Simple backyard weddings are always the sweetest! Today’s rustic backyard handmade wedding from Brianna Wilbur is the perfect blend of handmade details, family support, and lots of love. This is seriously the cutest couple, and their pure joy just emanates from the images! I love that they chose to do a blindfolded first look to have a moment to pray together, and still have the wow factor for the groom walking down the aisle.
My husband and I wanted our wedding to be simple, yet personal. We did a few unique things that made it our own, but our family and friends made the day what we truly wanted it to be…a celebration! Throughout our planning process we debated lots of things; silverware: real or fake? Children: invited or not? Pictures: before or after the ceremony? But in the end, all the little things we stressed over were the last things on our mind the day of the wedding. Since we love nature, we went with a rustic theme for our wedding. Navy blue and coral were our colors, we used burlap and lace for our materials, we used lanterns and lots of raw wood slabs for centerpieces and signs all around the venue.
The most important thing to us during our planning process and for the actual events of the wedding day was that God was the center of it all. Our photographer used the term ‘Jesus filled wedding’ to describe our day and that is exactly what we wanted. The whole week leading up to the wedding they were calling for rain and hail and severe thunderstorms for not only the day of the wedding but the exact time of our ceremony. Even my brother who is a meteorologist confirmed that there would be some sort of storm. However, we went ahead with plans as they were and the skies were clear and blue until we drove away in our getaway car that night. It really felt like God was pushing back the storm and smiling down on our day, making us both very happy.
Getting married outside seemed like the most logical thing for us considering we both love nature. A family friend offered their front yard to us, which may not sound like much but it is an absolutely gorgeous yard. Not to mention the fact that the owners of the house are both gardeners with a very rustic style to their home décor. They were incredibly gracious in lending helping hands and handing over their yard and home to us for months leading up to the wedding. It also helped that my father-in-law owns greenhouses! So talk about a fairytale of a garden! There were flowers everywhere! It was really breathtaking.
Having family and friends help with decorations and other details was really special too. Not only was it fun to have ‘invitation making parties’ but it really made us feel truly loved. My brother-in-law made us an arbor to stand under, my sister made our cupcakes, my brother, cousin and best friend provided fantastic and very personal music for our ceremony, my husband’s side of the family spent many a Friday night doing some sort of crazy craft project or watering flowers or planting flowers. God bless ‘em! It made the actual wedding so much more special knowing that it was all a product of countless labors of love from our family and friends.
Some advice I’d give to couples that are planning a wedding? Don’t stress about the details. Sure, something isn’t going to go quite how you planned….we ended up using a butcher knife to cut our cake cause we forgot the cake knife. But your wedding day will be the day of your dreams because you will be marrying the person of your dreams and all the details won’t matter at all when you see each other for the first time on that day. Secondly, hire a good photographer who has a style similar to yours. We could not say enough positive things about our photographer. She captured our entire day so perfectly. And lets face it, besides the marriage, pictures are all you have to remember your big day so you want to remember it just how it was!!! And most of all have fun! Remember you are planning a party! Not a performance. Don’t be nervous about everything falling into place perfectly. It’s going to be a celebration and the ones who love you will just be delighted to be able to share in your wedding day. Happy planning!
Photography | Brianna Wilbur Photography
