A repurposed Dairy Queen sign signaled to guests that they’d arrived at the right place—Finnson Oaks, the bride’s childhood home. Just as it was important to include a nod to the family business (the Petersons have owned Dairy Queens since the 1950s), Laura couldn’t have seen getting married anywhere other than the house she grew up in.
“When my family moved to Staunton 30 years ago, my dad pointed at our house and said, ‘That is the house I want to live in someday,’” Laura says. “Thirteen years later, we moved there. I remember when he told me this story as a teenager and I thought, ‘I cannot get married anywhere else.’”
The couple utilized all of the property, hosting the cocktail hour in the front yard, and creating three areas in the back—a main area for tables and chairs, a koi pond and pergola where the cake was set surrounded by a fire pit and a dance floor a few steps up from the dining space.
With the setting decided, other details fell into place thanks to the couple’s innate sense of style. Laura, for instance, knew she wanted to wear dark oxblood-colored lipstick, and used that as inspiration for flowers. Stephen saw a photo of Ryan Gosling in a navy blue suit, which helped him decide what to wear. Laura’s boho dress guided the direction of the wedding’s décor, as in the plant-dyed silk ribbon that draped everywhere from the two-person swing to the front steps.
In all, Laura says they couldn’t have asked for a day that was more perfectly “them.” And, just in case you were wondering, yes, the wedding included DQ blizzards.
“We had my aunt and grandma make 150 blizzards and drive them from Winchester to the wedding and surprised my Dad with them during the reception,” Laura says.
