Rustic, succulent-filled Colorado wedding (with a pretzel bar!)

Succulent love! It’s never-ending! We love to see how brides incorporate cacti in their wedding design and this Colorado couple filled their rustic wedding with organic succulent decor.

There were potted succulent name cards & favors (yeah, we’ll take those home!) Mini succulents were found pinned into centerpieces, and larger ones took all the glory in a jade green bridal bouquet. Even the cake featured the organic beauties.

And oh the cake, was it ever beautiful! A natural, rustic, naked cake baked by her father at his bakery, this cake will absolutely be on your Pinterest board. Briana’s talented father also gifted her one of our favorite new wedding trends: the pretzel bar. Yes, you heard us right, time to get pinning Sara Lynn‘s beautiful photos!

Our Love Story

We met about three and a half years ago. I am a Property Manager and Alex is a Denver Police Officer. At that time, he was living at the property I worked at and since he loves to order things on Amazon he was constantly coming down to the office to pick up his packages. We just started talking from there and as soon as I moved to another property we went out on our first date (which was Historian’s Ale House in Denver).

I am very close to my family and they have always wanted to travel to Ireland. Traveling is one of Alex and my favorite things to do together so we were on board to go with them (our favorite place has been Iceland). Before we left, and little to my knowledge, Alex went to my parents’ house and asked them for their permission to marry me, they, of course, said yes.

We went to Ireland and his original plan was to propose at the Cliffs of Moher, however when we got there it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the cliffs. Then, he wanted to propose at the Kylemore Abbey, but part of the building was under construction and there were bugs everywhere. Finally, on our second to last day, we went to the Powerscourt Estate and Gardens and it was absolutely stunning. I somehow wandered off on my own and I was standing in front of some horses and Alex popped up behind me and got down on one knee. We celebrated at the estate by popping some rosé (which my dad then went and got imported for our wedding day toasts!)

The Dress & Attire

I knew I wanted lace and I love bohemian looks but I also wanted to keep it classic. I didn’t even try on any strapless dresses at the first two dress shops I visited because I thought I wanted something sleeveless or with an open back. I finally tried a strapless Anais Anette gown on at a&bé because I loved how unique the lace was and it was perfect!

For my wedding ring, we wanted something different so we designed something with 5th Ave Designs. I had always liked the 1920’s ring guards and vintage jewelry and so we used that concept and made it more modern. They also made me a simple necklace that actually had all the small diamonds from my grandmother’s ring in it and it meant so much to wear that on my wedding day.

For Alex’s attire, we went with The Black Tux. They were so awesome to work with, we just went into the store got measured and then the suit was shipped and it fit perfectly for the whole wedding party. Alex wanted something blue, not navy, but a little lighter which I think complimented the sage green perfectly.

I had seen an idea on Instagram for the bridesmaids and loved the idea of doing a two-piece combo. We went to Bella Bridesmaids and they were great. We found a perfect ivory lace top by Jenny Yoo and then a sage green maxi skirt (with pockets even!)

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Photo by Sara Lynn via Bridal Musings

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Photo by Sara Lynn via Bridal Musings

The Flowers

I wanted lots of succulents and greenery. There was a small pop of peach but mainly all green and white. We did gold terrariums for the centerpieces which I loved! The bouquets were mainly made up of succulents and the boutonnieres were air plants. I wanted them to be different than traditional flowers and I had a lot of inspiration from looking off Etsy.

Also, I had seen a previous wedding at Villa Parker with flowers filled in the fountain which is where our ceremony took place so I really wanted to recreate that.

The Venue

I chose Villa Parker for our venue because I loved that it looked like an Italian Villa (we went to Italy for our honeymoon) and it had a beautiful garden. We really wanted to spend as much time outside as possible, and this venue had a unique space for the ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner. It also felt very boho to me and I love that look! I have always loved design and I wanted something simple and romantic. We wanted to have an intimate wedding with our closest friends and family and so we were able to keep the count to eighty-five which was perfect.

Favorite Moments

One of my favorite parts was while my bridesmaids and I were getting ready I was getting so nervous as the time went on that they ended up putting on Cardi B’s “I like it like that” and we all just started dancing and getting down in the bridal suite.

We went back and forth before the day came on whether or not we wanted to do a first look. I am absolutely glad we did because it was a time for us to be alone that day and be nervous together.

The ceremony was my favorite part of the day, there was just so much love there from our family and friends, and the string quartet was beautiful. My dad and I are so close and walking down the aisle with him was very emotional for both of us. But as soon as we got up to Alex and my dad handed me off it felt like it was just the two of us up there. Our ceremony was short and to the point but included details about our lives like how we like to travel and play board games.

I also loved how when we signed the marriage license we had both of our parents with us and we toasted with Old Fashioneds (ours and my grandma’s favorite). Alex, of course, made goofy terrified faces while signing it.

The DIYs & Details

We made our own corn hole boards. We stained them and then had a sticker made on Etsy that said our name and wedding day. We also did oversized Jenga for another game to play during cocktail hour – we ended up finding a few wedding stamps and stamped each of the blocks. We had regular size Jenga for our guest book – we love to play games!

My officiant made an awesome pretzel stand based off another I had seen online and he filled the base with succulents. My dad did the beer pretzels.

For favors, we did potted succulents from the Succulent Source. We ordered their gold pots and rosette succulents and set one out along with each name card for our guests to take home.

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Photo by Sara Lynn via Bridal Musings

The Dinner

The most important thing for us was probably the food. My dad is in the restaurant industry and we really wanted something that people would leave and really remember. A lot of wedding food is very average and we just wanted something that we both love. Our favorite restaurant in Denver is Fish N Beer so we had them do their peel n eat shrimp and grill up some amazing salmon and filet mignon. My dad made beer pretzels and did all of the desserts for us and Marco’s Coal Fired Pizza did the charcuterie boards. It was perfect!

The Cake

It was a simple three-tiered naked cake. I loved that the frosting was kind of transparent and then we had live succulents sprinkled over it. My dad (City Bakery) made our cake and pretty much surprised me based on some pictures from Instagram that I had sent him. It was a vanilla cake with an orange cream frosting and it was delicious. We also had other desserts that he made including brownies, raspberry bars, lemon bars and a few others.

Advice for Other Couples

Don’t worry about every little detail. If something isn’t perfect you are the only one that is going to notice. Make sure you are taking in everything and really enjoying the moment because it goes by in the blink of an eye. Don’t worry about tradition and what you think people will expect, make sure the wedding is all that you and your spouse want it to be.