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An Upcycled Ceremony in the Park: Julian & Carolyn

May 18, 2012 in Video, Wedding by Kat | 4 comments

Some of you may recognise Julian & Carolyn as I featured their ‘registration of marriage ceremony’, a Malaysian tradition, way back in December 2010! Well since then, the couple have been planning the rest of their wedding celebration – an outdoor party held at Kiara Jungle Park in Kuala Lumpur.

“For the ceremony itself, we wanted a really cute/funny entrance,” Carolyn began. “Our first ideas was to have a few of our friends ride in with their Harley’s and then my Dad & I would zip right in with a Vespa and cute ‘beep, beep’! Unfortunately (well, fortunately on hindsight) the Vespa we borrowed was giving us some problems, so we didn’t go on with the plan… but my friends still came with 4 white Harley’s and so I hopped onto to the back and that was my grand entrance!”

“We tried to DIY and upcycle as much as we could for our wedding. For example the napkin holders were made out of toilet roll cores, cut-up and then covered with vintage curtain material that my late grandmother used. We collected hundreds of tin cans & placed tea lights inside them to light up the walk way. My Mom also helped decorate an arch for us to use during our exchange of vows. In fact, my Mom did too many things to mention!! Last but not least, are the bouquets. All the bouquets were made by my very talented husband, Julian!”

“Our wedding favours were items from our childhood with an 80s theme,” she continued. “There was gum, wafer slices, jelly cones, little bubble blowing thingys… Everyone loved them! We also brought in our collection (and a friends) of vintage furniture to create a mini living room in the park for people to have their photo in as well as relax in! We got our friends to help take photos with instant cameras and got them to pin it up around the area.”

“The last and biggest surprise for the wedding is our wedding video,” the bride concluded. “You see in Malaysia, it seems to be a trend to compile pictures of the wedding couple from childhood, through to meeting each other and so forth. Julian and I have always felt that it was cheesy and we wanted to do something different. We finally decided on a thank you video instead, to be shared during the reception. I remember saying to Julian that I want the people in the video to be really touched, and so we shot the video ourselves and did make a few people tear. Mission accomplished!

Aww and look how cute it is…! I can see why people cried can’t you? Absolutely LOVE this idea.

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Tags: budget wedding, DIY, malaysia, Outdoors, Park, Short dress, Tattooed Bride

Married Beneath the Cherry Blossoms: Joseph & Fabiana

May 16, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 6 comments

Joseph & Fabiana had a low-key and intimate wedding at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. They decided against an expensive or extravagant wedding, instead favouring a simple and touching ceremony with their nearest and dearest.

The couple met online and discovered a mutual love of photography and travel. After spending years admiring each other’s work through flickr, they finally met in South Korea and ended up travelling to Japan together where they fell in love. The bride wore a multi-coloured dress from Marimekko which set the tone for the day. Fittingly with the Japanese feel (the ceremony was even held on the ‘Japanese Hill’ within the gardens, under the cherry blossoms) she also carried a bouquet made of origami flowers.

“We wanted a non-traditional small wedding that would reflect both of our personalities and be colourful.” the bride wrote. “We originally wanted to get married in Japan, but it was too far away from our home countries (the UK and Mexico) for guests to travel to. Therefore, we searched for Japanese Gardens in closer locations. We found one in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens which was perfect because New York was a city we had both loved and a location almost half way between the UK and Mexico. We chose April to coincide with the bloom of the cherry blossoms.”

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Tags: Cherry Blossoms, colourful, DIY, Intimate, Japan, New York, Origami, Outdoors

A Handmade Florida Wedding : Mike & Melissa

May 1, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 15 comments

Working in the music industry it was important to Mike & Melissa that their wedding suited their lifestyle and sensibilities and 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property in Deland Florida, turned out to be the perfect place. “Mike is a local musician and recently I have decided to leave my job and become his manager!” began the bride. “We have been together for almost 4 years now and over the next two we will be setting up our lives to hit the road indefinitely until we find the best place to live! We are too hot here in Florida and always long to be in the mountains. We changed our wedding date 3 times just so that we could have it at this venue, because as far as Florida goes it was pretty hard to find a place that really spoke of who we are. We chose 1903 Hontoon, a vacation property that used to be an old boat & motor repair shot. It has an awesome feel to it. Our wedding is hardcore DIY & handmade – from 1,000 paper cranes to the tablecloths to the bridesmaid dresses and jewelry.”

“I’m extremely crafty so I have been a non-stop force of productivity in creating everything I possibly can for this day. With that being said it is REALLY important to us to have our wedding captured because every detail is so dear to our hearts! The two of us never imagined that we would get married but, love eventually finds you and before we left for our travels it was important to us to share this bond and experience with our families.”

The bride wore a yellow wedding dress which she made. Her bridesmaid’s dresses and everyone’s accessories were also handmade by the lady herself. The boys all wore outfits that they sourced from charity shops and thrift stores. The cake, flowers and all the reception decor were also completely DIY!

“When Melissa contacted me and told me about their wedding I was so freaking excited!” wedding photographer Amalie Orrange continued. “This wedding was my dream wedding, a crafty, colorful delight of handmade goodness. Melissa handmade everything from the boutonnieres, the vintage labeled cans that were recycled from old soup cans and filled with succulents. She collected vintage sheets and fabric and sewn together to make 16 tablecloths. Melissa was a one person crafting sweat shop, she said she even had Mike on the sewing machine a few times! Melissa puts Martha Stewart to shame.”

“On the day of the wedding I arrived 2 hours before and was in awe when I saw everything set up. We had been talking for months and going back in forth emailing pictures of cool ideas and everything she had been doing, I really felt like I was part of this great wedding. About 2 minutes before the ceremony it started pouring down rain, I felt awful because the whole feel of the wedding was a centered around being outside. The wedding was moved in the garage hanger and the skies soon cleared, and everyone had an amazing time. I am so excited to share this beautiful & unique wedding.”

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Tags: budget wedding, DIY, Farm, mismatched, Outdoors, Short dress, Vintage, Yellow

A Picnic Wedding: Alex & Denise

April 23, 2012 in British Brides, Wedding by Kat | 14 comments

The inspiration for Alex & Denise’s Brighton wedding was for it to be “just like a big picnic”. They used local suppliers (including the caterers who used local produce and supplied locally produced champagne) where possible and DIY’ed the rest! “Our inspiration was for it to be like a big picnic – although without having to sit on the floor!” Denise told me. “I found mini picnic baskets that were used as the centrepiece on each table. These were filled with chutney, pickles and breadsticks. We wanted the wedding to be really relaxed – I’ve always disliked formal situations. I also wanted there to be lots of colour. For the meal we had a blanket set up on the floor for any children that got bored of the adults. We also did a play area with a wigwam, dress up box and colouring books. Although on the day they mainly opted for running around the field like lunatics.”

“The second (and very crucial) driving force for the wedding was the belief that it needn’t cost a fortune. Apparently the average wedding costs around £19,000 which to me is just a ridiculous amount of money (and was totally out of the question – we had nowhere near that amount of money to spend). We had less than £5,000 for the wedding and honeymoon but I didn’t want to compromise on the feeling of it being a special day. It was time to stick it to the man and beat the system.”

“There was a lot of DIY with this wedding. I gave myself the challenge of making 100 metres of bunting. I had my own mini production line! I sewed the bunting on to paper ribbon (which was much cheaper than using bias tape). I also made our sweetie favour bags (full of lovely sweets: pink shrimps, parma violets and flying saucers being my favourites). I really liked the look of the old fashioned paper sweetie bags – each table had a different colour (they looked great and they were as cheap as chips – sweet). They also doubled as name places. I tied them up using raffia. The raffia came in handy for lots of things – you can buy a massive bundle from floristry suppliers. This was much cheaper (and was far nicer raffia) than buying it anywhere else. Floristy suppliers were also a great place to go for decorative items (eg baskets, enamel buckets etc).”

“Another friend made great signs for the bar, camping area and toilets. This friend also made our tennis table bat table plan. Alex’s family are big fans of table tennis so it seemed like a good way to go! Each table was named after top table tennis players of the 1990s – I think that might be a wedding table plan first! I also made moustaches on sticks because I think they’re funny.”

Denise wore a wedding dress which she bought from Oxfam Bridal and then has customised and shortened by Erika Langley Bridal Alterations. “Wedding dress shops scare me so I never actually set foot in one,” the bride continued. “I’m not a girly girl and the idea of all the attention on me made me feel a bit ill. I knew I wanted a short dress – I’m only 5ft 1 and thought a meringue would drown me. Also, as we would spend the majority of the day in a field (and possibly a wet, muddy one) I didn’t want to be dragging a dress behind me. Plus, if I did need to don my yellow wellies, I wanted everyone to see them! I scoured the high street but nothing was right. I eventually went to Oxfam Bridal – perfect for me, I love a charity shop! The dresses were mainly quite extravagant but I did stumble across one that was nice and simple. It was also long with a huge train. Nothing that a dress maker couldn’t sort our though. I loved having such a simple dress – I felt really relaxed in it all day! My heels got replaced by some nice flat yellow sandals as soon as I got to the farm. A farm is no place for heels.”

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Tags: brighton, budget wedding, camping, Charity Shop, DIY, Outdoors, oxfam, UK

A Private Residence Wedding: Ruby & Emmanuel

April 20, 2012 in Wedding by Kat | 12 comments

Ruby & Emmanuel’s sweet wedding took place on a private residence in Adelaide. The bride wore a 1930s vintage wedding gown with a vintage headpiece. Even her bridesmaids wore vintage dresses.

The couple locally sourced things where they could including the food their served and the flowers the used to decorate the marquee. The bride’s sister made all their stationery and paper goods. The wedding was a really personal and intimate affair. “Our focus was really just on our family,” the bride explained. “We handcrafted our wedding with, of course, some true vintage touches.”