Simple Wedding at Home

A simple wedding at home celebrated earlier this year like many others during the time of COVID-19. Focusing more on the marriage over the actual wedding day, this couple took their vows surrounded by their closest family & friends. A small gathering created a lovely & peaceful day where the couple had quiet moments together by themselves. Simple celebrations are just as amazing as large events & often allows for more intimate time for the couple to just be together on the day they say I do.

Notes from the photographer – “In January of 2020 LauraBeth had called me to ask if I would be interested in photographing her wedding since she is a florist and I have worked with her at previous weddings in the past. Well, now that she was engaged she wanted to work with me and I was so honored to get to help capture some wedding portraits of her and her fiancé, now husband, Travis. Originally they were going to have a classic and elegant wedding at a country club in Nashville, but due to Covid, their plans changed and they ended up inviting a handful of their friends and family to Travis’ home in Brentwood, Tennessee where they got married surrounded by their loved ones. The bride did a Zoom call with all of her bridesmaids and that was one of my most favorite moments of the day!
The family did an incredible job decorating the house and added some modern and classic touches to the day.
Photographing this wedding reminded me that it’s not the wedding that is important, it is the love between a couple which binds them together and that they were focused on their marriage OVER a wedding day, which was very encouraging and inspiring. Plus, this couple was super flexible and was just so excited to to spend the rest of their lives together. Every photographer needs to photograph a LauraBeth and Travis! It was such a peaceful, joyful and lovely day despite the fact that Covid ruined their original plans, but like I said earlier this couple was so flexible and were incredibly joyful to be getting married!”

What part of your wedding day was/is most important to you?

“Because we did not have to run around taking a bunch of pictures with the bridal party or extended family. We got to have a moment in between our first look and the actual ceremony. This time was very special and peaceful – an unexpected gift.”

What is your favorite thing about each other?

From LauraBeth “I don’t know that I can pick the moment that I decided I wanted to marry him and I find that beautiful in a way. The way Travis chooses to love me is not one specific moment or huge gesture. He loves me constantly in so many ways: he let’s me cry for what seems like no reason or just because I have a lot of emotion, he reminds me that I don’t have to be perfect or have everything together, he makes enough coffee in the morning so I have enough left when I come home from work, he gets dinner started when I am running late at work, he sets really clear boundaries and communicates these, he chooses to take care of himself and encourages me to do so for myself as well. The list could go on and on but with every passing moment, he shows me he loves me. He works to build trust and relationship. I think I probably knew by our third date that I was going to choose to love him. He allowed me to cry and sit in beautiful silence while I processed and figured out my emotions for about 2 months after that, before I had the courage to say it (even though he knew what I was holding back). He gave me the space and time I needed but showed up to be with me even in those moments.

From Travis “I really knew LauraBeth was special on our third date. I expressed gratitude to her for asking me out on a date and she cried. I had shown her my emotions and she responded in kind. LauraBeth was willing to share her true emotions to me and to hear mine. Along with common values and habits, this pattern continued and deepened over the first three months to show me that LauraBeth was the one.”

Describe a hurdle you had to overcome in your relationship or during your wedding planning.

“Surprise Pandemic! The biggest hurdle was being in the in between with what the guidelines were. Was it safe to have a big wedding? Could our immediate family be there? We finally decided about a month out from our scheduled day, that we were going to play it safe and have a small intimate wedding with only our immediate families. Come to find out this was quite possibly one of our favorite things about our wedding. We did not have to worry about all the tiny details, standing up in front of hundreds of people, or whether the timeline was exactly right. We were able to focus on our marriage and on joining our families together. We ended up getting the best of both worlds with a larger ceremony at a later date.”

What is the most honest thing you can say about love?

“Love is in the hard parts and the little things. It’s the every day interactions like making coffee or breakfast for each other. Choosing to be there for each other everyday.”