Category: Fall Weddings
Jessie + Ruben’s Glittery Purple Wedding Extravaganza
On this lovely Friday, we’re featuring a sparkly wedding that will sure warm your heart. Captured by Carrie Wildes Photography, the bride Jessie DIY and personalized many aspects of her and Ruben’s wedding with lots of purple rhinestones… simply because, well, she loves everything purple and sparkly! The couple’s affections for purple, sparkly things, Mets (Ruben’s!), and their kids are apparent on their wedding day.
“When Ruben proposed, one of the things he gave Jessie was a little heart with a tiny ring and their names on it. She added that to the stem on her bouquet. Jessie actually made her shoes by covering them in purple rhinestones!! She also made her favors (S’mores!), the glasses for the candles and her friend made her wedding cake”
What an amazing wedding cake! So regal and grand. I love all the little special moments, especially ones of Ruben and Jessie’s two sons. Family love is the theme here, and it is what makes this wedding oh-so-heartwarming. My favorite DIY for the wedding has got to be Jessie’s shoes. I cannot imagine the time and the meticulousness of it all for her to place individual rhinestones all over her heels!
Congratulations to Jessie + Ruben and wishing you both and your new family lots of love and happiness!
Photographer: Carrie Wildes Photography//Wedding Date:11.22.2013//Floral Designer: Flowers By Design//Hair Stylist: Lilis Weddings Makeup and Hair Styling Group//Caterer: palmetto club and puff n stuff catering//Caterer: Puff N Stuff//Dress Store: The White Closet Co.//Reception Venue: TPepin’s Hospitality Centre//Submitted via Two Bright Lights
Jackie + Chang’s Classic Autumn Wedding
For our Monday feature this week, we’re sharing a traditional Autumn affair from Lindsay Docherty Photography. Jackie + Chang had their traditional church wedding in Delaware at the same location where Jackie’s sister, parents, and grandparents were also married in. For their celebration, they decided to hosted it at Kings Mills in Pennsylvania, where Jackie allowed her creativity to shine.
Jackie incorporated lots of yellow, orange, and gold all over the details for her Fall wedding. What was pretty amazing was that Jackie + Chang had only visited and seen their venue once and were able to visualize how they want their reception to look. Jackie went to work and created each unique center pieces for the tables, the cake topper, signs, favors, and the masks worn by the wedding party.
Lots of fun dancing, bright sparklers, and sky lanterns send-offs to round out a beautiful wedding, Jackie + Chang’s classic autumn wedding was one they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. Jackie’s unique center pieces were the stars of the show (next to Jackie + Chang, of course), and the matching bridesmaids’ gold glittery heels were great complements to Jackie’s own heels in hot pink.
Congratulations to Jackie + Chang on their marriage!!
Photographer: Lindsay Docherty Photography//Wedding Date:11.02.2014//Dress Store:Francesca’s Collections//Jewelry: Jared//Caterer: Kings Mills//Reception Venue:Kings Mills//Veils and headpieces:Simply Blue Bridal//Musicians:Sky Brady//Floral Designer:Wildflowers by Alicia//
Laura + Keith’s DIY Country Barn Wedding
For this beautiful Friday, we’re showcasing a DIY barn wedding from Gray Photography. Laura + Keith collected all the mismatched tables and chairs for their reception from Craigslist for a year. And with major help from the family, they were able to completely re-finished and decorate the barn, including growing their own moss, flowers, and gourds used for the wedding!
Something neat to share: amidst all the tables Laura + Keith had collected, one in particular was super special to the family. And that’s because one grandfather of theirs was born on that special kitchen table!
Great job on the awesome barn decor and much congratulations to Laura + Keith!
Photographer: Gray Photography//Wedding Date:10.05.2013//Submitted via Two Bright Lights
Lauren + Jason’s DIY Alice in Wonderland Wedding
What does vintage tea party, Cricut and paper crafting have to do with our featured wedding today? DIY wonderland, that’s what. Captured by Larsen’s Photography, this Fall California wedding is a delight for fellow Cricut-Scrapbook-DIY lover like myself. When Lauren + Jason got engaged, she knew two things: 1. To get marry back home in California (they live in Texas) 2. A non-cookie-cutter theme that reflects both of their whimsical personalities and love for literature. All this brainstorming led to the Alice in Wonderland-themed wedding that you’re about to view!
From Lauren: “Jason and I liked the idea of Alice in Wonderland, but to keep it classy (we) kept with a vintage tea party, infused with wonderland. Pinterest was my best friend for months, but then my sister Karen turned my Pinterest fantasy into a reality. Keeping on budget we bought whimsical scrapbook paper and my sister and her Cricut let soar with hundreds of tea cups, clocks, keys and hats. We used old books from my mom and my aunt and laid hundreds of feet of mint green tulle underneath everything. The food was prepared and made by longtime friends of mine, as well as the incredible cake and dessert table that was put together with love by another.
What a lovely wedding theme! I absolutely adore DIY weddings such as Lauren + Jason’s, where lots of paper crafting was involved. And just how adorable were the flower girls, walking down the aisle with big paper flowers and mint green tutu’s?? Just pure love! All the cute and whimsical signs displayed throughout the wedding perfectly reflected our couple’s personalities, and it’s very obvious that the couple gave their guests a wedding to talk about!
Congratulations to Lauren + Jason, and much thanks to Lauren’s sister Karen for showcasing her awesome DIY skills!!
Photographer: Larsen’s Photography//Wedding Date:09.21.2013//Makeup Artist:Bella Capelli//Dress Store: Casablanca Bridal//DJ:DJ Ignite//Equipment Rentals: Encore Events Rentals//Floral Designer:Gina’s Floral Enchantment//Tuxedo and Mens Attire: Jos A Banks //Bridesmaid Dresses: Light in the box//Event Venue:Mendocino Hill//Makeup Artist:SKIN Day Spa//Shoes:Something Bleu Shoes//Etsy Designer:The Oyster’s Pearl//Dress Store: Wine Country Bridal//
Christine + Keith’s New York Rustic Wedding
We’re kicking off this Monday with a pretty DIY rustic wedding from Cassi Claire Photography. Right from the get-go, Christine + Keith knew what type of wedding they wanted: Adirondack-themed wedding- rustic, vintage, country, and just so them. They scoured up and down the Hudson River looking for the perfect venue that has the right rustic vibe, and they found it at Fox Hollow. With pretty pink and blue as the main color palette, this DIY New York wedding is just oh-so-sweet!
To create that rustic romantic vibe, Christine + Keith decorated the venue with hints of burlap, wood, baby’s breath, twine, raffia, and lace everywhere. From the bride: “The centerpieces were curly willow branches in various spray painted liquor bottles with distressed and wood burned hearts to show table numbers and a quote like “laugh” or “lucky”, along with embellished mason jars which held flowers and floating candles, using burlap, twine, paper and crochet flowers to help make each table unique. The fireplace mantle showcased our Love Story in a barnyard wooden frame next to both of our parents wedding pictures. Our DIY card box was that of a wooden treasure box burned and stained which matched our somewhat untraditional guest ‘log’, a slab of varnished wood with our symbol of C+K burned in the middle for everyone to sign. On their way into cocktail hour, guests got to take their lantern favor with the DIY distressed escort card and skeleton key attached to show you where our favorite people in the world were sitting.”
Just how lovely was Christine + Keith’s night ceremony? All the gorgeous light shining upon the beautiful couple and that romantic arch. They definitely pulled off their vision of beautiful rustic vision with the warm colors and all the personal touches. And just how fun was the dance party!
Congratulations to Christine + Keith!
Photographer: Cassi Claire Photography//Wedding Date:09.14.2013//Etsy Designer:Amber and Earth //Bridesmaid Dresses: Bill Levkoff//Dress Store: Bridal Reflections//Jewelry:Brookstone//Etsy Designer:Crafts and Goodies//Jewelry:Cynthia Cool Beans //Dress Store: David’s Bridal//Apparel:Enchanted Atelier//Favors and Gifts:Favor Warehouse//Reception Venue: Fox Hollow//Other:Gingham Grins //Jewelry:Maria Elena Headpieces//Shoes: My Glass Slipper//Shoes:Nina Shoes//Invitation Designer:Paisley Pear Designs //Cinema and Video:Paul Nameck Videography//Musicians:Shake Rattle Roll Pianos//Etsy Designer:The Art of Handmades//DJ:We Like 2 Party Entertainment //Etsy Designer:When Dreamz Come True//
Rachel + Michael’s Artistic DIY Wedding
Here at DIY Bride, we not only seek for DIY + prettiness aspects of a wedding, we also seek uniqueness and different interpretations of a theme. Don’t get us wrong, we love Pinterest and all the inspiration that’s out there offering us a chance to do the same thing for our own wedding/event, but when we come across a wedding that’s completely refreshing and unique? Well, we’re pretty darn excited.
Rachel + Michael is a very artistic couple that we’re featuring on this lovely Friday. Seriously, Rachel was so resourceful and determined to make their rustic-nature-DIY wedding as unique as it is money-saving. Yes, you read that right. They only spend… *gasp* a little over $700 on everything. Rachel tried really hard (and succeeded!) in using as many free, recycled, or thrift shop finds in the décor as she could, and enlisted friends and family for everything that they couldn’t do or needed help with. With super pretty details and unique finds, Allison Pense Photography did a wonderful job capturing them all on film.
Rachel and her DIY projects were pretty awe-inspiring. She did all the art on her invitation suite, programs, treat bags and table signs. Something super special and unique during the ceremony was that Rachel’s bridal bouquet was literally made as she collected the flowers from 17 of their guests as she was walking down the aisle. Her maid-of-honor then wrapped the stems to create the bouquet! What an awesome cool way to allow the guests to be involved.
Other DIY projects made by the couple as well as friends and family:
Michael’s vows were created in the form of origami fortune teller (Salt Cellar). All the hand drawn art by Rachel for the treat bags, matchbooks for favors, seating labels, and place cards. She grew half of the flowers used for the wedding, including flowers for her bouquet and center pieces. The ring pillow was hand made as well using small baskets with moss and hand made clay mushrooms. Yarn was used to wrapped bottles, jars, monograms, and lamp (photo backdrop).
Much congratulations to Rachel + Michael!!
Photographer: Allison Pense Photography//Wedding Date:09.14.2013//Cake:Laura Zinsman//Fortune Cookies:Carol Jeans Confections//DJ:Elite Entertainment//Favors and Gifts:Fireball Printing//Restaurant:Our House//Submitted via Two Bright Lights
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
Britney + Brian’s Vintage Mechanic Wedding
I can’t even begin to describe just how much I’m in love with our gorgeous couple, Britney + Brian, today. I’ve been going nuts over their photos by Allie Lindsey Photography all morning, and I’m so excited to share them with you now! Britney + Brian are such a beautiful couple- they’re so in love with each other that it shows on every photograph of them on their wedding day… photogenic couple plus the talent behind Allie Lindsey Photography equals stunning photos.
Britney + Brian chose “vintage mechanic” as their theme to represent their style. Since Brian is a mechanic, Britney really utilized the materials from his shop to DIY their wedding. I’m incredibly impressed with Britney, as this wedding is so beautifully decorated and thought out!
Did I mention how in love I am with this couple? Let me say it again! I super adore their First Look and their portraits. So much love and so much gorgeousness! I totally love how Britney really fuze her sense of style with Brian’s mechanic background to make this wedding truly theirs and totally unique. I’m also super impressed with the engraved tags as place cards- what a cool idea to double as a favor as well!
Much congratulations to our beautiful couple Britney + Brian, and much much thanks to Allie Lindsey Photography for bringing us this breathtaking wedding!
Photographer: Allie Lindsey Photography//Wedding Date: 10.13.2013//Cake Designer: Amazing Cakes//Floral Designer:Avante Gardens Florist //Caterer: big b’s bbq//Reception Venue: Fullerton Arboretum//
Alison + Christian’s Yellow and Grey Rustic Farm Wedding
Featured wedding for the day comes from the talented Jeff of Brooke Courtney Photography. This Pennsylvania wedding at The Farm at Eagles Ridge was love at first sight for our couple Alison + Christian. They had a vision of getting married at a “big open barn with lots of natural light, hardwood floors, and rustic charms”, and that’s exactly what they got. Alison has always loved the colors yellow and grey, so obviously, she felt that golden yellow with grey accents would be perfect for her early Fall wedding in the country… and I couldn’t agree more with her!
Alison + Christian wanted to DIY their decor to make sure that their wedding is truly about them and added vintages pieces wherever they see fit. They “collected vintage postcards from all of the places [they] had traveled for [their] guests to write special messages on. [They] made homemade butterscotch walnut fudge for [their] favors.” From Alison: “My maid of honor, Kendra, made all of the bunting that was hung in the barn. She cut yards and yards of fabric and sewed for months, and her family even helped hang it all the day of. The groom’s sister, Larissa, is an amazing cook and baked our entire wedding cake from scratch. She customized it to fit the fall season and flavors we love, like pumpkin spice and caramel apple. My father cut all of the wood slices from fallen trees near our home that our table centerpieces and wedding cake sat on.”
Alison honored her mother by wearing her wedding dress. Not only was it super comfy for her to wear, but it made her feel her mother’s presence. I love the photograph of Alison holding a framed picture of her mother… there’s just something so sweet and heart-tugging about it.
Thank you so much to Jeff of Brooke Courtney Photography for submitting this uber-sweet wedding… Much congrats to Alison + Christian!!
Photographer: Jeff of Brooke Courtney Photography//Wedding Date:10.06.2013//Event Venue:The Farm at Eagles Ridge//Videography:Foundation Videography//Flowers:Country Lane Flowers//Event Planning:Stylish Occasions//