Us Weekly (May 30th 2011)

Our Country Wedding

In cowboy boots (her) and Wranglers (him), Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton get hitched in a Texas-style shindig

Miranda Lambert didn't want to hear a traditional wedding march as she walked down the aisle toward Blake Shelton. Instead, she asked her bridesmaid Ashley Monroe to sing "Makin' Plans" - a 2009 tune the Grammy winner, 27, had penned for her groom, 35. As Monroe sang the lyrics "I know you like the back of my hand, you've got a heart of gold and a piece of land" the bride fought back tears. "I was thinking about not crying, then when I got close, I didn't think of anyone else," she tells Us. "It was just me and Blake."

Of course, when the country-music power couple - who have 10 Academy of Country Music awards and five Country Music Association Awards between them - were planning their May 14 nuptials, the focus was on making their guests feel at home. The 550 attendees, including Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Kelly Clarkson and Josh Kelley with wife Katherine Heigl, were treated to a country-chic shindig at the 125-acre Don Strange Ranch outside of San Antonio. The ceremony took place in a lantern-lit barn, the reception kicked off with an outdoor buffet barbecue and the festivities wrapped up with an hours-long dance party complete with a karaoke machine. "They wanted it to reflect their personalities ? old-fashioned, laidback and fun," wedding planner Kathy Best (who is also Lambert's publicist) explains of the couple. "They wanted to feel comfortable and have it at a place that didn't mind the dogs walking down the aisle or us hanging crazy things from the ceiling."

The native Texan and her Oklahoma-born beau, a coach on NBC's new hit singing competition, The Voice, were careful not to overlook any detail. Monroe, who sings in the new trio Pistol Annies with Lambert, notes that the bride personally selected separate dresses and hairstyles for each bridesmaid and bought all 15 members of the wedding party a vintage pair of Durango cowboy boots. The barn/ wedding chapel was festooned with rustic glass lamps, twigs, flowers and honeysuckle, while the reception hall featured antler chandeliers draped with crystals and round wood tables decked out with linens made of lace and sequins. "As soon as the wedding was over, Miranda came up to us and said, Was it perfect? Was it perfect?'" says Monroe. "I said, 'Miranda, it couldn't have been more perfect.'" That was the sentiment the "House That Built Me" singer echoed the following day, when she described the event to Us: "It was fairy tale, really, and I felt like I was in a movie."

TOUCHING I DO'S

Fittingly, music took center stage at the early-evening nondenominational ceremony presided over by Lambert's hometown pastor, Brian Childress. The wedding party marched up the aisle (bridesmaid Crysta Lee escorted Lambert's three dogs, one of which escaped!) as Shelton performed the song he wrote for the occasion, "Let's Grow Old Together." Then the bride entered in her something borrowed: the simple ivory wedding gown her mother had worn more than three decades earlier. "My parents have been married for 33 years, so this dress is already a good-luck charm," the bride told Us of her choice, which she accessorized with custom-made Casadei cowboy boots. Shelton, who choked back tears as Lambert's dad gave her away, tells us, "I couldn't get over how beautiful she was."

The normally lighthearted crooner was just as sentimental when it was his turn to speak. "That was the coolest moment for me," Lambert tells Us. "Blake is a jokester, but . he was really serious when he said his vows." Well, mostly. As the couple stood on a cowhide rug under a hand made arch of antlers the pastor included "to put Miranda before hunting" in the vows, causing a roar of laughter. "Then Blake dropped his head, like, 'Oh, man!'" says Monroe. Shelton also hammed it up a bit for the first smooch, following up his initial peck with a second, bigger kiss. (Shekon did tell Us the liplock was unrehearsed, because "we think practicing something like that is stupid.") Overall, the affair elicited a few laughs and plenty of tears.

Says Monroe, "The bridesmaids had mascara running down their faces and fake eyelashes falling off!"

PARTYTIME

After the couple walked back up the aisle to "Happy Trails" and hopped into the bride's cherry-red '55 Chevy pickup truck to head to the reception site (the bridal party took hayrides to the bash), the mood shifted to full-on celebration. Guests entered a pavilion decorated with mismatched couches, rocking chairs, neon signs and tin cans, then cheered when the newlyweds ? Lambert now clad in a short, strapless silk shantung Priscilla of Boston dress made their entrance. After a brief prayer, guests lined up for a grilled buffet of herb-encrusted quail, mesquite-grilled beef tenderloin, homemade corn pudding and venison quesadillas made with deer hunted and processed by the happy couple themselves. (Says Shelton, "We gave away some of our best stuff!")

But dinner was hardly the main event. The duo, who met in 2005 at CMT's 100 Greatest Duets concert, brought in country legend Neal McCoy to keep the crowd out on the dance floor. "At one point, I think 400 people were out there," says one guest. The Nashville star also inspired an impromptu jam session. "So many people got up and sang," Monroe says of the famous attendees. "Martina McBride sang 'Stand by Your Man.' Josh and Charles KeIIey got up, and Reba too. It was like being at the CMAs!" Around midnight, the band was swapped out for a karaoke machine to the delight of guests, especially Kellie Pickler, who took over the mic for a few songs.

However, the musical highlight for the pair was their first dance to McCoy's "No Doubt About It." "We weren't planning on that," Lambert explains. "Neal took that upon himself to have those traditional moments, a first dance with Blake and then a dance with my dad. I'm glad he did!" In fact, the twosome enjoyed their party so much, Monroe says, "they were in the last van with me; it was about 2:30 in the morning!"

READY FOR FAMILY? 

Up next for the couple: a bit of R&R at their Tishomingo, Oklahoma, spread before Shelton returns to L.A. to tape live episodes of The Voice. "They'll go on a honeymoon eventually," says Monroe. "Right now, they'll hang out and just spend time with each other." And though Shelton, who was previously married for nearly three years to Kaynette Williams, admits that he and Lambert have discussed starting a family, it's not on the immediate horizon. "I think I've got a lot of growing up to do before I start raising kids," he told Us in 2010. "If there's an announcement that's made in the next year or so that we're having a baby, I can promise you it's not going to have been planned!"

Even though the twosome's family and friends can't expect any baby news in the near future, they are looking forward to the next big celebration. Kelly Clarkson wrote on Facebook post-ceremony, "I feel as though they should renew their vows every year and throw a party as well, because everything about it was awesome!"