Weddingbee Blog

I was definitely never the a little girl who had her wedding all planned out. There was no beach or castle or anything like that where I had grown up imagining my special day taking place. Lucky for us that this was the case, because after we got engaged, Mr. Turtle suggested getting married in his grandparents’ backyard on California’s Central Coast. It wasn’t crushing any of my dreams, because at that point, our wedding was a blank canvas in my mind. In fact, I loved the idea! I could not imagine us getting married indoors, and of course I love the sentimental value of a backyard wedding, so I immediately agreed!

(That’s a panoramic view of the yard I made on Photoshop right after we made the venue decision. The yard is actually curved in a big U-shape.)

I like to think of our wedding as a backyard wedding, even though it’s going to be a liiiittle bit more upscale than that. (I’m definitely not thinking bare feet with hot dogs at picnic tables and Dad on the grill a la the daydream that Steve Martin has in Father of the Bride.) But I do like the old-fashioned feel of a backyard wedding.

I love how our venue choice has made our wedding even more of a family event, and it’s been so fun for me to see how excited Mr. Turtle’s grandparents and family have been about our choice! We chose the yard in the beginning thinking it was already perfect for a wedding. But as soon as we announced our venue choice, Mr. Turtle’s grandparents began renovations, turning it in into an even more ideal wedding location. For example, they immediately tore out the wooden arch with overgrown vines that would be the backdrop for the ceremony.

replacing it with a wrought iron gate, as seen below:

Awesome improvement, huh? But far from finished… Next, they tiled the steps leading up to the gate and planted 50 hydrangea plants around them!

Mr. Turtle’s “grammy”, who loves gardening, began to get excited about landscaping the yard to fit our wedding style, including flowers in our colors! So far, she’s planted tons of boxwood, rose bushes, and foxgloves, along with the above hydrangeas. How amazingly sweet is she?

Some pictures of Mr. Turtle’s family hard at work making our venue beautiful while we were off relaxing in Hawaii with my family last summer. Go team!

The next improvement made to the yard was tearing out both white, wooden side gates, replacing them with wrought iron ones that match the gate in the ceremony area. Since guests will be entering the yard from one side and exiting on the other, Mr. Turtle’s grandparents also laid stone paths so that people wouldn’t trip on the gravel.

Before:

After:

A couple months ago, they decided to also extend the path Mr. Turtle’s papa had already been making through the garden, but this time with professional concrete.

Before:

After:

They also had all of the remaining plain, grey concrete painted/stamped to look like tile, including making a path down to where the restrooms will be (a future post!):

During our engagement, we have already felt so blessed by the overwhelming outpouring of generosity we’ve received from our family and friends. I can’t even begin to imagine how magnified this sense of love will feel on our wedding day! Sometimes, when I’m traveling, I see a beautiful place and start daydreaming about what an amazing setting it would be for our wedding… but then I stop myself. Of course the world is full of beautiful places, but I cannot imagine us getting married at any place more “us” than the venue we already have!

Who else is planning a backyard wedding out there? What have you found to be some of the upsides and downsides of creating your own wedding venue?