A Bella Sala Event Center Wedding, Miranda and Trent
Miranda and Trent’s wedding at Bella Sala was the perfect blend of romantic elegance and western-inspired details. From rich jewel-toned florals and dramatic black linens to cowhide accents and meaningful family touches, their celebration was filled with personality from beginning to end. Every detail felt unmistakably them, creating a wedding day that was beautiful, personal, and anything but cookie-cutter.
Their outdoor ceremony was especially memorable, with a cowhide-lined aisle leading to a rustic wooden arbor overflowing with greenery and deep burgundy, pink, and purple florals. Those western elements continued throughout the day in subtle ways, including Miranda’s custom leather bouquet wrap and Trent’s relaxed wedding-day look. Inside the reception, black linens paired with vibrant pink napkins, gold accents, candlelight, and moody floral arrangements created a bold, elevated atmosphere.
One of our favorite parts of Miranda and Trent’s Bella Sala wedding was how many sentimental details were incorporated into the design. A display of family wedding photographs honored the generations of love that came before them, while their statement seating chart welcomed guests with the perfect message: “Better Together.” These thoughtful details made the entire celebration feel incredibly personal while complementing their unique wedding aesthetic.
Located near Iowa City, Iowa, Bella Sala provides couples with the flexibility to create a wedding that truly reflects their style, and Miranda and Trent took full advantage of it. Their day is such a fun example of how an Iowa wedding venue can be transformed through intentional design, bold color, and personal details. As Iowa wedding planners, we loved seeing this vision come together and helping create a celebration that felt every bit as unique as Miranda and Trent themselves.
Photo By: Baleigh Creed Photography
As Iowa wedding planners, we always love returning to Bella Sala. Located just outside of Iowa City in Tiffin, Iowa, Bella Sala gives couples the best of both worlds: a beautiful indoor reception space paired with outdoor areas that allow each wedding to feel completely unique. Whether a couple is envisioning something romantic and timeless, colorful and modern, or bold and unconventional, the venue provides a wonderful blank canvas for bringing that vision to life.
One of our favorite things about planning a Bella Sala wedding is the versatility of the space. The neutral interior makes it easy to completely transform the reception through linens, florals, candles, signage, and other design elements. Miranda and Trent’s wedding is such a great example—the black linens, jewel-toned florals, pops of pink, and gold details gave the room an entirely different personality and created a reception that felt completely their own.
We also love the option of having an outdoor wedding ceremony at Bella Sala. The surrounding greenery creates a beautiful natural backdrop while still keeping the ceremony and reception conveniently located at the same venue. From a wedding-planning perspective, having everything in one location can make the day flow much more smoothly for the couple, wedding party, vendors, and guests.
For couples searching for wedding venues near Iowa City, Bella Sala is one we always enjoy working at. The combination of indoor and outdoor spaces, opportunities for customization, and convenient location makes it a wonderful choice for couples who want the freedom to put their own personality into their wedding day. As an Iowa City wedding planner, there’s nothing we love more than taking a space like Bella Sala and helping our couples transform it into something that feels entirely like them.
An Outdoor Wedding Ceremony at Bella Sala
While many Bella Sala wedding ceremonies take place in front of the venue’s signature waterfall fountain, Miranda and Trent decided to do something a little different. Instead, they held their ceremony on the far side of Bella Sala’s outdoor space, and the change in layout worked perfectly for their guest count and overall vision.
With nearly 200 guests attending, one of the couple’s biggest priorities was making sure everyone had a great view of the ceremony. The traditional waterfall setup would have given them a shorter aisle with longer rows of chairs, potentially leaving some guests with an obstructed view. By rotating the ceremony to the opposite side of the lawn, we were able to create a longer wedding aisle with shorter rows, allowing guests to feel closer to the couple while also creating a much more dramatic entrance for Miranda!
The ceremony design itself brought Miranda and Trent’s country-chic Iowa wedding style to life. The couple brought in a rustic barnwood arch, which their florist transformed with lush arrangements cascading from the top. But our favorite detail had to be the aisle! We used the couple’s and their families’ collection of cowhide rugs to create a one-of-a-kind aisle runner stretching toward the altar. The mix of different hides added so much texture and personality to the space and tied their western-inspired wedding design together perfectly.
One thing couples may initially notice when touring the outdoor ceremony space at Bella Sala is the nearby housing development, particularly behind the waterfall. But once the trees and surrounding landscaping are in full bloom, the space feels surprisingly secluded. It’s one of our favorite things about an outdoor wedding at Bella Sala—you’re surrounded by greenery and nature, and it’s easy to forget you’re only a short drive from Iowa City.
Bold & Romantic Wedding Reception Décor at Bella Sala
For Miranda and Trent’s Bella Sala wedding reception, we needed every bit of that space! With a guest count of around 400 people, the couple rented the entire ballroom. With such a large wedding, creating a thoughtful floor plan becomes especially important. We wanted to comfortably accommodate all of their guests without making the room feel crowded, while still leaving plenty of space for their dance floor, photo booth, buffet tables, and the natural flow of guests throughout the evening.
Once the floor plan was established, we were able to focus on transforming the ballroom to fit Miranda and Trent’s bold, romantic wedding vision. The couple chose black table linens, which created a gorgeous contrast against Bella Sala’s white walls and immediately gave the reception a moodier, more dramatic feel. Hot pink napkins brought in a vibrant pop of color, while black dinner plates and gold flatware completed each place setting. The combination of black, pink, and gold felt elegant without being overly traditional and complemented the rich jewel tones used throughout the couple’s florals.
Rather than repeating the exact same centerpiece across every table, Miranda and Trent incorporated three different wedding centerpiece designs throughout the ballroom. The first featured a lush floral arrangement surrounded by votive candles and one of the couple’s custom white granite table numbers. Their second design featured five gold taper candleholders in varying heights, softened with loose greenery and floral buds. The final centerpiece used three pillar candles at varying heights alongside greenery and floral accents. Alternating between the three designs added dimension to such a large reception space and kept the tables visually interesting without making the overall design feel inconsistent.
TGenerations of Love: A Sentimental Wedding Décor Trend
Miranda and Trent incorporated several personalized signage displays throughout their Bella Sala wedding, including one of our favorite wedding trends: a “Generations of Love” display. Using a gold shelving unit rented from Borrow My Vintage, the couple displayed framed wedding photographs from generations of their families. Photos of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and other loved ones created a beautiful visual representation of all the love stories that came before their own.
We absolutely love seeing couples incorporate family wedding photos into their wedding décor because it adds something to the design that simply can’t be replicated. Beyond being beautiful décor, a Generations of Love display gives guests a chance to stop, look through old photographs, recognize family members, and reminisce about weddings from decades past. It’s especially meaningful to see how wedding fashion and photography have changed through the generations while the reason everyone gathered together remains exactly the same: celebrating love.
The Generations of Love wedding trend has become one of our favorite sentimental wedding ideas, and we hope it sticks around long enough to become a tradition of its own. There’s something incredibly special about honoring the marriages that helped shape your families while celebrating the beginning of your own. And who knows—maybe someday Miranda and Trent’s wedding photo will be added to a similar display at a future generation’s wedding!
Another personalized element Miranda and Trent incorporated was their handmade wedding seating chart, which you can see in the photo gallery below. The oversized black display featured individual guest lists beneath a “Better Together” sign and was finished with soft white draping.
Country-Chic Wedding Details at Bella Sala
Miranda and Trent’s wedding was the perfect example of how a theme can be incorporated throughout a celebration without feeling overdone. Miranda envisioned a country-chic wedding, and rather than filling the day with traditional rustic décor, the couple incorporated subtle western-inspired details that felt intentional and personal. Paired with their bold florals, black linens, and pops of hot pink, these country elements gave their Bella Sala wedding near Iowa City a style that was completely their own.
One of our favorite details was Miranda’s custom leather bridal bouquet wrap. The tooled leather featured a “B” for Bertsche—her new last name—making it both a beautiful addition to her bouquet and a meaningful keepsake from the wedding day. Details like this are such a fun way to incorporate a western wedding theme while still keeping the overall bridal look elegant and timeless.
Their outdoor wedding ceremony at Bella Sala carried the country-chic style even further. The couple brought in a barnwood ceremony arch, which their florist transformed with lush floral arrangements cascading from the top. To create an aisle unlike anything we typically see, we gathered the couple’s and their families’ collection of cowhide rugs and layered them down the length of the aisle. The different colors and patterns of each hide created so much texture and made Miranda’s walk down the aisle even more visually striking.
The western details continued into the reception with their wedding photo booth backdrop. A metal frame was draped with cowhide rugs to create a fun, rustic backdrop where guests could take photos throughout the evening. We love when couples carry small elements of their wedding theme into different parts of the day—it helps everything feel cohesive without requiring every single detail to match.
From their outdoor ceremony filled with personalized western details to a bold and romantic reception inside the ballroom, Miranda and Trent’s Bella Sala wedding was a celebration that truly reflected who they are as a couple. Every element worked together to create a day that felt cohesive without feeling overly themed—from the cowhide aisle runner and Miranda’s custom leather bouquet wrap to the jewel-toned florals, black linens, and pops of hot pink throughout the reception.
What we loved most about this wedding was how much personality was incorporated into every part of the day. Their handmade seating chart, sentimental Generations of Love display, custom table numbers, and country-inspired details gave guests little glimpses into their story throughout the celebration. With a guest list of around 400 people, Miranda and Trent managed to create a wedding that felt grand while still being incredibly personal and meaningful.
Their celebration also showcased just how versatile Bella Sala Event Center in Tiffin, Iowa can be. From the secluded outdoor ceremony space to a ballroom large enough to comfortably accommodate hundreds of guests, the venue gave us the flexibility to create a beautiful flow throughout the entire day. For couples searching for a large wedding venue near Iowa City, Bella Sala offers plenty of opportunities to personalize both the ceremony and reception while keeping everything conveniently in one location.
As Iowa wedding planners serving Iowa City, Tiffin, and Eastern Iowa, we loved helping Miranda and Trent bring their country-chic wedding vision to life. Their day was bold, sentimental, a little bit western, and completely their own—and that is exactly what we believe a wedding should be. If you're planning a Bella Sala wedding or searching for an Iowa City wedding planner to help with the planning, design, and coordination of your celebration, Elizabeth Bliss Events would love to help turn your ideas into a wedding day that feels uniquely yours.
Vendor Team
Venue: Bella Sala Event Center
Planner: Elizabeth Bliss Events
Photographer: Baleigh Creed Photography
Caterer: A Guy and a Grill Catering
DJ: DJ DAS
Florist: Blooms by Becky
Makeup: Aurora Blush
Hair: Aurora Blush
Photo Booth: Pixel Pop Photo Booth
Decor: Borrow My Vintage
Party Bus: The Night Train
The Bella Sala Wedding Venue
Address: 205 S Park Rd, Tiffin, IA, United States, Iowa
Phone: 319-545-4255
Email: info@bellasalaevents.com
Capacity of 50 - 650 guests
Cost starts at $4,800 - $6,800 for the 1/2 room (Cascata), $6,000 - $9,500 for the whole space (Bella Sala)
Amenities included: Tables & chairs, table linens, bar setup and staffing, 2 large bridal suites, indoor and outdoor ceremony options, ceremony seating setup.