Lake Panorama provides a beautiful backdrop for celebrations of marriage. 

By Susan Thompson | Lake Panorama Times

The era when most weddings were held in church sanctuaries has given way to most weddings being held in special event venues. Those with ties to Lake Panorama have another option — using the lake as a backdrop for outdoor weddings. This is the story of two recent weddings held at Lake Panorama.

Jamie and Ellen Pollard of Ames bought a house on Lake Panorama’s Jones Cove in 2015. 

“It has been everything, and more, for our family,” Jamie Pollard says. “It has been such a great family investment for us as it is a weekend magnet. Every one of our children and their friends and spouses have enjoyed spending almost every weekend at Lake Panorama from Memorial Day to Labor Day for the past nine years.”

The Pollards’ daughter, Annie, met her future husband, Greg Riese, in 2018. They both were attending Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, and had a class together. Annie was studying to be a child life specialist, and Greg was studying to be an elementary teacher.

“We need to give credit to the prior owners of our home, Neil and Stacy Andersen, for planting the idea we might someday host a wedding there when they told us their daughter had been married in the backyard,” Pollard says. “Annie wanted a small outdoor wedding and asked if we would host it at the lake, which was something Ellen and I had secretly hoped she would do.”

The wedding was Friday, June 23, 2023. It was a small wedding with about 65 guests, including family and a few close friends. 

“Our home is located on one-and-a-half lots, so we have a large open space to the north side that has beautiful views of the water,” Pollard says. “The wedding ceremony was in our backyard overlooking the lake. We used the walkway to our backyard patio as the aisle leading to the wedding altar and the lake served as the backdrop.

“We decided to host the wedding on a Friday because we did not want to have a cove full of weekend boaters essentially being in the wedding,” Pollard says. “We felt if we did it on a Friday afternoon, the number of boaters in the cove would be far less.”

The wedding ceremony began at 4:30 p.m. After the ceremony, the guests joined the bride and groom for a cocktail reception at the outdoor bar on the upper level of the back patio. From there, guests moved to a large tent in the side yard for dinner, toasts and cake cutting.  

The wedding reception was held on the upper and lower patios with a bar and live music on the upper patio. The lower patio was used for dancing and a bags tournament.

Hosting an outdoor wedding at the Pollard’s Lake Panorama home meant finding vendors to provide tents, tables, chairs, outdoor lighting and portable toilets, in addition to a caterer, florist and photographer. 

“Whenever you have an outdoor event, you worry about what you will do if it rains or is too hot. Having a tent large enough to keep everyone either out of the rain or in the shade was critical to our planning,” Pollard says. “We also needed to coordinate with our neighbors for extra parking for guests and make sure no one had lawn service or construction work scheduled for the same time as the wedding ceremony.”

The Pollards hired Gina Cramer, with Make it Happen Events in Des Moines, to serve as the wedding planner. They learned about Gina from her brother-in-law, Reynolds Cramer. 

“Reynolds is the CEO of Fareway and a very dear friend of our family,” Pollard says. “Annie was Reynolds and Sheila Cramer’s nanny for their son, Benny, when she was in college, and Annie and Greg chose Benny to be their ring bearer. Having Gina as our wedding planner made it feel like a family affair for all of us.

“Gina did an amazing job with all the details. She made sure the day of the wedding Ellen and I could just be the parents of the bride instead of worrying about whether things were running smoothly,” Pollard says. “It would have been very stressful if we were the ones trying to coordinate the caterer, bartenders, music, photographer, florist and more. We highly suggest a wedding planner, especially for those hosting a wedding at their home.”

“Just prior to the start of the wedding, a group of guys showed up by boat with their music blaring. They clearly were ready to go swimming and have a good time,” he says. “Gina quickly went out on the water and convinced them to find another place to party that afternoon. We all got a great laugh out of watching her spring into action to keep things quiet during the ceremony.”

The Pollards believed their plans for a quiet, intimate wedding were firmly in place. 

“When the bride and groom were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Greg Riese, to our surprise, all the boats in the cove and our neighbors who were out on their docks, started to honk their boat horns and clap,” Pollard says. “It was a neat touch. We later learned, because we had a PA system for the vows, all our neighbors were able to listen to the wedding.”

The groom’s parents live in Wisconsin, so they asked the Pollards for advice on where to host the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. 

“We suggested Twin Vines because it is a beautiful, casual setting, and we like that it is a family business here in Panora,” Pollard says. “They provided a great venue, the wine, beer, soda and water, and then allowed us to bring in our own food. We would highly recommend Twin Vines to anyone looking for an event venue.” 

In 1993, Ellen and Jamie had pizza at their own wedding rehearsal dinner, so suggested pizza for the rehearsal dinner at Twin Vines. 

“We decided to use Lake Panorama Pizzeria because we have always felt it is important to give business to the businesses in Panora,” Pollard says. 

The wedding party and out-of-town guests stayed at The Port. 

“It was so easy to work with the staff there to block rooms. Most of the guests, including the bride and groom, stayed three nights. We picked everyone up by boat on Saturday for a day on the lake, and they enjoyed the live music Saturday night at the restaurant,” Pollard says. “We also took a big group to breakfast at Café on the Hill and to M&L Ice Cream, both in Guthrie Center.”

Pollard says earlier backyard renovations helped make the wedding venue possible. 

“We need to give Josh and Ron Eike at Wood Duck Landscaping a lot of credit for helping us design the renovations we made to the backyard several years ago,” he says. “The design and landscaping were done to make it easy to host large outdoor events. It is a perfect setting, overlooking the lake on a quiet cove with a big backyard, and we are so appreciative of the job they did for us.”  

An unexpected bonus to hosting a wedding in their backyard was a new friendship the Pollards developed with a lake neighbor they had never met.

“A year prior to the wedding, Wood Duck had just finished our backyard project, and the area where we were going to host the wedding dinner had no grass because it was the ‘road’ used to access our backyard,” Pollard says. “We were worried we would not have any grass there by the following spring.” 

That’s when Brian Peppmeier offered to help. 

“Brian reached out that fall because he heard we were hosting a wedding. He asked if I needed help getting our yard ready. I knew I was not going to have time to do it myself. Brian personally made sure we not only had grass by the next spring, but he also had our yard in perfect condition for the wedding,” Pollard says. “It was an incredibly kind and neighborly gesture and has resulted in Ellen and me having a wonderful new friendship with Brian and his wife, Rebecca.” 

As for the newlyweds, Annie now works at Blank Children’s Hospital in the NICU as a child life specialist, and Greg is a fourth-grade teacher at Gilbert Elementary. They live with their dog, Evie, in Ankeny.

Olivia and Luke 

Olivia Dahlquist and Luke Anderson met in October 2018 in Madison, Wisconsin, as both were finishing undergraduate classes and starting graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The couple’s wedding was Sept. 7, 2024, at Olivia’s parents’ home on Jones Cove. 

David and Cheryl Dahlquist bought the house in 2003. They had been coming from Des Moines to Lake Panorama since 1984. They were introduced to the lake by Lynn and Jan Reinecke and had so much fun they bought a lot by Shady Beach and had their boat at the marina. The family visited the lake on weekends for several years before buying the home.

The decision to host Olivia and Luke’s wedding at Lake Panorama was a simple one to make. 

“Luke and I spent about four months of the pandemic at the lake with my family visiting on the weekends,” Olivia says. “In addition to our many summer visits over the years, this time in ‘isolation’ was very special to us and confirmed our desire for a lifelong partnership. There was no better place to get married than at the spot where we spent many mornings having coffee, afternoons reading and nights watching the stars.”

The Dahlquist home is located on a hill with steps to the water’s edge. The ceremony was held on a small patio with the lake as the backdrop. Chairs were placed on the hillside for the 90 guests. The 5 p.m. ceremony was followed by a reception, dinner and dancing under a big tent in the backyard. But first, the wedding party took a boat ride. 

“We hopped on the boat right after we said ‘I do’ and cruised around the cove and the basin right outside the cove, cranking some tunes and signing our marriage license,” Olivia says. “It was a quick boat ride with our closest friends to have a champagne toast and celebrate the moment before heading back to the house.”

David Dahlquist is a nationally known artist. One of his most recognized public-art installations, “From Here to There” for the High Trestle Trail Bridge, has become a well-known destination and landmark for Iowa.

“The tent was next to our garage, which houses Dad’s small art studio. That’s where we put the bar with the DJ nearby. Dad made unique leaf tiles to have at each person’s place setting, which was a really special touch,” Olivia says.

“Olivia and Luke’s wedding was a truly meaningful day, in so many ways. The lake was the perfect venue,” David Dahlquist says. “It was an honor to make some pieces for their wedding. Olivia had a picture in her mind’s eye of certain colors in nature — sunset, amber, honey. This was her influence that helped inspire the pieces.”

Dahlquist made 120 ceramic tiles, each of different carved and glazed leaves. 

“It was a fun project,” he says. “I believe these represented Olivia and Luke’s love of nature, love of the lake, and love for each other.”

Rather than a rehearsal dinner, a “welcome party” was held at The Port the evening before the wedding. 

“It was informal and fun, a great way for guests traveling to Iowa to get acquainted with the lake,” Olivia says. “A majority of our guests stayed at The Port for the weekend and enjoyed getting to experience the lake, the beaches and nearby walking trails.”

Planning an outdoor wedding at Lake Panorama involved lots of steps. 

“From coordinating a wedding planner and food vendors to securing a large tent and porta potties, the planning was quite an undertaking,” Olivia says. “Some things we didn’t think of in the beginning were needing to understand where electrical lines were, the potential need for a back-up generator, and thinking critically about parking for all our guests.” 

JAC Tent Rental from Guthrie Center provided the tent. 

“They were fantastic and worked closely with our wedding planner to coordinate sizing and setup,” Olivia says. “They came in advance to measure everything, understand our electrical and sewage lines, and provide my parents some peace of mind. They set up the tent two days before our wedding date. We have a tree in the center of our yard that grew taller than expected over the summer, and they did a great job setting the tent up over it.”

The couple’s wedding at Lake Panorama occurred on a warm, sunny fall day. 

“I have been coming to Panorama since I was a little girl, spending weekends boating, fishing and lounging with family,” Olivia says. “Getting to share it with my husband has been one of my favorite life experiences, and I’m so grateful he has come to know and love it, too. It was the perfect backdrop to bring all our people together and celebrate this special milestone.”

The couple now lives in Denver, Colorado. Luke is a civil engineer at Invenergy, a renewable energy developer, and Olivia is a marketing manager at NINE dot ARTS, an art consulting and curation firm.