Rustic Lakeside Ranch Wedding

When this wedding hit my inbox, I knew I had to share it with you. This intimate, charming wedding at the Lakeside Ranch wedding resort in Florida is beautiful! Meet Callie & Zach, both born and raised in Orlando, Florida and this is their gorgeous, rustic-boho wedding with a touch of Irish flair!

What I love so much about this couple, is how they met, and how the mom played an integral part in bringing this couple together. Zach taught at the same school as Callie’s mom, Monica. He felt like he knew Callie long before they met, from the hilarious stories and beautiful pictures Monica would share with him.

“The one I liked most was how Callie could be heard screaming various obscenities in her room every Saturday morning if Manchester United was doing poorly. Being a soccer fan myself, I knew I wanted to take her out on a date.” Monica had organized an event and brought Callie along to help out. Knowing all Zach wanted to do was talk to Callie, Monica did what any mother would do in that situation: bribe him into running errands all night for her. After completing his tasks, Zach took his opportunity to sweep Callie off her feet.

“I decided that a conversation about soccer would be the best way to break the ice. I tried a joke about how poorly Manchester United was playing, which could not have gone over much worse. Callie responded with “Oh! You’re a funny one!” and I was forced to retreat to the bathroom to regroup and attempt a different tactic. The second attempt went much smoother, and within a couple of weeks we were on our first date at Fiddler’s Green watching a Manchester United game.” – Zach

“Ever since we became a part of each other’s lives, any big or momentous occasion has always been done together. Whether it was starting a new college, beginning a new job, or moving houses! We didn’t want this experience to be any different. Plus, we’re really bad at keeping secrets from one another.” – Callie

What Zach loves most about Callie is her huge and gentle heart and how much love she has to give. Callie loves how hard Zach has worked to get where he is in life, and how hard he continues to work each and every day. He never gives up on his dreams.

“We think our relationship works so well because we try to make sure each other’s needs and happiness are met every day. We genuinely enjoy each other’s presence and respect and love one another.”

During a date when he went to watch Callie ride her horse, Tyler. The horse spooked, swung his head around and hit Zach in the face. “Zach was more worried about making sure Tyler was okay than he was about himself. That’s when I knew I was going to marry him.” – Callie

The Proposal

Tyler was to continue to play a role in this couple’s romantic story. As Callie headed to the barn to feed the horses, she received a text from Zach saying that Tyler wanted to say hi. On his stable gate was a note with instructions to head to the tack room, close the door to read another note. “At the end of a very sweet and heartfelt letter, it asked me to open the door! When I did, Zach was down on one knee in the barn aisle asking me to be his wife! It was one of the best days of my life.” – Callie

Venue | Style | Décor

Our main inspiration for the theme and style was the venue itself. We knew we wanted an earthy, rustic, yet elegant wedding. After seeing Lakeside Ranch, it all came together- the meadow green and white color scheme, the gold accents, etc. From there, we added touches here and there to make it more “us”. We had a traditional Irish hand-fasting ritual incorporated into the ceremony as well as the Irish blessing to pay tribute to our roots.

We really wanted the setting to speak for itself during our ceremony. Zach and I said our vows under a beautiful oak tree with a single chandelier hanging from the branches. The aisle was lined with small boxes of Baby’s Breath. I think the standout piece of our ceremony site was the beautiful handmade doors my step-grandfather created for us to walk through on our way down the aisle.

The reception took place under a gorgeous pavilion adjacent to our ceremony site. Again, we didn’t want to take away from the setting itself, so we did minimal decorating. It had the rustic yet elegant vibe we were looking for. It was open and green, with big, beautiful oak trees set on a lake and an open building structure for our reception and in case of bad weather.

The furniture pieces were provided by the venue and the couple brought various pictures and minor decorative details from their own home. Flowers played a huge roll in the overall style of Zach & Callie’s wedding. “We were really trying to capture an earthy, natural feel and our flowers helped us to do just that. My bouquet was one of my favorite aspects of our wedding. Our florist did such a great job taking my vision and bringing it to life, with the various ribbons and shades of cream, white, and green throughout.” – Callie

The Bride

“I always wanted a simple wedding dress. When I started looking for dresses, I became obsessed with lace and keyhole backs and found the perfect one by Melissa Sweet. I was never one to wear heels, so when the time came to pick shoes, I wanted flats! Kate Spade’s glittery Keds were perfect. My hair and makeup were done by the amazing, Kristy Alonzo. She brought my vision of natural but elegant to life.” – Callie

The Groom

Zach wanted a look that was comfortable yet classy and really didn’t want to wear a tie. He found a navy blue Calvin Klein suit at Men’s Warehouse, and went with a brown leather belt and shoes. Instead of a tie, they chose a meadow green pocket square that matched the bridesmaids’ dresses and wedding colors to pull the look together.

Irish Roots

Callie’s grandfather, Daniel O’Brien, was very proud of his Irish heritage. Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer before he got to meet Zach or see them get married. “We were very close and Zach reminds me of him in more ways then he’ll ever know. He actually wears my grandfather’s wedding band now.” – Callie.

By incorporating various Irish traditions into their wedding, Zach & Callie were not only paying homage to their own Irish heritage, but to Callie’s grandfather’s memory. “Our ceremony contained a hand-fasting ceremony and the Irish blessing. Our toast used Jameson Irish whiskey shots instead of the traditional champagne and as favours, seeds for shamrock plants were handed out.”

We wanted a small, intimate wedding from the beginning. We invited a little over 100 people and ended up with about 70 actually attending.

Favourite Memories

“The most anticipated and special moment for both of us was seeing each other for the first time. We decided not to do a first-look, which I still think is one of the best decisions we made. Being able to see each other for the first time as the doors opened and the walk down the aisle began was something neither of us will ever forget. This, along with being able to dance the night away with family and friends, were some of our favorite memories of the wedding.”

Callie walked up the aisle to Ingrid Michaelson’s version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Their first dance song was Otis Redding’s “Stand by Me”. “We picked that song for our first dance because it was playing one night after we had a small disagreement. We just started dancing in the living room together, it made everything better.”

What would you do differently?

I wouldn’t change anything about my actual wedding day. It was perfect! Every single slightly-awkward moment, rain drop, and nervous butterfly. However, if I could do anything differently during the planning process, I would try not to stress and worry about what everyone else thought. After sending out invitations we actually had people complain about the location of our venue and how far of a drive it was for them. It made me feel guilty about the choice we made and had me re-thinking everything. “I spent so much time stressing about making sure everyone else would be okay with our decisions, I didn’t really get to enjoy a lot of the planning process.”- Callie

Our Tips & Advice

Our advice to couples planning their big day would be to enjoy the experience because it flies by! Have fun and enjoy the process, but don’t stress over small details. It’s only one day of the rest of your lives together. Remember it’s your day and the people that want to be there, will make the journey to be there. Also, trust your instincts! We picked our venue without seeing any others because it was everything we wanted and envisioned.

Our Best Spent Money

The venue and flowers really tied our entire wedding together. They made the vision in our heads a reality. Our photographer was amazing. She made us feel so at ease the entire day. I think we’re most happy we spent money on a videographer. Originally, we hadn’t planned on it, because most were outside our budget. We’re so happy we hired one though. Our wedding video is amazing and we love to look back and watch it together!

So many of my Real Wedding couples say that their best spent money was on a wedding videographer. If you’re still undecided, check out this post on 6 reasons why you should book a wedding videographer.

Comments

Valerie says

12th October 2017 at 1:44 am

What an absolutely gorgeous wedding!! And their story is inspiring – love it! His way of trying to get a first date made me laugh and how he proposed was so sweet. I love the photo of the dress in the tree the most, I think, but the photographer did an amazing job on everything! Oh my!! ^_^

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