Real Wedding: Ariane and Ethan

There is something so lovely about a DIY backyard wedding. Today's is chock full of sweet rustic charm and darling details. The bride, Ariane, summed up planning a small budget wedding perfectly: "Even though our budget was small, I knew I had to pay attention to the details to make the event seem bigger than it was." This is exactly what you should do when planning a budget wedding. Even the smallest of details have a big impact on the overall look and on your guests.

From the lovely Ariane:
Ethan's Aunt and Uncle own a beautiful home in Swampscott, Massachusetts and offered to host the wedding in their backyard as soon as they heard about the engagement. We couldn't resist, since it is such a gorgeous space and the free price fit into our very small budget. Ethan and I had talked a lot about how we wanted the wedding day to go. We were uncomfortable with spending lots of money on just one day and we knew we could make it special in our own way without a large budget.  I'm a fairly crafty person and with the help of our talented friends and family, we were able to pull off the perfect vintage, backyard wedding on a tiny budget. The wedding day turned out to be more beautiful than I had imagined.

Our wedding was completely DIY.  My mom and I found Martha Stewart printable invitations at Michael's on sale - 100 invitations, envelopes, RSVP cards and envelopes for $20.00.  I designed the invitations and hand stamped a design on each one.  I also designed, the menus, programs, and save the date cards myself.  I made 100 tissue paper pom decorations thanks to a Martha Stewart craft idea, hand painted the table numbers, and hand stamped the tags on the mason jars we used for glasses.  Even though our budget was small, I knew I had to pay attention to the details to make the event seem bigger than it was.  The last thing I wanted was to make the day seem cheap.  Little details make your event special and memorable for everyone.  The rest of the decorations were things we found at yard sales or already owned.  Making everything myself got stressful at times and we jokingly called the wedding our "huge mistake."

It truly was a family affair.  Ethan's brother is a chef and cooked most of the food we served which revolved around a backyard cookout theme.  Ethan's mom baked all of our pies and desserts including gluten free and vegan options for our friends with food allergies.  We bought flowers at the whole sale flower show in Boston and my friend Rebecca made the flower arrangements using blue mason jars we bought at a vintage store.  My mom is an artist and quilter and hand sewed our chuppah, which meant so much to us since the chuppah represents the home the couple is building together.  

We had a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony and a not so traditional reception.  Our immediate families gathered around the chuppah with us as we said our vows.  It was such a joyous occasion and everyone was radiating love.   Our fantastic photographer, Lauren Piper, captured all of the wonderful moments of that day.  She really caught the mood and the vintage feel of the wedding.  We had all of our closest family and friends with us to celebrate as we became husband and wife.  It was a perfect day.  I think it was so special because we had all worked so hard to make it happen - I know I put in plenty of blood, sweat and tears into the day.

Photographer | Lauren Piper
Bouquets | Roses and Thistle
Gown | J. Crew
Earrings and Shoes | J. Crew
Belt | Little White Dresser
Bridesmaid Dress | Anthropologie
Make Up | Daniela Shappee
Groom/Groomsmen Suits | J. Crew
Cake Topper | Baumbirdy
Stamp | Paperwink
Chuppah | Mother of the Bride
Ketubah | Gallery Judaica

Trend We Love

Brides are being more and more creative when it comes to the bouquet. No more flowers, brides want unique, inexpensive, DIY options. I am a huge fan of the vintage brooch bouquet, but these knobs are too fabulous! How fun and adorable are these vintage drawer pull bouquets?? They look fabulous just wrapped in some beautiful fabric, or even with a little dusty miller leaves for added texture. All in all, I am so in with this unique and chic trend!

[ 100 Layer Cake ]

[ Style Me Pretty ]

[ Postcards and Pretties ]

Kelsey and Erik: The Wedding

Ok folks, now for the good stuff! From the amazing getting ready shots, you can already tell this wedding is going to be fabulous! I won't keep you in suspense any longer!

Here is the amazingness and some insights and tips from Kelsey, the bride:
While planning our wedding- Erik and I always wanted to keep in focus what the day was all about for us- First of all the serious commitment taking place between us, and secondly the many important people in our lives who were making the trip to be a part of that celebration of our love. We had a very small budget but really wanted to still pay attention to details, and make the whole day specific and special to us. 

The wedding itself took place at the Bethesda School for Boys- it was exactly what we were hoping to find- something old, southern and simple. We wanted the whole wedding to have a similar feel- a mix of the old south and European charm. I had all of the bridesmaids choose whatever cream colored dress they thought would fit this idea, and bought silk rust colored ribbon online for them to tie together the look. We ordered brown suspenders and rust colored ties for all of the guys in our wedding party and had them wear whatever grey pants they wanted. It ended up being just what we had envisioned- and the fact that everyone wasn’t perfectly matching added to the charm.

I would definitely encourage DIY brides to learn to delegate tasks to friends you trust. The thousands of things to take care of before the big day REALLY add up! One of the most beautiful things about our whole wedding ended up being everyone’s generosity in helping us make it happen. A close friends parents offered their house for the reception. So many wonderful friends and parents cooked like mad in the few days right before the wedding- with the produce and recipies we provided. Susie Brown made the delicious lemon and raspberry wedding cakes all from scratch. Other friends and coworkers brought fresh breads and cheeses and helped man the drink station we had set up that offered wine, a friends homemade beer and mint juleps served in mason jars (just about as old south as it gets!). To supplement the tables we rented, we also bought a few old quilts for people to lounge around on. One of the things everyone ended up being most grateful for were the straw hand fans we ordered in bulk online (they were life savers in the August heat). We made all of the programs and invitations ourselves and had them printed.

I wanted to be classic but comfortable on in my dress- I found one by J Crew in a magazine that I absolutely fell in love with! I ended up finding it on eBay- not in my size- but much closer to my budget. My friend Alyssa Couturier-Herndon was so generous and did an AMAZING job of altering it to fit me and adding details to make it more personal (We took the train off of a vintage dress and she reattached it with some taupe ribbon). I bought the flowers wholesale and the night before the wedding I had each bridesmaid put together her own bouquet. We also used them to fashion boutonnières for the men, a flower crown for the flower girl and filled old jars with buds to scatter around the reception site.

Favorite Moments: Having that many of the dearest people to us in one place, and watching them celebrate with us was the most beautiful thing, especially to have the unconditional love and support of our families. Our dear friends Peter and Angela and my siblings wrote and sang us songs at the reception, which was so touching. Everyone dancing into the night in the unbearably humid heat on a small wooden platform with the paper lanterns above us was such a triumphant feeling. Ultimately though nothing will ever beat the moment I saw Erik’s face when I walked into the chapel on my fathers arm, and the complete joy there was to finally be married to the love of my life.

Advice for anyone getting married- plan it together! Then it really is a celebration of both of you. I kept notebook filled with all our thoughts, contacts and wedding ideas- it was a lifesaver to have it all in one place. Ultimately- decide what things are most important to you, and know that you may have to shrug off some details that just don't pan out, but when it comes down to that day- just try and soak it up as much as you can!

Photography | Jessica Keener

Ceremony | Bethesda School for Boys

Dress | J Crew

Make Up | Mary Clarke from See Jane

Hair | Amanda Rose Gilbert from Project Rose

Real Wedding: Chris and JD

Today's wedding is totally cool because it is all about the bride and groom! Chris and J.D. took a lot of time and effort into making a wedding that was truly "them".  Plus, it is shot by one of my favorite photography teams, White Rabbit Studios! Ashley and Stephanie are totally awesome and crazy talented (you may also know Ashley from a must read blog, Hi-Fi Weddings!) I will let Chris take it away because she has so much good advice for couples planning a wedding and don't know where to start!

Here's a little bit from Chris, the bride:
Planning the wedding was a challenge.  I looked at beautiful pictures of slim, cool couples who both loved the 1940s and had a great retro vibe, at the black dressed goth couples with beautiful red roses and matching nose rings, at preppy cuties with their yellow plaid accents, at sci-fi Dr. Who love birds.  And then I looked at us.  We didn't have a style or shared aesthetic.  He loves sad indie boy songs.  I love booty electronica songs.  I thought soft peach and ivory were lovely, he was taken by bright orange and yellow.  What were we to do?  What did we have in common (besides love of course)?  What makes us, us?

Over many conversations and little decisions things bubbled to the surface about what we loved in our life together.  Some great late night breakfast parties with friends made it seem logical to serve breakfast for our reception dinner.  My love of paper and glue plus his love for graphic design led to DIY invitations, decorations and favors.  His involvement in a local art community led to our reception location.  And probably the most important factor that shaped our wishes for the event was the people we wanted to be there and the fun we wanted to have with them.  We didn't want to exclude kids.  We didn't want to tell people who to sit by.  We wanted to dance and play with all of the people that make our life so great.  

The most important factor in actually pulling off the event was the vendors who brought unique ideas to the table and held our hands as we stared at them open-mouthed, shrugging our shoulders.  I still do not know how we got to be so lucky to have crazy delicious catering, gorgeous flowers and reception decorations, fun and beautiful photography, and the funnest dance party ever for our wedding day, but we did.  In the end we didn't have a theme, but man did we have an awesome time!  Oh, and did I mention our doughnut cake?!

Like many couples we were on a budget.  We decided early that we would like to use professionals for food, photography, hair/make-up and music.  But everything else was up to us.  We made our own invitations by hand that were designed using a combination of his illustrations and my cardmaking skills.  We used elements from the invitations in our website, in decor elements used to decorate the reception and in the gift favor bags which we all made ourselves (and with the help of some very kind friends).  Luckily we were saved from doing our own flowers and reception decorating thanks to a generous gift from a talented friend who's a pro.

There's a home decorating show I saw once called Save or Splurge that decorated rooms by choosing which items you should spend on and which items you should save on.  This is a great way to think about the planning process.  For us, we decided that we didn't like cake enough to spend $1000 dollars on it.  But we had to have the local DJ who puts on the cool events around town.  Seeing our dads go down the soul train line--priceless.  Since we both have graphic design skills, doing anything involving paper ourselves was a no brainer, but caterering ourselves--I don't think so.  When it was all said in done, my favorite things about the wedding day were not the expensive things, it was the fun things--the doughnut tower, Photo Booth pictures of my friends in silly dollar store props, the comfort of my $23 clearance reception dress, little girls dancing with grandmas, the crazy sounding delicious tasting spicy tofu omelette, our warm, personal church service led by someone who actually knew us. 

By the time the day rolled around I was so happy.  I had a motto that if I didn't get to it by now, I didn't have to worry about it.  We were two people who loved each other a lot and were about to start a new chapter in our lives and have a big party to start it off right.  Our ceremony was sweet and lovely--nothing out of the ordinary but it was finally us exchanging those promises in front of so many of our friends and family members.  There were some glitches like we didn't take any photos with family because we forgot that we were supposed to have dropped off soda to our bartender so we stopped at the grocery store on the way to our reception and by the time we got there everyone was already eating and helping themselves to drinks :).  But I learned that my new husband's family is really fun, that my girlfriends' dance style hasn't changed to much since our middle school dance days, that everyone loves waffles and that me and the hubs are off to a great life together!


Church | St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Madison, Alabama
Reception | Lowe Mill
DJ | Kandy at Your Perfect Party
Catering | Happy Tummy
Flowers | In Bloom
Photography | White Rabbit Studios

Huge thanks and congrats to Chris and J.D. for sharing their day with us!

More thanks to the fab team at White Rabbit Studios for sharing your awesomeness!