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WEDDING + LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHER
I'm passionate about capturing each season of life
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My Backyard Wedding Ceremony | Raquel & Mark
Wedding Day 7.12.24
After a month and a half of planning our intimate backyard wedding, the week had finally come. I felt as though we had nearly everything all ready to go and just saved some small details for the week of.
Details Invite
To set the tone for the evening and what to expect. I love color and I LOVED seeing all of our guests dressed in the bold warm sunset colors of red, orange, pink/peach, and yellow. Check out the large group photo below to see all the colors.
The Day Before
I worked for just a couple of hours that morning (which I regret a little because the day before was so BUSY). Mark and I cleaned the whole house and backyard, picked up our rentals – 40 chairs & 3 tables with my aunt & uncle, Mark picked up his tailored suit pants, I got a few groceries and our berry cake toppings, we picked our final ceremony & first dance songs, had our mini rehearsal & pizza party with my family, and finalized our private & ceremony vows. Went to bed about 11:30 PM that night and we quick went over the plan for the evening and when we would do our first dance right before falling asleep. I maybe slept half the night because my brain had to run through all the details.
Wedding Day
We both got up at about 8:00 AM. I helped Mark trim his beard right away and then we each had a little breakfast and coffee at home together — it was so nice and peaceful, just us at home and felt like our normal routine. We then sat on our patio, coffee in hand, and read our full vows we’d written to each other.
As soon as Mark finished the first line of his vows I was crying and didn’t stop until the end. I love him so much and am so glad we took time at the beginning of the day to read our vows to each other and have a private moment. It was the perfect way to begin our wedding day and gave me so much peace.
We then moved right into things and each had a bit of a mental list of the last things we needed to prepare before people started coming over in the afternoon and for our first order of events, the dinner, at 5:00 PM.
Together we set up the tables and chairs and moved our boxes of decorations (candles, bud vases, tablecloths, etc) to the patio for my mom and sister to help set up once they came over at about 10 AM with the flowers from our amazing local florist and friend Ari, owner of 605 Florista.
11:00 AM: I got the bud vases ready with my mom and sister and we started cutting and arranging the flowers into the vases. Mark’s herb garden also had so many gorgeous budding flowers on the cilantro and dill herbs at the time that made for the perfect touch of green and filler plants to mix in with the statement flowers from the florist. I picked a handful of those that morning along with a few yellow wildflowers that were around our house too.
12:00 PM: I left for my hair appointment at this time with Arielle at The Vice salon. She did the most amazing natural curl updo and had me out of there in about an hour. I can’t recommend her enough for bridal hair and I’m grateful to have gotten to know her before too through past styled photo shoots we’ve collaborated on before.
1:30 PM: Sarah with Sarah Lee Beauty arrived at my house to do my makeup. She drove up from her home in Northwest Iowa and we made a little space in our office for her to do her thing. She did such a great job with my makeup with a bronze and blush natural bridal look and I felt so gorgeous. The makeup felt light and literally stayed on the entire day through all the sweat and happy tears — I am still shocked and it was a humid, 85 degree Midwest July day. She is also so kind and made getting my makeup done feel so relaxing and I loved getting to know each other better. We had also met before through styled photo shoots and it was so fun to be on this side of the wedding day — one of my favorite parts was getting pampered and hyped up by these two talented artists Sarah with makeup and Arielle with my hair.
Mark also popped in to join us for a bit while he got a few things prepared. During the time of me getting ready he did so many behind the scenes set up things for the day and did all the tech set up for our live stream video.
3:00 PM: I scarfed down a small salad, fruit, and a gatorade for my lunch. I had also been drinking as much water as I could during the day. At this point I quickly transferred my shortened vows from the doc I’d written them into my vow book for the ceremony and then glued my fake nails on.
4:00 PM: Some of our friends and family started to arrive to help us finish set up and at this point I felt like I was delegating so much and really had to to have everything ready. A scramble and our family helping us out so much. At this point…
• My mom steamed my dress and veil (I should’ve done this the day before but ran out of time)
• My aunt put the berries on the cake
• My sister in law and flower girls picked the rose petals off for their flower baskets
• Our friends were finishing the food set up and cooking the Lomo Saltado in our kitchen
• My family had brought over the other two Peruvian dishes they cooked
• Mark prepared the salad toppings, picked up the wine, and made the mojito mix
• My sister, grandma, and brother were moving the dinner tables and chairs to the backyard to be shaded because it was going to too hot on the patio for eating
• My uncle and aunt put up the Picado paper garland across the patio
• I changed into my short white dress for the dinner
Dinner
5:00 PM: Nearly all of our guests had arrived at this point and it was a sweet time of reunion and welcoming everyone in right before we all went up to get our food potluck style.
6:30 PM: Our amazing photographer Phusuda arrived. Me realizing the time and getting my wedding day details to Phusuda to photograph and Mark and I changed into our real wedding attire. I was feeling the most nervous at this point right before we moved into the ceremony.
6:50 PM: Mark and I did a quick first look moment in front of our house with Phusuda and had a nice little moment before we started the ceremony.
Ceremony
7:00 PM: I have my sister and mom helping get into my dress, shoes, and veil before the ceremony. My sister goes to get ready to record bits of the ceremony on my camcorder and then it’s just my parents and I in my house with all our guests outside seated. My dad says a little blessing and prayer and we start to run outside from around the house as I hear the prelude song playing (That Home by The Cinematic Orchestra) and then we get to the beginning of the aisle to wait for our ‘walking down the aisle’ song, This is How You Fall in Love by Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler to get to the :36 second for us to take that first step.
This moment was so beautiful and climatic — I ate it up. I always think our backyard looks so beautiful and at this golden hour time the entire yard glows, and to have it be the setting for our ceremony was so special and intimate. I loved seeing it transformed into a ceremony space with the gorgeous white chairs, petals in the grass, and locking eyes with Mark at our little altar was surreal. It’s cheesy but I didn’t think about anything else and just honed in on Mark and putting a foot in front of the other to not fall. After the ceremony I saw the recording and videos of me walking down and my veil was glowing so much and it didn’t even look real.
Our ceremony was about 25 minutes long which is what we wanted and we had our next door neighbor who is also a pastor officiate our wedding. He did so great and kept it nice and short for us. We had only both known Sam since he and his family moved in a couple of years ago and so out of that we came up with the idea to have each of our parents share a little marriage advice and reading during the ceremony for us to make it more personal. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day and decisions that we made. The readings we so emotional and had the both of us in tears. After that we exchanged rings, vows, and had our first kiss as husband and wife (woo!!)
Tears are still streaming and thankfully our guests formed their own little receiving line to congratulate us as we didn’t plan that part. Our celebration continued with doing a group photo with everyone and our family and friends, we signed our certificate, Mark and I said a thank you toast, did some couple portraits at the park across the street, cut our cake, and had our first dance. It all was so sweet.
Toasts & After Party
The after party continued as we then all moved into our house to get some more polaroids, have some drinks, and my friends did an impromptu of the infamous wedding shoe game which was so fun. We then said our goodbyes to the last ones who stayed at about 1:30 AM and then I began to replay it all in my head before falling asleep.
It was truly the best day and I’m so glad we got to celebrate with our close friends and family at our first home together as a couple. It was so special and all fell into place perfectly.
Sentimentally,
The happily married Mrs. Brauning
The Details & Vendors:
We planned our backyard wedding ceremony with a lot of care and intention considering what is important to us and what isn’t. I love all our details and gladly share them to hopefully inspire and ease the planning and stress for other couples planning their wedding.
Table & Chairs: Ideal Tent & Event Rentals
Photographer: Baah Co.
Styling & planning assistance: Phusuda / Baah Co.
Hair: Arielle the Vice Studio
Makeup: Sarah Lee Beauty
Brow Lamination & Tint: The Prism by Grace Germain
Flowers for bud vases: 605 Florista
Cake: Costco
Dinner: Peruvian dishes prepared by family & friends
Dress: Anthropologie
White shoes: Shein
Classic nails: Kiss nails from Target
Veil: Amazon
Suit: The Suit Shop
Tie & shoes: David Jones Fashions
Paper Picado Banner, Bud Vases, Plates, Polaroid Album Guestbook, & Earrings: Amazon
Tablecloths: Thrifted
Peruvian Tablecloths: Borrowed from my family
Details Invitation: Canva
Wedding signage: I painted and loved making them myself
Wedding Day 7.12.24
After a month and a half of planning our intimate backyard wedding, the week had finally come. I felt as though we had nearly everything all ready to go and just saved some small details for the week of.
Details Invite
To set the tone for the evening and what to expect. I love color and I LOVED seeing all of our guests dressed in the bold warm sunset colors of red, orange, pink/peach, and yellow. Check out the large group photo below to see all the colors.
The Day Before
I worked for just a couple of hours that morning (which I regret a little because the day before was so BUSY). Mark and I cleaned the whole house and backyard, picked up our rentals – 40 chairs & 3 tables with my aunt & uncle, Mark picked up his tailored suit pants, I got a few groceries and our berry cake toppings, we picked our final ceremony & first dance songs, had our mini rehearsal & pizza party with my family, and finalized our private & ceremony vows. Went to bed about 11:30 PM that night and we quick went over the plan for the evening and when we would do our first dance right before falling asleep. I maybe slept half the night because my brain had to run through all the details.
Wedding Day
We both got up at about 8:00 AM. I helped Mark trim his beard right away and then we each had a little breakfast and coffee at home together — it was so nice and peaceful, just us at home and felt like our normal routine. We then sat on our patio, coffee in hand, and read our full vows we’d written to each other.
As soon as Mark finished the first line of his vows I was crying and didn’t stop until the end. I love him so much and am so glad we took time at the beginning of the day to read our vows to each other and have a private moment. It was the perfect way to begin our wedding day and gave me so much peace.
We then moved right into things and each had a bit of a mental list of the last things we needed to prepare before people started coming over in the afternoon and for our first order of events, the dinner, at 5:00 PM.
Together we set up the tables and chairs and moved our boxes of decorations (candles, bud vases, tablecloths, etc) to the patio for my mom and sister to help set up once they came over at about 10 AM with the flowers from our amazing local florist and friend Ari, owner of 605 Florista.
11:00 AM: I got the bud vases ready with my mom and sister and we started cutting and arranging the flowers into the vases. Mark’s herb garden also had so many gorgeous budding flowers on the cilantro and dill herbs at the time that made for the perfect touch of green and filler plants to mix in with the statement flowers from the florist. I picked a handful of those that morning along with a few yellow wildflowers that were around our house too.
12:00 PM: I left for my hair appointment at this time with Arielle at The Vice salon. She did the most amazing natural curl updo and had me out of there in about an hour. I can’t recommend her enough for bridal hair and I’m grateful to have gotten to know her before too through past styled photo shoots we’ve collaborated on before.
1:30 PM: Sarah with Sarah Lee Beauty arrived at my house to do my makeup. She drove up from her home in Northwest Iowa and we made a little space in our office for her to do her thing. She did such a great job with my makeup with a bronze and blush natural bridal look and I felt so gorgeous. The makeup felt light and literally stayed on the entire day through all the sweat and happy tears — I am still shocked and it was a humid, 85 degree Midwest July day. She is also so kind and made getting my makeup done feel so relaxing and I loved getting to know each other better. We had also met before through styled photo shoots and it was so fun to be on this side of the wedding day — one of my favorite parts was getting pampered and hyped up by these two talented artists Sarah with makeup and Arielle with my hair.
Mark also popped in to join us for a bit while he got a few things prepared. During the time of me getting ready he did so many behind the scenes set up things for the day and did all the tech set up for our live stream video.
3:00 PM: I scarfed down a small salad, fruit, and a gatorade for my lunch. I had also been drinking as much water as I could during the day. At this point I quickly transferred my shortened vows from the doc I’d written them into my vow book for the ceremony and then glued my fake nails on.
4:00 PM: Some of our friends and family started to arrive to help us finish set up and at this point I felt like I was delegating so much and really had to to have everything ready. A scramble and our family helping us out so much. At this point…
• My mom steamed my dress and veil (I should’ve done this the day before but ran out of time)
• My aunt put the berries on the cake
• My sister in law and flower girls picked the rose petals off for their flower baskets
• Our friends were finishing the food set up and cooking the Lomo Saltado in our kitchen
• My family had brought over the other two Peruvian dishes they cooked
• Mark prepared the salad toppings, picked up the wine, and made the mojito mix
• My sister, grandma, and brother were moving the dinner tables and chairs to the backyard to be shaded because it was going to too hot on the patio for eating
• My uncle and aunt put up the Picado paper garland across the patio
• I changed into my short white dress for the dinner
Dinner
5:00 PM: Nearly all of our guests had arrived at this point and it was a sweet time of reunion and welcoming everyone in right before we all went up to get our food potluck style.
6:30 PM: Our amazing photographer Phusuda arrived. Me realizing the time and getting my wedding day details to Phusuda to photograph and Mark and I changed into our real wedding attire. I was feeling the most nervous at this point right before we moved into the ceremony.
6:50 PM: Mark and I did a quick first look moment in front of our house with Phusuda and had a nice little moment before we started the ceremony.
Ceremony
7:00 PM: I have my sister and mom helping get into my dress, shoes, and veil before the ceremony. My sister goes to get ready to record bits of the ceremony on my camcorder and then it’s just my parents and I in my house with all our guests outside seated. My dad says a little blessing and prayer and we start to run outside from around the house as I hear the prelude song playing (That Home by The Cinematic Orchestra) and then we get to the beginning of the aisle to wait for our ‘walking down the aisle’ song, This is How You Fall in Love by Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler to get to the :36 second for us to take that first step.
This moment was so beautiful and climatic — I ate it up. I always think our backyard looks so beautiful and at this golden hour time the entire yard glows, and to have it be the setting for our ceremony was so special and intimate. I loved seeing it transformed into a ceremony space with the gorgeous white chairs, petals in the grass, and locking eyes with Mark at our little altar was surreal. It’s cheesy but I didn’t think about anything else and just honed in on Mark and putting a foot in front of the other to not fall. After the ceremony I saw the recording and videos of me walking down and my veil was glowing so much and it didn’t even look real.
Our ceremony was about 25 minutes long which is what we wanted and we had our next door neighbor who is also a pastor officiate our wedding. He did so great and kept it nice and short for us. We had only both known Sam since he and his family moved in a couple of years ago and so out of that we came up with the idea to have each of our parents share a little marriage advice and reading during the ceremony for us to make it more personal. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day and decisions that we made. The readings we so emotional and had the both of us in tears. After that we exchanged rings, vows, and had our first kiss as husband and wife (woo!!)
Tears are still streaming and thankfully our guests formed their own little receiving line to congratulate us as we didn’t plan that part. Our celebration continued with doing a group photo with everyone and our family and friends, we signed our certificate, Mark and I said a thank you toast, did some couple portraits at the park across the street, cut our cake, and had our first dance. It all was so sweet.
Toasts & After Party
The after party continued as we then all moved into our house to get some more polaroids, have some drinks, and my friends did an impromptu of the infamous wedding shoe game which was so fun. We then said our goodbyes to the last ones who stayed at about 1:30 AM and then I began to replay it all in my head before falling asleep.
It was truly the best day and I’m so glad we got to celebrate with our close friends and family at our first home together as a couple. It was so special and all fell into place perfectly.
Sentimentally,
The happily married Mrs. Brauning
The Details & Vendors:
We planned our backyard wedding ceremony with a lot of care and intention considering what is important to us and what isn’t. I love all our details and gladly share them to hopefully inspire and ease the planning and stress for other couples planning their wedding.
Table & Chairs: Ideal Tent & Event Rentals
Photographer: Baah Co.
Styling & planning assistance: Phusuda / Baah Co.
Hair: Arielle the Vice Studio
Makeup: Sarah Lee Beauty
Brow Lamination & Tint: The Prism by Grace Germain
Flowers for bud vases: 605 Florista
Cake: Costco
Dinner: Peruvian dishes prepared by family & friends
Dress: Anthropologie
White shoes: Shein
Classic nails: Kiss nails from Target
Veil: Amazon
Suit: The Suit Shop
Tie & shoes: David Jones Fashions
Paper Picado Banner, Bud Vases, Plates, Polaroid Album Guestbook, & Earrings: Amazon
Tablecloths: Thrifted
Peruvian Tablecloths: Borrowed from my family
Details Invitation: Canva
Wedding signage: I painted and loved making them myself
Shania & Pierre / Sioux Falls / 2022
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