Boy Named Banjo’s Ford Garrard Is Married! Inside the Elegant Wedding and Jazzy Afterparty (Exclusive)

"I already knew for a long time we would be together forever. It’s the least scary thing I have ever done,” Garrard said

Ford Garrard has tied the knot with Taylor Davis!

The Boy Named Banjo bass player exchanged vows with his longtime girlfriend in front of their family and friends following a weekend-long special celebration that incorporated an elegant and traditional ceremony with a fun afterparty in Nashville, Tennessee.

The couple tells PEOPLE that their wedding festivities kicked off with an epic welcome party at a rooftop bar called L.A. Jackson, where they welcomed family and friends from both in and out town before the day of the wedding.

Once everyone was acquainted, the wedding party spent the next day preparing for the ceremony at St. George’s Episcopal Church, which was filled with white and green hydrangea and several varieties of roses and spray roses.

The bride wore a sleek, strapless, A-frame dress designed by Lela Rose, and incorporated some family traditions in the elegant ceremony, including wearing her great, great grandmother's brooch on her bouquet. She also walked down the aisle to the classic song “Trumpet Voluntary” by Jeremiah Clarke.

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The ceremony was officiated by Rev. J. Malone Gilliam with the church. While the couple kept the traditional wedding outline, reciting their traditional vows in front of their families and friends, they also opted to exchange vows to each other privately during their first look ahead of the ceremony.

The pair was also serenaded during by Garrard’s cousin, Eleanor Garrard, who is an opera singer.

While the ceremony was kept “with a classic black tie event” style, the afterparty at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was a different story. The couple tells PEOPLE that they wanted to make sure their guests had lots of fun. “We are both entertainers; we are just excited to make sure everyone has a good time,” Garrard shares.

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The afterparty was a cozy, lounge jazz-inspired cocktail hour held at the special venue. The space was wrapped in merlot velvet with hundreds of candles flickering around and the 40 crystal  glittering chandeliers hanging over the gold marble dance floor.

The key theme for the night was music as a jazz trio performed throughout the night.

“I wanted it to feel like it represented both of us equally and not just the ‘brides wedding’ which is why we tied in the jazz lounge and went with classic palettes,” Davis tells PEOPLE.

The couple took to the floor for their first dance to the song “Heart in Motion,” which was written by Garrard’s band Boy Named Banjo and played live by his band members for the guests. The groom tells PEOPLE that the song holds a big significance in their relationship.

“It’s a song that the band put out a couple years ago that lyrically has ties to Texas. Taylor and I were in  a long-distance relationship for a while when she was back in Texas, and I was in Nashville so it definitely has always felt like our song,” Garrard says.

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Garrard and Davis tell PEOPLE that they were smitten from the start. The pair initially met in the same music business class at Belmont University in Nashville, before running into each other again at The 5 Spot bar in East Nashville, where they chatted and sparks flew.

The Boy Named Banjo musician eventually popped the question on Davis’ birthday on Feb. 10, 2023. The pair had gone for a walk with their dog Wallace on Garrard’s family farm and came upon an overlook area, where the bass player proposed. The couple tells PEOPLE that Davis “just grabbed the ring box from Garrard and that was it, an easy yes.”

The pair said after being together for so many years through all the ups and the downs, they felt that it was the right time to settle down.“I feel like our lives have become so intertwined and we are just one life at this point,” Garrard tells PEOPLE.

He adds, “Getting married is  just a kind of way to seal the deal. I already knew for a long time we would be together forever. It’s the least scary thing I have ever done.”

The pair will next gear up to spend their honeymoon in Italy where they were hoping for “unlimited access to pasta and wine.” Davis says the trip is exciting because “we rarely get to go on trips with our schedules.”

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