I’m a new contributor to DIY Bride, and I feel it’s only fair that I introduce myself and share some pictures of my own wedding.

I’m Jessica,  stay at home mommy, loving wife, and a lover of all things DIY. I discovered my love for crafting while planning my wedding. On June 9, 2010, I went from Miss DIY Bride to Mrs. DIY Wife. I was married in the Walt Disney World Resort on the Boardwalk in a little gazebo called Sea Breeze Point. We had a very small intimate wedding with just 11 of our closet family members. It was a perfect day.

We had what Disney refers to as an “Escape Wedding”. This meant that we needed to keep the guest list to under 18. At first this seemed like an impossible feat, but with a closer look, it wasn’t all that difficult in the end. We ended up just inviting parents, siblings and one niece. That meant no Aunts or Uncles, no cousins, no friends. Narrowing the list wasn’t the tough part, it was breaking it to those family members that we wouldn’t be able to invite that was the hard part. In the end, I think (or hope) that everyone understood. Had we had the budget to have a “Wishes” wedding, we would have been able to accomadate our who family, but with a price tag of $12,000+ it just was not do-able for our wallets.

An “Escape” wedding not only fit our budget it also fit our personalities. Currently priced at $4925 for a week day wedding, Monday thru Friday, you get a ceremony at Sea Breeze Point, a fresh floral bouquet and boutiniere, wedding cake and champagne toast, violinist that plays throughout the entire ceremony and for your first dance, a limo charter for 4 consecutive hours, two hours of photography coverage, and 20 5×7 prints album. Of course if you have the money, you can enhance any part of your wedding. We opted not to have a formal reception that was planned by Disney, but rather to have an informal lunch at one of Disney’s most gorgeous resorts, The Polynesian.  Overall, we were able to keep our wedding around the $5,000 mark and were both completely satisfied. The only thing I can think of that you must pay for that is not included is an officiant. Once you put a deposit down with Disney, they will send you a planning packet that includes a list of preferred officiants, if you chose from that list, the officiant will not count towards your guest list. Feel free to use who ever you want, you just will need to include them in your guest count list if their not on the list. We used a few outside vendors for things like hair and makeup and photography. We hired Randy Chapman of Chapman Photography and Beaute Speciale for hair and makeup.Now on to the fun part, the pictures!

Laine from Beaute Speciale making me pretty at 6:00am

Pre-Ceremony Picture of Mr. DIY and his sister.

Arriving at the Boardwalk for the ceremony

Sea Breeze Point

What 11 guests looks like

Groom “first look” as I walk down aisle

Our officient performing our ceremony

Husband and Wife!!!

First Dance and a glimpse at the included “violinist”

Cake and Champagne Toast (here’s a little secret, ours was acutally apple cider, not champagne)

Rose Petal Toss

Our photog took us around the Boardwalk for pics

On the beach around the Boardwalk

Beach picture at the Polynesian, Cinderella’s castle as a backdrop. Not too shabby.

Informal lunch “reception” at Kona Cafe @ Disney’s Polynesian Resort

I may be biased (okay, I totally am), but there is no place like Disney to get married. They made my entire wedding week so magical and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Would I recommend, YES! Feel free to ask me any questions, I will try and help as much as I can.

Now, to bring you back to the planning process and my crafting craziness.

Leading up to the big day, I was crazy-busy DIYing my entire wedding. Mr. DIY did not understand why I would do all this when we we just payed for an all-in-one wedding. We had the beautiful outdoor gazebo that needed no decorating, and we only had 11 guests so why would we need programs?  I had to explain to him that if I added these personal touches that it would feel more “us.” I wanted our wedding day to be all about our quirky personalities, and I wanted to make sure it shined through in our wedding photos. I made sure to hire the photographer whose style fit our personalities and he was amazing. He captured everything I ever could have dreamed of and more.

Disney Weddings also did not disappoint. I was so nervous planning a destination wedding where I had to plan majority of it over the phone, but Disney came through and I got my dream wedding.

Below is a list of all my DIY projects. I plan on doing tutorials on majority of them!

Wedding Invites

I ordered all my supplies from Cards and Pockets and Paper Source, and was able to make my own invites. Since we only had 11 guests and 4 families to mail them to, I was able to do these myself. If I had to do 60 or more I do not know how “gung ho” I would have been about this project. But these were received well and everyone loved them. I placed them on a bed of rose petals in an A7 box that was wrapped with a ribbon and mailed out.

Bride and Bridesmaid Rhinestone Tank Tops

These are super easy to make and I will be providing a tutorial next week on how to make them and even utilize them on asking your girlfriends to be part of your bridal party. I also sell these in my Etsy shop.

Grooms “Cold Feet” Socks

Everyone got a kick out of these! It was the gift along with the cufflinks that I gave Mr. DIY the morning of the wedding.

Map Cufflinks

(I did not DIY these, but included them because it is a personal touch and good idea for future brides)

Each cufflink represented a different location. The one on the left represented where we met and the one on the right is where we married. I ordered these from Tomato Made , a shop on Etsy.

Programs & Tears of Joy Packets (Rose petals bags provided by Disney Floral)

The programs were a “fan” style program to give the guests a little break from the Florida heat. The tears of joy packets were handy for some of the more emotional family members.

Out of Town “Welcome Bags”

 I’ll  be the first to admit that these bags caused me some major headaches, but overall the guests really appreciated them and were completely unexpected. Each bag consisted of a welcome folder of daily itineraries and schedules, snacks, first aid kit, bridesmaid tank (if applicable), and sewing kits. Each guest received their bag while checking into the hotel.

Shoe Rhinestones

These were the most talked about part of my wedding. Everyone loved the pink shoes and then when they saw what was on the bottom, people fell in love. Disney Weddings actually featured my shoes on their website and Facebook. And no, that is not a piece of gum on the bottom of my shoe, it’s a rose petal that I stepped on while walking down the aisle.

Thank You Parasol

(another project I didn’t DIY but such a good idea for thank you cards)

While I did not tackle this project, had I had many ideas for how to do it, and I would have tried making one myself. With that being said, I did not make this. We used this picture for our thank you cards for our wedding shower and wedding guests. We printed them on a postcard and wrote a little personal note on each one. I ordered this from Roxys Mommy, another shop on Etsy.

After spending a week in Disney and a week in Jamaica, I was ready to come home. Little did I know that I would miss crafting so much that I would be crazy enough to open up my own Etsy Shop, Fashionably Ever After. I have been able to help brides who have a vision but do not have the time or patience  for DIYing.

Photography: Randy Chapman of Chapman Photography

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