Brittany and Nathan’s Northern Kentucky Wedding

It was just the two of them, locked in embrace and slowly swaying in the middle of the otherwise empty dance floor. There were no guests circled around recording this moment. No proud parents. No smiling friends or cousins. No fidgety children. Just them, ensuring that in the middle of the wedding chaos that they had a private moment, just to themselves.

My favorite part of Brittany and Nathan’s wedding day is that it felt so intimate all day long. It had the feeling of an elopement. But in reality, it wasn’t a particularly small wedding. They just went out of their way to make time for little moments to connect. To check in with each other. To hold hands. To have one last dance alone, surrounded by soft fairy lights, the smell of wedding cake and barn wood, and that nearly palpable feeling of contentedness in the air that only exists after a truly lovely wedding day.                  

If you’ll remember, Brittany and Nathan are the couple I was meeting with when we had the unsolicited advice that they should just elope. Brittany responded that their families were too important, that they couldn’t imagine getting married without them present. I wrote “If you can’t imagine taking such a big step without being surrounded by your friends and family, then by all means… have a wedding! You’ll spend all day getting hugs and cheers and being wrapped in warmth and love by your favorite people in the world, it’s a feeling unlike any other.”

That’s exactly what it was like. Brittany’s mom walked her down the aisle and they were both absolutely beaming. Their mothers did the readings during the ceremony, wishing the best of the world for their son and daughter on their journey together. Parents and grandparents alike grinned ear-to-ear during the first dances.

And at the end of the night, everyone moved outside to prepare to wish Brittany and Nathan farewell. While friends and family were outside, the newly wedded couple took a few minutes for themselves to have one last dance. One last embrace in the place that will forever be where they exchanged rings and vows on beautiful day in late March. One last chance to appreciate what went into making the day perfect. I’d bet if they could freeze time, it would be during this moment.  

Seconds later, they’d walk through their friends and family laughing and thanking them for enjoying the day with them. It was a constant feeling of love and support from the first minute I was there until the last. 

I hope, and I do think it was, exactly the day they wanted it to be.