Josh & Bri's Wedding - Tara Lauren Real Love Tara Lauren

High school sweethearts Josh & Bri tied the knot in the picturesque Idaho. Bri wore the Montgomery Gown with an overskirt.

‘I LOVED my dress. My stylist through Baesos Brides did an AMAZING job at seeing my vision and making it come alive. It was the perfect mix of romantic and boho. It was 2 dresses in one which was so cool. I would have never thought to have an overskirt but Erika with Baesos gave me the dream look. I was torn between a tight dress and an A line and she gave me both with the overskirt so I loved it ‘

Names: Josh and Bri

Wedding Date: June 23rd, 2019

Guest Numbers: 60 people

Wedding Location: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Photographer: Breeanna Lasher

Tell Us Your Love Story

How did you meet?

We met through mutual friends in highschool! We actually grew up a street apart most of our lives and went to the same schools but didn’t fully connect until the summer before Josh left for his first year of college and my last year of highschool. Josh was bestfriends with a friend that I had just started hanging out with and one night we just connected and decided to start seeing each other! At first it was a minor secret because some mutual friends wouldn’t approve but 4 years later lots of those friends were actually in our wedding!

How did he put a ring on it?

I had been working at a church and had bible study every Wednesday night. My church had recently been donated a property and on that Wednesday my boss told me that someone had donated some bibles for bible study and had dropped them off at our new property and asked if I could go pick them up before study! So I drove on over, in a baggy t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes to grab them real quick. At the door I was told to go pick them up at, there was a little envelope taped onto the window addressed to “Bri”. I thought it was strange so I opened it up and it was a love letter from Josh about how he had been waiting for this moment for the past 3 years and that a new chapter was coming. I fell to my knees in shock! In the note it said to grab the speaker and click play and walk through the oak trees and my “future” awaited me. I turned on the speaker to “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran and walked into a field of oak trees and in the middle was Josh standing there with a bouquet of flowers and our picnic basket we always would use. He got down on one knee and popped out the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him! And obviously, I said YES!

Where did you draw inspiration from?

I drew my inspiration from my own style with a mix of Josh’s. I knew I wanted a mix of boho and modern. With getting married on a lake though, I knew that less would be more so I wanted simple. I drew some inspiration from Pinterest as well as Julianne Houghs wedding as she was married in Coeur d’Alene too!

What made the wedding personal to you?

The whole wedding weekend. We had about 4 days of celebrating before we finally got married on Sunday night of the weekend. We went boating the day before, which Josh and I both grew up doing a lot of. Getting married by a lake was very meaningful for Josh and I’s childhood. We both grew up camping, boating, fishing and the whole outdoor nine yards. We really took advantage of knowing that this was going to be the only time in our lives to get everyone we loved all in one place for one fat vacation — so we did it! We rented out a whole boutique hotel for everyone in our wedding party to stay at so we could all hang out and be close all weekend. We only had 60 of our closest people invited since it was a destination wedding so that really made it personal. We flew out my boss and best friend to marry us and had a two-man band of friends sing live during our ceremony.

A moment that was really special was our first dance song. It was “Wild Love” by James Bay and the lyrics were something that Josh and I promised to do in our marriage and that was to love wildly. To push each other to live our wildest dreams, travel and explore the world together and never secum to what society says you “have” to do.

What were you most nervous or excited about?

I was most nervous if it was going to rain on our wedding day and that was really it. Even though it was the summer the weather in Idaho is wishy washy always and our wedding was ALL outdoors with zero backup plan. But it was all good! It only rained on my walk out to this cliff that Josh and I met at for our first look and as soon as we saw each other it stopped!

Now, the most important part – the Dress!

Tell us about your dress?

I LOVED my dress. My stylist through Baesos Brides did an AMAZING job at seeing my vision and making it come alive. It was the perfect mix of romantic and boho. It was 2 dresses in one which was so cool. I would have never thought to have an overskirt but Erika with Baesos gave me the dream look. I was torn between a tight dress and an A line and she gave me both with the overskirt so I loved it.

What stockist did you get it from? I got it from BoLee Bridal in Sunnyvale, CA.

What was your most memorable moment from your day?

I loved every moment of the whole day. One that sticks out is us walking from our reception venue after it was all over to our hotel with our videographer and photographer. It was so nice to walk 15 minutes to our hotel and just soak it all in. And then midnight sushi that Josh picked up a little later was a highlight as well (: