Rustic Backyard Wedding

For love there are no special requirements or rules. Love is wonderful in its simplicity and charm. Stacks of hay used as comfy chairs for guests, paper fans, bright wedding theme colors and generous gifts of nature incorporated into wedding decorations will be essential elements of any rustic weddings. This particular wedding is inspired by coziness and warmth of human hearts that gather by a bonfire exchanging smiles and hugs as they celebrate the union of two loving newlyweds.

About their wedding: We wanted our wedding day to be a true reflection of us as individuals and what we value as a couple. Every detail – from hand carved wood block invitations to fresh flowers from the weekly farmers’ market – was planned out and produced to fill the day with details that embody what we love in life. I (Alicia) walked down the aisle to the sound of bagpipes played by a family friend to honor my love for Scotland; instead of a cake we opted for an ice cream sundae bar with ice cream from Colin’s hometown; our guests enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making s’mores between turns on the dance floor. We just wanted the day to be a fun, festive and joyous celebration of life!

We’re both very close to our families and they played a huge role in making the day so extraordinarily special. My parents’ volunteered to let us have the ceremony and reception at their home, on property that has been in my family for generations. Colin’s sister, Erin, performed our wedding ceremony. Every person played a role, and to feel them coming together, providing us with their support was incredible. I can’t begin to pick a favorite moment – the whole thing was a dream!

Wedding planning advice: Our advice to other couples that are planning a wedding would be to try to keep things in perspective (it’s not easy). Know that your wedding doesn’t need to be extravagant or expensive in order to be special. And when the big day comes, pause periodically and take it all in. As my dad said during his toast at our rehearsal dinner, ‘it doesn’t get much better than this.'

• Photographer:Elisabeth Arin Photography
• Ceremony Venue:Home of the bride's parents in Loomis, California
• Reception Venue:Home of the bride's parents in Loomis, California
• Wedding Dress:Casablanca
• Bridesmaids dresses:Various - bridesmaids' choice!
• Florist:DIY with fresh blooms from the Sacramento farmers' market
• Hair stylist:Shainein Shahlaie of Honey Salon
• Make-up:Shainein Shahlaie of Honey Salon 
• Caterer:Randy's Creative Catering
• Invitations:DIY
• Decor:DIY
• Wedding Cake:Shuberts Ice Cream 

Pink and Orange Backyard Wedding by Kristin Brown Photography

This beautiful pink and orange backyard wedding by Kristin Brown Photography captures so many special moments which we are convinced, the couple will cherish for many years to come. It's always so wonderful to witness people's emotions on big days like this, and see their genuine joy, pride, happiness, excitement. It's truly when they smile with their eyes and those smiles are priceless. Great job on capturing the bride's father's reaction as the bride appears to embrace him! That honestly put a huge smile on our faces!

Decorated with flowers and petals, this couple picked a gorgeous stationary to create a special theme for their wedding. Orange, light pink and fuchsia colors are dominant at this summer wedding that took place in  Santa Ana,CA.

The bride's hairstyle made us personally want to try something similar, it's always a good sign! Isn't it?! And of course, it'd be sad not to mention how charming the ceremony place was.. We could easily picture ourselves sitting there in sipping freshly made lemonade and enjoying the warmth of the sunny day!

From the couple: My husband and I knew we wanted to be married at his parent’s home where he grew up. The style of the property inspired our main idea. The property is divided into three tiers. The bottom tier is the garden level, the main tier holds the house and pool area, and the third tier once was a giant tennis court but now is called the family “parking lot.” We chose to have the ceremony on the garden level with seating for 230 on the lawn between the olive trees, the hors d’oeuvres on the main level surrounding the pool area, and dinner and drinks along with dancing on the third tier. The entire property is surrounded by flowers, giant olive and palm trees, waterfalls, and of course a ton of wildlife that now call the Del Francia house home. These things all inspired our garden style wedding. We didn’t want “wedding colors” we wanted a bunch of colors and items that all meshed with the surrounding area. There were so many colors that the property already had so we wanted to be a part of that and really blend in while also standing out.

Our wedding was filled with items that my family and my wedding party and I designed and made. My grandma Dolores made hundreds of Italian wedding cookies and my bridesmaids and I decorated small cardboard boxes which the cookies went into. My mother in law’s best friend Earleen Seeley made our hanging Del Francia sign that hung on the “Memory Lane” walking path which contained pictures of my husband and I over the years. My father handmade all of the signs and my sister in law Kinsey Del Francia painted and hand wrote on each of them. I also decided to make another hanging banner that said LOVE which hung over the entrance to the pool area. The entire day was filled with so many small touches by family and friends. We also provided our wedding planner Jeni Nielsen with our main ideas and gave her freedom to design our wedding for us. She chose the florist and the DJ and had them meet with us so we could share our inspirations with them. It was hard at first to let other people make decisions for you based upon inspirations but I could not be any happier about everyone’s final decisions. To capture this amazing day we had Kristin Brown photograph the entire thing. We let Kristin do her thing and capture our day as she saw fit. We are absolutely in love with every single photo she took. She captured every detail big and small and helped us to remember our big day. Without her we would only remember our wedding as a blur.

Photographer:  Kristin Brown Photography // Lighting:G2 Audio and Lighting // DJ:Soundwave Productions // Invitation Designer:Sugar Press // Linens and Coverings: Wildflower Linen // Caterer: Jay's Catering // Floral Designer: M's Flowers // Event Planner:Sugar Soirée // Cake Designer: Sweet & Saucy // Cinema and Video: Vertex Weddings // Submitted via Two Bright Lights