Meet the team
Candace Blakeslee
As part of the Swan family, I look forward to working with you to create the most amazing day ever – your wedding day!
Brianna Drake-Burmania
My name is Brianna Drake-Burmania, and I am the new wedding coordinator/planner for The Swan Barn Door’s Coordinating Team. A little background about me! I was raised in a small town here in Wisconsin with my two sisters and little brother. I attended MPTC for Early Childhood Education where I received my Associate’s Degree, then proceeded to obtain my Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education at UW-Oshkosh, all while working in my hometown’s daycare.
You may be wondering how I went from teaching to wedding coordinating. My oldest sister, Brittney, got married at The Swan Barn Door in 2019 with me by her side! Soon after, Brittney started working at The Barn as their wedding coordinator/planner and florist. I had the privilege of helping her set up weddings, design floral pieces, and decorate the venue. This is where I fell in love with everything weddings! I take this job very seriously, and love being the person you can count on to execute your ideas and day flawlessly!
In my profession, I had to be organized, plan materials months in advance, be detail-oriented, and work hard to achieve my personal goals. I hope to bring the same drive and passion to all the weddings I get to be a part of. I am so excited to be a part of this team, meet future brides, grooms, and their families! I hope to make each and every wedding run smoothly to help relieve some wedding day stressors! Your day should consist of you enjoying each other and your guests while I take care of all the little things behind the scenes. If there is one thing I learned from helping assist my sister, corralling a classroom of twenty 4-year-olds is not a whole lot different than managing a group of wild wedding guests.
Thank you for entrusting me to be a part of your big day!
Davilee
I am a country girl through and through. I grew up in rural Wisconsin on almost 40 acres of what my dad calls “deer country”. My four siblings and I were homeschooled and spent much of our time outside playing in the yard, exploring the woods and driving ATVs. My love for flowers came at a very early age, as I always looked forward to the first dandelions of spring after a cold Wisconsin winter. I began assembling wildflower bouquets as a little girl and loved discovering different types of flowers to run back to the house to show my Mom so that she could put them into a jelly jar vase for her windowsill above the kitchen sink. I found myself always trying to be creative with flowers and nature. Whether that was picking flowers and creating arrangements with them, helping my Nana with her flower beds, or even taking pictures of flowers and landscapes when I got into photography. I couldn’t get enough!
In my free time, I still love to be outside! Hiking, biking and going for walks are a few of my favorite activities. I also enjoy spending time with my family and friends, shopping at some of my favorite stores, getting coffee and eating sushi. My husband and I enjoy biking together, playing games and being with our three dogs, whom are a never ending source of excitement and entertainment!
I put my creativity to work when I got married and I made all of my own flower arrangements and bouquets. They all turned out so well that my Mom asked me to make several of the arrangements for her wedding a year later!
The country setting of The Swan Barn Door made it so easy for me to see myself working there as the in-house florist because of the nostalgia that I feel just by driving up the driveway… Being surrounded by nature and a canopy of gorgeous trees makes it feel like such a homey, welcoming place!
I am very goal oriented and strive for excellence and perfection in everything that I do! It is so exciting for me to have the opportunity to have a job where I can put my creativity, my talents, my attention to detail, my organizational skills and my work ethic to the test to achieve something wonderful and unique for each bride that will make her special day even more memorable.