Laura and Ruben’s wedding day was “a big, fun love party.” Their eco-conscious celebration included a secluded forest ceremony at Stony Creek Metropark and a food truck catered reception at The Packard Proving Grounds. The couple tapped their talented friends for details like illustrated invitations, a first dance musical performance, a hand-stitched veil and a lovely wedding cake and the rest they did themselves—we’re loving the adorable DIY gilded, animal details. And, with Love Is A Big Deal behind the lens, Laura and Ruben’s delight, and all the adorable details were captured to perfection.
What made the wedding special and unique?
For our wedding, we wanted everything to feel like a big fun love party with some wedding touches, so we kept the traditions we loved and looked forward to most and kept more to our own style on most other things. We opted for food trucks over a catered meal to give everyone lots of eco-conscious options which turned out to be a huge hit!
Tell us about the gown and where/how you found it!
My gown was a BHLDN gown that I had eyes on at the Atlanta boutique. I was able to buy, never worn from another young woman who had a change of direction for her own wedding, via Tradesy, wanting to be as green conscious as possible, it was a huge success to me to find my dream gown for less and give an already manufactured gown its chance to shine!
What were some touches added to make the wedding personal?
With large families on both sides and friends from far and wide, we had a pretty good sized wedding (200). We wanted to cultivate that intimate personal feeling of a small wedding while including everyone most important to us, so we opted to ask some of our super talented friends and family to share their gifts in creating our special day. We had my aunt as our officiant, my grandmother hand stitched my veil, Ruben’s cousin hand illustrated our gorgeous botanical invitations for us, a dear friend from Nashville made our wedding cake, and another friend played our first dance song live. These gifts and the countless other people who helped us put everything together made the whole experience feel really communal, intimate and special.
What was the most memorable part of the day?
We had so many amazing memorable moments and were lucky to get to spend a lot of time with all our guests (another perk of a more casual food truck dinner!), but one that stuck out to us both was the little bit of time right after our ceremony when Meg, our photographer, stole us away to take some pics of just us in this amazing patch of Phlox she had been eyeing to the right of our ceremony grove. So it was just really intimate quiet private moments between us among these gorgeous purple flowers, during the golden hour. At one point, on her instruction, we were singing our song together, it was pure magic.
Tell us how you met and became engaged.
We met at the University of Michigan where we were both in a capella singing groups! A few years, cities and a couple continent divides later, Ruben surprised me by proposing on the stone steps leading up to my favorite hike in Percy Warner Park, Nashville. We then celebrated by hiking the easy trail loop and having some champagne as fiancées!
Photography: Love Is A Big Deal // Day-of Coordination: Nicole Hurtigam of Beautiful Day Planning // Flowers: Flora Detroit // Ceremony Site: Stony Creek Metropark // Reception Site: The Packard Proving Grounds // Strings: Star String Quartet // Hair: Sarah Goers of One Salon // Rentals: A Moment Forever / Colonial Rentals // Gowns: BHLDN // Men’s suits: The Black Tux // Food trucks: The Twisted Mitten / El Guapo Grill / Fat Panda // Cake: Stephanie Higgs, Friend of Bride // Concept, Favors, Table Numbers, Signage/Decor, Edison Chandeliers: Bride + Groom