Intimate Winter Barn Wedding

Elizabeth Greene
December 26, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, Rustic, The Blog

Let me guess: you’re bundled up on the couch, holiday music playing, with multiple cookies and a large cup of coffee within arms reach. What better time and place to settle in with this rustic winter wonderland that is this wedding, captured by Braun Photography and Studio Z Films. These photos have me toasting to good cheer and I don’t plan on leaving this spot anytime soon.

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From the Bride… My husband and I fell in love in the winter. Our first date was sledding, we said I love you in a snowstorm, and all our favorite memories of that time involve snow. So, when we decided to tie the knot, we wanted to say “I do” on our fifth anniversary and kiss under an evergreen chuppah to remind us of the snow-covered evergreens we shared our first kisses under.

We are DIYers at heart. So, while we loved the idea of bringing in experts to take beautiful photos and video, and to prepare delicious food, we knew that the decor was going to be a project for the whole family. My parents made the evergreen chuppah, my mother-in-law made my necklace, and I created all the decor with help from family.

We also knew that our ceremony had to be personal to us. Neither of us is religious, but we wanted our ceremony to have the same deeply meaningful resonance as religious ceremonies. So, we recited vows we wrote as well as traditional vows, we had our families stand and pledge to welcome each other as a son and daughter, we had our friend play viola while Ryan’s father lead a bitter-sweet wine ceremony, and we had Ryan’s sister and my sister-in-law read special poems. Everyone said it was the most beautiful ceremony they’d every seen, and I ugly cried through most of it.

Because our ceremony was so deeply personal, we chose to keep our wedding small, with just 50 guests. It turned out to be the smartest move we could have made. We got to spend time with each and every person, and the whole night had the intimate feel of spending holidays with the family.

In the end, so many things just fell together perfectly, like the fact that it ended up being negative 5 degrees, but my bridesmaid Sarah had borrowed a bunch of vintage furs from her mother, so we ended up wearing those. Also, my veil didn’t work out at the last minute, but my wonderful florets made me a wreath that I loved. It was truly a day of kismet.

My husband was a musician and is a huge music nerd, so music was very important to us. He spent months curating the perfect playlists for cocktail hour, dinnertime, and dancing. Our special songs included: “The Book of Love” by The Magnetic Fields, “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy” by The Kinks, “Love Letter” by The Wannadies, “Find Love” by Clem Snide, and “Love You Madly” by Cake.