Celebrate America and Love in This Lake Michigan Ceremony: The Real Wedding of Grace and Zach Potosky

When one of Grace's friends started dating one of Zach's friends in high school, the two were introduced to each other for the first time. Once the two friend groups were connected, everyone started pairing off and are now all married to each other! "All of those friends were in our
wedding (five couples in total). Not sure how that happened but it is pretty cool that both of our groups of friends are married to each other," Grace shares. Zach proposed to Grace on Sanibel Island in Florida, which is where her parents spent their honeymoon.
 

Wedding dress shopping came easy to Grace. "I knew exactly what I wanted when I walked in. I still tried on everything though because you never know!" Grace admits. Suffering from endometriosis from a young age, Grace has some scar tissue on her stomach that can be painful if compressed by clothing, so she knew she needed something that kept her comfortable during her day. And we think she looks absolutely stunning in this classic sleeveless gown. We love the flowy tulle skirt and Grace's addition of the pearl necklace. The whole look comes together effortlessly!
 

Grace knew that she wanted a country club wedding as she had grown up going to one and even worked at one later in life. However, she didn't let herself plan her wedding until she was engaged. Grace explains, "I have worked in and around the wedding industry for so long that I wanted to have the fun of planning it all when I was engaged. I didn’t want to miss out on that experience." Grace has actually saved the invitations for all the weddings she's been to in the past few years and used a combination of those and Pinterest to help inspire her for her big day!
 

Just like how her childhood had an impact on the type of wedding she wanted to have, Grace's life also inspired their choice in location. "I LOVE the water, I LOVE Michigan and I LOVE natural light," Grace gushes. "I have been going to Charlevoix, Michigan since I was a little kid with my family." While Petoskey was the town she originally had her sights on (since their last name is pronounced the same way), Charlevoix ended up being the winner. It also happened to be where the happy couple shared their first vacation together!
 

 

What We Love

The Fourth of July is both Grace and Zach's favorite holiday as well as their dating anniversary, so they thought it made the perfect day to get married as well as the perfect theme for their wedding "We wanted everything to be bright, happy and clean. I also really wanted to pull in Lake Michigan with all of the blue used. Plus I love all things with a nautical/East Coast feel," Grace says. Their color scheme was red, white and blue, which is the color scheme of Grace's bakery, Gracey's Goodies, who made all the desserts for their big day! Grace made all kinds of wonderful desserts for their wedding guests, like personalized cookies.
 

 

Advice from the Couple

Grace and Zach advise, "Make Lists of EVERYTHING. Guest list, address list, gift list, save the date list, invite list, thank you list. So
important to stay organized!"
 

 

 

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