Wedding

You are currently browsing the archive for the Wedding category.

A DIY Country Wedding: Jacob & Sarah

February 22, 2012 in Wedding | 7 comments

Jacob & Sarah had a DIY country wedding at Harmony Museum, PA.

“Together with our community of friends, we pretty much made everything on our own because we wanted our wedding day to represent who we are,” Sarah told me. “Having the wedding ceremony and reception take place in a non traditional atmosphere also helped to sort of describe where we were coming from, a subculture scene of punk music and tattoos. One of the most important things that we wanted to come from our wedding day was to have a celebration with the people who we love the most. We have a very close group of friends that we respect and hold close and we wanted them to feel like it wasn’t just ‘Jake and Sarah’s Day’ but rather a party for all of us. Immediately after the ceremony, which was fairly short, there was just a big party.”

“For the centerpieces we collected bottles that we found on the railroad tracks and in the woods all around Pittsburgh,” she continued. “Above one of the tracks that run through South Side there was what appeared to be the remains of an old bottling plant, and there we found probably close to 100 very neat old bottles. After many soaks in the bath tub I tied pieces of fabric and ribbons around the bottles to dress them up a little. So, our centerpieces were free!”

Sarah wore a handmade dress by I see You Brightly on etsy with vintage shoes. Her headpiece was handmade by a friend and her jewellery was made for her by Jacob.

Instead of a cake they had a dessert table filled with pie, cookies and other treats bought by their guests.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: budget wedding, Country, DIY, Etsy, Outdoors, Tattooed Bride, Thrift, Vintage

A Burning Man Inspired Wedding: Christine & David

February 21, 2012 in Wedding | 16 comments

There’s so much about Christine & David’s wedding that I utterly adore - Christine’s Wai-Ching wedding dress, the metal-welding ceremony, the Burning Man inspired after-party… seriously, if you don’t love this wedding you’re bonkers.

“Well, we started off by not trying to be anything other than ourselves,” Christine told me. “The only thing I knew I wanted was my Wai-Ching dress and a gluten-free cake, and David just wanted a raucous party. Neither of us had expectations of what our wedding should be, so we just took the parts of the traditional wedding that we liked, ditched the parts we didn’t care about, and made some things up along the way.”

“A lot of our inspiration came from knowing that all but one of our guests was flying in from out of state. In fact our guest list included people from 24 different states and 5 different countries. We were so grateful that people would make the trip out to celebrate with us and we really wanted to make it worth it. Our wedding celebration was actually a multi-day extravaganza. Most people flew in on Wednesday and then Thursday was a trip to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Friday we went to the Orlando Science Center in the morning and then to Wekiwa Springs State Park (where we got engaged) in the afternoon for swimming in the springs and kayaking in the river. Friday night we threw our first party of the weekend at our house with a good ol’ Southern BBQ to welcome everyone to town. Saturday was our wedding and after-party and we wrapped it up on Sunday morning with a brunch at our house.”

“One of the big things we did differently was our ceremony as we wanted it to be personally meaningful. First off we chose readings that spoke to us: Charles Darwin on marriage, a quote about love from Tom Robbin’s ‘Still Life with Woodpecker,’ and an excerpt from Richard Feynman’s autobiography in which he writes about dating his wife. As for rings, I don’t think we ever even discussed them. I do have an amazing engagement ring, but I think we both assumed from the get go that wedding bands were not happening. All of types of ceremonies that we looked at, even the nontraditional ones like handfasting, unity candle, sand ceremony, etc – seemed forced as they meant nothing to us personally. We finally settled on including metal work in some fashion as I am a metal artist. We contacted a friend and artist who I lived and worked with last summer, Jon Sarriugarte, and he made us the amazing heart that we riveted together during the ceremony.”

“We had a lot of little touches,” the bride continued. “My cousin played the harp and a good friend played the trumpet for our ceremony. We had a ‘living guest book’ where guests planted a succulent. We had a coloring book table as a token to how we met (we met at the children’s coloring book table at a wedding in Long Island), complete with the picture I was coloring at the time. There was a table set up with pictures of us at Burning Man 2006-2011 (after we met at the Lond Island wedding we found out we were both going to Burning Man that same year so we arranged to meet there. We then ended up going back together every year after that).”

“Our after-party at our house was most definitely Burning Man inspired. We had set up our usual camping setup (a geodesic dome, a hexayurt, and five tents) in the yard for the 20 or so friends who camped at our place during the week. I surprised David at our entrance to the party with a tunnel of light sabers – his signature glow ornamentation at the Burn.”

“Body glow adornments were available as well as LED hula hoops and poi. Our hot tub was open. I set up a sculpture I made for Burning Man 2010, a honeycomb piece named Propolis. A fire pit was out by the lake with couches, s’mores (with local hand-made marshmallows of course), guitars, and a variety of percussion instruments. We set up a star projection in the dome with couches and blankets for a chill space. Grilled cheese sandwiches were distributed at midnight. Our neighbor put on a fireworks show for us during our royal kiss on the balcony and some good friends put together an acrobatic performance. And there was off course dancing until the wee hours of the morning.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Hippy, Neon, Succulents, wai-ching

A Breathtaking Australian Wedding & A Bride Who Wore Black: Amber & Gary

February 20, 2012 in Wedding | 18 comments

You know when an image just stops you dead in your tracks? An image that you can’t help but pause for a few seconds and go ‘wow’. Well that pretty much happened to me with every single photograph of Amber & Gary’s wedding. Wedding photographer Samm Blake is quite simply phenomenal.

See? I bet you whispered ‘wow’ too didn’t you?

“I wouldn’t say we were purposely going for a Rock n Roll wedding, but as I play at many weddings every year as a professional musician, the cookie cutter white strapless dress look really didn’t excite me,” Amber told me. “I tried on over 50 traditional dresses in dress shops and didn’t love any of them!. My decision to wear black was probably the biggest diversion from ‘traditional’ and came from my love of being slightly dramatic and different, while also wanting to be glamorous.”

“Our other inspirations came from our love of France, and we linked many french elements in to the day to reflect on the trip where we got engaged,” she continued. “The stationery, which we designed and made ourselves, used french design elements, the tables were named after locations we visited in Paris and the bonbonniere were Calissons (a french sweet made predominantly of almond meal) that we enjoyed on our trip – acquiring these was a little tricky as the French suppliers weren’t so good at communicating in English, and our French isn’t fantastic but it was worth it!”

“The wedding was elegant and romantic,” concluded the bride, “with lots of soft pinks and whites, flowers, and candles (lots of tealights on the tables and hung from the ceiling of the restaurant). It was very intimate, with only 50 of our closest friends and family. As we’re both into good food and wine, our venue was of huge importance! Vasse Felix was a beautiful setting that didn’t need a lot of decoration, and the slightly rustic look only enhanced the theme”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Australia, black wedding dress, DIY, samm blake

A Family-Central, DIY Backyard Wedding: Adam & Kim

February 17, 2012 in Wedding | 11 comments

Adam & Kim were married at home in their back garden in front of a retro caravan that they’d bought especially for the occasion! The entire day was DIY as they wanted their wedding to be about all the things, and the people, that they love.

“Our love and what we love is what inspired our wedding day. We wanted to create something that was very personal and a signature of our relationship,” the bride explained. “Each part of the day was special and unique to us; even the format was flipped to the traditional idea of many. I found the traditional wedding magazine’s a bore and wondered if there was something wrong to not admire these staged, stuffy epic weddings. It wasn’t until I delved more on the internet that I found that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way and that others were creating some fabulous and unique days of their own. Rock n Roll Bride was a site that made me feel at home.”

“The 1973 Viscount, Retro Caravan was the first thing we bought with the wedding in mind, ” Kim continued. “It became such a pinnacle part of the day, becoming both our meeting point for our nuptials and also our honeymoon accommodation. Our guests even used it on the day to store all the gifts they bought along. Adam spent many hours transforming and restoring it into our retro delight, we named her Lola.”

“We decided to have both the ceremony and reception at our home. It was the first home we had purchased together and this made it all the more special hosting such a special event. It felt like a large house warming and celebration of love all in one. Constructing the day had to be unique to make it flow and be enjoyable, given everything was at the same location. We met at the house in the morning, with both of Adam’s children (Milena & Ziggy) and all spent some time with our photographer Renee to get some photos before everyone arrived.”

“We decided to put a lot of ourselves into both the ceremony and the reception. We wanted it to reflect us both as individuals and also as a beautiful blend of two. Every detail was a personal signature of us and what we loved. All the decorations we made or personalised ourselves and our backyard was transformed into our own collection of vintage and retro delights. I spent months scouring Etsy and eBay to collect the vast amount of vintage brooches which I used to create my bouquet. It was so much fun getting different brooches every day in the mail and seeing the colours and designs starting to come together. It makes me smile each time I see it now remembering all those nights I spent hunting for brooches.”

“We didn’t want to use fresh flowers so I decided to make pom pom flowers for the tables. These were easily made with a pom pom maker and some felted wool. The bottles were vintage ones collected at thrift shops, with doilies tied around some of the flutes. I also made the cake toppers, fabric garland, cushions and drew the VW design for the guests to finger stamp and sign for the day. The VW beetle was the perfect choice, as we owned one and also used it on the day as our getaway car. It is another lovely reminder of who shared our beautiful day.”

“The back veranda was transformed with a collection of different lampshades we found and Adam painted. The streamers were torn, vintage sheets and the felt garlands were made by myself in yellow felt. We wanted the colours to pop and create a fun atmosphere.”

As well as the DIY elements, keeping their wedding small, intimate and all about family was just as important to Kim & Adam. “We only had 6o guests,” Kim continued. “We didn’t want to miss getting to speak to each and every person on the day. We didn’t want to have a large, fussy, bridal party and instead decided, it was much more important to include Adam’s children in the ceremony. It was very important to us both that they were part of it as we were becoming a new family. They were wonderful and had such fun helping to plan small details. Both children even help me cut out the vintage book hearts for the confetti.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Backyard, budget wedding, DIY, Vintage

#BrunaDigaSim – A Twitter Proposal & A Geeky Wedding: Bruna & Alexandre

February 16, 2012 in Wedding | 13 comments

After a Twitter proposal (#BrunaDigaSim – there are a number of videos of them on TV on You Tube after it happened, unfortunately they are all in Portuguese!) Bruna & Alexandre went to work planning their ‘vintage geek’ themed wedding.

“The wedding industry in Brazil is so unfashionable, people concentrate on traditional things and it’s almost impossible find a service provider available to do what you really want,” Bruna told me. “We decided to have a personal wedding. To see this happening we asked most of our friends to help us. We love tattoos, rock/indie music, film photography and technology, and we tried to put everything together into our wedding. The results were above what we thought they could be. We were featured on almost every single wedding blog and site in Brazil as an inspirational wedding which was amazing!”

Be sure to check out their super-sweet video too.