A lot goes into sprucing up a house to ready it for hosting an event, as the stars of “7 Little Johnstons” learned when planning a wedding in the backyard of the family home in Georgia.
For Liz Johnston and Brice Bolden, who share daughter Leighton Bolden, 2, and just announced that they have another baby on the way, transforming the Johnston family’s ranch-style abode in Forsyth into a bonafide wedding venue for their November 2025 nuptials meant clearing infected trees from the backyard field where they intended to place a tent for the reception.
Throughout the TLC series that features the tight knit family of seven who all have achondroplasia dwarfism, the Peach State property owned by Liz’s parents, Amber and Trent Johnston, has served as home base for Liz and her four siblings: Jonah, Anna, Alex, and Emma.
Shortly after Liz got engaged to her longtime boyfriend in May 2025 during a beach vacation to Pensacola, FL, the bride-to-be decided there’d be no better place to say “I do” than her mom and dad’s sprawling estate, so the family sprang into action to plan the fall affair.
Liz and Brice’s road to the outdoor altar has taken center stage on Season 17 of the show, which premiered March 17.
But excitement over the couple’s engagement very quickly turned into stress about wedding day logistics with all the talks about the timeline, concerns over costs, and an eventful dress shopping trip.
On an upcoming episode of the show, Liz, along with Brice and her parents, meet Julie, the wedding planner, for a site visit behind the Johnston home to work out where everything will go on the big day—and what will need to be removed beforehand.
In an exclusive clip from the forthcoming episode, titled “It’s Giving Bridesmaids,” the Johnstons welcome Julie into their farmhouse-inspired entryway, and the wedding expert wastes no time taking the lead of the meeting.
“Y’all ready to plan?” she says. “Yeah, let’s go see it.”
As the group makes its way through white French doors and out to the backyard, Trent casually drops some advice for his future son-in-law about how to handle what’s about to be discussed.
“I’ve already told Brice, the best way to get through this is to say, ‘It looks great. Oh, I think that’s fabulous,’” suggests Trent.
Having been through this many times before, Julie concurs the best thing for Brice to say is “Yes, whatever you want, honey.”
While walking down a dirt path that is shaded by a grove of mature trees with a bed of green sprouts at the base, Liz explains the most important objective she hopes to achieve by inviting Julie out to her parents’ home.
“So Julie and I have been having a lot of talks with each other in regards to planning this wedding down in my parents’ field and we’ve shared lots of inspirations and stuff, but she wants to get to the real view and to start nailing down where all of our big items will be,” she says.
Armed with a file full of paperwork and sketches of the proposed outdoor floor plan, Julie jumps into wedding planning mode.
“So because we did a little mock-up of everything, so, tent here,” she starts before Trent interrupts to ask how big the tent will be.
“It’s a 66 by 43 sailcloth tent, which has, like, the wood poles and is really pretty,” answers Julie.
Amber has questions, too, and tries to articulate her understanding of the party layout.
“And so this, the reception tent is going to house people eating dinner and it’s going to house the dance floor and the DJ,” she posits.
Liz confirms that indeed, the large tent she wants to erect in the backyard for the reception is “where most of the people are going to be for that night.”
Julie seems pleased by the size of the Johnstons’ land, but expresses worry over the positioning of one particular tree.
“This should be plenty of room; this tree right here is probably my only concern,” she says.
Thankfully, Trent reveals that the hardwood in question is already slated to be cut down.
“So, you see that tree is getting ready to come down for liability purposes,” he mentions while pointing to the trunk and branches of a tree specimen that appear to be unhealthy.
Meanwhile, Amber motions to another tree that’s placed in a potentially problematic spot.
“Yes, but we probably need to go ahead and get rid of this tree,” she adds.
Even when Trent voices that the trees on the chopping block are “a beautiful oak” and “a sweetgum,” Amber bulldozes ahead with her recommendation.
“Well then take both of them out,” she states without beating around the bush.
In a behind-the-scenes moment away from the full wedding planning posse, Trent expresses some disappointment with the projected tree strategy, but ultimately concedes his wife is right.
“I guess a two-hour wedding is more important than a 50-year-old tree, so we have to take down definitely two trees,” he begins. “But when you ask me, I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, we had dead trees down here.’ I have about four trees that need to come down.”
With the root of the problem determined, it seems the Johnstons will need to log some hours removing trees in their backyard if they want to officially grow their family tree through the wedding of Liz and Brice’s dreams.
“7 Little Johnstons” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on TLC.
