Say Goodbye to Tradition For the Sake of Tradition

This non-traditional Utah wedding will have you saying goodbye to all of those traditions you don’t want to do on your wedding day.

Christina and Adam met during their freshman year at the University of Michigan. While they would like to say sparks flew immediately, they remained friends for a while before they made it official.

“Our first four years saw first dates at Mexican restaurants, road trips to Toronto, Valentine’s in New York, and plenty of Thai food.”

And of course, trips to Utah for skiing!

“Internships carried Adam to Utah, where he returned after graduating in 2018. I stayed in Ann Arbor to finish my degree, but we saw each other frequently with the help of Delta Airlines.”

We can’t be impartial. Utah is the best place to fall deeper in love with your future spouse.

“Adam taught me how to ski at Alta, and we have made a point to return to Utah to ski every year since!”

Engaged in Utah

And it was on one of those ski trips that Adam popped the ultimate question, despite Christina never picking up on any hints that she should paint her nails.

“I had repeatedly told Adam that I wanted my nails to be painted for our proposal. Adam spent days nudging me to paint them. He enlisted the help of my sister and friends—but even with their support, I still didn’t open a bottle of polish. In fact, when he left to grab last-minute items for our ski trip to give me extra time for a manicure, he came back to find me working on a puzzle. Luckily, he picked up some press-ons, just in case.”

We love a smart groom who thinks ahead!

As natives of Michigan and Maryland, they knew they wouldn’t be able to choose between the two for a location to get married, so they settled on getting married in their favorite place—Utah! We may be biased, but it’s our favorite place for a wedding too.

“We like to say our relationship went to the next level while Adam was in Utah, so it’s only poetic that we take it to the final level in Park City!”

Planning a Non-Traditional Utah Wedding Remotely

“At the time, we lived in Chicago, which made us nervous about planning a wedding remotely. Luckily, we connected with our planner Kate, and were immediately at ease. Kate brought organization and enthusiasm to our planning, making everything a breeze.”

If you’re on the fence about hiring a planner, take it from this bride that you should do it!

For Christina and Adam, their biggest priority was comfort. “We’re not very formal people, so it was important that our day felt relaxed and like ‘us.’ To make this come to life, we chose a more relaxed dress code, requested guest ditch their ties, and wrote our own ceremony script. Where we could, we ditched formality for the sake of formality.”

Your wedding should be a reflection of you—follow their advice and go for a non-traditional Utah wedding that you’ll feel comfortable at all day!

You Can Have Both

But that request for comfort didn’t have its roadblocks—how do you balance being comfortable with the usual polished atmosphere of a wedding?

“We hit the jackpot with State & Liberty, a menswear brand started by former University of Michigan students. The suits were just what we were looking for and kept the guys comfortable from the ceremony through the dance floor. To bring in Adam’s personality, he opted for a bright colored shirt—pink—to match the florals.”

Turns out you can have both. Grooms, don’t worry, you can still feel great while looking handsome as ever!

Celebrating Their Love Story

To kick off their wedding celebration, they hosted a welcome party for all their guests at their favorite brewery in Park City.

“While living in Utah, Adam discovered Wasatch Brewery’s Apricot Hefeweizen, which became a special beer we enjoyed together. We worked with Top of Main to have it on tap for our guests, but hit a minor snag. The kegs weren’t tapped correctly. It took a while to iron things out, so the bartender removed an Apricot Hefeweizen poster off the wall and gifted it to Adam as an apology. We have it proudly hung as one of our favorite mementos from the weekend!”

Even the minor mess-ups from a wedding day can turn into a memorable moment!

And the ceremony leaned into their desire to keep the non-traditional Utah wedding details about them and their personalities—including a nod to Adam’s love for football.

“Adam walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of the Fox Sports football theme.” Now, every time they watch a game together, they can daydream about the moment they said I do!

“During the ceremony, my brothers recited lyrics from our favorite love songs, rather than traditional readings. Mine was from my favorite movie, while Adam’s was a country song. We loved altering our ceremony to fit us as a couple, rather than going with tradition for the sake of tradition.”

Details Details Details

They even included a tribute to each of their origins in the wedding favors. “Our welcome bags for guests featured items that represented the two of us. Adam’s Maryland roots were captured with some Old Bay Goldfish, while my Michigan heritage was featured with Sander’s chocolates. We also included a newspaper outlining our weekend events. We added some games, pictures, and a “classifieds” section selling mementos from the last eight years.”

Take it from these two, the wedding details truly all add up to making your wedding day perfect and unique to your love story!

One of their favorite moments from their non-traditional Utah wedding was the dance party, easily. “Our DJ kept the dancefloor full the entire night—no easy feat with what we asked for! When we met with Rob to go over our music selection, we gave him a tall order. We wanted mid-2000s pop, a country power hour for Adam, and a mix of upbeat oldies. He was able to hit every genre we wanted perfectly. I was worried a country mix might take people off the dancefloor, but Rob knew just the selection to keep the party going. His mix of Hot to Go and Mr. Brightside was stuck in my head for a week!”

And now, it’s stuck in ours too, but we’re not mad about it.

To top it all off, they went with a video guestbook instead of a signature book. It gave them something to watch from all their guests while they sat in the airport lounge on the way to their honeymoon!

BRB, adding a video guest book to our list of unique wedding day must-haves.

Their biggest advice for couples who are planning a wedding is in line with what they stuck to during their own wedding planning process. “We loved planning a wedding for us, no one else. If you want the ditch the tie, ditch it. If you want to join cocktail hour, do it. Crack jokes during your vows, serve something different for dessert—it’s whatever makes you happy as a couple!”

And we couldn’t agree more! Your wedding day is all about you and your unique love story, and the fun details should reflect just that. Feel free to follow in Christina and Adam’s footsteps, and go with the wedding you want to have, not just the wedding everyone else has. We love a non-traditional Utah wedding over here.