Category: DIY Wedding Blog
We’ve had some gorgeous real weddings this week, and I’m so excited to end with this adorable DIY California wedding from Raya Carlisle Photography. Almost everything was found at vintage stores, which goes to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune to have an amazing wedding. Here’s more from the bride…
The wedding definitely had a vintage feel. We both have a passion for vintage things and do lots of shopping at the flea market here in Santa Cruz, so it seemed only natural for the wedding to be filled with all our favorite vintage treasures.
Originally our colors were brown and yellow, but that didn’t last very long. Once we decided the bridesmaids were going to wear mix-and-match vintage dresses I had to add some mint and salmon to the color palette. I felt like I was breaking the “rules” of wedding to have so many colors, but in the end I loved how all the colors looked together.
When I met with my florist and friend Erin Adams I told her I wanted flowers that were colorful, vintage, and had a wild hand-picked look. In my bouquet she used golden craspedia and dahlias to give it those bright colors, maidenhair ferns for a more wispy shape, and little chamomile that look like daisies to give it a vintage look and tie it in with the daisies on my headpiece.
The bridesmaids carried clutches down the aisle in place of bouquets. (Handmade by my dear mother!) The groomsmen weren’t wearing suits and had nowhere to put a boutonniere, but Kyle wore a single golden craspedia. We also hung flowers from the trees in mason jars. There were some behind us for the ceremony, and others hanging above tables during the reception. And for our centerpieces Erin created organic mounds of moss with a twig to hold up the table number.
We did a lot of DIY projects that definitely made the wedding unique and more personal. The second we laid eyes on the redwoods in the grassy area behind the Corralitos Community Center we envisioned lanterns and chandaliers lighting our reception at dusk. My mom and I put wire around mason jars and tied twine to the wire, making lanterns that could easily be hung from the redwoods and filled with candles, flowers, and oversize whirly lollipops. I found a few old chandaliers at the flea market and antique fair here in Santa Cruz and my dad set out to restore them, fixing the worn-out electrical. We also made the arch for our ceremony. We gathered twigs and branches and wired them to a wooden arch which was stained a dark walnut color. The day of the wedding we draped moss over some of the branches and sprinkled it on the ground below the arch. When flowers were hung in mason jars behind the arch, our little redwood grove ceremony became so beautifully colorful and woodsy.
Another DIY project that gave our wedding a more personal touch was our place cards. I found a seller on etsy who was willing to make me a custom order of yellow die cut birds. Kyle and I hand stamped each guest’s name and table number on the little birds in a typewriter font. Although it was a tedious project, it was well worth the work. On the day of the wedding we clipped the little yellow birds to a line with clothespins. They were adorable!
There are so many favorite memories, but the one that stands out most is the one I wasn’t expecting. Kyle and I have always loved music and, in fact, it was playing music that brought us together. Completely unbeknownst to me, Kyle and his groomsmen hid musical instruments behind a tree. Before our vows began they pulled out their guitars and harmonicas and Kyle sang a song he had written for me in the weeks leading up to the wedding. With words like “darlin’ take my hand” and “I wanna grow old with you”… I was a total disaster. I looked back and saw a line of teary eyed bridesmaids. Luckily my sister-in-law Annie had tissue at hand. And thank god for waterproof mascara.
I would have to say my favorite detail from the wedding were the whirly pops. We gave one to each of the children as a wedding favor, and the second dinner had ended there were kids walking around licking lollipops bigger than their heads. I think I even saw a lollipop sword fight. There was nothing more precious than all those sticky little lips, chins, and noses.
The lovely Heather and Grayson from Jagger Photography recently sent over this delightful DIY wedding. I was surprised to find out that the whole thing was planned in less than 2 months! The bride was kind enough to share their story, along with some of the details and projects from the wedding…
Jeff and I are high school sweethearts from a small town called Morris in Illinois. We’ve spent the last eight years growing up together, learning from each other about life and love. We were always moving around, trading comfort zones for unfamiliar cities but home has always been where we are together. We’ve seen each other through just about everything life could throw at a couple of young people.
We had recently found our way back to our home town after having lived on the West coast for a few years. We were settling in, reconnecting with family and friends, when we decided to finally check ‘get married’ off of our to do list. We planned our wedding in a month and a half! The ceremony was held in a beautiful park that we had both always loved as kids. We had the reception in Jeff’s aunt’s backyard. We’re a do-it-yourself kind of couple and were determined to cut cost wherever possible. We wanted our wedding to be casually intimate with an honest and personal twist on everything.
We marched into our favorite craft store, wiped out a few colors of their card stock and spent a sleepless night designing and printing and cutting and gluing…our invitations were out just a couple days after we set the date. My mom and I handmade about 150 fabric flowers that we attached to twine as garlands for the tent. We saved time and money by hanging a chalk board (that we ended up making with chalk board paint because it was surprisingly hard to find one) as our program and then as our menu instead of making dozens and dozens of the paper version.
We love to browse thrift stores and antique shops so, of course, we were on the look out for all things unique and vintage to incorporate into our day. Our cake topper is from the mid 1950s. I glued feathers to the little bride to match the ones on my headband. I bought our glass candy jars one at a time as I’d find them in the thrift shop and never paid more than two dollars a piece. Instead of a post-ceremony getaway car (and since the ceremony and reception were about a 1/4 mile apart) we rode our vintage bicycles. Jeff’s bike was actually his Grandfathers. They were complete with ‘Just Married’ signs and cans on string.
Instead of picking a color palette we let things get colorful. When shopping for paper and fabric and other supplies we picked what we liked without limiting ourselves to any one theme. A lot of our wedding wasn’t planned so much as it evolved. We didn’t let ourselves over think or worry. We just went for it and knew it’d work out. We even took a risk by including a note in our invitations, encouraging our guest to dress in 1920s themed clothing if they liked. Almost everyone dressed up! It really added a fun element to the look and feel of our day.
It was indeed our dream wedding, the one we had always imagined having. The most amazing part of it all was how much our loved ones got involved. Probably a third of all of our guests didn’t just show up, they made it happen. The morning of wedding the house was buzzing with chatter and smiles and “what can I do?” There were guys climbing latters and girls ironing table clothes. The countless laughs and cups of tea Mom and I shared while stitching flowers are priceless. Our wedding truly brought us closer to the ones we love. What more could a bride ask for?
Photography: Jagger Photography
Flowers: Allison Graham
Cake: Becky Hanson
Event Design + Handmade Items: Eventcetera
Groom’s suit: Banana Republic
Wedding dress: J.Crew
Violinist: Colleen Lawrence
I am thrilled to introduce another of our talented sponsors this morning, Stacey Ilyse Photography. She is a Manhattan based photographer who takes such a fun, creative approach to the wedding day. I love the personality she is able to capture from the couple, and the engagement sessions are oh-so charming.
To see more of Stacey’s beautiful photos, check out her website and blog.
Because the whole invitation was plant-able, I wanted to carry on the theme. Each seating card/packet consisted of lavender seeds to plant and an old vintage French seed packet label which I found bulk on French ebay. I wanted something people could keep, frame and/or remember. I placed them in old wooden cassette boxes I found at a garage sale. They fit perfectly. To identify the tables I used vintage metal street letters I found on etsy. I really wanted to use the vintage style feed sack material- (I discovered they are pricey). After extensive research, I found an affordable place that happen to have the colors I wanted with the purple stripes yet each one slightly different. Cara Spinelli was a dream to work with from Transylvania Images.
Michael and Robin ended up projecting old movies filmed in San Francisco(where they met) throughout the evening on the tent. How fun is that? Corbin, thank you so much again for sharing this gorgeous wedding with us today!
Vendors
Venue/Caterer: Costanoa
Bouquet: Alena Whiting
Wedding Dress: Claire Pettibone
Hair/Makeup: Marina Dimas
Cakes: Jasmine Rae Bakery
Photography: Corbin Gurkin
Nothing makes my day like receiving a beautiful wedding in my inbox, so when Robin and Michael’s wedding came in last week from Corbin Gurkin I couldn’t wait to post their entire celebration on the blog. Robin is an art director at Sephora, so her endless creativity plus a gorgeous setting really made for an incredible wedding. More from the lovely bride…
Because so many guests were coming from out of town it was important for us to find a venue that could accommodate all our guests for a weekend and have a vacation type feel. We also wanted to showcase an area of California that a lot people don’t get to see when they visit. The redwoods, the rugged coastline, nature. It was also important for us to use as much local resources as possible. I designed the invitation from a collage of various nature elements. It was important that nothing was wasted. I found a printer that makes plantable 100% recyclable handmade paper with wildflower seeds to be planted. They were great to work with and very affordable.
Photography by Corbin Gurkin
So much more coming up in a bit!
