What about a wedding in a winter wonderland?

A year ago, Erin Jacobs, was married within the cream-city-brick walls in January of 2023, before applying for and obtaining the position of Gather’s events manager in June of 2023, using her own experience to assist other couples in finding their perfect winter wedding. 

It’s hard-working fun!

Erin Jacobs had so much fun on her wedding day, it opened up a whole new side of life and path for her to follow. She realized she had loved planning her wedding so much that she wanted to continue to help other couples make their weddings go as effortlessly as hers did.

“I started at Gather around June and I got married back in January with around 220 guests in attendance,” Jacobs said. “I realized then that I loved this process. It was almost like a new interest of mine had been unlocked and it was something I didn't know I would have such a love or a passion for. I loved every part of the experience, almost to the point where I thought, I don't want to be done with weddings, I want to continue this! I knew there was no better place to apply than the place that I got married!”

Jacobs had booked with Gather a year before her wedding, giving her ample time to plan everything out before the big day and minimizing the stress of a tight schedule.

“I knew I wanted my wedding in central Wisconsin because I have family from all over Wisconsin and other states, so I wanted the wedding in a city with airport access, this narrowed it down between Appleton and Green Bay, and I looked at venues online from there,” Jacobs listed. “I was looking for something that really resonated with the themes that I preferred. For example, I did not want a barn wedding, but I still wanted something a bit rustic – this is where Gather's original cream-city brick really captured my attention.”

“I had booked Gather the January prior, so my fiance and I had about a year to plan,” she said. “I've always taken past life advice from people who have planned weddings, and from a financial standpoint, about a year in advance is when you want to book so that you can budget accordingly and book the more popular vendors. However, winter is a bit more forgiving as it is the slow season, providing flexibility both on the vendor's part and the customer's.”

Though she tackled her planning with such excitement and coordination, and she clearly has a plethora of knowledge and ideas in the world of wedding planning, Jacobs surprisingly had no prior experience to the job! 

“I had reached out to see if there was any potential opportunities within Gather, not expecting a response due to the fact that I had no past experience in the wedding industry,” Erin laughed. “My background is in sales so I at least understand that side of things, but pivoting to a different industry entirely, I did not expect anything right away. However, I met with Tommy, he gave me a shot, and it's been successful ever since! I'm still obviously learning as I go, but a lot of my experience came from that personal side of things. Planning my wedding at Gather shifted everything for me. I've definitely found it helpful to refer to my own wedding with Gather to help put newlyweds at ease during this stressful period of time.”

Through her extensive planning and teamwork with those helping to shape her wedding, Erin grew a kinship with much of the Gather staff, even the predecessor of the events manager position, giving her both a reason and a foot in the door to jump at her newfound passion.

“It's been an exciting journey, I'm learning a lot, and I really enjoy the Gather team,” Jacobs gushed. “That’s been one of the biggest things I’ve loved about working here, the collaboration and overall team I work with. I enjoyed everything about the Gather team, even when I wasn't working there yet.”

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Why winter?

Although the snow and cold weather might not be for everyone, it’s never much bothered Wisconsinite Erin.

“I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and I love the winter aesthetic when it comes to weddings,” she said. “Personally, I get so much more inspiration from the winter than I do from the fall or summer. I wanted something different, and I just love the cozy vibes of a winter wedding. I don't know why people don't go with winter weddings more often, to be honest with you! There is so much more flexibility with those vendors to be able to work with you, they're not bogged down like they are with 100 couples in the busy seasons of summer or fall, though you should still always book your photographer and band early.”

When booking a winter wedding with Gather, there are more environmental factors to consider than a fall, spring, or summer wedding. For example, if you have traveling guests, winter roads in Wisconsin can be worrisome, and can even cause travel delays. Booking transportation for guests to and from the venue can provide great alleviance to this stressor, and having one location for both the ceremony and reception also helps to minimize the travel time for guests.

“Gather has the opportunity to do ceremony and reception on site, which made planning so much simpler, and made booking a done deal,” said Jacobs. “It's much more convenient to have an all-in-one spot.”

Jacobs pointed out something many Green Bay residents and wedding throwers might not take into consideration when planning their special day: major sporting events.

“Don’t forget about Packer season,” Erin expertly noted. “Knowing what's going on around the area that you are booking your venue in is super critical. I had gotten ahead of the game because I had booked a year in advance, I was already working with hotels around the area that would be willing to reserve room blocks for me because not all hotels do that. I had to have room blocks because I had family flying in, and I recommend everyone look into room blocks if your family isn't from the state you are getting married in.”

Roads can become dangerous incredibly fast due to the weather change in the air creating ice on the ground, having a party bus or shuttle is the perfect way to keep everyone safe on the way to and from the wedding so that they can continue to have a good time at the party.

“In the winter it’s a bit tougher to get everyone together because of the multiple overlaps of holidays, especially if there are already events planned or vacations booked, so that's usually why it's not as in demand,” Erin explained. “However, because winter is a low-demand season, this makes vendors cheaper. For example, my photographer wasn't as in demand in January as she was in September, so she lowered her prices for the winter months to help bring business in for herself, which was nice. The lowering of vendor prices all comes from their own cost perspective.”

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A picture-perfect wedding

The sun sets much earlier in the winter, as pointed out to Jacobs by her photographer, so the sunset pictures you capture at 7:45-8 PM in the summer have to be set nearly 4 hours earlier in the winter.

“I needed to be able to get outside photos, but I also didn't want to compromise the first look aspect,” Jacobs explained. “I knew I wanted the shot of my husband seeing me come down the aisle, seeing me for the first time in my dress, I wanted that very traditional element of surprise, so I worked out a timeline that allowed me to have an earlier ceremony for the pictures needed outside.” 

“Now I'm not gonna say it wasn't tight, but we did accomplish what we needed to, and our photographers were all on the same page prior to the event. Weeks leading up to the wedding, the photographer, the vendor, and myself were all working on a timeline that was going to make the most sense to be able to capture all those things. We bumped up the ceremony and cocktail hour a little bit to accommodate it all.”

Within the slow season of winter, many might guess February to be the busier of the cold months because of Valentine's Day, but Erin revealed that January is when more couples tend to book for that romantic, snowy day, wedding shot.

“January can usually guarantee you snow for those magical snowy wedding pictures,” Jacobs explained. “Before I even got married, in December I started to track the snow because if there was snow on Christmas I was interested in having a Christmas wedding, but it all came down to whether or not there was snow. After thinking for a bit I realized we definitely would have snow in January, so that was a safer choice. I could at least guarantee there would be snow on the ground.”

Since the most important thing for Erin on her and her husband’s wedding day was an assortment of breathtaking photos documenting the day, she’s the perfect source for where to find the perfect wedding photos around Green Bay, specifically not too far from the venue.

“Gather has a mural right on the back of their wall, which makes for such a nice, aesthetically pleasing photograph, because it's white and gray so it mixes wih any color scheme you were to go with. It's beautiful to get photos right there.”

“Personally, my husband and I didn't go this far for our photos, but I've worked with couples that hop over to the park across the bridge, or on the bridge for some photos over the water –  the staff at Gather always has plenty of ideas from our own weddings, and helping plan numerous others,” Erin smiled. “One of the things that I really liked about Gather for my own wedding was the original cream-city-brick. A lot of the buildings downtown in the Broadway district have that brick look and I was able to walk around these buildings to have that as the backdrop for a lot of photos, which contrasts really nicely with snow in the winter.”

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Personalize your wedding!

Through her, so-far, short time with Gather, and even her own experiences attending weddings as a guest, Erin has noticed that some couples almost lose themselves in the planning of a wedding. Centering a wedding around a strict theme for decor and other choices negates the opportunity for guests and vendors to get to know the couple behind the theme.

“Customize your wedding,” Jacobs encouraged. “You can find inspiration on Pinterest, but I've seen too many couples follow Pinterest themes too strictly, and we end up not seeing enough of the actual couple's personality. Show us who you are as a couple and make it your own experience!”

Jacobs has plenty of tips for your wedding to go smoothly, and examples from her own to inspire customizations and bold personalities to take up space within the walls of Gather.

“I noticed when my fiance and I were looking at Gather online that there was a live-music show in the following week, and that's when I took the opportunity to see the venue filled with people and hear what a live band would sound like,” she explained. “No other venue we saw after that night lived up to the image that Gather had just presented to me. I knew we had found our spot.”

“What was really awesome is that I have a dog and it was super important for me to have her a part of the day and Gather let me have my dog on site for the ceremony and let her get ready with me, so that was really really special,” she smiled. “Couples need to find their 'must have', the thing that's super crucial for them on that special day, and making sure that there's follow through on that.”

In life we are often told that it is unacceptable to be selfish, and that we must go through life thinking about how other people feel about our actions, wants, and words; while this is important, it is also crucial to put yourself first every once in a while. The bride and groom should come first on their wedding day, not having to worry about other people’s wants.

“There are things I must have on my big day because I'm only doing this once, and it's okay to have that selfish feeling,” Erin explained. “I loved everything about my day, I would do it over again in a heartbeat. Logan, my husband, and I actually talk about having milestone anniversary parties with Gather in the future because we loved our wedding so much.”

To have the passion for not only planning her own, but helping to make other couples’ weddings just as beautiful as the wedding she got to call her own is a true gift to the community.

“I’m always here for the couples I’m working with, for any questions or concerns they may have. I want them to fall in love with their wedding just as much as my husband and I did.” 

Book your winter wedding and consult with Erin Jacobs today on how to create one of the most memorable evenings of your marriage.