Rustic Mountain Winery Wedding

Rustic Mountain Winery Weddings are the perfect way to celebrate your love while surrounded by stunning natural beauty. The rustic setting provides the perfect backdrop for your special day, and the mountain views are sure to take your breath away. Whether you’re planning a small intimate There’s something special about a rustic mountain wedding. The natural beauty of the setting combined with the relaxed vibe creates an unforgettable atmosphere. And when you add a winery into the mix, it’s like a dream come true!

A winery rustic mountain wedding is the perfect way to celebrate your love of wine and nature. Nestled in the mountains, surrounded by vineyards and stunning views, a rustic mountain winery provides the perfect setting for an intimate and romantic wedding. The big day begins with a ceremony in the picturesque vineyard, followed by a reception in the cozy and charming tasting room. As you and your guests enjoy some of the best wine in the world, you will be surrounded by the beauty of the mountains. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you and your guests will never forget.

How did you meet?

We met on Bumble. Our first conversation, for reasons neither of us can quite remember, was about the movie “The Sandlot,” and our first date was at Right Proper Brewing Company, a local brewery in DC

What is your proposal story?

We began to discuss marriage about six months into our relationship, as both of us believe that choosing to become engaged is a decision that both parties should make together. We decided to

shop for Amanda’s engagement ring together, but that Justin would pick it up and then propose with it at a moment of his choosing. That moment was on New Year’s Eve 2018 in Sanibel Island, Florida,where we were vacationing with Amanda’s extended family (a vacation that this side of the family has done every year since before Amanda was even born). After a Italian dinner out, Justin suggested a moonlit walk on the beach, where he proposed. We were lucky to see fireworks across the water, and we pretended they were for our engagement.

Tell us a little a bit about your wedding

One nerdy but important thing we did when we were first beginning to plan our wedding was to write a mission statement together–something that we could come back to when we were making wedding-related decisions down the line. (Thanks to A Practical Wedding for giving us this idea!) Our final mission statement was “Our wedding will be a joyful, nontraditional celebration of us as individuals and as a couple,” and it ended up being exactly that! Each choice and detail was carefully thought through and designed to be personal to us in some way. Because we’re both low-key and informal people, it was important that our wedding (and wedding planning) also be relatively chill. Our venue really helped with this–as a working winery and farm, it had a very down-to-earth quality that we both loved. We also specifically chose to serve pizza and s’mores for dinner and dessert as part of the informality we were going for. For colors, we wanted a combination that was fun and cheerful, and a blue/yellow color palette fit the bill. Blue and yellow are also colors associated with both of our undergrad colleges, which was incidental but a nice personal touch!

Tell us about your attire choices

Amanda’s dress was the first thing we bought for the wedding–it was on final sale at BHLDN and so we jumped on it, even though the sizes that were left were too big. (Our seamstress did an excellent job with the alterations!) The crocheted bodice went well with the casual/rustic vibe, while the billowy skirt and train lent some of the classic wedding dress vibe as well. As a fan of bright flats in everyday life, Amanda opted for blue flats from Mod cloth as her “something blue,” and chose her pearl/silver earrings and bracelet from UNICEF. Justin went with a suit from David’s Bridal and, as a Star Wars fan, an R2-D2 watch and socks from LOOKHUMAN with the Death Star printed on them. Bridesmen’s and groomsmen’s socks all matched his.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning?

Our guests came first as we were planning–we wanted to do anything that we could to make their experience more enjoyable or comfortable. We also tried hard not to sweat the small stuff, like font choices or tablecloths, as we knew that what people would remember about our wedding would be the celebratory vibe and the happiness suffusing the event, not, for example, the particular photos we chose for our wedding website. It was also very important that all choices we made were made thoughtfully, and ideally with a personal component in mind. Finally, we tried very hard to support vendors who were women and/or people of color, and allies of the LGBTQ+ community

Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

In terms of wedding components that we prioritized, food and booze were important to us, so we made sure to make room in our budget for the caterer we wanted, as well as an open bar. We skipped a lot of the”extra” stuff, like a photo booth, fancy getaway car, big bachelor/bachelorette weekends, etc, both because our budget was not huge and because we didn’t consider these to be key to our and our guests’ enjoyment of our wedding.

What were your favorite parts of the day?

It’s hard to pick favorite parts of the day, as the whole thing was wonderful, but one thing we particularly liked was that we chose to take a short walk alone together immediately following the ceremony, while our guests made their way down to cocktail hour and our photographer wrangled our family members for photos. We both live with anxiety, and we knew that we were going to be very keyed-up after the ceremony–a quiet moment alone helped us recenter, and also allowed us to enjoy each other’s company for the first time as husband and wife. We also loved that one of our flower girls left her seat during the ceremony to come up to the front and hug her father, one of our bridesmen. There was also a wonderful moment during the ceremony where our officiant, Amanda’s brother, read aloud part of the vows for Amanda to repeat, and she immediately forgot them and said”I need it again”–of course, everyone laughed, which led to Amanda’s favorite photo of the entire day. :) And of course, we both loved each other’s vows, which we wrote ourselves.

Tell us about your wedding flowers.

We wanted bright, happy, organic/casual flowers, and we were so happy with what we got fromAtelier Floral Design (who one of our bridesmen actually connected us with). Daffodils, which areAmanda’s favorite flower, were out of season, but sunflowers brought a similar vibe. We were particularly happy to get to donate most of the flowers to Petals for Hope after the reception, which isa nonprofit that repurposes event flowers for hospitals, domestic violence shelters, etc.

Tell us about your wedding cake

Amanda’s mom, Mattie Bennett, made our red velvet wedding cake (and spent months practicing!),and used a family recipe that Mattie always makes on Amanda’s birthday.

What did you do for favors?

In lieu of favors, we elected to make a donation in honor of our wedding guests, and in memory ofAmanda’s uncles Joe and Jabe, to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Please describe any DIY, handmade, or personal details

Almost everything about our wedding was personal in some way! We tried to be very thoughtful about making each aspect personally significant in some way. Amanda dyed her own bouquet ribbons,made yards and yards of decorative bunting (with her mom’s help), made all the wedding signage,embroidered her own denim jacket and made noisemakers for the getaway, choreographed the father/daughter dance (to Meghan Trainor!), created conversation starter cards for tables where not everyone knew each other, and made table numbers from old library due date cards, as she’s a librarian. Justin is a gaming nerd, so we also had a board games/coloring table for adults and kids alike. The music featured in our “pre-ceremony playlist” as well as during cocktails and dinner was all songs drawn from mix tapes that we made for each other when they were dating. We featured local beers at our open bar, and our signature cocktails were called “The Librarian” and “TheArchaeologist”based on our professions. Our processional music was from “Star Wars,” as we’re both fans, and our recessional music was “Fred Astaire,” by Jukebox the Ghost, Amanda’s favorite band.

Did you include any family heirlooms or special traditions?

Amanda’s “something old” was a lace flower made from her great-grandmother’s wedding dress–her grandmother and mother also carried the flower in their wedding bouquets.

Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?

Be true to yourselves! If something feels forced or off about your wedding, or if there are aspects you don’t feel like you need, don’t do them! Having a defined shared vision for our wedding really helped us plan, and we’d recommend that to any couples planning their weddings. The personal touches we added to our wedding were really what made it special and unique–our wedding didn’t feel at all”cookie cutter” or like anything either of us had experienced at previous weddings as guests, but still had a joyful, celebratory feeling.The more personal and creative you can make your wedding, the bigger the payoff will be. At the end of the day, the wedding is about *you*–why not incorporate that in as many ways as possible? We also urge couples to be aware of the special concerns about holding a wedding in the age of COVID. We stayed in close touch with our guests throughout our wedding planning (and two reschedules), we took as many safety precautions as we could, and we made it clear that if anyone needed to opt out due to health concerns, that would be totally fine. Our guests were pleased with our level of communication and care, and we’d advise future couples to take similar steps.

Why a Mountain Wedding?

A mountain/rural wedding supported our vision of a casual, informal wedding, and we’re so happy we chose the venue and location we did

What’s your biggest piece of advice for other couples planning a mountain wedding?

For other couples planning a mountain wedding, we’d say use the natural beauty to your advantage–spend as much time outside as possible, choose particularly beautiful natural backdrops for your wedding photos, etc. (On a logistical note, if your mountain wedding is particularly rural, make sure you get a shuttle for your guests if they’re not staying at the wedding venue!)

Event Credits

Other ServicesPublished + Pretty
StationeryMinted
Guest Book AlternativeThe Night Sky
Wedding RegistryZOLA
Place CardsMinted
Wedding CakeMattie Bennett
OfficiantTim Darby
Wedding WebsiteZOLA
Wedding DressBHLDN
Bridesmaid DressesMichael Kors
Bride’s ShoesModCloth
Groom’s AttireDavid’s Bridal
Bridesmaid SuitsDavid’s Bridal
Groomsmen AttireDavid’s Bridal
Flower Girl DressPrimary
Wedding RingBlue Nile
EarringsUNICEF
BraceletUNICEF
Engagement RingBrilliant Earth
Bridesmaid JewelryMadewell