About the couple, Rachel gushes “Eric and Sarah’s wedding was in Faribault, MN off of Circle Lake on May 29th 2010. Eric had the sweetest boyhood charm I have ever seen and Sarah complimented him perfectly with her caring, gentle manner.”

DIY Elements: Nearly everything! The bridesmaid’s purses, the flowers, the wooden signs, the fake wooden mustaches and table linens where all homemade. The dress was made by the bride’s grandmother. And Eric and Sarah spend the day before their wedding making tons of homemade ice cream for all their guests.

Rachel Garcia
702-249-6557
www.brilliantimagery.net
http://brilliantimagery.blogspot.com

Photographer: Amanda Hoffman, FinnRose Photography in Bloomington, Indiana
Couple’s Names: Jake and Jenny Livingston
Wedding date: June 2010
Wedding location: Just outside Nashville Indiana in Brown County State Park
What was DIYed/what made it creative:The flowers and cake were DIYed by the family. A friend of the family made the bride’s dress, the flower girl’s dress, and the groom and best man’s ties. The catering was done by an organic caterer and was one f the best meals I have ever had.

The Details:
Bride & Groom: Golriz (bride) Devon (groom)
Wedding Date: 3 April, 2010
Wedding location: Marathon Village, Nashville, TN

What made your wedding creative:
We wanted every ounce of our wedding to burst with creativity, but my fiance and I were on a very tight budget. This was actually a blessing as it forced us to be really creative and think out of the box. Let’s just say we became regulars at the local Goodwill store! A friend recently described our wedding as looking like a Wes Anderson movie, so I think we achieved what we were aiming for!

What projects you DIY’ed:

• A massive paper and twinkly light ‘chandelier’ above our heads.
• An art installation with 18 hanging umbrellas, bare lightbulbs and 9 vintage TVs. The TVs streamed a slide show of pictures of the two of us set to music.
• Our wedding favors – we printed CDs with songs that we had written & recorded and put them in hand sewn fabric sleeves.
• Our centerpieces – willow lights with hanging strips of ribbon and bright yellow button mums.
• Cake toppers – little fabric birds.
• Cake stand – instead of purchasing/renting a stand for our 150 cupcakes we built one (using Cetaphil containers and cake boards!)

What obstacles did you face in planning a DIY wedding? How did you overcome them?

• Time! Hand crafting all the decorations took up a lot of time. Thankfully a few close friends flew in early for the wedding and we put them to work creating fabric flowers, centerpieces, and the large art installations.

Any other details that made your wedding special?

This wedding trailer gives a glimpse into how quirky and fun our wedding was:

Photography by Ryan Lash Photography

Photographer Joshua Caine submitted today’s real wedding from a couple who’ve really embraced who they are and created a day that’s fun, eclectic, and totally them.

The full gallery and details are after the jump.

The Deets:

Location:  Parkfield, California
Theme:  Inspired by one of their favorite songs Big Rock Candy Mountain
Wedding Planner:  Jour Parfait (http://jourparfait.com/)

Unique Details:

Taylor & Dominique’s wedding was all about DIY with much of the elements coming from garage sales and swap meets. Their fabulous second-hand finds include: the plates, bull dog, bar man, and the gum ball machine that sat on the bar; all of the furniture for the smoking lounge (decorated with a cigarette-adorned tree for the guests to take).

Each guest had a mason jar with chalk board painted on it for them to write their name on.

In the champagne glasses we put colored rock candy at the bottom so when the champagne hit it would turn different colors.

Taylor hung all the lights, bird cages with lights and old window frames that he put their engagement pictures in and spray painted black.

They made a great mixed CD. They recorded big rock candy mountain with both of them.

Then they had matches as more favors.

Dominique walked down the isle to a Ava Marie, recorded by her late grandfather.

The linens were also made by the Mother of the groom.

Lace covered the picnic tables

They had a large popcorn maker with many toppings for guest to have as the evening went on.

Bleachers were put up for guests to sit at during the ceremony.

Karaoke was part of the entertainment

All guests could camp over after the wedding.
Visit Joshua Caine’s blog for more photography goodness at:  joshuacaine.com/blog.

Lisa & Dave’s Save-the-Date (aka There Is No Turning Back Now Video) from Lizarinny on Vimeo.

press play… from tim and jane on Vimeo.

Your first names: Cynthia & Christopher
Wedding date: May 9, 2009
Wedding location: Peppermill Hotel Spa & Resort in Reno Nevada US

What made your wedding creative: Going with a specific theme such as an Old Hollywood Glam look, from  the  attire to decor, music and more. No one in any of our family weddings ever had a theme.

What projects you DIY’ed: My DIY projects consisted of; my bouquet, all the boutonnieres, corsages, pomanders, center pieces, invitations (all included, rsvps, envelopes etc), programs, veil, ring bearer pillow, favors, memorial poems/decor

What obstacles did you face in planning a DIY wedding? How did you overcome them?: The only real obstacle was the volume of crepe paper flowers that I needed for everything through out the wedding but that was graciously over comed by the support and help I received from my parents and sister. I showed them how to make the flowers then they took supplies home with them and helped me out ALOT!

Any other details that made your wedding special: The fact that some people actually got in to the dress up mode of the 1940s Old Hollywood Glam look for the wedding and the thing that ment the most to me was having my grandparents there with me…that was my biggest wish and I am so blessed and thankful to have had them there with me. They are the couple I admire the MOST in my life….TRUE LOVE!

Bride and Groom: Shu and Siqin
Wedding Date: Date: 05-31-08
Location: Metropolitan Building, Long Island City, NY.
What DIY elements were included: Shu designed, made and decorated everything in the wedding from interior
set up, invitations, name cards, table cards, and the cake. Can we all say DIY Rock Star?

Bride and Groom: Jessica and Tyler
Wedding Date: June 7, 2009
Where: Fullerton, CA, USA
What DIY elements were included: Necklaces and jewelry, wedding dress, bridesmaids dressed, wedding themed designs encompassing the invites, signage, etc.

Adam’s Comments: t was the perfect combination of tradition, style, and personalization.  Both of them are very creative– designers and musicians– so they designed ever detailed, including an emblem that encompassed many of the overall designs for the event.  The dresses were all wonderfully designed and hand-made by the bridesmaids, and the necklaces– gifts from the brides– were also hand-made and designed.  It was, in a word, breathtaking.

By the way: the budget for this wedding was under $5000! Rock on, crafty peeps!

Kathy says:
We made this video to show at our wedding in May in Brooklyn; It’s called Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed.  It’s about the adventure of getting a marriage license in New York City.

If you spend a little time with iMovie or any other built-in movie editing software and have a point and shoot camera with video, anyone can make a music video.  This was a fun project because the video was an element that helped set the tone of our wedding.  We thought it had a lot of energy and showed off New York and we just had fun making it.

Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed from Bobcat Productions on Vimeo.

Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed from Bobcat Productions on Vimeo.

Oh, you guys are so clever!