So the wedding is over. This baby you’ve been nursing for the last year or so has flown the nest and you’re now a happily married lady. You’re a wife! You’re the happiest girl in the world…now instead of wedding questions people are asking you about babies! Life couldn’t get any better and you’re on top of the world…right…right??
Well no. Maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re a little sad, blue, depressed and low. You’re so happy to be married but at the same time your bummed you’re no longer ‘the bride’. Even us self-proclaimed anti-brides can sometimes let ourselves admit that we loved being the centre of attention and that we had the best time planning the biggest day of our lives and pouring over every little detail… so much so that we really really miss it. We feel like our current situation has no purpose and we are certainly not ready for babies just yet… we’re in limbo.
Let me first say, don’t beat yourself up about feeling sad that the wedding day is over. It is perfectly normal to mourn a little bit that the thing you’re whole life has been focused around for the past year is now over and done with. Your wedding has probably been a huge feat of engineering for you. You’ve put your heart and soul into it. You’ve learnt skills you never knew you had and you’ve diy-ed, crafted and researched your little heart out… but now what?
Well I wasn’t ready to give up the wedding thing as soon as we got married (I think that’s actually pretty obvious!) Nearly 3 years later I’m still living and breathing this wedding world… in my own special way of course! I didn’t feel like bounding head first in to the traditional wife/motherhood role and you know what, I really don’t feel bad about that.
And neither should you.
So, here are a few little tips that should help you to banish those inevitable post wedding blues…
♥ Don’t feel guilty about being sad. If you’re anything like me, the planning of your wedding was a huge, life-changing experience and a massive learning curve for you (I bet you learnt skills you never knew you had and did things you never thought you’d do!) Anything that’s been that big a part of your life is going to be a bit difficult to let go of. Just because you feel a little down doesn’t make you any less happy to be married and certainly doesn’t make you a “bad wife.” Just make sure your new husband/wife knows this too – just because I’m (still) obsessed with weddings doesn’t make me any less obsessed with being married to Gareth and he knows that!
♥ Don’t have wedding regrets. This is something I still really struggle with! Surrounded by awesome weddings everyday doesn’t half make me think “Ooh I wish we’d done that”, or “Oh God her dress was so much cooler than mine.” Seriously I need to stop it and so do you. You made the decisions for your wedding because they were right for you and suited you guys at this stage in your lives. Copying someone else’s idea of what makes a cool wedding isn’t really what it’s all about is it? Our wedding was perfect for the 2008 Kat & Gareth. Would the 2010 Kat & Gareth have the same wedding? Probably not. Does that make our wedding any less special? Does it heck!
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I saw red tulle, I saw black feathers and I was smitten. Photographer Shannon Grant set up this wonderfully Rock n Roll shoot with Mary & Matt to showcase some fun DIY styling with a Victorian Nouveau edge. “The bride’s outfit was a DIY affair with a custom made tulle skirt, a black silk dupioni flower sash and different colored ostrich hair feathers,” she explained. “The bouquet included feathers throughout as well. The groom wore black Chucks and had red accents to mirror the bride. We went out into downtown Plymouth MA and had some fun with the photoshoot!”
The lovely Shannon, also emailed me last week and asked if I’d take part in a new interview series that she’s started up on her blog. I was of course delighted to be her first victim and you can check out the interview here
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This month’s issue of Photo Pro has hit the news stands and this month I’ve been writing all about the awesome Marianne Taylor and those gorgeous french weddings she’s been doing recently! Enjoy…
Finnish born wedding photographer Marianne Taylor moved to the UK in 1999. She had originally planned to stay for just five months, but after meeting her now-husband, she decided to move over here permanently. Inspired by real life, real emotions, light and colour she aspires to create crisp, clean images which have the power to evoke the emotions that the subjects themselves might experience when looking back on them.“I am all about telling the story, but in a slightly romantic sort of way,” she says, “as I try to illustrate all the emotion of the day. What inspires me as a wedding photographer is revealing all the different layers of a wedding. There is beauty on the surface, in all the details, but there is also a deeper level of beauty present, beauty in the human interactions, in the real joy and the flow of emotions that abound on such a special day.”
When starting out in her current business, her work appeared to strike an almost instant chord with the UK market, and in her first full year shooting weddings (whilst she was still working full-time in magazine design) she shot 14 weddings. After taking the plunge into fulltime photography only last April she has booked 32 weddings for 2010 and is well on her way to filling 2011. Marianne’s success has translated into magazine and blog features, with her work being showcased everywhere, from magazines such as Cosmopolitan Bride, Wedding, Perfect Wedding and Wedding Flowers through to wedding blogs all over the world including Style Me Pretty, Wedding Chicks and, of course, Rock n Roll Bride!
Blogging was something that Marianne found an instant affinity with, since she was unable to share all her thoughts and feelings by simply adding a few choice images to her portfolio and was looking for a format that would allow her to speak in her own words. “A blog gives me the freedom to post as many pictures as I wish and really show what gets captured on the day,” she says. “I don’t even think about blogging as marketing as such since, for me, it’s the way I present a client with their memories. The added bonus is that potential clients will know exactly what they can expect, which means that most of the people who contact me are already on the same page right from the start. This means that I mostly get to work with couples that are a great fit and who hire me for the specific things that I do.”
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I’ve got another killer South African wedding to share with you today. Jess & Matt’s amazing individual style and totally out-there wedding may even make you squeal a little bit. This creative couple pulled off a wedding that was nothing short of spectacular in every way!
“We met at Burn (alternative nightclub in Durban) one night,” the bride told me. I spotted him at one point during a night out with friends and told my them that I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I asked my friend, Sam (bridesmaid at our wedding), to play wing girl for me. A little while later she introduced herself to him then said that she knew someone who wanted to meet him (me) so she introduced us and we chatted for the rest of the night. I fell in love with him from the moment I met him.”
“Our relationship was quite a strange one, we were on for a few months at a time, then broke up, then got back together and so on….But throughout it all we were always best friends and always living our lives together. The last time we got back together was on a new years eve. The very next new years eve (at a friends house party) Matt decided to surprise me and at 12 o’clock he asked for the music to be turned down. In front of the entire party he made a beautiful speech and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.”
Despite how incredibly polished their wedding turned out, the couple actually did everything themselves. Both of them are artists and they were blown away by people who offered to help to make their vision a reality. “As we were doing everything ourselves and trying really hard to do it on a budget, from the décor to organising the food. We went to hundreds of different places and met hundreds of new and interesting people. I found that along the way we met some amazing people.”
“So many people were willing to help, who also had really good advice. We met people who were genuinely happy to give of themselves for us, who really were strangers to them, I felt so deeply touched by this. We were so disorganised (as artists generally are) and some of the people we met along the way really worked hard to pull together things for us at the last minute. Not only were we impressed by the generosity of complete strangers, but our family and friends pulled together and all worked like crazy to help us create our dream wedding. We still cannot believe the willingness and complete selflessness of all the people involved in this…We made many new friends along the way as well. THIS is what has made this wedding the most special for us (besides actually getting married!)”
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We knew our wedding was going to be slightly different but I guess that’s what you get when you try to incorporate cars, music and food, emphasising the feasting and dancing with friends and family rather than the actual ceremony” began bride Louisa. “We both have an affinity with old cars, cars that have been around a while and have a tale to tell so we had no problem finding a wedding car – I had the perfect excuse to use my hotrod, a 1928 Model A Ford. Not wanting to leave his cars out of the fun, Rob decided we should include a mini car show where he and our friends could park up their old cars and in some cases, their beds for the night.”
Yep, that’s right – Louisa & Rob’s guests were invited to their homespun music and car festival wedding complete with the invitation to camp over afterwards. The wedding was a combination of a registry office ceremony, a tea party at the bride’s Grandmother’s house and finally a massive celebration in two yurts, set up in the bride’s Dad’s field.
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Nested Pearl Engagement Ring Set
Recycled, reclaimed and ethically sourced wedding jewellery is always popular with Rock n Roll Brides but often very difficult to come across. I don’t know how long I’ve scoured the inter-webs looking for that perfectly rustic and charmingly unique ring. However I may have just discovered the answer to all your woes!
Dryad Five Black Diamond Ring (stacked with) Dryad Five Chocolate Diamond Ring
Champagne Diamond Circle Pendant
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“Is that a piano…in the woods?!” I asked photographer Emma Case, a stunned look on my face. When the affirmative came back I literally let out a little squeal of exhilaration that I was going to get to share Elise & Nick’s wedding with you. Unbelievably, as the couple went with Emma to have their portraits done they came across this unusual yet fabulous prop just sat there. Now I know Miss Emma Case very well and I can just imagine the expletives of excitement that would have come out of her mouth when she laid eyes on that!
The festival style wedding took place at Middle Coombe Farm in Devon – a beautiful cob & thatch farmhouse and cider barn which sits in a sheltered valley surrounded by 200 acres of organic farmland and woodland. With help and support from their friends and family, the couple DIY and crafted their wedding to perfection, “What really blew us away was the amount of effort, love and support we got from all our friends and family,” they explained. “The whole wedding was a DIY affair and everyone pitched in. We made the canapés, and all the decorations. Hundreds of metres of bunting were made by Elise, our mums and Laura – one of our bridesmaids. The cake was made by Elise’s mum and Dad with the iced flowers created by a family friend. Nick’s brother Anthony made welcome and direction signs; their was a family rota for the bar, the girls made the groomsmen’s boutonnieres from greenery from the woods and friends arranged games and provided music and entertainment across the whole weekend.”
“Using Apples with little luggage tags tied to the stalks as the place settings seemed to go down well with guests and fitted the cider-barn setting nicely. We went to a pick-your-own the week of the wedding and hand-selected every fruit. We then asked guests to peg their named luggage tags to their glass so they could keep track of it and reduce the amount of washing up needed to be done throughout the day.”
Elsie wore a gorgeous original 1920’s vintage dress from The Vintage Wedding Dress Company, shoes from Office and pearls that were gifts from friends.
“We didn’t set out with a fixed theme or an intention to do things differently but there we certain elements that we knew we wanted to include from day one,” the couple concluded. “We wanted our wedding to be a relaxed, fun and home grown affair that reflected our values so we ended up with what can only be described as a village fête, tea party, festival shin-dig! The perfect way to celebrate our relationship! It was important to us that the wedding was as environmentally friendly as possible. Middle Coombe Farm was the perfect venue, with acres of organic farm and woodland to stroll through, a solar heated swimming pool to play in, and compost toilets. We used proper glass ware, cups and plates, eat locally sourced organic vegetarian food and drank local ale. Flowers were organically and locally grown and at night the tent and field were lit by solar lights and willow lanterns guests had made during the day.”
Guests were invited to camp over and over 40 of them did so. The field surrounding the venue, complete with druid’s circle, was where they could pitch their tents. This field also played host to the afternoon games and the evening campfire. With guest camping over, they were able to continue the celebrations onto Sunday, providing breakfast and a BBQ lunch for everyone.
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“We live in a South Philly row home with a garage that houses our bicycles and Aaron’s home-brewing equipment in lieu of a car,” bride Leigh began. “We knew as soon as we were engaged that we’d ride our tandem bike, acquired from craigslist a few years back, into our reception entrance. We kept the bike theme going with a tandem bike cake topper, a Ketubah that was designed for us especially by Chris Soria, and hotel gift bags and DIY thank you notes with tandem bike stamps.”
“For the beer part of our wedding theme Aaron brewed 45 gallons of beer in 5 different styles (He is now setting up his own home brewing company called Franklin Heights Brewing). Our centerpieces used various-sized jars which we collected, filled with wheat and barley (the barley was purchased from Barry’s Homebrew Supply in South Philly), and our florist incorporated wheat into our bouquets and corsages. Aaron grows hops in the backyard that went into his boutonniere and was on display at the bar. We had almost no beer left at the rest of the night – a testament to his talents!”
Leigh’s love of polka dots also crept into the wedding theme in terms of their invitations, her Belle Couture dress and a lot of the other 100% DIY paper details which were put together by the couple and their friends and family at their ‘crafting parties.’ The DIY and community effort didn’t end there though, with Leigh’s necklace being a hand-made gift from a friend and the photo booth which was set up by another friend. Some of their talented musician friends performed a couple songs, all of which was captured on video by several other friends and family who volunteered their hand-held video recorders.
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I know you all will have heard of David’s Bridal (and a lot of my American readers will have bought their dresses from them) but have you ever taken the time to check out their bridesmaid dresses? These special occasion dresses really do make perfect sense as gowns for your maids, and don’t think it’s not Rock n Roll to shop here! It’s all about what you do with it…
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Emma & Morgan’s Welsh wedding has really put a smile on my face today. Everything about the day was personal, was sustainable and was perfect for them. The couple got married at The Hive and Ice Cream parlour in Aberaeron. They actually had two ceremonies through the course for the day. Firstly a smaller and more personal ceremony at The Hive, joined by just close family and friends. Then, once they got to the reception, they had a second ceremony amongst all 120 of friends. Their DIY heavy reception was held in a marquee in “Charlie’s Field” that looked out across New Quay Harbour, Wales – the exact spot that Morgan had proposed!
Emma wore two dresses on the day and in keeping with their sustainable, salvaged and recycled vibe, both were vintage. Dress number one was from Vintage Vixen, and the second she found on Etsy. Her shoes were a stunning pair of Louboutins, bought for her by her Mum as a special treat for the day! Emma kept her accessories to almost a minimum with her shoes and dresses stealing the show.
Locally sourced flowers, a cake made by the Mother & Aunt of the bride and fabulous and sustainable vintage and second hand finds really made their day unique and perfect for them. “As much as possible we wanted to have a sustainable approach to our wonderful day, but we don’t think that needs to be a conspicuous decision (highlighting to everyone how ‘green’ you are) or compromise your dreams for the day – luckily it meant salvage/reuse/vintage were more than firmly on the table!” the bride told me “As much as possible all our suppliers were local to the area, with the hope the money stayed in, and benefited, the local economy. Our invites were designed by my brother, the card from a UK paper mill specialising in post consumer recycled card and printed by a wonderful friend at her home. We spent a year collecting items from charity shops (people need to know about Oxfam’s online shop!) ebay, etsy and the odd overpriced vintage shop in the east end of London. The tea tins were from ebay – I quickly discovered it’s quite a competitive collectors interest in the UK, so old milk bottle and beer bottles as flower containers also made a great addition to the table centres – slightly less competitive than tea tins, but they too have their hard core followers on eBay! Food was sourced locally by a local caterer (a delicious veggie buffet proving you can go without meat, but a Welsh, organically reared hog on the roast if you couldn’t resist!) and all our wine was from France minimising air miles on what was the biggest volume of alcohol on the day. Desserts were made by family and friends. We mini-mooned in Wales too, doing our best to support local businesses and independents.”
The week before the wedding Emma spent time with family and friends at a rented cottage nearby the reception venue where they crafted to their hearts content. They created most of the stunning decorations that filled the marquee – from the brightly coloured felted hearts to the hanging pom poms. Emma’s Man of Honour and her Mum even patiently stitched the fabric coasters that were given as favours to each guest. Every detail was hand created by Emma, her family and friends.
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Amorae & Jonny- or Jonnorae as they often go by – wanted a very personal wedding…and they certain achieved that by celebrating their self proclaimed “nerdom”! The pulpit that the officiant stood was a throwback to the pipes that Mario traveled down, and instead of a typical unity candle or sand ceremony, they brewed a potion like Harry Potter! At the reception they wanted to pay homage to their ‘nerdiness’ with centrepieces of books, legos and miniature games hidden inside the hand painted faux books. They also held a quiz for their guests to play at their tables called “Jonnorae Geekdom Trivia” (by the way, I love this idea – we did it too!)
The ceremony, held at Lakewood Theater in Dallas, TX was just as bespoke. Instead of traditional vows they played a round of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would read theirs first, and afterwards they both phones to update their facebook statuses to married!
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Oh I am EXCITED…like, seriously jump up and down and eat a big cream cake-excited about sharing Jamie & Neil’s wedding with you today. Why the extra enthusiasm you ask? Well Jamie & Neil were the lucky couple who won the contest for free wedding photography that I organised alongside the the fabulous Kat Braman back in January (you can see their entry here)
The couple got married in style on September 18th at the YMCA’s Camp Pendalouanin Holton, MI, a place that holds very special significance for the bride. “The whole wedding weekend from Rehearsal on Friday through Sunday morning took place at the Muskegon YMCA’s Camp Pendalouan,” Jamie explained to me. “Camp Pendalouan has a special place in my heart as I attended girl scout camp there as a child. The ceremony took place at the scenic Boyden Chapel situated on Big Blue Lake and the reception was held in Nikana Lodge. The evening was concluded by a roaring bonfire that could be “seen from space” at the Council Ring of the Great Bear fire circle. The camp setting was just perfect for us since love outdoor adventures. It also gave us extra time to spend with our guests that were able to spend the night in the bunks!”
The entire wedding was an DIY and group effort, and the love and attention to detail really really shows (I am so in love with the car moustache!) Jamie’s Mum grew all the flowers, friends and family members made the deserts, they had a friend officiate and the whole wedding party got involved in the ceremony – and that’s just for starters! (make sure you check out the full list of everyone involed after the ‘jump’) “Following our ceremony we armed all our guests with ribbon sticks, pinwheels, and kazoos and had a parade to the flagpole where we raised a flag bearing our family crest,” they told me. “TSY rounded out the parade playing the Jason Mraz version of “One Love.”
Jamie wore a vintage dress that she’d bought at a boutique Viavi (now closed) for just $15. Some of Jamie’s colleagues helped her to modify the sleeves and the bodice of the sheath dress. With this she wore a Pixel & Hank (who I actually featured here) headpiece, Fossil tights and vintage oxford shoes from Tree & Kimball.
Seriously, words can not express how excited I am that Kat (photographer) and I were able to give this couple the professional photography they deserved. How beautifully captured is it all?
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Well you’ve heard me mutter a little bit about my new intern, the lovely Alice, over the past week or so but now it’s time to properly introduce the lady herself.
I’ve never had an intern before and to be honest the control freak inside of me wasn’t sure exactly what I’d do with one. However when Alice emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me all about her love of media, writing and Rock n Roll Bride and to ask if she could help out in any way, well I just thought “Hey, why the hell not?!” The tattoo magazine photo shoot was coming up so I thought if anything it’d be good to have an extra pair of hands to help the photographer carry his heavy equipment!
Photography Credit: Kristyn Hogan Photography
Luckily for me, Alice turned out to be as un-stalker-like as possible (the thought did cross my mind..well you never know!) – sweet, excited, passionate about writing and thrilled about planning her Rock n Roll wedding. So for this, a sparkly n spangly new series, I’ve asked the lady herself (who is getting married next Summer) if she’d record her journey for us. On the first Monday of every month Alice is going to tell us all about her recent meanders in Weddingland (see what I did there!?) starting with that elusive venue hunt.
The aim of this series is not to be like the the usual boooooring and uninspiring ‘real bride’ series of someone you can’t relate to in any way. Alice & Graham have a modest budget (just £3000 to be exact) and are hellbent on organising a kick ass Rock n Roll wedding. I’m really looking forward to snooping around their lives hehe.
Show your support for the new girl and leave your comments below!
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When Kat asked me to write a little sommat sommat about my wedding journey I was particularly excited, because I don’t know about you, but I am beyond fed up of reading countless “real wedding” stories that are anything but! If I see another Vera Wang-clad, Tiffany-ring wearing, bottle blonde beauty stare back at me disdainfully from the pages of a glossy, I seriously might cry. So this is for all you girlies out there after something a little bit unique, a little bit punk, and a little bit special. I hope you find my wedding-land interesting, inspiring, and very Rock n Roll!
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Photography Credit: Shelley Paulson Photography
When we were planning our wedding it came as a huge surprise to me to discover that in this country there are very strict rules about when and where you can tie the knot.
“Open air weddings are not permitted in England and Wales. The law states that a marriage ceremony venue must have a roof, be moored to its foundations, and licensed by the local registrar and that the ceremony must take place between 8am and 6pm.”
Photography Credit: Katherine O’Brien
Could you imagine if this was the law in The States?! All these beautiful outdoor weddings would have never happened!
The Any Campaign is a fantastic cause, a postive result of which could change British weddings forever. So please please take 2 seconds to sign this petition. The goal is to get 1000 British ‘signatures’ and if they do, you never know, they may be well on the way to change this old fashioned and out-dated English law!
Photography Credit: Steep Street
You can see all of my favourite outdoor weddings right here. Inspirational!
You may well remember April & Alex’s laid back garden party wedding that I featured a few weeks ago. Well a lot of you got in touch (and in fact I wondered myself!) asking about how April made her own cake pops. So I thought I’d ask the lady herself and she’s kindly written this lovely tutorial for you all.
Enjoy – and happy baking!
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Everyone LOVES these little cakes on sticks. I displayed them bunched up in jam jars for my wedding but you could pile them up like sweets in a big glass jar or use them as favours for your place settings too. They take a little while to make but they’re worth it!
You need…
A cake (I’ve used a double batch of this red velvet recipe spilt across 2 x 20cm sandwich tins)
Icing (I’ve used one batch of this cream cheese one)
400g chocolate coating
60 x 15cm paper lollipop sticks
Sprinkles or sugar roses to decorate
Polystyrene block (or something to stand your pops in as they dry)
Cellophane bags (optional)
Ribbon (optional)
1. Crumble up your cooled cake into a large bowl (this feels very wrong but fun!)
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There was a really heavy thunderstorm. As it cleared the most vibrant double rainbow ever appeared outside our back door
Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know this already, but on Monday I fainted, fell down the stairs, knocked myself out and chipped a back tooth (note to self: don’t try and climb stairs when feeling faint.) I’m ok now, the doctor said it was just ‘one of those things’ and that I’m fine. However I have been feeling a little sorry for myself this week so I cancelled all my appointments and spent most of this week in my PJ’s writing and chilling out at home.
Therefore this week’s Photography Friday photos aren’t that interesting (particularly compared to last week!) I just thought I’d take a few snaps of the ‘stuff’ I see everyday in my little world.
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The South African weddings are ruling Rock n Roll Bride right now (did you see this incredible wedding I blogged earlier in the week?) and I get very over-excited when I receive submissions for weddings as cool as Jen & Andrew’s. Their rockabilly-inspired wedding took place at Olympus Stream, Pretoria, South Africa.
“Andy is the upright bass player and vocalist for one of the few Rockabilly bands in South Africa called Reverend Wright and the Mystery Train Gamblers,” Jen explained. “We pretty much live, breathe and eat rockabilly even though it is still so small in this country. We just wanted to be ourselves without having a boring and stiff wedding day. Andy designed all the menu/name tags/invites etc, we stuck to an old school tattoo theme for that, and everything else we just stuck to what I liked, and what shouted Andy & Jen.”
“Martin Rocka played, who are actually a Psychobilly band from Johannesburg, SA, they are my fave band, so it really helped with the vibe. We also had a jukebox, and Dj Ipod, which we loaded with all our favourite songs. We also had the ever so popular Candy Bar, which was such a great hit, we had to chase people away from it so that we could do our first dance.”
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This is one of those posts that’s going to have a lot of photographs (hello, burlesque Rock n Roll wedding – there’s no way I could leave any out!) When photographer Marianne Taylor showed me a sneak peek of Sophie & Jonny’s wedding a few weeks ago, I knew straight away that they were right up my street…you’ll see why!
The couple got engaged in Paris on Sophie’s Birthday. “It was a dream come true,” the bride told me “Jonny had booked us into a plush Moulin Rouge themed hotel. We sat on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and drank pink champagne and then he surprised me some more with tickets to the Moulin Rouge that night! I had no idea that he had not only secretly booked the trip but also tickets to The Moulin Rouge. My favourite film and as a burlesque fanatic, this was perfect. At the end of the show, on the red carpet, I was surprised with a box which I unwrapped to find a smaller box. Upon opening the small box and finding my Princess cut platinum ring (perfect!) he got down on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him, to which I screamed and replied yes!”
The Paris proposal and Sophie’s love of all things 1940s and 50’s (she is a burlesque dancer herself) inspired the entire wedding which was a real DIY effort. She sourced the white ostrich feathers for a burlesque theme and the ‘Eiffel tower’ vases herself and set everything up for the reception. She also designed and made all the stationary and paper goods as well as helping out to make the cake. Instead of a guest book they dressed a vintage looking birdcage (found in a boutique shop) with feathers and pearls and had little black and white cards for people to write messages on and post them in the birdcage.
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You guys seem to never get sick of a fabulously creative DIY wedding and neither do I. That’s why I can’t help but keep featuring them! You know what though? Veronika & Bryan’s Philadelphia wedding may be one of my favourites yet. SO MUCH thought and ideas went into this day, and doesn’t it show?
“Almost everything for the wedding was DIY,” the bride began. “All of the paper goods (menus, favor tags, drink dispenser tags, program fans, guest book table instructions, sparkler wrappers) were all designed and printed in my home. Bryan made all of the drink concentrates (grapefruit-mint and blackberry) and peach iced tea. With the help of two friends, I cut, ironed, sewed and Goccoed 100 napkins. The 250 cocktail napkins were also Goccoed with the same heart that we used on the dinner napkins. I collected vintage frames to use for the table numbers, and using chalkboard paint, made the backs into chalkboards. The bridesmaids hair flowers were made by a friend, as was my garter. Bryan constructed the entire bar (and I sewed the bunting!) and arch that we stood under during the ceremony.”
“We also made the photo booth backdrop, and used our own cameras, lighting equipment, and computers. We made the cake-stands out of milk glass plates and candle holders, as well as wood plaques and branches. With the help of my mother and grandmother and friend, I collected over 300 doilies and sewed them together to make the runners. They were starched and ironed a couple of days before the wedding. All of the jars for the flowers, the typewriter, milk glass and birdcages, were found by me through Craigslist, flea-markets, and countless hours of searching thrift stores. I also found the various tables that we used for cupcakes and the ceremony at thrift stores and flea markets, antiquing them to better fit the feel of the wedding.”
“The lights for the reception were hung by my stepfather, Bryan, and the groomsmen. Another groomsmen, a recording engineer, did all of the sound and djing for the wedding. Another friend made us our wedding website. One of my best friends is an extremely talented graphic designer, and helped us out a ton – with the programs, the menus, and the design for the pint-glass favors, especially. We were very, very lucky to have such a supportive (and talented!) group of friends and family to help us execute so many projects. It would not have happened without them. It was a crazy year (and particularly crazy 2 weeks leading up to the wedding), but it felt very special to see all of the hard work that everyone had put into the wedding”
Told you! Don’t you just love it! Full list of everyone involved after the ‘jump’
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