Welcome to "Wedding Week" on OnMilwaukee! Whether your wedding is right around the corner, or down the road, The Corners has just what you need to make your day extra special!
We’ve all heard of a couple traveling to Las Vegas to get hitched, but what about the reverse? Well, it happened last summer when Brian and Chris Holly, who live in Vegas, journeyed to Milwaukee to have their wedding at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino on July 15.
"All of our family and friends are in Wisconsin or Chicago, so it was easier to accommodate our guests than to have 150 people fly in to Las Vegas," says Brian. "We also thought it would be fun for our guests to have our wedding in a casino."
Brian, who is from Chicago, moved to Las Vegas in 1996 and manages a PetSmart. Chris, born and raised in Manitowoc, relocated in 2005 and is an elementary school music teacher.
Neither of the men consider themselves high rollers – or even avid gamblers – but because they were exchanging vows away from their home city, they wanted to honor the culture of their vibrant desert city in the Midwest.
"It was a risk," says Chris, "because we had to plan it entirely though phone calls and email."
But Poto pulled it off with style and grace.
"We probably sent 300 emails and changed our minds a lot, and yet we never felt like we were burdening them or that we were being 'groomzillas,'" says Brian. "And everything was completely accurate the day of the wedding. It was really touching and pretty amazing considering it was planned almost entirely over email."
The couple – dressed in matching grey tuxedos – were married in the Woodland Dreams Ballroom. They had 12 people in the wedding party, six on each side, and a mix of men and women wearing all black. Their friend Shannon served as the officiant.
The sit-down reception dinner also took place in the Ballroom and featured an entree choice of filet mignon, chicken or red pepper risotto.
The couple and their guests rented 40-50 rooms at the hotel that evening.
"We would definitely do it all over again," says Chris. "Potowatomi might not be a traditional venue for people living in Milwaukee, but it should be. It was really perfect."
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
