Saturday, March 29, 2014

wedding: DIY, Decor & Details

I knew that I wanted to incorporate DIY and pieces that represented a bit of Ryan & my's personalities & family with our wedding. This post shows all the close up details, decor & DIY.

The Ceremony:
For the ceremony decor, I kept it simple. We used leftover flower petals to line the aisle. The venue included cute aisle hangers, so we collected mason jars and used some of our centerpiece flowers in them to hang. Ryan's dad made our arbor out of birch, which turned out amazing! And at the back of the chairs we had big planters filled with white flowers.

We had a table for gifts, which included an old mailbox for cards. Our guestbook table included a book I designed which had all the pictures from our engagement photos. I just made sure to leave extra white space for signing. I also designed some signage that was scattered around the venue, including one for Instagram, one with our wedding party, one with the ceremony order and one for the bar. For these, I kept them simple black & white and tried to make them look like chalkboards. 

The Reception:
Our centerpieces included wood rounds, which Ryan & one of his groomsmen made. We then topped the wood rounds with hand-crocheted doilies, that my grandma made. Flowers are expensive! So we went to a flower farm the morning before the wedding and picked out less expensive flowers and made the centerpieces ourselves. This was really fun because we got a bunch of our family together and worked on them. My family and friends helped me collect cheap flea market vases. We also included thank you cards on all the tables. I designed these up and made sure to include our cute wedding cats, which were a theme in our stationary. I have an obsession for cats, if you didn't already know, and Ryan proposed by tying the ring to our cats collar. So it felt fitting to include. I made the table numbers by printing white vinyl stickers and adhering them on one of the vases on each table.

Our wedding favors were CDs I made. I've been known with my friends to randomly make them CD mixes, so I felt it was appropriate to make a mix for our guests with all our wedding music. We made the cases using recycled cardboard and then used transfer pens with inkjet print designs. If you've never used/heard of transfer pens, you should look into it. They are amazing. You can basically transfer anything inkjet printed on a piece of paper to any surface. 

Some of our tables included custom wood signs that my sister painted and lace tablecloths that my grandma had. And Ryan & my chairs had wood signs hanging from the back that said "Mr" and "Mrs". I mad these by laser etching into the wood, just like our invitations.

Overall, I was very happy with how our decor turned out. I loved that you could see our personalities throughout and that our family and friends helped.

Wedding Details
Wedding stationary - invitation, wood, etched, doily, lace, rustic, rsvp
Wedding Bridesmaid Dresses in Blush & Neutral Colors
Vintage Rustic Wedding - wedding dress & suit, flowers
Vintage Rustic Wedding - wedding shoes, garters
Vintage Rustic Wedding - guestbook table, instagram sign
Vintage Rustic Wedding - wedding dress, lace, flowers, pearls
Vintage Rustic Wedding - ceremony, flowers, petals, pink, blush, aisle
Vintage Rustic Wedding - ceremony, flowers, bridesmaids, dresses, pink, blush, aisle
Vintage Rustic Wedding - ceremony, flowers, pink, blush, aisle, mason jars, sign
Vintage Rustic Wedding - ceremony sign
Vintage Rustic Wedding - flowers, centerpieces, mason jars, wood rounds
Vintage Rustic Wedding - flowers, centerpieces, wood rounds, doily, flea market vases, cats, thank you
Vintage Rustic Wedding - flowers, centerpieces, wood rounds, reception
Vintage Rustic Wedding - cheers, wood sign, wine
Vintage Rustic Wedding - cheers, sign, wine, beer, signature cocktail, bar
Vintage Rustic Wedding - flowers, centerpieces
Vintage Rustic Wedding - flowers, centerpieces, wood rounds, signs
Vintage Rustic Wedding - favors, wood, cd mixes
Vintage Rustic Wedding
Vintage Rustic Wedding

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

My Wedding Day - Getting Ready

Vintage Lace Wedding Dress
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress - Tying Dress
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress & Pearl Jewelry
Vintage Lace Wedding Garters from Etsy
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress & Garter - Getting Ready
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress - Looking In The Mirror
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress - Bride with her bridesmaids
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress - Bride with her bridesmaids
Vintage Lace Wedding Dress - Portrait Shots, Neutral Makeup - Curled Hair

My wedding day will be something I remember forever. Getting ready with my bridesmaids & family made it so special. The day started with breakfast with my mom and sister. We then met my bridesmaids at the hair salon where I got my hair and makeup done. The girls brought donuts and champagne for us to munch on, 2 of my favorites! I went with big curls and a white flower hair clip I got off Etsy that incorporated lace & pearls. For my makeup, I tried to go with more of a natural look, using gold & brown eyeshadow and peach lipstick. (Check out my trial photos below)

From the salon we headed to the wedding venue. By this time we were all hungry and one of my bridesmaids had organized lunch for us (so nice!) Once I ate, I started putting my dress and accessories on and before I knew it, it was time for the first look photos. The time just flew by...

My dress is a Wtoo Belize Gown from a Portland shop called Charlotte's Weddings & More. I loved the comfy, bohemian lace. I originally didn't want strapless, but once I tried it on, I fell in love. The sash is a guava color that matched perfectly with our neutral/blush color scheme.

For my jewelry, I collected pearl bracelets from friends, family, vintage shops & Target of course! I then just stacked them all up on my wrist. I went with gold pearl chandelier earrings that I already had. All in all, I think I spent $15 on my wedding jewelry... not bad.

My shoes are Toms in Ivory Glitter. I loved how comfy they were, but they did take some breaking in and easily got dirty.

Wedding Trial Makeup & Hair

Friday, February 7, 2014

The Shower: Beer & Booze Style

This post is about 7 months old, but I am finally putting up pics from our shower back in June.

I'm not much for tradition, so we had a boy/girl BBQ shower where we asked everyone to bring their favorite beer or booze to help use stock our bar. I have to admit, our shower was awesome! I had such a good time just hanging out with my closest friends and family. We ate delicious food, had yummy drinks including fresh strawberry vodka lemonade and played fun lawn games. We also left the party with a TON of booze and beer. It only took us a month or so to finish all the beer, but I still have quite a few bottles of alcohol that help make my bar cart look full.

I designed the invitations with the help of my best friend and bridesmaid, who drew the beer bottles for me. They turned out looking so cute! I wanted them to have that chalkboard, sketch style.

My sister threw the shower for me at her and her husbands beautiful house. We did the BBQ in their backyard. She bought fresh flowers from the local saturday market and arranged them in mason jars. The tables included burlap runners, wood rounds from the wedding, tin buckets & the mason jar flowers.

Our gift to our guests were custom beer coozies! Everyone loved them.

Drinks included beer, wine and water that we served in a wheel barrow. Cocktails included strawberry vodka lemonade, raspberry vodka limeade & mojito jello shots, which were a big hit and super delicious!

We specially purchased this bar cart, just for our shower. It nows sits in our new house and looks amazing! The asked our guests to place their gifts on our bar cart and fill 'er up. This worked out great as it showed off all the beer and booze we received.

We asked everyone to instagram any photos taken at the shower and use our hashtag. I loved this, as I can go back and look through the photos on instagram.

Thanks to everyone who made our shower so amazing!