Sally + Brendan | Backyard Garden Party Pandemic Wedding

A simple but sacred summertime wedding. The bride walked down the aisle with flowers woven into her hair. Afterwards, guests flocked to an intimate celebration at a backyard garden party, where under a white canopy, mason jar florals on long wooden tables brightened the joyful brunch.

Despite pandemic conditions, Sally and Brendan planned a beautiful garden party wedding. In the months leading up to their nuptials, they turned their focus to the sacrament, creating the freedom to let go of unnecessary stresses surrounding their ceremony and reception.

From the Bride

Throughout our engagement, I tried to ensure Brendan and I spent more time preparing for the sacrament of marriage than the “party” of the day. We were very aware of this deeper purpose for our wedding, and that helped prevent stress over the material things.

Before the pandemic, I actually wanted a backyard wedding reception at my parents’ home, like a graduation party, but they wanted a more traditional reception.

The church I grew up at, next door to my parents, built a reception space that was dedicated the same day as our wedding. We were supposed to have our first reception there, but then COVID happened and everything changed.

So we moved up our Mass to 11AM and planned a garden party brunch in my parent's backyard. After the liturgy, the bridal party took pictures at Ohio State University, where I and several of my bridesmaids went to school.

I love brunch parties, so I was very excited about the idea of a brunch reception. I even bought a beautiful white, floral dress from LoveShackFancy to change into for the garden party.

We placed some of my favorite saints and pictures of Our Lady on the tables. We didn't have assigned seating and allowed people to spread out as much as they wanted. I preferred to “float around” while I ate, especially as I greeted our guests.

The music suggestions I gave our DJ to play during brunch included Vampire Weekend and Glass Animals, and they delivered.

I loved being at my parents home. I was 100% comfortable and could simply walk inside if anyone needed anything. I hope everyone had as much fun as we did!

When I was trying on wedding dresses at my appointment, I looked for a gown that was easy to move around in and was modest. I did a lot of running around in my dress on the day of the wedding and even changed into something comfier for the reception.

It really was a lovely day. It included all my favorite things and just happened to also be our wedding.

Our nuptial Mass gave me a greater appreciation for the beauty of Ad Orientem liturgies, where the priest offers most of the Mass with his back to the liturgy (and facing God in the sanctuary).

I probably won’t be the minister of a sacrament again (since the bride and groom are actually the ministers of the sacrament of marriage). But I frequently closed my eyes to fully participate and focus on Jesus instead of getting distracted by everyone behind us. I found myself turning to look at Jesus in the tabernacle too.

In spite of all the changing plans, Brendan and I were still married in the presence of our Lord. And that was all that mattered.