Lou + Paul | Intimate Whiskey Factory Wedding

Intimate Whiskey Factory Wedding

A photo of a bride and groom kissing with her beaded veil flowing in front of their faces. The veil is beaded with pearls and sparkling in the sun. The groom is wearing a grey suit and the bride's hair is pulled up

Oh gosh, after shooting at The Whiskey Factory in Detroit last weekend, it reminded me of one of my favorite days of 2021: Lou & Paul’s Intimate Whiskey Factory Wedding. These two rolled with the punches! I guess being a physician who worked primarily with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic helped Lou just take things one day at a time with planning. They needed to make adjustments to their plans, but the strangest part was: The Whiskey Factory was where they originally wanted their wedding to be, but it wasn’t available for their original date! It’s strange how things work out sometimes.

Their day was seriously the coolest and one unlike any I’ve ever seen. Their ceremony had individual wine barrel tables for each pair of guests. At each barrel was an individual drink kit created by Detroit Distillery and 2unique had charcuterie boxes for each guest. Getting to have a cocktail during the ceremony? Yes Please!

Following their Intimate Whiskey Factory wedding ceremony, they danced their first dance, enjoyed some cocktails and headed over to their intimate dinner at Grosse Pointe Club. I seriously love you two so hard. The funny thing about being 100% authentic with your business, is that it attracts people you’d actually want to be friends with and hangout with and I am so lucky to call you two my friends :)

Louise (Lou): Pulmonologist/Critical Care Physician

Paul: Cardiologist

Their wedding in 3 words: Absolute Pandemic Perfection

Lou’s favorite memory of the day:

Reading the letters we had written to each other, which included our vows. It was chance for reflection of what we had endured to get to this day, the promises of what life will be like when we are back together, and I was tickled by some of the same memories/feelings we wrote about. This was probably the moment that is clearest before all the adrenaline hit. It was right before our first look… after that, the day felt like a whirlwind. The runner up is my nephew, Martin, interrupting the final moments of our first dance, wanting to be spun around, just like his aunt.

Paul’s favorite memory of the day:

The Ceremony at the Whiskey Factory. Loved the aesthetic of the location… the old refurbished bar, the whiskey barrels. (This venue was Paul’s favorite when we did the initial venue search, but planning it from Boston was going to be a much bigger project I couldn’t take on… so we ended up at the Gem… and now we get one in each location!)

Wedding planning advice for newly engaged couples:

Enjoy the engagement period… We did for nearly 3 years! Bask in the excitement of telling friends and family. Ultimately, remember that the marriage is the commitment of the two people and the wedding is just the party (and sometimes that party is small or delayed for a year!) And a piece of general advice for couples… from my great aunt who always signs her cards “Hold hands a lot”

Honeymoon location: The Homestead – Glen Arbor, Michigan

– The Jams –

Grand Entrance: Recessional song: How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – James Taylor

First Dance: Nothing Can Change This Love – Sam Cooke

Cake Cutting:No cake this time around! Just Creme Brulee!

Extra notes:

To piggy back off the music question: Bridal Party and Groom Entrance: Il Mondo (Jimmy Fontana). From the wedding scene in the movie About Time (if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it highly, but be prepared for tears). It’s one of Paul’s favorite romantic comedies and is a reminder to let the little things go and focus on the important things and people (how apropos in a pandemic?) Bridal Entrance: Love is All Around (instrumental) The Relaxation Factory (cover of Love is All Around by the Troggs) We watch Love Actually once a year, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that this was also in Four Weddings and a Funeral. I grew up listening to 104.3 with my mom when they actually played oldies from the 50s/60s/70s and have always loved British invasion type pop… and it was just the perfect song. First Dance: Few things encompass a long distance relationship like the first lines of “Nothing Can Change This Love”: “And I want you to know that If I go a million miles away I’d write a letter, each and everyday ‘Cause I know that nothing. Nothing can ever change that love I have for you.” Paul frequently talks about how I just knew we would survive the 36 months apart, and I can’t explain it but I never had a doubt. We didn’t write letters every day but we did use Google Hangouts to watch sit coms or movies together and do the crossword nearly every night. Our wedding was originally planned to be a big party with all our friends and families from the many stages of our lives (childhood, college, medschool, residency, fellowship) to celebrate the marriage as well as our completion of our respective fellowships in Boston and Toledo, Paul advancing to sub-subspeciality training, and the end our long distance relationship. Instead we had the opportunity to share our marriage with our closest family and friends. But we are so excited to have the dance party of a lifetime next year.