Category: DIY Wedding Blog
I completely forgot to upload the list of vendors for Chelsea and Tec’s wedding, so here they are now….
Photography: Jose Villa
It was important for us to have everything at the wedding look… easy:
not stiff or perfect, totally informal, but completely beautiful,
rustic, homemade and us. I feel that the tablescapes really embodied
this notion. The wheat grass was grown by my mom 10 days (the perfect
number, she found out) before the wedding, the flowers were from my
grandparent’s garden and the roses were from their friend’s garden, and
the trinkets (clocks, tins, watches, bird figurines) were collected
from all over–friends, our own stuff, family, etc.
The trees that are sitting on some of the tables have a cool story to
them, too. My sister was married in February of this year… only four
months apart. It’s just the two of us in terms of siblings, and to be
honest, it’s not really surprising that it ended up happening that way.
We’ve been best friends since high school (after we got over the
"She’s looking at me and I hate her!" phase) and have
been inseparable since. Anyway, her wedding was incredibly intimate,
held at a gothic chapel with tons of candles and romance. She and her
husband stood among candles and tree branches from "dead" trees that my
mom bought at a nursery for $10 each! So after the wedding, even
thought they were dead, we still couldn’t bring ourselves to just toss
them.
So we kept them at my brother-in-law’s parent’s house, in pots
in their back yard. About a month before the wedding, we checked on
their progress, thinking that even if they were only twigs, they still
might look pretty at our wedding. What we found were tiny buds of
leaves and blossoms! Fast forward to the day of the wedding. The
trees were at the barn and we were planning on placing them around the
inside of the barn. "What about putting them on top of the tables?"
Joy suggested. Genius. I love how that worked though; so casual and
spur of the moment… and totally perfect.
Chelsea, everything looks perfect! Thank you so much again for sharing your incredible wedding with Once Wed. Stay tuned for Chelsea’s last post of the week tomorrow…
Our color palette was very general, which worked for our location and
the type of casual atmosphere we wanted to create. But the one
unexpected color that did continue to pop up was yellow: our tandem, my
shoes, Tec’s socks, our cake. I’m not sure if it was
a subconscious choice, but I think it really helped to round out our
broad color scheme.
Our wedding pictures were a priority for us, so we wanted to have
plenty of time for our photographer to spend shooting just Tec and me
after the wedding. To buy us some time, we allowed our guests to begin
eating whenever the barn was flipped into the reception space and we
also set up games for them to play, hoping they would feel that their
time was being well occupied. The property we were on had several
huge, flat areas where we put out games of Blong (aka Ladder Golf aka
Hillbilly Horseshoes aka whatever-you-want-to-call-it; pictured above)
and Bocce Ball. Not only did it allow us more time with the
photographer, but I think it took their minds off the fact that it was
98 degrees outside…
Aside from the barn being my dream location, one of my favorite aspects
of our wedding was the muslin fabric draping the doors. Joy found an
image of this online and we were both crazy about it. The muslin used
was actually hung and used as decor at her wedding five years ago.
Chelsea has one more post for us today so stay tuned…
2. The white sparrows were at my parent’s wedding and at my sister’s wedding… and now at mine!
3. The deer planter, which was a birthday present from Tec, was almost
too perfect! Aside from the color and the deer (‘Oh, my deer!’), the
shape was great and it fit our programs perfectly.
4. Since
everyone knows how stiff family portraits can be, we strung fabric from
posts to take these normally dull photos from frumpy to fantastic!
5. Our wedding was about 30-minutes off the beaten path, so along with
warning our guests of its obscure location and the approximate length
of time it would take to reach the barn, we also painted signs to lead
them in the right direction.
6. (That’s my cute grandfather under the papel picados… Couldn’t you
just eat him up?!) In the late days of April, I started introducing my
younger students to artwork and projects that corresponded with Cinco
de Mayo. One of those projects was making papel picados, which means
"pierced paper" in Spanish. Obviously, I fell in love with the result.
But I couldn’t figure out how to make them for the wedding without
having tacky "fold-lines." The next week, I met up with my friend Joy
Thigpen who had recently offered her expertise, style and sanity in
terms of making our wedding come together. (By
the way, Joy was a life-saver. Since we didn’t have a wedding
coordinator or planner in the budget, the ideas, the planning, the
execution, etc. was being done primarily by Tec and me, and by the time
April rolled around, I felt like I was drowning! There were still so
many ideas floating in my head, but I already felt like we were taking
on too much, and I didn’t know how we were going to make it the wedding
of our dreams without loosing my mind and without loosing focus on the
reason we’re having a wedding–the marriage. Anyway, all of that to
say, if there is someone in your life whose taste you appreciate and
who you trust to get the job done, don’t be afraid to enlist their
help. If they’re your true friend, and especially if they’ve been in
the same boat before, then they will most likely understand where
you’re coming from and jump at the opportunity to help you achieve the
celebration of a lifetime. Ok, and now back to the papel picados…)
She had pulled some tear-sheets together of ideas she’d come across
that seemed to fit the feel of our wedding. And what did she have? An
Image of floating, breezy, flirty papel picados! I swear she read my
mind… So we did some research and found beautiful wedding papel
picados online for a reasonable price. And though they were such a
minor detail of the wedding, they fit the mood and the aesthetic of the
day perfectly.
Aren’t the details above AMAZING? Cheslea’s style is impeccable. So much more coming up….
[Images c/o Chelsea and Jose Villa]
to get that from the moment they received our Save-the-Date postcard.
We hoped they would see our packaging and say, "Oh! This is so Tec and
Chelsea!" and anticipate a celebration that was unique and very "us."
We also made sure that everything–from the invitations to the
programs to the RSVP cards had the same sort of flow to them.
Therefore, we stayed within the same color palette and used the same
three fonts again and again.
side showed out out of town guests where they could stay, giving the
hotel’s address, phone number, and the date that the room had to be
reserved by in order to receive our group rate discount.
list! Since we were getting married in a barn, we suggested that the
ladies wear flats so that they didn’t "aerate their yard for free…",
reminded the guys of a golf outing Friday morning, reminded them that
bugs may be prevalent and suggested wearing bug repellent, and that the
barn was about 30 minutes from Nashville and Franklin (the location of
the hotels).
invitations, so I drew the banner with two of the birds from the
invitations and the Save-the-Dates to tie it all together.
These tags were hole-punched and tied to goodie bags we made for our
wedding guests that were staying in the suggested hotels. Inside
the goodie bags we put directions to the barn and places of interest
around Franklin and some snack-type foods for them to munch on.
card. (It should also be noted that everything but our invitations and
postcards were printed off our printer; even the RSVP envelopes.
Printing on bright-white cardstock and placing the printer on a higher
quality setting produced beautiful prints… and it was so much cheaper
than having them professionally printed!)
usually has specials going on. At the time we ordered our postcards, I
think we 300 for a little more than $20, including shipping! Not only
is that crazy cheap, but postcard stamps are also several cents cheaper… and on a tight budget, every little cent counts!
My dad is also an art
teacher and his talents are endless. He can build, draw, construct and
even calligraphy! While my mom was running around doing the dirty work
of talking to caterers, rental companies and insurance agents, my dad
was bent over a table addressing all 300-something invitations as a
labor of love for his daughter and future son…
Chelsea has got many more details from the reception coming up….
