An Intimate Backyard Boho Wedding
Despite having to adjust from a grand, guest-filled gathering to a smaller, more intimate celebration, this Atlanta couple created a perfect backyard wedding they'll never forget!
For Atlanta native Lindsay Gordon, music paved the way for wedding bells — little did she know when she attended a concert in New York in 2014 that she would meet her future husband, Christopher Morisseau. But a chance meeting at the concert led to talking at a bar until they closed it down, and they were never apart after that. In July of 2019, Chris decided to make it official with an engagement. “We have a dog named Benji that we got in Brooklyn, and we took him on a hike to Sweetwater Creek, a little bit outside of Atlanta,” Lindsay tells us. “It’s something we do all the time. I think Chris must have been incredibly nervous because about three feet from the parking lot and into the trailhead, he got down on one knee — he couldn’t handle it any longer!” Thankfully, Lindsay said “yes,” and they headed back home to celebrate with family, too excited to finish their hike.
The couple initially began planning a traditional wedding at Atlanta’s historic Inman Trolley Barn, complete with a 200-plus person guest list and all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, the pandemic posed logistics issues that made them re-think their plans. “Things were moving, and then, of course, COVID happened, so we called it off,” says Lindsay. “Our wedding was supposed to be June 27, 2020.” With a good deal of out-of-town guests for whom travel was out of the question, the bride and groom opted for a more intimate gathering. In fact, they put wedding plans on the back burner for a bit and switched gears to house-hunting. “Ultimately, we found a house that we both fell in love with, in a neighborhood called Oakhurst. It has a great fenced-in back yard,” explains Lindsay. “We knew we weren’t going to have as big of a wedding, so we saved some money and put that towards a down payment on the house.” Even better, their new abode also became their new wedding venue. On September 26, 2020, Chris and Lindsay married on their own property in Atlanta, Georgia, in front of around 40 people … with 150 more guests attending via Zoom.
Lindsay and her mother run a home design company, so the planning process was a fun one filled with DIY projects and hands-on help from family and friends. “We had a friend make our macramé altar, and my brother’s the creative director for Carolina Herrera, so he made my rehearsal dinner dress,” says Lindsay. Though she’d always intended for her brother to make her wedding dress, too, COVID prevented her from flying to New York for fittings. Instead, she started shopping around for something a little closer to home. “I went to The Sentimentalist, which is a really cool store in Atlanta,” says the bride. “I probably put on three dresses before the one that I ended up getting. I didn’t know it was what I wanted or pictured, but I put it on, and it totally was. It was flowy and a little boho but not too boho. It felt perfect for the outdoor wedding we were going to be having.” To complete her look, Lindsay also chose a headpiece from Twigs and Honey to accent her veil.
Inspired by the dreamy outdoor boho vibe and their home’s landscape, the bride chose an aesthetic to reflect the casual ambiance of an intimate backyard gathering combined with the elevated nature of a wedding. “I’m a little bit of a hippie at heart,” says Lindsay. “Going back to our first wedding plan, we had more of a ’70s summer theme — pops of color and all sorts of funky stuff. It evolved by the [planning of the] second wedding.” Instead, the bride and groom used the menu and lush backyard greenery as a foundation for the romantic design.“ The subtle decor was offset by an abundance of vibrant flowers from Inman-Park-based florist Adaptation Floral Design. “I just picked what I liked,” Lindsay tells us. “I wanted it to feel very ‘wildflowery’ but still really fun and colorful and happy. I didn’t want it to clash with the natural environment too much.” Perfect for a backyard bash, they arranged picnic tables on either side of an “aisle,” where guests sat for both the ceremony and dining.
When the big day finally arrived, the bride got ready inside the house with assistance from her mother, brother, and day-of wedding coordinator Kate Reddick. Chris felt strongly about waiting to see Lindsay in her dress until she walked down the aisle, so the couple opted to skip first looks. Instead, the bride popped pre-ceremony champagne and toasted with a few of her close friends. “After the year that everyone has had, we wanted to keep things simple and family-oriented and enjoy who could make it,” says the bride, who made sure family participated in every possible way. They even decided to forgo a formal wedding party. “Both Chris and I really wanted our families to take center stage,” she continues. “I officiated my brother’s wedding a few years ago, so we actually had Chris’s brother and my brother and brother-in-law officiate our wedding. The whole processional of what would normally be bridesmaids and groomsmen was just family members.”
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Escorted by her father, Steve, the bride made her way to the altar, where her brother, Wes, and his husband, Paul, gave a welcome speech. Chris’s brother, Will, performed the ceremony, and the couple exchanged traditional vows as their guests looked on. “I think there’s something romantic and cool about using the same vows that have been used so much over the years,” Lindsay offers.
In a nod to their humble beginnings in Brooklyn, the bride and groom walked back up the aisle to one of the songs that brought them together. “From our third date on, I knew what our wedding song would be,” says Lindsay. “It’s unlike me to project that far into the future, but one of our very favorite concerts was to see a band called Kishi Bashi. The concert was in Brooklyn, and he had this song called “Q&A” that’s always been our favorite song.”
Dining on comfort food catered by Sun in My Belly, wedding guests enjoyed appetizers like mini New England crab cakes topped with ancho chili aioli, and corn muffins with Carolina pulled pork and purple slaw. As they transitioned into dinner, everyone feasted on buttermilk fried chicken, roasted sweet corn and zucchini in thyme butter, a summer salad with mixed greens, Georgia peaches and goat cheese, and freshly baked artisan bread with rosemary butter. “We wanted to stick with Southern ‘backyard’ food and keep it very casual,” Lindsay says. “Chris and I love to host parties with our friends anyway, so we just wanted it to be like a big party for everyone.” And a party, it was. Using their charming little shed as a backdrop, the couple set up a cocktail bar on old barrels and had friends bartend. A dessert table on the back deck displayed a spread of bite-sized desserts from Henri’s Bakery, as well as the two-tier cake, which Lindsay’s brother beautifully decorated with fresh flowers.
After the delicious dinner, the party officially commenced. Though the bride and groom admit they might have done a first dance at a bigger wedding, they chose a less traditional route for the rest of the evening. “We just had a really fun playlist, and it turned into a party after dinner,” says Lindsay. “It was a backyard hangout, which is what we wanted.“ Everyone was having so much fun, in fact, that most guests stuck around to sit by the bonfire and roast s’mores — the perfect ending to their celebratory evening.
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Though they initially envisioned a grander event with a significantly larger guest list, in retrospect, Chris and Lindsay can’t imagine having their wedding any other way. “At the end of the day, it ended up being our perfect wedding,” says Lindsay. “We thought we wanted this big party all night with a band and a big venue and, of course, we missed the friends who couldn’t come, but I wasn’t thinking about the things we didn’t have that day. I was thinking, This is so perfect; I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
Thank you, Lindsay and Chris, for sharing your fabulous day with us. And thanks to Ashley White for the stunning photos.
RESOURCES
Ceremony and reception: The bride and groom’s back yard in Atlanta, Georgia
Photographer: Ashley White Photos
Flowers: Adaptation Floral Design
Stationery: Rifle Paper Company
Calligraphy: Little Vine Letter
Hair and makeup: Mood ATL
Bride’s gown: Leanne Marshall, purchased at The Sentimentalist with alterations by White Orchid Bridal
Bride’s shoes: Loeffler Randall
Groom’s attire: Canali
Catering: Sun in My Belly
Cake: Sun in My Belly, with floral design by Wes Gordon
Additional desserts: Henri’s Bakery
Day-of coordinator: Kate Reddick for Little Vine Letter
Macramé altar: Rachel Pack
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Jenna von Oy Bratcher
Jenna von Oy Bratcher is StyleBlueprint's Associate Editor and Lead Nashville Writer. The East Coast native moved to Nashville almost two decades years ago, by way of Los Angeles. She is a lover of dogs, strong coffee, traveling, and exploring the local restaurant scene bite by bite.