Real Wedding | Briana + Guthrie | January 21, 2023
On a beautiful January day, Briana and Guthrie committed their lives to one another in front of friends and family. Their day was absolutely stunning with beautiful floral details and special touches by the couple. We loved getting to be the backdrop for their big day and couldn't wait to share it with y'all. Enjoy!
The couple on meeting in college:
We met all the way back in 2014 in the University of North Texas Green Brigade marching band. Guthrie’s twin brother played the same instrument as Briana, and we both quickly found ourselves in the same social circles as we started navigating college life. After a long first semester, we finally decided to make things official, and had been dating ever since. Eight years later, Briana was tired of waiting for Guthrie to pop the question!
We had to have a reception venue in Grapevine, TX because our ceremony was held in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church. As soon as we locked in our ceremony details, The Laurel was the most all encompassing reception venue in the area.
Since we didn’t have our wedding ceremony in the adjacent chapel space, the empty chapel alter and pews were a perfect spot to do our first touch and private vows, and the pictures from that moment are priceless. Our photographer did an excellent job of capturing the “golden hour” outside with the trees and foliage just off the path to the patio area, and those photographs were ones that turned out the best.
Do you have any advice for future couples?
Make sure to have a plan in place for everything! Nothing goes exactly as planned.
We hoped to have a few key words to ring true throughout the entire weekend: Timeless, breathtaking, and comfortable. Mix that in with some Bohemian elements, and some thoughtful crafting done by Briana, and we believe we hit the mark!
We had a 10 foot banner made as a photo backdrop that said “We have waited 2,963 days for this... party accordingly” to poke fun at our unusually long time (over 8 years!) spent dating. We also had our guests sign Guthrie’s acoustic guitar he had used to serenade Briana with throughout the years, which we thought was a unique spin on a traditional guest book.
Justo did a wonderful job at crafting a completely dairy free dinner menu for us. He met with us several times to lock in the menu and all of its edits we needed to accommodate the bride so that she could eat everything on her wedding day. The cocktail hour passed Hors D'oeuvres were especially delightful!
One of the best things that we could have possibly done was to have the bride and groom share a private meal while the guests were enjoying the cocktail hour. We don’t think we would have made it through the whole night without it, and we were able to do most of our mingling with guests while everyone else was enjoying dinner! Shoutout to Maggie for the suggestion. Other favorite moments we enjoyed were the moments leading up to the ceremony, and the top-notch speeches that were made by our fathers and siblings.
It was truly a day that neither one of us will ever forget, but we were truly thankful for everyone around us.
We have had many family members reach out to us to tell us how wonderful our wedding day was. To most of them, it was the best wedding they had attended in decades, if not ever! We were so happy with the final outcome of our day, and were so glad that our hard work was appreciated to everyone who attended.
We were truly blessed to have our DJ Richie, from It’s Your Night Entertainment, be our MC and DJ for the evening. He kept the evening energized, and maintained wonderful timing with the schedule that we had personally created for our night. We also could not have had a better florist than Brooke, from Blooms by Brookie. She and her team went above and beyond by setting up the florals for the wedding ceremony, and transporting and reusing all of it at the reception hall!
Riding away from the ceremony in our getaway car to see a full moon was one of the most memorable moments for the both of us. Definitely something neither of us will ever forget!
Briana and Guthrie, thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us at the The Laurel! We wish you nothing but the best in the years to come!
Vendors:
Catering - Boxwood Catering
Photographer - Rebecca Tripp Photo
Florist - Blooms by Brookie
Videographer - Hello Beautiful Films
DJ - It’s Your Night Entertainment
Cake - Barnett Sweets + Co.
Pastries -Main Street Bistro & Bakery
Rentals - CoHost Event Rentals
Gown - Bridal Boutique of Lewisville
Tux - Menguin
Church - St. Francis of Assisi