Lauren + Bryce

Lauren and Bryce met in high school. “My friend wanted to sit at the same lunch table that her crush was sitting at, but she was too nervous to sit there alone,” recalls Lauren. “I sat with her and met an unfamiliar face at the table: Bryce! We instantly connected and became extremely close friends as time went on.”

The sweethearts became engaged during a trip to Universal Studios for Bryce’s 25th birthday. “Bryce asked my best friend, Kayleigh, to stealthily follow us around at Universal and record him proposing to me, and I had no idea that she was even there during our trip,” shares Lauren. Later in the day, Bryce bought Lauren a Cinnabon, her favorite, and began asking random questions such as “would you rather adopt a bear or a rabbit?” “After I answered a few questions, I took a huge bite of the Cinnabon, and that is when Bryce asked THE question.”

Lauren and Bryce are both easygoing, chill people who love food. “We expected to have an easy wedding day with delicious food and cake to eat,” says the bride. With the help of Lauren’s mom and their wedding planner, the vision for the wedding came together perfectly without much stress. “My favorite time was finding my dream dress in my small hometown, Elmira, New York,” she says. “My dress was one of the few things I had a vision for.”

The couple planned a short and simple ceremony at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria filled with a ton of love and laughter. “I would say it was a sweet, personal experience that we were honored to share with people we love,” says Lauren. “There was no guest there that we did not personally know, and that was extra special to us.”

Guests then went upstairs for cocktail hour while their amazing team transformed the downstairs area for the reception. “Our reception was high energy and extremely fun. After the food was served, first and family dances were done and toasts were made, it seemed as if the dance floor was never empty,” remembers Lauren. “In fact, every single person was on the dance floor. As a dancer, that meant the world to me.”

Both Lauren and Bryce say the absolute best part of the day was saying their vows to each other and finally becoming husband and wife. Notes Lauren, “We spent 20 months planning our wedding, but we spent years and years imagining what it would be like to be married.”

—Darren Elms