If there’s one group of people that can always make me feel at home, it’s farm kids. While I grew up the daughter of a farmer in a rural farming community, I always sort of envied the livestock kids – the corn and beans I had always known weren’t quite as glamorous in my young mind, nor did they allow for interaction with cows or pigs, which was of prime concern for a young girl growing up with an adoration of animals.
As I got older, and got a chance to become friends with some of those livestock kids, I learned that kids who showed cattle and pigs were devoted to their craft in a way I had yet to personally experience – they put in long hours doing chores and preparing for shows with their parents and siblings, and spent their summer months in a show ring while I was likely spending mine in a pool. I didn’t understand it at the time, but these livestock kids were already uncovering their values, and learning the importance of family, and hard work, and agriculture, and sometimes even discovering their passions.
Carrie and Ty both grew up as livestock kids, and figured out their values and passions through being livestock kids, and both ended up falling in love with a fellow livestock kid. So it was only fitting that on their wedding day, Carrie’s mom helped her into her dress in front of the glass case that held the awards she and her brother had won over their years spent in the ring, and that she stood smiling with her bridesmaids next to the pasture behind the home she grew up in. While Ty grew up in Iowa, his mother originally grew up in Illinois, just a few hours north of Carrie’s hometown – with family of his own across the state, it worked out perfectly for Ty and Carrie to have their wedding reception not only in Central Illinois, but right at her family’s farm. Carrie and Ty’s family members and friends pitched in to transform the farm into the wedding reception that fit them more than any other possibly could have – laid back and full of love, surrounded by the people and the setting that helped them become the people they are today.
Tent Rental: AAA Rents, Quad Cities
Reception location: Horsley Brothers’ Home Farm
Ceremony location: St. Dominic’s Catholic Church – Father John Cyr
Wedding Gown: Weddings By Design, Des Moines, IA
Food: Iowa Outlaws BBQ, Des Moines, IA – Bob and Kyle Brown and Family
Floral Arrangements: A Few of My Favorite Things, Melody Anderson and Lisa Knobloch
Potted Flowers & Water Features: Sunnyfield Greenhouse and Garden Center | pots provided by Paula & Mary Horsley
Hair: Soul Scissors, Annawan, IL – Victoria Addis
Makeup: Maggie Kime, Quad Cities
Cake and Cupcakes: Simply Elegant Events, Elmwood, IL – Melody Sluga
Cake Topper: Star Metal Art, Farmington, IL
Cookies: Mary Horsley and Patty Norbom
Videography: Rocking J Imaging, Springfield, NE – Jenny Wiese
DJ: Jaso Productions, Toulon, IL
Transportation: Tumbleson’s Auto Group, Kewanee, IL
Barn décor: built by Jim Horsley, Mark Duncan and Chad Horsley
Invitations + Programs: designed by bride, printed at B&B Printing, Kewanee, IL
