The first thing that caught my eye about Hannah’s wedding was her awesome baby’s breath bouquet wrapped with colorful ribbon. I had never seen anything like it before and thought it was absolutely beautiful. Hannah and Dave were married almost 5 years ago, but looking through their lovely images it is clear to me they were definitely ahead of the times when it came to throwing a DIY wedding on a budget. I absolutely adored Hannah’s description of their celebration…

We were young, ridiculously, maybe even naively in love, with no money. It was low key, handmade and included feathers, sandals and a barbecue. It was specially special because of our friends and family who pitched in for every SINGLE part of the day. The invites were designed by us, screen printed on to fabric, then sewn by my mister on to pieces of card. The dress was the weddings only extravagance…Georgio Armani. Worn with colorful jewelery and flat pink sandals. Flowers being way out of our budget, I turned to my old friend fabric scraps and literally covered the church and reception grounds with bunting and ribbon.

Photography via Seeds and Stitches

Opting for the Autry House over the traditional ballroom was to keep the wedding intimate and to have the same feeling of a dinner party we would host at our own home in Los Feliz. The cocktail hour was held on one side of the enclosed patio at dusk,  then the dinner al fresco under the dessert stars was on the other side.

The the vibe I was going for during the reception was South of France/Paris Flea Market using lots of black ribbon, nude, cream,  and blush as accent colors. The paper goods were designed by me and letter-pressed by us at a DIY studio called LaLa Press. The art deco place cards we’re packaged with vintage french art nouveau and travel postcards…

Thanks so much to Camille and Jason for sharing your lovely wedding with us today. And to Paperwhites Photography for sending over these beautiful images!

Photography by PaperWhites Photography

We used Joey Lizotte as our florist for the wedding. I sent him photo references from the Weeder’s Digest column on Design*Sponge for the wild flower/ garden look. I also the vintage milk bottles and Indiana hobnail and various milk glass vases for the vessels. which were mostly found on ebay.  My bouquet consisted of anemones, parrot tulips and succulents…

Photography by Paperwhites Photography

Check back later this afternoon for more inspiration from their lovely reception!

I’m doing my best to try and feature a little bit more variety when it comes to real weddings on Once Wed, so when I recently saw this modern celebration on Paperwhites Photography site I couldn’t resist sending Darcy and Trina an email to see if they would be open to a feature. The bride, Camille, was also kind enough to send over some details from their wedding…

We got engaged in Paris earlier that year (2009), hence the French theme and we really wanted to have a wedding in the South of France, but it was not really a feasible option. The grounds at the hotel always reminded us of Provence, down to the petanque court, so The Parker, with its unique design and fun atmosphere, felt like a suitable choice. And of course, now we have a yearly excuse to go back.

Both our weddings rings were KFK jeweler, an antique jeweler on 3rd street Los Angeles. My weddings dress is Juan Carlos Obando and was custom made from Des Kohan.

Photography by Paperwhites Photography

Stay tuned for so much more coming up next!

Before we jump into regular posting for the day, I wanted to give a quick shout out to one of our newest sponsors here on Once Wed, Charlotte Jenks Lewis Photography. Charlotte’s love of all things artistic turned her curiosity for cameras into a passion for photographic storytelling at the early age of eight.  Whether she’s creating seductive images with an antique Rollieflex or capturing spontaneous moments with quick-shooting digital, Charlotte loves the combination of art and narrative in her work. She shoots weddings with a trained photojournalistic eye for revealing, candid moments.

Although Charlotte is based in Brooklyn, she is willing to travel anywhere to shoot your wedding. To see more of her gorgeous images and glowing testimonials from previous clients, check out Charlotte’s lovely website here.