If you’re looking for backyard wedding inspiration, look no further! If you’re planning an intimate backyard wedding this year, I’ve pulled together my top 5 favorite backyard wedding set ups I got to photograph last year. From small green spaces in the city that were decorated to feel like a beautiful other world, to expansive lakeside views, to towering trees on country properties, these small weddings may have shifted to take place in people’s backyards, but none of them compromised on style!

All 5 of these intimate weddings are a testament to how small does not mean lacking in beauty or creativity when it comes to backyard weddings. Whether the couple chose to elope with just their elopement photographer, or held larger weddings with their close friends, family, and wedding photography teams, they all truly took lemons in 2020 and made them into lemonade.

Scroll down to see my top 5 backyard wedding locations, and get inspired for your own small wedding or intimate wedding celebration this year.

1. Kayla and Andrew had to change their wedding plans, and opted for a small backyard wedding at their family’s home in Meaford. Their backdrop was beautiful Georgian Bay and a stunning explosion of fall coloured leaves. While their outdoor wedding may have been chilly in October, the groom chose a gorgeous velvet suit for the occasion, the bride looked flushed and beautiful all day, and their guests enjoyed a safely distanced ceremony complete with individual blankets on each set to keep everyone warm. The wedding photography from this day truly shows how fall outdoor weddings can be beautiful and cozy, and small weddings can be stunningly beautiful in a natural setting!

an intimate fall backyard wedding overlooking Georgian Bay

a signing table with a chandelier at a small outdoor fall wedding

a bride and groom posing naturally at their outdoor wedding

An outdoor ceremony setting for a fall wedding at a backyard wedding

2. Lola and Brock took their grandmother’s backyard and turned it into a backyard wedding dream. Complete with a gorgeous old apple tree as their backdrop, these two set up harvest chairs for their guests, luxurious flower arrangements to bookend their ceremony location, and an outdoor bar that kept everyone happy and entertained while we left to take their wedding photographs in a neighbor’s beautiful backyard. While we were out taking photographs, their friends and family pulled out small round tables spaced safely around the lawn, and set them up with the couple’s original wedding table settings, creating a stylish open air wedding reception for the evening.

a backyard wedding set up with harvest chairs and an apple tree

a couple getting married at a small backyard wedding

3. Nicole and Graham opted for an intimate country wedding on a property with wide open spaces, big fields, a pond, and a beautiful birch grove. They held their ceremony under the birches, with a homemade ceremony arch that perfectly matched the overhanging trees. I love the asymmetrical arch they made with a simple white and green floral palette that matched the rest of their décor and the surrounding environment!

a simple asymetrical floral wedding arch

a white and green minimal floral wedding arch

a couple getting married at an intimate outdoor wedding in the summer

4. Anna and Dave hosted their intimate wedding in their parents’ Toronto backyard. Outdoor Toronto weddings can be beautiful too! They opted for a classic floral arch for their ceremony, surrounded by a ring of chairs for their closest family members. A grove of tall pines in the neighborhood acted as the perfect back drop, and they set up some classic white screens around open areas of the perimeter to create some added privacy for their ceremony. If you’re planning a small backyard wedding, remember, if you create a floral arch it also doubles as a great backdrop for photos and family photographs after! The couple also set up some high rise standing tables complete with individual snacks for their guests to enjoy outdoors while we headed off to capture their wedding photographs in the surrounding neighborhood.

a classic floral wedding arch at a backyard wedding

a couple get married at an intimate backyard wedding

a couple pose naturally at their intimate backyard wedding

5. Christine and Brooker held a true elopement with just their elopement photographer, and videographer present to witness their marriage. They chose to keep things stylishly simple, and used a grant old willow on the property as the centerpiece to their day. They held their ceremony in front of the beautiful old tree, enjoyed their first dance underneath the hanging branches, and finished their day enjoying a beautiful meal for two at a sweetheart table set up on the other side of the tree, decorated with wildflowers, and overlooking the sunset over the escarpment. This was a truly beautiful Georgian Bay wedding, and a statement to how you can never go wrong with classic and minimal when planning your wedding style!