On Saturday, March 21, 2015, Shadowland Ballroom hosted the annual Mock Wedding for the couples booked in the upcoming year. Our Mock Wedding is set up like a real wedding and allows our couples to experience the feel of a Shadowland Wedding and to enjoy the space without all the stress of their actual wedding. Nicole Beltz, Shadowland’s Executive Director, welcomed the lovebirds with a brief history of the ballroom and introduced the management team including Cheyenne Galbraith (Events Manager), Amy Parnell (Assistant Manager), Samar Badreddine (Serving Staff Coordinator), and Mike Stone (Shadowland Ballroom’s in-house chef). After introductions, Nicole, the team, and the couples toasted to a great wedding season.  Chef Mike diligently worked all week preparing 50 menu items. This allowed our couples to taste a wide variety of the menu at one time.
DJ Drew Behringer from “Moments in Time” provided the music for the evening, Val from “Val’s Custom Cakes” in LaPorte, Indiana brought in delicious cake options for our couples to savor, and Ben Pancoast, Joshua Nowicki, and Jennifer Mayo captured all the great moments in pictures and video for us to remember for years to come. Our tables were spruced up with centerpieces from “Stella Event Design” and favors were provided by the “Soap Sisters & More.” One of the highlights of the evening was the photo booth provided by Ben Pancoast that allowed our couples to show off their wedding dates, dress up in crazy disguises, and take hilarious pictures with their other half. Shadowland also provided a wine tasting station and Watermelon Margaritas and Blueberry Vodka Lemonades were the signature cocktails of the evening. Our couples ended the night with a ride on the Silver Beach Carousel and dancing the night away in the ballroom.

Another spotlight of the event this year is the unique time lapse video being produced by Ben and Joshua. Starting on Friday, March 20^th, these creative artists stationed cameras around the ballroom to capture all the behind the scenes set up of tables, linens, place settings, and centerpieces. Filming continued through the evening on Saturday and followed into the night as the cleanup crew broke everything down and turned out the lights.  The purpose of this video is to show how an event is put together and to give clients an idea of how dedicated the Shadowland team is to provide them a special and unique venue to host their most important events. The Mock Wedding is a special event for our couples and we can’t wait for next year to do it all again! If you are a 2016 Shadowland couple, we look forward to seeing you March 19, 2016.