On August 7, 2021, I got married to my soulmate! It was such a fun, beautiful, special day that will always be one of our favorites.
My parents recently moved to Utah, so we decided to have our wedding in Park City. One reason we chose Park City was because we knew we wanted an outdoor August wedding, and Texas (where we are both from) would have been miserably hot. We both have always wanted a destination wedding, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, having a small, intimate wedding made the most sense. Our wedding had around 35 guests total, and we also live-streamed the wedding for our friends and family back home.
Having a small wedding was nice because we were able to spend more time with our guests, but it was also hard not to have all of our friends, extended families, and family friends there with us in person. While there are pros/cons of having a micro wedding, we would recommend it to anyone considering having a small wedding (especially with the pandemic still going on).
Here are some photos and details from our wedding day:
This was our beautiful wedding venue! We only looked at one venue, and it was love at first sight. Everyone got ready downstairs, the ceremony and cocktail hour were outside on the lawn out, dinner was upstairs, and dancing took place on the second-floor balcony.
For our getting ready outfits, I wanted my besties to have something they could wear again (and a few of my bridesmaids noted that they already had a lot of floral robes and pajama sets from other weddings). I also liked the thought of “getting ready dresses” because they’re so comfortable and easy.
I did not show any of my bridesmaids my dress before the big day (except for my Maid of Honor/sister). We did a first look reveal after hair/makeup finished.
For bridesmaid dresses, I wanted something blue and simple. My bridesmaids picked out whichever style they liked best in the color.
This locket was my “something borrowed”. It’s my grandma’s locket that belonged to her grandmother, Carrie Bell. I always knew that I wanted it with me on my wedding day, but I never imagined my future husband would someday have the same exact initials “CB”.
We did “first look” photos and group/family photos before the ceremony. Because our wedding was so small, we didn’t want more than half of the guests to be missing during cocktail hour. We also knew our wedding party and families would not want to miss cocktail hour.
I am really glad we did it this way, even though I think first looks (at the ceremony) are so special and beautiful. Taking pictures beforehand just made the most sense for our wedding.
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The string quartet played classical music (Handel, Bach, Pachelbel) for our ceremony and cocktail hour.
Hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails were served at the outdoor cocktail hour that took place before dinner.
During cocktail hour, we went with our photographers and videographer five minutes down the street to shoot our portraits.
We had all of the bridesmaids and groomsman (and their dates) sit at the long table by the fireplace.
Speeches took place while drinks were being passed out.
I snuck away for a few minutes after dinner (and before cake cutting) to change into my second dress. I originally wanted to wear my wedding dress the entire night because I loved it so much. However, at my final dress fitting, we found out it couldn’t physically be bustled and I was told that it wouldn’t be possible to dance in my dress during the reception.
Luckily, I had a beautiful white dress from high school (that I wore for a National Charity League senior event) that still fit. So I decided to change into that for the reception because it was easy to dance in – and I wouldn’t have to worry about anybody stepping on it/anything getting spilled on it. Enjoying the party and having a first dance/father-daughter dance were really important to me, so I was happy that I was able to enjoy the night without worrying about my dress.
We had two wedding cakes. One two-tier coconut (gluten free) and one one-tier black forest. Both of our cakes were square and decorated with flowers.
Our first dance was to Dua Lipa’s acoustic version of Electricity. We took dance lessons before the wedding and learned a choreographed dance. We were only able to practice it maybe three times before the wedding because Chase had to move to New York that summer. It was so fun taking dance lessons, but I would not recommend doing a difficult, choreographed performance unless you’re able to actually practice lol. We definitely blanked out in the middle, but we still had a blast.
After the first dance, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance, espresso martinis were brought out. We also did a garter toss and bouquet toss during the reception.
One of my favorite parts of the reception was a special surprise for the grandparents that our wonderful planner suggested. We asked all of the married couples to come to the dance floor, and our DJ said something along the lines of “If you’ve been married for one day, stay on the dance floor… If you’ve been married for one year, stay on the dance floor, etc.”. The last two couples standing were Chase’s grandparents and my grandparents. It was a really sweet moment. We had the couple who had been together the longest (Chase’s grandparents) share their best marriage advice.
We stayed at the Montage in Park City for our wedding night. We had our honeymoon flight early the next day, and I didn’t want to have to try to deal with my big dresses in the morning, so I changed into this linen midi dress for the exit so I could pack it for our honeymoon.
My sister decorated our beautiful golf cart that we exited in. We didn’t drive far in the dark and had a cab drive us to our hotel from there.
We are SO thankful for all of the amazing vendors who made our wedding so beautiful, stress-free, and fun (and with less than seven months to plan!).
We’re also so incredibly grateful for our family and friends who traveled out for our wedding day, helped us prepare for the big day, and who have been such huge parts of our lives.
Venue/food: Talisker Club
Planner: Soirée Productions
Photographer: Blake Hogge
Videographer: callyfilms
Livestream: Charisma Event Productions
DJ: DJpauly
String quartet: The String Quartet
Decor/flowers: Decorationinc
Neon sign: Weon Light
Cake: cake by Alessandra
Hair: Lesley Lind
Makeup: Makeup by Cherisa
Veil: Toni Federici
Bridal store: Warren Barrón Bridal (Dallas)
Dress #1: Mark Ingram Collection
Dress #2: Jovani (this dress was purchased around 2011/2012)
Dress #3: Dissh
Bridesmaid dresses: Show Me Your Mumu
Chase’s suit: Suitsupply
Our wedding video:
