Flint Hills Sunset Prairie Wedding

“Sunsets on the prairie are magical,” Lauren Harms (27 and an art director) says. For her wedding to Brian Gilbreath (29 and a technical manager), Lauren timed it so they exchanged vows right as the grass lit up. Such thoughtful planning defined the DIY celebration at her childhood home. Lauren worked with a seamstress to design her silk crepe gown, and her dad built pretty much everything, including six 20-foot dinner tables and a dance floor made from old bowling alley lanes.
“Kansas was uncharted territory for many of our guests,” Lauren says. “We really wanted to show them this incredibly beautiful part of the country.”
On the vanilla buttercream cake, souvenir statues referenced the couple’s New York City home.
At the end of the celebration, one of Lauren’s bridesmaids surprised everyone with confetti poppers. “It was a wonderful way to cap the night,” Lauren says. “We were picking confetti out of the grass for months afterward.” During cocktail hour, the couple served Moscow mules in copper mugs. To make the tables, Lauren’s dad salvaged long planks of old-growth heart pine from a mid-century Kansas gas station.