written by Lauren of Lauren Anne Photo
photography by Folchi Creative
“Our private, intimate wedding ceremony wasn’t always our plan or what we dreamed of.”
After lots of consideration, my husband and I decided to have a private and intimate wedding ceremony. The reason we ended up going this route is because, just four months into dating, Drew landed his dream job out in Oregon. From our first conversations, we knew we wanted to spend our futures together, so a quick engagement felt right for us. Two months after Drew popped the question, we got married! Our private, intimate wedding ceremony wasn’t always our plan or what we dreamed of. In fact we had a big, traditional wedding planned for the following year which we are still planning to have so we can celebrate with all our family and friends.
We don’t regret our untraditional, private ceremony one bit, and we actually highly recommend considering it. We loved it because we planned it exactly around what we wanted — we didn’t feel as though we needed to please anyone. Even though planning an intimate wedding didn’t involve very many decisions, there’s still some things to consider as you are planning one.
Who to invite?: Whether you invite a few family members or friends to your intimate wedding or no one at all, you will more than likely hurt someone’s feelings, and that’s okay. But that doesn’t mean you can’t include them in your special day somehow.
We included our friends by having them join us the morning of our special day while we got ready. After our ceremony, we headed to a family friend’s home where our close family and friends gathered for tacos, sangria, margaritas, and lots of celebrating.
Where should we have the intimate wedding ceremony?: There’s a few different options you can consider when choosing the location. Some opt to keep it simple and head to the courthouse. Others prefer to get married somewhere outside or somewhere that has meaning to the couple.
We decided to have our intimate ceremony at a local, natural light photo studio that our friend and wedding photographer owns. It was the perfect location and our florist created the most beautiful arrangements for our altar space that really made it all come together.
Who can marry us?: These days, anyone can marry you as long as they’re ordained, which can be done online. Some people decide to have someone close, such as a friend or family member officiate their wedding day. You could also involve your pastor or hire a professional wedding officiant to perform your ceremony.
We originally were going to have a good, family friend get ordained to officiate our small ceremony but opted for a friend that had officiated weddings in the past. Our experience with our officiant was very special to us — every word he spoke over us felt meaningful and tailored to our love story.
Which type of vendors should we consider hiring?: We were grateful enough to know many talented wedding vendors since we have been in the wedding industry ourselves. But the vendors we recommend hiring the most are a photographer, videographer, and florist.
Hiring a photographer was a no-brainer since I am a wedding photographer. My incredibly talented friend, Natalie of Folchi Creative went above and beyond. A videographer was also important to us since our family and friends weren’t a part of our ceremony. We can now relive our day through our wedding video that our brother, ALC Productions so kindly created for us. Finally, we hired Carrie of Stem Floral Studio. She created the most breathtaking florals that really made our day come together. We can’t thank our vendors enough — they all played a special role in our day.
About Lauren
Hi there, I’m Lauren! I currently live in a very small town in Southern Oregon with my husband and our pup, Maverick. I’m a wedding and lifestyle photographer who deeply values relationships and intentionality. You can find me daydreaming of our future homestead that my husband and I are hoping to one day create; either a farm in the country or a cabin in the woods. I’m constantly inspired by human connection, old film photography, and home design books. My strongest desire is to always create an atmosphere where others can feel loved, seen, heard, and supported!
laurenannephoto.com | @laurenannephoto
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