Real Weddings
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Britta and Ian’s Backyard Wedding

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Ariana Baio


My partner and I actually grew up in the same small town in New Jersey. He is two years older than me, so we didn’t interact too much during high school except during spring track season! Years later, we both noticed each other on a dating app, and my best friend actually convinced me to look at his profile. He then messaged me saying he remembered me from high school and the rest is history. We have been together for four years, bought a house together, and now are getting married! We got engaged on our four-year anniversary while we were on a short getaway in Asbury Park—our favorite beach town.
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Britta and Ian's Backyard WeddingHow did you get engaged?
Ian proposed at The Asbury Hotel when we were staying there for a weekend away. We were celebrating our four-year dating anniversary and had gone out to a great dinner. Back at the hotel, Ian ordered champagne to the room to continue the celebration of our anniversary. After he opened it, he took out the ring and proposed.

Britta and Ian's Backyard Wedding

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Since we could not have the April wedding that we spent so long planning for, we looked forward to having something much smaller and intimate. Fixing up our backyard in order to have the wedding at our house seemed like the perfect idea. When planning the flowers and colors for this wedding, I wanted to go in the opposite direction of our first wedding. The flowers are colorful jewel tones with similar accents in the decorations. We are really looking forward to finally celebrating our marriage with our loved ones.
Britta-Ian-Backyard-Wedding-Bri-JohnsonBritta and Ian's Backyard Wedding

With everything going on with Covid-19 and gathering restrictions, we decided to invest in our backyard with a renovation project so that we could host the wedding at our house! It is another blessing in disguise that we will now be able to enjoy our “wedding venue” every day instead of just one day.Britta and Ian's Backyard Wedding
What was on your menu?
We decided to use a food truck for our backyard wedding in order to keep things simple and to not pressure people to sit down for a meal if they didn’t want to. We used the food truck Mexican Spice, and they did not disappoint! People could choose from chicken tinga, pork carnitas, beef or vegetable tacos. They also offered quesadillas or burrito bowls, with all of the pico de gallo and guacamole you could want. All of the food was honestly so amazing that people went back for seconds and some thirds. For dessert we had a beautiful cutting cake with vanilla cake and raspberry filling. Then we had three flavors of cupcakes that matched the cake: funfetti, oreo and carrot cake.
Britta and Ian's Backyard Wedding

I wanted something fitted with a short train. When the consultant showed me this dress, I loved the scalloped design on it, and when I put it on we all knew that it was the one. I love how light and comfortable it feels. It was definitely made for me. As soon as I tried it on and walked out, my mom and I both said, “This is the one!”
Britta-Ian-Backyard-Wedding-Bri-JohnsonBritta and Ian's Backyard Wedding

One of my favorite moments from the day was finally getting to see Ian. I was nervous about how the morning would go and everything working out timing-wise, being that our house is not a typical wedding venue! Once I got to see Ian and he got to see me, I felt much more relaxed and comfortable with how the day would go no matter what happened.Britta and Ian's Backyard Wedding
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The day was perfect. It was not the original wedding we had planned, but in the end, it was perfect. There was so much stress and worry leading up to that day. However, once the day got started, it was all worth it to see everything come together and to get to celebrate with our loved ones. It made us happy to hear how much everyone enjoyed the day with us. We did have to change many things, many times for our wedding day. In the end, the day was everything we could have asked for in a wedding day.Britta and Ian's Backyard Wedding
What was one detail you could not live without?
Honestly our photographer Bri Johnson! Once we realized we would not have the original wedding we planned for April 4, 2020, not much else mattered to us other than getting married and having Bri capture those memories for us. We knew that no matter what our day looked like, in the end she would take the most beautiful pictures for us to look back on.
Any advice for future brides?
Focus on what is really important to you, not what you think you should be doing. When planning our original big celebration, we focused so much on what other people typically do at large weddings that we lost sight of what we really wanted at our wedding. We realized that a smaller, more intimate wedding was much more our style, so having to pivot and plan again was actually a blessing in disguise.
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Honeymoon location?
We did a brief getaway to Mystic, CT.

the details

Hometowns

Midland Park, MJ

Reception Location

Backyard

Photographer

Bri Johnson

Officiant

Christine O'Neill

Bride’s Gown

Sottero and Midgely

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