Lauren + Boone
June 9-10, 2023 in Richland, WA
Welcome back to the Ivory Bride Blog, where we share stories about our real brides and their dreamy weddings! In today's post, our real bride shares all about this couple's unique two-day wedding celebration. The couple chose to avoid a traditional wedding, opting instead for an extended celebration to make the occasion more memorable for their guests. They had a courthouse ceremony at Franklin County Courthouse in Pasco on Friday with close friends and immediate family, followed by a dinner at Tagaris Winery. The following day, they hosted a more traditional reception at Goose Ridge Winery for 130 guests, focusing on simple decor with pink, peach, and white tones to complement the vineyard's natural beauty.
The planning and execution of the wedding days went smoothly, thanks to meticulous preparation. The bride created detailed timelines, decor layouts, and vendor instructions, ensuring everyone was aligned. Despite a minor hiccup with securing the courtroom, the problem was resolved quickly. Saturday's reception was relaxed, focusing on enjoyment and celebration, featuring a vintage car arrival, excellent wine and cider, and a beautiful sunset.
The bride's top advice for future brides is to avoid unnecessary stress by focusing on what they genuinely want, rather than trying to meet the unrealistic standards often seen online. She emphasizes doing what feels right without regrets and notes that much of the "wedding inspo" online consists of styled shoots rather than actual weddings.
By our real bride, Lauren:
What was the vision for your wedding?
We knew we didn't want a traditional wedding. My husband and I both have been in a few weddings and hear all the time "The day goes by so quickly you blink and it's gone". So we tried to figure out what we could do to make it more special. We both have family that would come a long way to celebrate, so we wanted to stretch out the fun as much as we could. We finally landed on a two-day event. We decided to do a Friday courthouse wedding ceremony at Franklin County Courthouse in Pasco with close friends and our immediate family. We had a dinner with those folks after at Tagaris Winery and then on Saturday, we had the more traditional reception at Goose Ridge Winery with 130 people. Because let's be honest, people want to eat, drink, and dance :). The vision was pretty simple decor-wise. I knew I wanted to contrast the beautiful greenery of the vineyard with some tones of pink, peach, and white. You don't need to do much with the gorgeous views at Goose Ridge. We visit the tasting room often, so it felt comfortable to be there and we wanted the same for our guests.
How did it go the day-of?
Day(s) of were perfect! I put a lot of time into planning the timeline and outlined the decor set up and wrote up a whole binder of the details to send out to the vendors and I think that helped a ton for me to be totally present during our days. Everyone was on the same page. I used some tools to photoshop exactly what I wanted the layout and tables to look like and every piece of decor had a home. It also helped that some of my vendors were people I'd used prior, so I knew I was in good hands. We only ran into one problem the day of that I had no idea of knowing. Securing a courtroom for our ceremony was probably the hardest aspect of planning. I don't think I even secured it until about March for our June 9th date. I finally reached the right person to get a room secured, but some of the people at the courthouse were unaware we were using a room, and it was locked when we got there (along with our 30 guests)! I had no clue though because I was off taking photos. Our officiant was able to track down the bailiff, whose son was getting married in 2 weeks, so he was more than happy to make our day go off without a hitch. He was an awesome addition to our day. Saturday felt great because we had the ceremony already and we could just focus on the party! We rolled in a vintage car and had a gorgeous evening with the best wine and cider in town and the most beautiful sunset as we danced the night away!
What is your #1 tip to future brides?
It's only going to be as stressful as you allow it to be. Don't get caught up in what you think you should be doing according to Pinterest, TikTok, etc. Do what you want with ZERO regrets. And another tip, 90% of what "Wedding inspo" is online are styled shoots and not real weddings, so don't feel like you have to live up to anything online.
