with many joyous memories, a special moment between the bride and her grandma was perhaps the most memorable.
“My something blue was my grandma dating the bottom/inside of my wedding dress,” Joline says. “My mom folded my dress over so the inside was on the top for my grandma to sign and she signed above the fold, so you could see the blue sharpie date through the tulle of my dress. It was hilarious and just made it all the more memorable.”
The couple describes the wedding as happy, beautiful and fun-filled. Though the atypical affair disregarded some traditions, such as the first dance, the father-daughter dance and the bouquet toss, this left more time to just sit back and enjoy the party with friends and family.
—Jacqueline Renfrow
