REAL WEDDING: Allison + Jerreod’s Artistic Wedding

Allison and Jerreod knew each other for over 15 years, but it wasn’t until a special trip to Paris that these best friends developed a deeper bond.  The couple really wanted to be hands-on with the planning of their wedding so they chose to get married at the Easley Family Farms for its beautiful grounds and laid back feel. Read below to see how this artist bride took her love for the arts and incorporated them and their unique family cultures into their June 20th wedding.

Since the couple was having an outdoor summer wedding they provided their guests with homemade program fans and handmade eucalyptus essential oil sprays.

Their ceremony was completely unique! They paired the Hindu 7 sacred vows of marriage with 7 specific flowers that were assembled into a vase. Notice the way she included a paint can into her ceremony space!

Handcrafted signs could be found all around their wedding and reception space!

Paint-dipped mason jars and paint cans as flower pots, tea lights with planted succulents and other bold and artsy elements made appearances throughout the day.

How about this for getting their guests involved and keeping up with the art theme?! They had a canvas guest book for guests to paint their wishes, date night Jenga, and the bride created a cartoon coloring book of Jerreod and herself for the guests to help color!

I truly loved this couples’ bold use of color and artistic flair that made their day a beautifully unique one! Congrats to this stunning couple.

Xoxo,

Alex

Photographer:  Evan Chung Photography / DJ: Amos Productions /Decor: Amos Production / Groomsman Attire: Anatoly’s Tailors / Caterer: Barbara Llewellyn Catering and Event Planning / Event Venue: Easley Family Farms / Event Planner: Linen & Lilac / Dress Designer: Maggie Sottero / Floral Designer: Making Arrangements / Invitation Designer: Wedding Paper Divas /

Jessica + Arek’s Elegant Yellow Wedding at Wadsworth Mansion

For their big day, Jessica + Arek incorporated wine corks (for their mutual love of wine) and honored Arek’s Polish heritage by including Polish traditions. Captured by the lovely Michelle Girard Photography, their summer wedding at the beautiful Wadsworth Mansion was an elegant affair with lots of white & yellow.

 

 

Although there aren’t that many big DIY projects present in this elegant modern wedding, Jessica + Arek made sure to personalized as much as they can. They personalized beer mugs for groomsmen and hoodies for bridesmaids. They incorporated Arek’s Polish heritage into the decorations by using empty Polish liquor bottles as vases as well as adding a Polish Ritual for Health and Peace into their ceremony. As mentioned, the couple’s mutual love for wine is displayed using wine corks as decoration in vases as well as on reception tables. They also put together really simple and elegant center pieces by only using wine glasses and candles.

 

My favorite part of Jessica + Arek’s elegant wedding was the “First Looks”. There was the “First Look” with Jessica and her father, and then the “First Look” with Jessica + Arek. Michelle Girard captured perfectly how the men were just stunned by how amazing Jessica looked.

Congratulations to Jessica + Arek!!

 

Photographer: Michelle Girard Photography//Wedding Date:08.17.2013//Dress Store: Bridal Heirlooms//DJ:CNT Entertainment//Floral Designer: Dandelions //Makeup Artist: Makeup Artistry by Liz//Tuxedo and Mens Attire: Modern Formals//Dress Store: Pearl Bridal Boutique//Reception Venue: Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate//

Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Glamorous Navajo-Inspired Concept Shoot

We’re featuring a super gorgeous wedding styled shoot today. Brought to you by the talents behind Frenzel Studios, this Navajo-inspired concept shoot is not only glamorous and rustic, but will also make you fall in love with the Southwest charms.

 

Gosh, what don’t I love about this styled shoot. The big fiery red bridal bouquet, gold-dipped feathers, the bride’s hair and jewelry that flow so well with the theme, the gorgeous fondant cake, chocolate-dipped churros, hanging dreamcatchers, the big spacious barn decked out in lights, and the oh-so-pretty invitation suite. Seriously, there were some amazing work in place here!

Thank you Frenzel Studios and the awesome vendors involved in this styled shoot for bringing us such gorgeous inspiration! I hope all you lovely DIY brides/grooms will be able to find some inspiration here!

 

Photographer: Frenzel Studios//Dress Store:Altar’d State//Invitation Designer: designs in paper//Event Planner: Modern Vintage Events//Tuxedo and Mens Attire: Street Tuxedo Green Hills//Dress Store:The Spoiled Lady//Reception Venue: The Wren’s Nest//Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Additional Vendors:

Farm Table and Dessert Stand: Vinewood Home Creations
Chairs, arrows and vintage Items: Stockroom Vintage
Cake: Creative Crumbs
Flowers: SOUL Flowers
Hair and makeup: Rebecca Paschall
Bridal Jewelry: Altar’d State

Jennie + Jei-Wei’s Intimate Vegas Extravaganza

Fellow DIY Brides + Grooms, be aware! Today is a long and lengthy one because… well, we’re featuring my wedding! When the idea of me writing and publishing about my own semi-DIY wedding came up, I wasn’t entirely sure if I was up for the challenge. It’s just so much easier to marvel over other peoples’ gorgeous weddings and to criticize your own. But Khris mentioned how nice it would be that since I’m the one writing about my own wedding, that I could share with all you lovelies my experience as a DIY bride.

First and foremost, I want to mention that our wedding was a destination wedding. We, along with most of our friends and immediate family (both of our families are from Taiwan, so only our immediate family members live in the US) reside in the southeast United States, so it was a lot of effort and planning to get everyone to Las Vegas. We were engaged close to 1.5 years before our actual wedding, but we had been together for 9 years prior to getting engaged so I pretty much knew some basic stuff I wanted… a Fall wedding, gorgeous venue, delicious wedding food, and my flowers amazingly pink and romantic- a theme that I wanted to carry through everything set in place for the wedding. To get things started, we took a trip out to Vegas exactly one year before our chosen wedding date and interviewed a lot of vendors. I’m so glad we did that because I really needed to feel a connection with the people I worked with and feel at ease that they know my vision.

We definitely could not have pulled off our dream wedding without the constant support from friends and family, especially my amazing bridal party, and of course, my ever-so-patient vendors. Seriously, I don’t remember how many phone calls/e-mails were exchanged with my super talented florist, Catherine of Layers of Lovely, or with my awesome, multi-tasking venue manager + coordinator, Gina of Red Rock Country Club. They always made themselves as available to me as they could, and tried their hardest to stay true to my vision and budget.

Because we totally splurged on our venue + catering and insisted on having both a photographer (Ron Miller Photography) and a videography team (Something New Films), we tried to DIY everything else that we could. *Keep in mind that we had to worry about shipping and the time we would actually have to set up once we’re in Vegas.

We had a super small and intimate guest list of less than 30 people, so my husband and I set out to make our own invitation suite. I love making my own Christmas cards and already am a proud owner of too many craft tools (Cricut, anyone?), and my husband is pretty handy when it comes to doing quick designs on the computer. I wish Ron was able to take photographs of my Save-the-Date and invitation suite so that I can show you, but here’s a fun fact: Our invitation was modeled after Khris’ own Vegas-themed Save-the-Date shaker in her The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for your Ultimate One-of-a-kind Wedding book.

My best friend and maid of honor, Eunice, worked with me to construct the invite and all the tissue paper pom-poms that were hung over the reception area. We kept all the pom-poms flat so that they’ll be easy to ship, and once we got to our hotel in Vegas, we had a fluff up pom-pom party with all the girls.

Our favor is a laser-cut “Double Happiness” box, a traditional Chinese wedding symbol that’s also represented as our cake topper. I filled the box with some of our favorite Chinese candies, and I made my own place cards and attached each on top of the box. The cake topper was originally a metal silver color, so Jei-Wei left about an inch and a half on the bottom untouched and spray-painted the rest with the traditional red wedding color.

For all of our signs, we found a free floral design that we liked online, and Jei-Wei used his photoshop skills to make matching signs for our menus and instructions for the wishing tree and sparklers exit. I decorated our “bride” and “groom” signs with small accents that you can buy from art stores. We used the wishing tree tags as our “guest book” and asked people to write their well wishes and hang them up. I made those tags with kraft cardstocks and used my Cricut machine to cut out the tags. I then decorated one side with stamps using our wedding date and distressed the edges to make them look rustic.

My scrapbook making skills kicked into high gears for my photo garland and sweets table decoration. Since I have two things to keep in mind: cost and ease of shipping; I had to make sure that whatever I made could be easily packed and transported in our luggage. I used lots of coordinating cardstock, accents, and photographs for both projects, and to save cost, Gina was able to provide a bunch of sign holders to hold my scrapbook photo art.

I also made the tags for the bubble send-off after our ceremony. I found some wide washi tape and address labels small enough to fit on the tape to make the tag and attached it onto the bubbles using ribbons and gold tape I also used on our invites.

I wanted to have a pretty cake stand for my small wedding cake. My florist Catherine is a super amazing woman and found one for me a couple of weeks before the wedding. She spray-painted it to pink and added jewels garland all around to glam it up

Since our furry baby, Machi, was going to be our ring bearer (he wore a chinese red pouch attached to his custom-made bow-tie collar), we had to make sure that our venue would accommodate him. Even though having an outdoor ceremony wasn’t on the top of our list, Gina made having Machi there possible for the entire wedding, and all 3 of us love her and the Red Rock Country Club more for it!

I’m pretty proud to say our guests truly had a blast at our wedding. We turned it into a long weekend extravaganza where most of our guests flew in a couple of days before our Friday affair. We were all able to enjoy and spend time together as a group and party before AND after the wedding. We were worried that because we had such a small party that no one would dance, but hello! parents. Yes, my brother and my parents kicked off the dance party with Gangnam Style and Bee Gees. And the dance party continued on during the after party on the party bus we rented.

In the end, I received everything I asked for and more- amazing food (yes, and even today, I still get raves from guests who came to the wedding) and music (Gangnam Style was hot then and DJ Patrick got everyone dancing… my brother and I even shared a brief special stage together!), beautiful pink and romantic flower and decor, and a gorgeous venue and an equally amazing catering manager/coordinator who saved me a ton of headaches. Planning a destination wedding was hard, but when you hire the right people for you, everything will just naturally fall into place.

I want to give a big shout out to my photographer, Ron Miller, and my videography team, Jimi + Sandi of Something New Films, for staying an extra hour or two after the wedding to fulfill our vision of having a Vegas experience by shooting all over the Strip that night. That was one of our favorite highlights of the wedding, and they were just totally awesome! I also want to give another shout out to Gina and her staff at Red Rock Country Club for being complete angels and taking the task of decorating all of our DIY projects off of our hands.

I hope all you lovely fellow DIY brides/grooms were able to find some sort of inspiration from my wedding. I loved sharing it with you and feel free to ask me for more details!

XOXO,
Jennie

See our awesome Highlight Film from the talented Jimi + Sandi of Something New Films: HERE

 

Photographer: Ron Miller Photography//Wedding Date:09.28.2012//Reception Venue: Red Rock Country Club//Videography: Something New Films//Florist: Catherine of Layers of Lovely//Cake: Las Vegas Custom Cakes//DJ: DJ Patrick of Music Solutions//Hair+Makeup: Your Beauty Call//Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Amanda + Adam’s Steampunk-theme Wedding

What a neat, offbeat feature we got in store for all of our lovely readers today. Our featured wedding today comes to us all the way from Sätra Brunn, Sala, Sweden. Yes, we love weddings from all over, but what make this wedding so cool is that it has a steampunk theme. Yep, you read that right! With a bit of Victorian-era style mixed with art nouveau design, Amanda + Adam gave a brand new meaning to vintage. The mad talents behind 2 Brides Photography have, hands down, some of the coolest wedding photographs I have ever seen.

 

Usually the bride likes to tell us about their wedding, but this time, Adam is dishing all the details!
From Adam:

“The whole wedding is a DIY story. As the wedding day approaches I made a How-to-list. It contained what I needed for equipment and materials and how to do it, alongside with pictures fore inspiration. It helped me a lot and made it easier for me to give the assignment to family and friends. We made everything from scratch, from the drape to the label on the ”Drink me” bottle, even the teacup towers. It was so fun creating!”

There are just so many awesome details to this wedding. I love all the little touches like using apples as place cards, the amazing teacup towers as center pieces… and the cake! Love, love love! I also love how all the guests dressed to the theme to make this awe-inspiring wedding look like it’s completely from another era. Thank you to 2 Brides Photography for sharing this unique Steampunk wedding!!

Much congratulations to Amanda + Adam!!

 

Photographer: 2 Brides Photography//Wedding Date:08.10.2013//Transportation:Bilförmedlingen//Veils and headpieces:Linekka//Location:Ranstaby//Dress Designer:Viola Lahger//

Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Russa + Andy’s Pink and Red Vineyard Wedding

Our featured wedding for the day comes to us from a gorgeous Californian vineyard. Russa + Andy got married on a beautiful day in late October, and the celebration was sentimental and full of lots of fun and love. Captured by Cherie Mariko Photography, this wedding is not short of gorgeous details. They incorporated lots of small personal and meaningful details to make this wedding theirs. Their color palette of soft pink and vibrant reds really spoke romance, and I love how Russa coordinated both colors into her bridal party attire.

I want to highlight the DIY project that Russa’s uncle did for her wedding. He built all of the wooden boxes that they used as the base for the floral center pieces. What was so special about these boxes is that these are the same 100-year old barn wood that Russa’s parents used to originally build their first home! I love how these wooden boxes fit in harmoniously with the rest of the decor, and definitely with the setting.
Russa + Andy’s wedding has so much swoon-worthy moments, and I honestly think it’s because of all the sweet details (I really love that Russa had henna drawn on her hand as a nod to Andy’s Indian background!). It also helps that they have a gorgeous place and a super-talented photographer (Cherie Mariko Photography) that knows all the right moments to capture (one of my favorites is the one of Andy twirling Russa during their First Look). Although I kept ooh-ing and aah-ing all over their photos, what really got to me the most is seeing Russa’s gold locket that she carried on her bouquet. In the locket are two photos of her late father, one of which was one of her and her dad when she was little. She attached it to her bouquet because she wanted to make sure that her father got to walk her down the aisle. I’m not ashamed to admit it, it got me a little teary-eyed to see it and to know about it!

Congratulations to Russa + Andy!!!

 

Photographer: Cherie Mariko Photography//Wedding Date: 10.26.2013//Dress Designer: Bridal Galleria//Dress Designer: Monique Lhuillier//Caterer: Beth Sogaard Catering//Floral Designer:Blossoms by Lisa//Event Planner: So Eventful//

Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Yoko + Brian’s Rustic Cultural Wedding

We’re rounding out our day with a special Japanese + Jewish wedding from Robin Jolin Photography. This super lovely wedding is a great example of how two completely different cultures can be combined seamlessly into one perfect wedding. Marin Art & Garden Center is just the perfect backdrop for Yoko + Brian, lovers of outdoors and music, to set up their Japanese-Jewish-rustic wedding.

To blend in the two cultures and to truly make their wedding all about them, Yoko + Brian folded 1,000 origami cranes as their ceremony backdrop. For those that are unfamiliar with the significance of origami cranes, it’s best to hear straight from Yoko herself:

“… In the Japanese culture, the crane is a symbol of longevity and prosperity. Folding a crane takes time, patience and understanding. The crane is a majestic bird which mates for life and is extremely loyal to its partner. The bird is strong, graceful and beautiful. These origami cranes bring good luck, good fortune, longevity, fidelity, and peace to the marriage.

In addition, Yoko folded mini cranes to decorate for each seating place cards, as well as to be used as decorations throughout the reception.

They also had a ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) hand-made for them. They wrote their vows together and had an artist hand-painted the vows in Hebrew and English. They also worked with the artist to have her design two Japanese maple tree that join together with accents of cherry blossoms and cranes to represent Yoko’s Japanese background. This is not only something super meaningful for the two of them, but also something very beautiful that they can use to display as art!

Similar to the more well-known Chinese Tea Ceremony, Yoko + Brian had a traditional Japanese sake ceremony called “san-san-kudo”. Yuko: “Through the tradition of going back and forth by each sipping the sake three times each from 3 different sized sake cups for a total of nine times, we brought together the two families and celebrated with all of our guests. The ladies who served us the sake need to be “unmarried ladies” so I had 2 of my best friends and single ladies help me out. It was like my version of the bouquet toss.”

I love seeing how traditions from two different cultures come together for a beautiful wedding. And yes, Yoko + Brian are super cute together, but I have to say, I think Yoko + her mom really spoke to me. I love how you can see how much they love each other and what a strong bond they have!

Congratulations Yoko + Brian!!!!

 

Photographer: Robin Jolin Photography//Wedding Date: March 23, 2013//Makeup Artist: Nikol Elaine Makeup Artistry // Reception Venue: Marin Art & Garden Center//Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Abbie & Javi’s Sea of Love Wedding

Growing up as a lobster fisherman’s daughter, what else can be served for dinner other than… well, lobster! It is of no surprise that this fun wedding is lobster themed, coining “Sea of Love”. And I want to eat that yummy crustacean so badly that I repeated the word “lobster” 4 times already in 3 sentences. OK, enough and onto the wedding. This adorable couple decided to get married at the bride Abbie’s family camp at Camp Wohelo in Maine. What makes this location so awesome is that this summer camp was actually founded by Abbie’s great-great-grandparents and has been run by her family ever since. It is where Abbie spent every summer as a little girl, and it is also where her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother ALL got married. Talk about family tradition! So it goes without saying that Abbie and Javi had no trouble deciding where to host their wedding. Bethany & Dan Photography did an awesome job capturing all the fun and dancing, details, beautiful scenery, and of course, the yummy eats!

Since this Sea of Love wedding is all about lobsters, Abbie’s dad actually shipped 30 unpainted lobster buoys to the couple. Every night after work, they bonded over these buoys and put their creative talents to use and painted each one of them with something to represent every important aspect of their lives. What a special way to spend time and have fun with your significant other! Other DIY projects? Abbie spend months before the wedding embroidering, sculpting, sewing, and crafting just about everything else! Abbie wants to point out especially the lobster koozies, seersucker bunting, lobster cake topper, and her garter. How cuuuute was the lobster cake topper?! Definitely one of my faves for this wedding, next to Abbie’s awesome braided updo!
It’s always so much more meaningful when there is such a deep family history where the wedding is held. I love that for Abbie and Javi, it is their way of bringing their family together to continue a tradition via the wedding. There’s really nothing much that can go wrong when there is so much love at one place!
Photographer:  Bethany & Dan Photography//Wedding Date: September 01, 2012//Cinema and Video: Aaron Steele Productions//Ceremony Location: Camp Wohelo//Bakery: Good Life Market//Hair Stylist:Lisa Michaud//DJ:Maine Platinum DJ//Equipment Rentals: One Stop Party Shoppe//Floral Designer:Raymond Village Florist//Dress Store: Vocelles | The Bridal Shoppe//

Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Molly + Rodrigo’s Elegant Purple Wedding

Trust me when I tell you that today’s wedding is nothing short of perfection.  I just seriously can’t stop staring at this fabulous flamenco inspired fete!  Infused with pops of bright color, this pretty purple palette has combined all things elegant with the lovingly captured photography from Sarah at Ampersand Photography.  Molly + Rodrigo’s wedding just blends all things intimate, elegant, cultural, and just down right BE-YOU-TI-FUL so perfectly, you simply have to find some Monday morning downtime to  stop and stare yourselves.

Molly + Rodrigo were not only lucky enough to have some seriously amazing vendors within their reach the DC area, they also had one heck of planner/ coordinotor/ decorator right in the family.  Rodrigo’s sister Ana was the mastermind  behind the amazing floral gorgeousness and the decor of the day.  This is truly one of the most elegant candy bars I’ve ever seen!  When you add in this dreamy location, a couple that looks like movie stars, and an Uh-Maz-Ing  BHLDN gown, just stick a fork in me ‘cuz I’m done.  (Preferably one of the forks of off the super elegant purple and gilded place settings, please.) 

What a lovely job Ana did designing this dazzling wedding!  A super big thanks to Ampersand Photography for sharing it with us!  Congratulations Molly + Rodrigo!

Vendor Information:

Date: May 12, 2012

Location: Washington, DC, United States

Photographer: Ampersand Photography

Reception Venue:  Maison Biltmore

Caterer:  Versatile Foods Ltd.

Musicians:  DC Flemenco

Dress Designer:  BHLDN

Bridesmaid Dresses:  BHLDN

Cake Designer:  Patisserie Poupon

Band:  Trio Caliente

Submitted via Two Bright Lights

Jessica + Tom’s Elegant Outdoor Wedding

I mean seriously!?  This wedding is just a little bit of everything perfect that you wish for in a wedding.  A little tradition- a white and a red dress for luck.  Check!  A little style- how ’bout some mismatched groomsmen?  Check!  Some sophistication, mixed with a hair of rugged outdoorsy feeling.  Check!  Some simple and modern elegance plus a little laid back fun.  (read the signs for a good laugh)  Double Check!    You going to love the gallery that Bryan Rupp Photography has created that captures a glimpse of how one couple just gets all that needs to go into a wedding and marriage.

One thousand paper cranes is sometimes believed to grant a wish to the completer of the task.  In this case, Jessica and Tom may have wished for just a little more time.  Jess let us in on their plan to fold the cranes in batches over their two year engagement.  A little procrastination later (like the night before the wedding) Tom had to stay up late to complete the last 200.  Go Tom for DIY’ing to the bitter end!

When Jessica told me that Tom had designed and hand printed all of the stationery and paper products and that she hand sealed each envelope with the traditional Chinese wedding symbol of “double happiness,” it pretty much “sealed” the deal that this was going to be a phenomenal wedding.  The kind of artistry it takes to feature your own watercolor and ink drawings, and fold 1000 paper cranes, and carve the figurines adorning the cake- you just know there will be nothing less to capture but pure pretty. But purely pretty is too much too modest for this amazing bash at Bridal Veil Lakes.  All of the traditional but modern, rustic yet elegant, great outdoors but perfectly intimate details of this affair was brilliantly captured by Bryan Rupp Photography.  We can’t thank you enough for sharing this day with us Bryan Rupp.  And a thousand years of happiness to Jessica and Tom!  Congratulations!

Vendor Information:

Photographer: Bryan Rupp Photography

Caterer: Simpatica Catering

Event Planner:  Champagne NW

Floral Designer:  Petalos

Reception Venue:  Bridal Veil Lakes

Cinema and Video:  Shields Films
Submitted via Two Bright Lights
Exit mobile version