Shelburne, VT Wedding Weekend | Lauren and Luke

AHH I just can’t wait for you to see this intimate and intentional summer wedding day come together in the most beautiful of ways!

Lauren and Luke’s wedding day actually started the evening before, at Burlington Beer Co (just around the corner from the world’s tallest filing cabinet, which I absolutely had to visit when I was painfully early for the welcome drinks start time!) with tasty snacks, cold beer, and guests getting properly welcomed to Vermont with plenty of hugs from the soon-to-be newlyweds. The evening was easygoing: light conversation, lots of smiles, some board and arcade games too. Honestly, it was the perfect way to open a wedding weekend this intentional and this intimate.

I knew Saturday was going to be a full day, so I actually photographed their details Friday night, in the parking lot of the brewery. Which meant I got the full preview of their beautiful, intentional design. Lauren and Luke have a relationship bird (the loon), and it’s the kind of detail that tells you everything about who they are as a couple. They’re intentional, a little quirky, happiest outdoors, and the kind of people who let the details mean the most. When something keeps showing up in their story, they write it right in. Loons showed up throughout their wedding design in the sweetest ways: decoys, pins, and a special tie clip for Luke’s nephew and ring bearer (and a t-shirt I brought home as a souvenir, but that’s a story for another day).

Saturday was their wedding, and yes, it landed on the Fourth of July!

Lauren was clear going in: she and Luke were channeling Americana, not patriotic vibes. Think summer backyard energy, just elevated and a little whimsical— All the best parts of a nostalgic American summer… And they nailed it. When your anniversary falls in early July and the Saturday happens to be a holiday, you might as well make it an iconic celebration, especially when you’re marking 13 years together. The vision was simple: an easy, intimate ceremony, a delicious dinner under a golden hour sky, and quality time with their people over tradition for tradition’s sake. I’m obsessed with all of it.

Their day started in a cabin at Shelburne Inn overlooking Lake Champlain. Lauren was already glowing in the hair and makeup chair, emergency Nerd gummies were packed just in case anyone needed a snack, and everyone was in high spirits, including the porch goose one of their guests lovingly gifted them. Lauren and Luke skipped the formal wedding party, but Lauren did have a few family members and chosen family get ready with her. I love this option. It means your closest people can be with you the whole day without the stress of a full wedding party attached to it.

When I moved over to the Brick House at Shelburne Museum for their first look and ceremony, Luke was already there getting every detail finalized.

Lauren joked that she was playing groom on her own wedding day, completely chill, while Luke was anxious to see it all come together without a hitch. That’s just who these two are, though: thoughtful and easygoing and opposites in a way that works so well. They ground each other, and it’s such a beautiful thing to witness up close.

The views were unreal, Adirondack Mountains framing Lake Champlain, and the location wasn’t an accident in the slightest. Luke grew up in Vermont. Lauren grew up in New York. Their ceremony sat in Vermont looking out over the Adirondacks in Upstate New York, tying the two states that raised them into the literal backdrop of their vows.

Once the details were finalized, Luke stepped into his wedding attire, and that’s when the florals arrived. I mean it when I say they stopped all of us in our tracks. Lauren actually grows flowers for florists in her and Luke’s Baltimore City backyard (yes, really, you can find her at FlorxEight), and she told her florist to get as weird as she wanted. The result was a bouquet full of wildflowers and snap peas and so much whimsy.

Lauren and her gals soon arrived, she stepped into her dress, and her veil got pinned in.

She and Luke shared their first look in the front rose garden before heading inside for the portrait on the Brick House stairs, something Lauren had been picturing since the day they booked the venue. Family started arriving for the ceremony not long after.

They kept it small: about 20 of their closest people, with a dear friend officiating, as Lauren and Luke became husband and wife almost exactly 13 years to the date they started dating. Guests were treated to a tour of the historic house after a champagne toast, and we snuck in a few photos overlooking the water and along the tree-lined drive before it was time to head to Shelburne Vineyard.

Lauren and Luke were intentional about how every part of the day would feel, for them and for their guests.

Instead of a traditional grand entrance, they greeted people as they arrived at Shelburne Vineyard. And Lauren, who is also an incredible seamstress on top of being a rose farmer and an architect (a true renaissance woman), sewed a custom quilt to serve as the welcome banner for their celebration. It hung pinned to a quilt made by Lauren’s grandmother, visually tying in someone who was very much there in spirit.

From there, Salt & Rind sent out plate after amazing plate while Shelburne Vineyard kept every glass full.

A few more guests joined for the reception, and the whole scene came together: lawn games, wonderfully eclectic ceramics and flatware collected by the couple, wildflowers on the table, wine, oysters, I could go on. Lauren and Luke didn’t want a traditional reception, but they absolutely wanted to be surrounded by the people they love most, and the culinary experience they built left everyone’s hearts as full as their bellies.

Dinner was al fresco with dishes that kept coming, the light went golden, and the laughs were as plentiful as the oysters. We snuck into the vines for a few sunset photos, and as the sky started to change, everyone got ready for the fireworks going off at the neighboring property, maple creemees in hand, of course. It was the Fourth of July, after all. As the sky lit up, Lauren and Luke stood close together, and it felt intimate and grounded, exactly like the two of them.

Lauren and I go back over 10 years, to our days as Penn State fitness instructors, and getting to see her this happy and this glowing on her wedding day was genuinely such a joy. I genuinely can’t WAIT for you to see the rest of this Shelburne, VT wedding weekend! Let’s get to the good stuff!

But first… a quick shoutout to the vendor crew that made it happen: