A riverside desert wedding at Swasey’s Beach in Green River, Utah 

Brooke Larsen (she/her) and Lauren Wood (they/them) didn’t walk down an aisle. They rowed to it, arriving by raft on the sandy banks of the Green River in southern Utah, where canyon walls rose above a row of blue and black camp chairs and a hand-built driftwood arch waited in the desert sun.

Six years of friendship

“We were friends for six years before we acknowledged our romantic love,” Brooke says. “We first met when I invited Lauren to speak at an outdoor conference for young people who cared about the environment. Lauren was organizing with local and national climate justice movements at the time. I had a bit of a crush on Lauren from that first meeting, especially when I saw them play guitar with friends in the back of a pickup truck under the milky way. I thought Lauren was out of my league, though, so put the feelings aside.”

“A few weeks later, I spoke on a panel about the role of storytelling in climate movements and one of Lauren’s roommates invited me over to their house for breakfast later that week,” she continues. “I brought overnight oats, a breakfast item I would soon learn that Lauren despised. ‘Oats are meant to be warm,’ they continue to insist to this day. Despite the breakfast contention, we formed a close friendship over the years, singing songs with our buds on porches, going on adventures and having many late night conversations about how to make our community a better place.”

“In the summer of 2021, Lauren invited me on a whitewater rafting trip that they were guiding,” Brooke says. “One evening, as the sun was setting behind the red rock cliffs along the Green River, Lauren played guitar and we sang songs together while sitting in the warm sand. Lauren started to realize they had a crush but wouldn’t share their feeling for almost a year later.”

“In March 2022, Lauren finally confessed their crush and I said I felt the same,” she says. “It was an awkward transition from friends to dating at first, but we worked through it and our love deepened through more river trips, support from our community and loving family, and our shared commitment to the people, water and landscapes that we both love so dearly.”

They each proposed. “Lauren proposed first on a beach in California. Then I proposed back a few months later under sunflowers in our backyard,” Brooke says. After 13 months engaged, they married by the river that had held so much of their story.

Arriving by raft

“The ceremony was outdoors at Swasey’s Beach along the Green River,” Brooke says. “We rowed into the ceremony on a raft named ‘Dee’ after Lauren’s grandfather who started the family’s rafting company and passed a few years ago. Friends played guitar and violin and sang ‘June Bug’ by Hurray for the Riff Raff as we walked up the beach to the archway. It was an unconventional wedding song, but one of our favorites and was a way to affirm our autonomy and connection to the water and earth while also committing to one another.”

As they stepped off the raft onto the sand, guests rose from their camp chairs. The arch that greeted them had been built by a dear friend from driftwood collected along the river and florist Kat Nix had woven rabbitbrush, blooms from a friend’s garden and dried sunflowers harvested from Brooke and Lauren’s own garden through its frame. Peach dahlias and yellow wildflowers caught the light against the sandstone butte behind.

“Another dear queer, nonbinary friend stood in an evergreen suit below the archway, ready to officiate,” Brooke says. “They opened the ceremony with an acknowledgement of the water, plants, rocks and wildlife around us. They told a touching and humorous story about our love, acknowledgement of deceased family who couldn’t physically be with us that day and queer ancestors who paved the way for us to express our love and get married.”

The officiant’s words carried the full weight of the place and the occasion. “Open your hearts for our queer ancestors who left this world before they could celebrate a love like this so freely,” they said. “We honor them, our queer elders and those across the globe still fighting to be seen, to be heard and to be safe.” Guests were then invited to rise and vow to surround the couple in love, joyful companionship and support.

“As the ceremony progressed, others rose to offer music and story,” Brooke says. “Brooke’s uncle and one of our dear friends performed the ‘Wedding Song’ by Anais Mitchell. My grandma, a former English teacher and first editor, read two poems, including ‘Don’t Hesitate’ by Mary Oliver and a sonnet from Shakespeare. One of Lauren’s dearest friends, who river guided with them, then read a passage from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass.”

“We each then read our vows, committing to one another, our shared community and the places that have shaped us,” she says. “We exchanged rings made by Frontera Jewelry that had turquoise inlays inspired by the path of two stretches of river—a segment of the Dolores River important to Brooke where we went on one of our early adventures and a section of the Green River in Desolation Canyon where I taught Brooke how to row a more technical rapid.”

The desert palette and florals

The color story of the day moved through desert blues, sage, terracotta, golden yellow and dusty purple, colors that answered the saturated hues of the canyon landscape surrounding Swasey’s Beach. The florals, designed by Ritual in Bloom, were kept entirely local and seasonally grounded.

Purple asters represented the queer community. Rabbitbrush reflected the surrounding high desert. Blooms from Little Gay Garden and sunflowers Brooke and Lauren had grown and dried themselves appeared throughout, from the driftwood arch to the wildflower centerpieces in amber mason jars lining the reception tables. Brooke carried a bouquet of dahlias, daisies, dried grasses and russet blooms tied with cream silk ribbon. Lauren wore a dried botanical boutonniere of warm-toned grasses, wheat and delicate blooms tied with natural twine and pearl pins. Every stem was locally grown, respectfully foraged and, as the florist put it, arranged with joy.

Built by their people

“Our wedding was rooted in the place and people that have shaped our love,” Brooke says. “We got married in Green River, Utah, a rural southern Utah town where Lauren’s family has a whitewater rafting company. We didn’t walk down the aisle, but rather rowed a few miles, including some small rapids, before pulling onto the sandy beach where our friends and family cheered from their camp chairs.”

“We were friends for years before we started dating, so community was core to every aspect of the weekend,” she says. “Friends and family helped with various DIY projects, from hand dyeing napkins with flowers grown in our garden to painting signs. Music, dance and stories wove through every aspect of the wedding, from a ‘hootenanny’ during the welcome dinner at the local river runner favorite, Ray’s Tavern, to a flash mob to the queer love anthem, Lucy Dacus’ Best Guess, that surprised me during the cake cutting.”

The flash mob unfolded as Lauren and friends broke into choreography while Brooke watched, then pulled her onto the dance floor, string lights overhead and guests cheering from every side. The reception itself was held at Holiday River Expeditions, Lauren’s family’s rafting company, with red oars flanking the entrance and stacked river rafts visible at the edge of the outdoor dining space. Long tables held wildflower arrangements, glowing amber votives and the custom white mugs, printed with a desert landscape engraving and the couple’s names, that guests were asked to grab, label with their name and reuse all evening.

Stationery designer Emma Murray illustrated a handmade field guide program and the “Hootenanny” welcome dinner card, each featuring topographic detail, watercolor river vignettes and species notes. A tablescape card reading “Cryptobiotic Soil” sat beside smooth river stones and autumn blooms of marigolds, zinnias and ranunculus. Even the cake, topped with peach dahlias and eucalyptus and cut to a roomful of cheers, was made by a friend. “We ended the weekend with a little adventure,” Brooke says, “taking our friends and family on a day float down the Green River.”

What they wore

Both Brooke and Lauren wore looks from Tailor Cooperative. Brooke arrived on the raft in a white sleeveless vest and trousers, the clean lines of the suit reading sharp against the sandy shore. Lauren wore a sage green three-piece suit with warm wood buttons, the floral-lined interior revealed in a flash during the getting-ready hours at the hotel. Lauren finished their look a with Western-style bolo tie, a detail that ran through the day’s aesthetic from the ceremony flat lay to the dance floor.

Advice for engaged LGBTQ+ couples and marriers

“We’re queer, so you can extend that lens to some or all aspects of your wedding (and life!),” Brooke says. “Just because xyz tradition has been done a certain way in mainstream weddings doesn’t make it immutable. My spouse and I spent time digging into our ancestry and thinking about what traditions we wanted to invoke from our lineages and what traditions we wanted to incorporate from our chosen family and queer community that maybe didn’t fit into the boilerplate wedding plan.”

“Rowing down a river to the aisle is a great example of both honoring our ancestry (my family of river runners) while also clearly breaking the normative mold!” she says. “Also, start planning early so you can allow time and spaciousness for those deeply meaningful or complex decisions to marinate for that extra week or month before setting them in stone. (But hey, I was raised by a couple of Virgos, so…)”

Advice for vendors and venues

“I mean… pronouns DO matter, and it was awesome to have that be a non-issue across the board with our vendor team,” Brooke says. “This is more from me as a service-facing river runner, but clear and responsive communication is SUCH an important part of getting that great post-wedding review or referral! Go into your meeting with an open mind and a lack of preconceptions. We had help from our photographer in teasing out the nuts and bolts without it feeling prescriptive or like some strict, cookie-cutter wedding timeline/set of customs, etc. Asking open questions instead of questions with assumptions is a pro tip!”

Challenges faced

“Honestly, we were lucky and I can’t think of too many, at least none that were specific to our unique identities,” Brooke says. “We really tried to find progressive vendors or work with folks we know to avoid having to hand-hold someone through their first queer wedding.”

Pleasant surprises

“So many things…” Brooke says. “We had an outdoor, multi-venue wedding and the adaptability of our team was amazing. We got a bit of rain during appetizers, so the river guides just threw up the boathouse bay doors and folks had a comfortable, dry place to watch the downpour. Afterwards, everyone pitched in to get the tables all reset and, of course, the dance floor dried off! It was those little unplanned pieces that really stand out looking back.”

“Also, there is just nothing like seeing the vision in your head—odd or unique as it may be—come to life,” she says. “I don’t think I could have pictured how beautiful our hand-built driftwood arch would have turned out with all the native flowers nestled into it. It had to be seen and experienced. All those ‘you had to be there’ moments were so special! And of course the unexpected double-rainbow!” ❤️

Featured LGBTQ+ Inclusive and Queer Affirming Wedding Vendors

Photographer: Kalen Jesse Photography Co.
Videographer: Elayna Ranae Photo & Film
Florist: Ritual in Bloom
DJ: Connor Estes / DJ Lowdown
Invitation Designer: Emma Murray
Attire: Tailor Cooperative
Jewelry: Frontera Jewelry
Catering: Forage Sisters
Reception Venue: Holiday River Expeditions