Stephanie & Aaron | A Homegrown Backyard Wedding

Some months ago, Stephanie and Aaron buried a bottle of bourbon in Aaron’s childhood backyard, as a gift to the rain gods to keep the weather sunny on their wedding day. The bottle remained at the foot of the quarry even as the weather forecast threatened a 100% chance of precipitation on the week of their wedding. The two tossed the rain plan anyway, and said, “Rain or shine, we’re getting married here.”

With help from the Darling Event, and a ton of elbow grease, friends and family transformed this Roanoke backyard into an amazing venue — tent, homemade dance floor, a ceiling of twinkle lights. Though I love every single wedding I’m fortunate enough to attend, my heart skips a beat when I’m shooting a backyard wedding — because as I’ve mentioned before, my husband and I were married at his childhood home and it’s my favorite type of wedding! The history, the coziness, the familiarity; even the wedding china was from the family. Aaron was lucky enough to grow up in this amazing house with an enormous wilderness behind it, in the middle of a gorgeous city.

I’m really excited to share a giant handful of my favorite images from Stephanie and Aaron’s day, and looking forward even more to showing you some of their amazing portraits among the Blue Ridge Mountains we took the day after. For now, here is this very special, homegrown, backyard wedding in Virginia…

If you are friends and family of Stephanie and Aaron, you can view their gallery and order prints here.

More credits: The Darling Event (coordination); Tree Gigante (floral); Les Cheveux (hair/MU); BHLDN (dress); catering: friends & family potluck