The Maples Estate

Estate was hands down the best decision we made for our wedding, and we can say with complete confidence that that is because of Katie and Louis. They are genuinely two of the loveliest, kindest, most thoughtful people on the planet, and from the very beginning, we knew we were in the best possible hands. Our very first conversation with Katie was a two-hour call where we told her all about ourselves, our relationship, and the wedding we were dreaming of. She listened to everything, and the design deck she created afterward could not have felt more authentically us. Somehow, the wedding we had spent an entire year fantasizing about came out exactly as we had pictured it - which feels impossible to say even now. Katie and her team were so willing to make our wildest ideas happen, from having a coffee hour instead of a traditional cocktail hour to doing a T-shirt toss instead of a bouquet toss. No idea felt too unusual and no challenge felt too big. And somehow, despite planning a wedding for an entire year, we were never stressed. Not once. All year long, friends and family would ask us how stressful wedding planning was, and we genuinely had no idea what they were talking about because we were having so much fun. Even on the wedding weekend, when it rained, we were not worried because we knew Katie had everything handled. The estate and grounds themselves are breathtaking. Every inch of The Maples feels intentional, beautiful, and somehow perfectly imperfect in the most magical way. But what made it truly priceless for us was being able to spend Thursday through Sunday there and let our wedding become an entire weekend rather than just a single day. It was worth every penny and then some. We got to see both sides of our parents sitting together in the living room late Thursday night, just chatting. We watched our brothers and bridal party jump into the pool Friday night because nobody was watching the clock or worrying about where they had to be next. We got to wake up together, spend our days together, celebrate together, and simply exist in the same beautiful place with the people we love. Those completely unplanned moments ended up being some of our favorite memories of the entire wedding weekend, and they are something you simply cannot get from a traditional one-day wedding venue. The rain is actually one of the moments we will remember forever. We had practiced our rehearsal in multiple locations in case of bad weather, but Katie knew how much we had dreamed of having it under the trees. Rather than automatically moving us into the pavilion, she encouraged us morning of to have it outside and told us how beautiful it would be even in the rain. And then, as if The Maples had a little magic of its own, the clouds literally parted and the sun came out as we walked down the aisle. It was unbelievable. The estate gave us the incredible privilege of having our families and some of our bridal party stay with us for the weekend. Being able to wake up, spend the day, get married, and then end the night with all of our friends piled into the bunk room is something we will treasure forever. In fact, we would move into The Maples permanently if Katie and Louis would let us. (Please!)