Lucia + Jacob
Weddings that hone in on the elements that make a wedding truly special – the couple and their loved ones – without too much fuss and over-the-top styling (though those have a place in my heart, too!) are what resonate with me these days.
The wedding of Lucia and Jacob caught my eye not only because of its beautiful simplicity but because it broke some of the long-held wedding rules. Lucia and Jacob eschewed the never-ending 12 month+ planning routine and pulled their wedding together in 6 weeks. The requisite Saturday wedding? Nope. Theirs was held on a week day. Instead of spending tons of money to decorate their venue, they chose a local botanical garden which provided abundant natural beauty. Crafty Lucia created the couple’s invitations and did all of the flowers herself. (This is an instance when one craft project can make a huge impact. Look how gorgeous her bouquet is!)
The Details
Couple: Lucia + Jacob
Wedding Date: May 2010
Location: Athens, Georgia
Photographer: Courtney Goldman Photography
Brides’s Gown: David’s Bridal
Reception Venue: The State Botanical Garden of Georgia
Caterer: Trumps Catering
Jewelry: Aurum Studios and JWR Jewelers
Officiant: Rev. Sam The Marrying Man
Kacie + Jake
DIYer Kacie and her fabulous crew put together one heck of a do-it-yourself event. They constructed everything from the flowers to the aisle markers to the cake, food, drink and even the girls’ hair and makeup. The result? A beautiful, personal country wedding. Outstanding!
Details
Couple: Kacie + Jake
Wedding Date: April 2010
Location: College Station, Texas
Photographer: Jonathan Ivy Photography
Reception Venue: 7F Lodge
Cinema and Video: 2nd Generation Video
Additional information about this wedding: This DIY bride & her crew constructed everything in her wedding from the flowers, to the aisle markers, to the cake, food, drink and even the girls hair and makeup. The brought together a great crew and pull this beautiful outdoor Texas country wedding together!
Katie + Joey
Katie and Joey had their wedding at the historic L&N depot in Bowling Green, KY.
Couple’s Names: Katie & Joey
Location: L&N Depot – Bowling Green, KY, USA
Projects DIY’ed : Everything except for the cake
Photographer: Paul Rowland Photography
Notes from the photographer: It was a gorgeous day, and everything down to the last detail was planned perfectly (coloring books for the children? Brilliant!). They broke with tradition and wanted to have pictures done together before the ceremony–I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on Joey’s face when he viewed his gorgeous fiance in her wedding dress for the first time. We managed to sneak away at some point during the reception as the sun was setting on their first evening as husband and wife – the light truly was amazing and helped make for some memorable images. Congratulations and I wish you both the best on your move to Ohio!
Meghan + John
Couple’s Names: Meghan and John
Wedding Date: May 2010
Ceremony: Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian
Reception: The Cotton Dock at Boone Hall Plantation located in Mt. Pleasant, SC, USA
Creative: The bride wanted a very vintage, simple, Southern wedding. She and her mom did all of the decor, the deserts and some homemade chicken salad in Mason Jars. I loved her creative use of traditionally Southern items to decorate
DIY Projects: All decor, desserts, Homemade chicken salad
Photographer: Kelli Nixon Photography
Notes from the photographer: I loved this wedding. Meghan was so detailed and thorough with her DIY projects. Her mom said to me that Meghan would tell me what she wanted and I would “make it happen.” By saving so much on the decor, the bride was able to have a smaller wedding budget in a town (Charleston, SC) that doesn’t really cater to smaller budgets.
Golriz + Devon: Wedding Short Film
A few months ago I featured photos from real DIYers Golriz and Devon. Golriz recently sent over a link of video of the wedding day. Well, it’s more of a short film (done by the kick-ass crew at FullFrame Digital Cinema) than a wedding video really. And it made me fall in love with this wedding all over again.
Enjoy!
Golriz + Devon :: Wedding Short Film from Jeffrey Holland :: FFDC on Vimeo.
Free Invitation Prinatables From e.m. papers
I love when DIYers discover a new passion through planning their own weddings. Eleanor from e.m. papers is one such former DIY bride who has created a line of printable wedding kits. Realizing that not every couple has the time or graphic-design savvy to create their own invitation suites, e.m. papers was born.
Eleanor has been kind enough to offer a free B+W kit which you can download to try ‘em out or to use. The kits include templates for invites, save the dates, response cards, menus, programs, thank you cards, place cards, table numbers and seating lists. There are also clear instructions on how to produce these here: http://www.empapers.com/printable-wedding-invitation-how-to-guide.
Do check out the e.m. papers blog; there’s a neat post on letterpressing invitations!
Handkerchief Roses
Devon from Eco-Proper kindly shared this super cute project that uses old handkerchiefs to make fabric roses. This would be a perfect way to incorporate “something old” into your wedding. How about adding them to a ring pillow or making a corsage for Mom? Boutonniere? Embellishment on your train or sash?
Handkerchief Roses from Eco-Proper
Nichole + Chris
Nichole and Chris’ wedding showcases how small DIY details can have a big impact. Check out the fun and festive beachy touches this couple used below.
Details
Couple: Nichole + Chris
Wedding Date: August 2009
Location: Post Falls, Idaho
Photographer: Teegan Photography
Floral Designer: Flowers by Paul
Reception Venue: Q’emiln Park
DIY DJ: About Our Set-Up
Seeing the various responses and questions to the new DIY DJ column, I thought my next few posts might have some answers. In my next post I’ll discuss editing software & creating mixes. For this post, I thought I would relate what we did after we had our CDs created. Okay, what do we do now? A boombox wasn’t going to cut it and just who would change the CDs?
Since we had a bagpiper play music for our wedding ceremony, we just needed to rent a P.A. system for the reception. We were looking for speakers, a CD player & a mixer and since I owned a nice microphone we didn’t need to rent one. Using the yellow pages (yes, I’m old school), I checked out some local places that provided sound system rentals. Most seemed to be catered for corporate events: more expensive and more equipment than we needed. I found the set up we were looking for at the guitar shop where I bought my first guitar. They were reasonably priced & had various options on what equipment would be included. Since this was ten years ago, I’ve forgotten the specifics of what we actually used. The two speakers we had were on tripod stands and provided great sound for the room we were in (about 100 people).
Next was trying to figure out how to get everything connected & operating without being there myself. Since many of my friends are quite familiar with sound equipment, we decided to ask one of them (for a few extra bucks) to set up and watch over the CDs during our reception. We provided a track listing & cues for changing the CDs for him to follow. For announcements & the toast, we had my Best Man on the microphone (he hammed it up).
All in all, it worked out great. We had one mis-timed part of the evening where we had to stall by starting one of the CDs over again. Like, I said in my first post, we did not have a wedding coordinator, so we guessed at what times we would be doing dinner, dancing, cake cutting, etc.
Just to calm some nerves, setting up speakers, a CD player, a mic & mixer is not too complicated, just more than I could handle on my wedding day. For those looking to use an iPod to make your ultimate wedding playlist, I would suggest a sound system with a receiver to connect the iPod. There are few different ways to connect an iPod to play on a sound system depending on what cables you have. I would recommend connections through the headphone jack (1/8” cable) to stereo RCA inputs (red & white cable connections) or to a ¼” cable input. There are ways to connect through the docking USB cables as well, but I’m not too familiar with how to do so. I hope this helped answer a few questions and I’d be happy to respond to more specific questions you might have in more detail.
Jason, The DIY DJ
Kendra + John
I feel quite giddy when a wedding submission comes in that subscribes to a “less is more” mindset approach to decor. In a time when weddings tend to be micro-planned to the most minute of details, it is refreshing to see a couple who nails a theme with a minimum of elements.
Holding their wedding on a farm and reception in a greenhouse, Kendra and John created a simple but fun garden-themed wedding. I love how the elements used are playful and minimal but still manage to be pretty.
Details:
Couple: Kendra + John
Wedding Date: May 2010
Location: Plymouth, New Hampshire
Photographer: Richard Esposito
Details About The Couple: Back in 2003 Kendra and JJ were part of a group of 24 students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) who went to Australia to complete their Interactive Qualifying Projects. Kendra worked at the County Fire Authority on Wildfire Awareness Initiatives while John worked at the Melbourne Zoo surveying use and impact of multimedia zoo exhibits.
Kendra didn’t really know JJ very well when they got over to Australia, but they started to hang out together. At the end of the trip, a couple of students went to Tasmania. One night, Kendra was walking back to her room and she saw John sitting by the car waiting for her. They stared up at the stars some, and then he asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner with him when they got back to Australia. Kendra was a little surprised, because she was pretty sure he was interested in a friend of hers! But, realizing that he was serious about Kendra, they went out to dinner at the HardRock Cafe in Melbourne. Kendra says she had a wonderful time and started having trouble not smiling and giggling every time she thought about John! John left Australia before Kendra, and she remember him calling her up at the airport, asking me for another date when she got back to Worcester! Kendra was thrilled!
Once back in the States, they dated over the summer. Kendra was in Erie, PA for an internship, while John was in New Haven, CT for his internship. They talked to each other every couple of days, and then met up in Hershey, PA for a weekend. Back at college, they grew even closer and Kendra was in love! Upon graduation, Kendra moved down to to Hartford, CT to work at Pratt and Whitney and John moved up to Nashua, NH to work at BAE Systems. Just about every weekend, one of them would make the 2 hour drive. After 3 years of driving, they decided to take the next step and move in together. After much decusion, they decided that Kendra should move up to New Hampshire. They bought a condo and Kendra notified Pratt that she was moving up north. They have been living together for the last 2 years with their two cats (Cassie and Olivia) and two horses (TJ and Rigo).
It’s been a long, fun 6 years, and now they are finally married! As most of their family was saying, it’s about time!
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