Trisha Yearwood Wore a Ruby Red Dress at Her Oklahoma Wedding to Garth Brooks
"Everybody thought I was getting married in the red dress," the country singer recalled of their Oklahoma wedding.
While Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood got engaged in front of 7,000 people and are no strangers to performing for massive crowds, as they'll do at NBC's Opry 100: A Live Celebration, the moment the country music stars said “I do” to each other at their 2005 wedding was much more intimate.
On May 25, 2005, the “Friends in Low Places” country star proposed to Yearwood in front of thousands of fans at a concert in Bakersfield, California, where a bronze statue of Brooks had been unveiled. He’d asked the sculptor to add a wedding ring on his hand.
“I was like, ‘Hey, they made a mistake here,’” she told Us Weekly about the statue. “And then I realized he had said, ‘This is gonna be standing here forever, I want my wedding ring to Trisha on this.’” Years later, Yearwood shared a photo of the proposal on Instagram and captioned it with the lyrics to “For the Last Time,” her 2018 love song for Brooks.
Brooks was already a proud father to his three daughters — Taylor, August, and Allie — all of whom he shares with his ex-wife Sandy Mahl, and had gotten their blessing before he popped the question to Yearwood.
“We were out to dinner ... I finally work up the courage and say ‘I’d like to get married’ and they were all fine with that,” he shared on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2019. “But I said, ‘You gotta take care of her.’ And I’m waiting for something intelligent to come back and it was the youngest, Allie, that said, ‘We got your back, bra strap.’” Yearwood has fully embraced her role as their stepmom and told SheKnows she “can’t imagine [her] life without them.”
RELATED: Kelly Clarkson Pulled Off a Phenomenal Cover of Garth Brooks' Iconic "The Dance"
Just like their proposal story, the country duo’s wedding was full of memorable moments. Read on to get all the details, including how many dresses the bride wore and who baked their wedding cake.
When did Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood get married?
Brooks and Yearwood got married on December 10, 2005 in a private ceremony at their home near Tulsa, Oklahoma. They exchanged vows in front of a small group of their friends and family members. Specifically, “77 guests showed up,” Brooks said in the couple’s 2024 docuseries, Friends in Low Places.
Trisha Yearwood wore two wedding dresses, including a ruby red gown
After they tied the knot, only “maybe one or two photos” were released to the press, Yearwood told the Associated Press in 2015, and no one really knew one of the most important details of their wedding: the dress. In Yearwood’s case, she wore two. "No one has ever really seen the dress. And everybody's all about the dress,” she said.
As guests arrived, Yearwood first wore a ruby red dress with beads embroidered on the bodice with a silk ballgown skirt. “I actually wore the red dress when everybody arrived at our house. Everybody thought I was getting married in the red dress,” Yearwood told the Associated Press.
For the ceremony, Yearwood changed into a bright white wedding dress. The gown had a structured bodice with sparkly beads and gems that made it twinkle like snow. The dress also featured a corset back and a dramatic skirt. And as it was December, Yearwood wore a matching wedding bolero with a white fur trimmed collar and sleeves.
Both of Yearwood’s dresses were on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at an exhibit about her life in 2015. “I love that everybody can really get a chance to see that,” she told the Associated Press about her wedding dresses.
As for Brooks, the “If Tomorrow Never Comes” singer wore a black tuxedo with a bowtie, a black cowboy hat, and a red rose boutonniere.
You can see both of Yearwood’s wedding dresses here and check out an image of Brooks’ wedding look here.
Trisha Yearwood’s mother made their five-tiered wedding cake
“My mom made wedding cakes for a living when we were little kids. She used to always make this pound cake,” Yearwood recalled in their docuseries, adding that she had asked mother, Gwen, who passed away in 2011, if she’d bake theirs. “And she said, ‘No.’”
“What I loved was that your mom knew what she was gonna do and she knew exactly what she wasn't going to do, and she was not going to bake this cake,” Brooks added with a laugh.
Yearwood’s mother eventually agreed to do it when the “She’s in Love with the Boy” singer assured her that it would be a small wedding at their house. But they ran into a bit of a pickle when it came time to bake it.
“We’re on the farm in Oklahoma and the bottom layer was massive, like you would imagine. We put it into the oven. And the oven door won't close,” Yearwood said. “We happened to have a friend across the farm who had a really big oven." As they brought it over, Brooks remembered the ladies in “an open top Jeep in the middle of December, rolling across this farm trying to hold this cake just right.”
Thankfully, Yearwood said “it came out perfectly” and their guests enjoyed a five-tiered, homemade wedding cake.
RELATED: Kelly Clarkson, Reba McEntire, & Trisha Yearwood Doing "Silent Night" Is Angelic Bliss
Nowadays, you can even try their wedding cake at their Nashville restaurant, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk. As of 2024, you can order a slice of “G&T’s Wedding Cake,” which is the same recipe Yearwood’s mother used to bake their sour cream pound cake for their 2005 wedding. “This was my mom's recipe," Yearwood told Good Morning America. “It's a piece of history for us. It brings my mom back into the kitchen, too.”
Years after their wedding, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood still gush about their romance
After more than two decades together, Brooks and Yearwood are still very much head over heels for each other. During a November 2023 interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, for instance, Brooks called Yearwood his “queen.”
“I've said this before,” he continued. “I found her in the past life. I'll find her in the next."
RELATED: Garth Brooks & Kelly Clarkson Teared Up Talking About His Wife, Trisha Yearwood
And in an interview with Dan Rather, Yearwood said Brooks is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. “I thought I was happy before … I didn’t know this existed,” she said. “It’s wonderful to be with somebody who you have a great friendship with, who really is your friend … We’re crazy about each other.”
