The best wedding dresses pre-tested by local brides!

Photo by Mann Frau

There were two criteria for the location of the Rivero-Poplar wedding: it had to be outside, and it couldn’t be too far from family and friends in Milwaukee, Lake Geneva, and Chicago. The Dover Farm in Kansasville was right in the middle, perfect for their May 30, 2021 wedding.

“I wanted a bohemian-vintage theme, but I didn’t want rustic. It was so magical for people. We also loved the greenery, ”says Rivero-Poplar, a clinical psychologist who works with veterans and serving military personnel. Her husband is an application engineer. They met five years ago through his sister, who was training at the Monkey Bar Gym with Rivero-Poplar. On a trip to Door County, Poplar proposed.

Shopping for the dress has taken on a breakneck pace. “I planned an entire weekend of places to visit,” says Rivero-Poplar, who knew she didn’t want any beads, sequins or “heaviness”.

“You can sleep in this dress,” she says of her pick, which includes six different lace patterns, a tan-colored lining, and cap sleeves added by a friend. “It’s so comfortable. It conveys the bohemian theme but with a sense of elegance, and there are sparkles in the lace. I felt very beautiful and at the same time at ease.

The dress: Watters Designs “Wtoo Viola”, Bliss Bridal, $ 1,760

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It was important for Kristy Le Dern to honor her Vietnamese culture at her wedding on September 4, 2021. Before the ceremony and reception at the greenhouse No. 7 at Mitchell Park Domes, around 100 guests gathered at her parents’ home in Mequon to attend a traditional tea ceremony designed to celebrate the union of two families and honor their ancestors.

“I grew up attending these tea ceremonies,” says Le Dern. For hers, she wore a traditional áo dài made in Vietnam to her measurements. “My mother contacted one of her cousins who lives in Ho Chi Minh City,” she says of the garment, which is common in the country of her parents’ birth and often designed for special occasions like this one. “The fact that he’s from Vietnam means a lot to me. I haven’t been there since I was in fourth grade.

The couple’s wedding marked the 10th anniversary of their meeting as students at Saint Louis University. He moved to Chicago, where they now live, on a cold November day at Navy Pier, followed by surprise visits from friends and family he had flown on to celebrate. Today, she works as a senior healthcare consultant, and he is responsible for internal audit.

As for her wedding dress, Le Dern chose one with a slim bottom and a lace tank top. “I tried on 30 dresses,” she says. “Of course, I chose the first dress I tried on.”

The dress: Mikaella by Paloma Blanca “Style # 2297”, Mira Couture (Chicago), $ 2,035

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For their wedding on September 5, 2021, the Earlys rented The Cooperage – including its upstairs honeymoon suite – and gave guests tokens for the Taco Moto truck parked next door. The ceremony took place just outside, on a grassy area above the river. “The light hit the glass of the building for the prettiest colors,” explains Natasha Early.

“We’re both very creative and we always share our ideas with each other,” says Early, director of social media for a real estate company. Her husband is a video editor for a holding company. They met in 2016 as employees of the Three Lions Pub in Shorewood.

The couple’s collective creativity extended to Natasha’s dress, further personalized with a pleated tulle skirt and removable sleeves inspired by the dress Liesl wore in the lookout scene at The Sound of Music. “It had been on my Pinterest board for two years before we even got engaged,” she says. Trying it out was a long time dream.

“I loved that it was very ‘me’,” she says of the dress. “I never wanted to take it off. I liked it so much.

The dress: Watters Designs “WToo Olympia”, Miss Ruby’s (milwaukee), $ 2,000

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For their wedding on July 3, 2021, “we wanted to have a view of the city,” explains Mary Veith. The couple chose Bottle House 42, inside Milwaukee Brewing Company, for its glass walls, rooftop bar, and the fact that it was so pretty they didn’t need to be decorated.

The clinical health care manager met her husband, who works in water treatment, in 2018 at a party with friends. A few months later, at the time of the first snowfall of the season, he proposed.

Between that day and the ceremony, Veith’s closet filled with wedding dresses, a mix of traditional flowing white dresses and colorful, hand-made options from Kenya and her native Ghana. “I had eight dresses in total,” she says. “It started to get very expensive. At one point Lewis said, “You are in charge of paying for the rest of the dresses. “

All kidding aside, their nuptials had been postponed three times due to COVID-19 and the birth of the couple’s daughter. The changes of seasons dictated different dress styles, and for some of the previous dates she was reportedly pregnant.

By the time the big day arrived, she opted for three dresses: one each from Kenya and Ghana and, for the ceremony, a fairy princess dress with spaghetti straps and a long train.

Choosing the dress of the final choice was easy: the bridesmaid chose it. “When I tried it on, everyone was like ‘Wow, that’s your dress!’ It was fine, so I didn’t change it.

The dress: Oleg Cassini “Wedding dress with large floral appliques and beaded straps”, David’s Bridal (Brookfield), $ 1,800

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Magdalene Danzer-Malinowski desperately wanted to get married in a barn. Seeing The Farm at Dover in Kansasville, she thought to herself, “There’s no way anything can beat that. “

The high school sweethearts – who met through a mutual friend but attended different schools (her in Racine and him in Oak Creek) – traded “I back” on October 1, 2021. He is a welder in the machine shop in her family while she is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology at the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology. They were staying in his parents’ Crivitz cabin

with other friends on Labor Day weekend of 2020 when he asked the question. It was while hiking to a nearby waterfall which was appropriate. “We are both outdoorsmen.”

They wanted an outdoor ceremony, and she never considered a season other than fall. She also never considered wearing anything other than a dress with sleeves. “I like that it’s timeless – not too much sparkle and jazz,” she says of her dress. “It’s elegant but also simple. The lace and sleeve jumpsuit is my favorite part.

However, not all dresses are seamless. During the Cupid Shuffle at the reception, a guest stepped on Danzer-Malinowski’s dress and the bustle was ripped off. Three of the five buttons became free. But with just two hours left, she chose not to have it fixed, instead carrying the commotion on her arm and joining the party.

The dress: Blue by Enzoani “Nandana”, Miss Ruby’s (Milwaukee), $ 2,300

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So much about the couple’s wedding on June 26, 2021 at The Ivy House was unconventional, from an ‘unplugged ceremony’ where guests were encouraged to put their smartphones away to Lanto’s sapphire wedding ring and drama. jet black dress. “Milwaukee is a big part of who we are, and we wanted the wedding to be in Milwaukee,” said Casey Lanto, who has fallen for the Cream City brick of the venue.

“We were high school sweethearts,” Lanto says. The two met when a friend picked her up one day from school. Stehlik was also in the car. “’Hello, I Love You’ from The Doors came, and he sang,” she recalls. “By the time we got married, we had been together for just over 17 years.” Lanto now works as Vice President of Product Management at Allstate Benefits and Stehlik as UPS Supervisor.

The free-spirited atmosphere that marked their first car trip continued until the wedding. “When you’re planning a wedding, you hear so much noise about what you’re supposed to be doing,” Lanto explains. But she had different ideas. “I was never one of those girls who imagined herself in a white dress or imagined the big wedding.” At Strike Bridal Bar, she tried on three dresses: two white and one black. The employees noticed that she seemed more comfortable in the dark. “The design allowed it to be different but still glamorous.”

The dress: Tara LaTour “Bennett”, Strike Bridal Bar, $ 3,000