When Sarah Schreiber got married, she did almost everything differently—and intentionally so.
As a former weddings editor at a well-known publication, Schreiber had attended and reviewed thousands of real weddings over the years. But rather than leave her overwhelmed by choices, she said the experience made her priorities crystal clear when it came to her own. In a viral video on TikTok, she shared her unique wedding choices with viewers, receiving over 587,000 views.
Schreiber, 30, spoke to Newsweek about how she went against the grain when planning her wedding, and how her decisions made the day exactly what she dreamed of.
Schreiber said the level of “complete immersion” she had in the world of weddings made one thing exceedingly clear to her. “The best weddings, the ones that I still remember to this day, were planned with intention, centered around connection and the couple’s love story, and structured differently and more loosely,” she said. “I realized that it’s not about the money. It’s about…celebrating in a way that is meaningful to you.”
She and her husband, Zach Van Wingerden, invited just 35 guests to stay with them on-site for a four-day celebration at a historic Victorian mansion. The smaller guest count allowed them to cover the cost of accommodations for everyone—an intentional move to reduce expenses for their loved ones.
“All of a sudden, we were looking at an $8,000 venue fee for four complete days—and an option to completely cover our guests’ accommodations, saving them the hundreds of dollars they would have needed to spend to attend our peak-season Memorial Day weekend wedding,” Schreiber said.
That move “unlocked the rest,” she said: fewer guests meant a tighter budget, more meaningful connections and room to break every “rule.”
A Daytime Wedding Filled with Memories
Instead of a late-night dance floor, the couple opted for an afternoon wedding with lawn games, a record player and live acoustic guitar.
“I’ve been obsessed with the past for most of my life,” Schreiber said, explaining her decision to host a luncheon wedding. “Daytime weddings were the norm for much of history.”
They served blueberry cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream in place of a traditional cake—a family recipe made by Schreiber and her mother the morning guests arrived. The scent of warm cobbler greeted guests as they walked in.
To reduce waste and create lasting memories, Schreiber chose potted plants over cut flowers and created multi-use invitation suites. “I purchased a dress that wasn’t a wedding dress for $500 that I still wear to this day,” she said. Guests received “hand-sewn pouches created by Carey Lowe of The Idea Emporium instead of envelopes, which they could later use for pens, makeup, as a purse.”
They even printed the cobbler recipe on the back of their menus so guests could recreate it at home and “be instantly transported back to our wedding weekend.”
Schreiber said she doesn’t believe in the popular idea that your wedding should be whatever you want. “I think that oftentimes results in excess and choices that don’t serve you, your families or your guests,” she said. Instead, she suggests couples focus on “what you and your guests need.”
“Prioritize each other and them, and you’ll walk away from your event knowing that every choice was made from the right place,” she said.
Despite her choices aimed at supporting her guests and her relationship, she was also quick to point out that even small weddings like hers still come with a price tag—and that no size fits all.
“Smaller still celebrations, like elopements, are just as special as these types of events and larger ones,” she said. “Every wedding may look different, but they all lead to the same result: marriage. Make your marriage your true north—not your wedding.”
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