Our next featured wedding was sent to me by Paul of Paul Rich Studios, an incredible photographer out of our Little Black Book. The couple, Myra and Matt, were married on 9/8/07 in a gorgeous do-it-yourself inspired affair. Myra has since started her own business designing embellishments and hair adornments, Twigs and Honey, stemming from her experiences preparing for her wedding. She is receiving a ton of great attention which is so deserved!
Here are some of the beautiful images from their affair…
Myra has been sweet enough to share some of the details with us…
My hubby, Matt Callan, and I tied the knot in Gervais, OR at Willamette Mission State Park on September 8, 2007. We held our ceremony under an enormous Black Walnut tree in the middle of the afternoon on a perfectly sunny and warm day with around 180+ guests. The wooden arbor was created by Matt! He even hung the ribbons!
All the bouquets and flower arrangements were created by the bridal party the day before the event. We were trying to save on costs and bought the more expensive flowers at a florist and more basic flowers through Safeway in bulk. My mom used to do wedding and church flower arrangements, so I most definitely utilized her expertise.
Almost everything was handmade by me, but some items were created with the help of family. For name card olders/decorations/favors, I planted around 200 corkscrew willow clippings in mini terra cota pots and finished them with live moss. Matt and I wanted something that would look cute and that guests could take home, plant, and cherish for years (and corkscrew willow trees are so whimsical to look at and so easy to grow!). I created all the name cards by hand which were these little flags that guests would “plant” into the name card pots. They were displayed in a large wooden box that my dad built and planted with moss.
All the centerpieces, I planted myself using purchased pots and plants from Home Depot and Lowes. It actually cut down on costs for traditional all flower centerpieces and we let guests take them home to enjoy for months, maybe years to come. The tables also had several glass vases on each which I purchased at IKEA. The table names I made by hand using bird prints and used Crate and Barrel name card holders to display them. Many of them blew away during the evening with the breeze!
The mini box favors were assembled with family help and were composed of jordan almonds in our wedding colors, tissue paper, and a little tag with our anniversary date and “thank you” note. The napkin and utensil sets were straight out of Martha Stewart Weddings. I loved the look and ordered a ton of tissue paper wholesale online, found the perfect napkins at IKEA, got utensils from our caterer and with a ton of help from family, made all of the literally up until the day before.
The giant green lanterns I purchased in bulk through a couple online sources, one of which was Ebay and were strung by family. The lights also had dangling ribbons, which I literally purchased by the roll through Ebay sellers (so much cheaper!). The cake topper birds were created by Ann Wood Handmade and the wedding cake was created by Myriad Cakes.
All the programs and invitations were also made by myself using purchased fonts, clipart, paper from PaperZone, and a really great HP deskjet printer. After not being able to find the perfect head piece to wear and while wanting to DIY on everything, I created my own hair accessory (sans the veil) and all the bridesmaid hair pieces. My wedding gown was custom designed by myself and Elizabeth Dye - she of course did all the sewing and most of the work!
Thank you so much to Myra and to Paul Rich for sharing this lovely wedding with us! We’ve had a few requests for pictures of the centerpieces and the utensil sets. Here you go!
Comment by sierra on 23 April 2008:
Myra, I love your shop on etsy, and you put together such a beautiful, sweet wedding. Thanks for sharing it.
Comment by Alissa on 23 April 2008:
Myra, you know I’m a huge fan of your work! It’s great to see your wedding, its beautiful!
Comment by Anna on 23 April 2008:
I really love the stationary!
Comment by Sara L on 23 April 2008:
Beautiful wedding! I’m curious about the centerpieces though! The idea sounded really great, I’d love to see what they looked like!
Comment by Nicole on 24 April 2008:
Great wedding ideas on a budget. Really something worth learning from. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Jessica on 24 April 2008:
Lovely!! I would like to see the napkin and utensil sets… they sound beautiful!
Comment by Jenn on 24 April 2008:
I’d love to see the centerpieces and utensil sets as well.
Comment by Chris on 24 April 2008:
Me too, can you post pictures of the center pieces & utensil sets?
Comment by kelly on 24 April 2008:
I love love everything. But I ubber love your hair- any really good hair pictures? I’m shocked at how lovely this wedding is.
Comment by abby larson on 24 April 2008:
Hey guys! I updated with some pics of the centerpieces and the utensil sets. I don’t have any really good hair pics but will ask the photographer if he does:)
Comment by Jaclyn on 24 April 2008:
Aw I love this wedding! It’s just enchanting, and timeless. Also- the etsy shop is great, I’m recommendeding it to friends now!
I will be using Chinese lanterns at my wedding in August too, however, I keep getting ridiculous quotes from people to set them up. Great to hear you and your family just strung them yourselves, was that difficult? Please let me know if you have any advice!!
Comment by myra callan :: twigs & honey on 24 April 2008:
Abby!
Thank you so much for featuring our wedding and the fabulous work of our wedding photographers, Paul & Holly (Paul Rich Studio). I was thrilled to have such a notable and well respected wedding blog/site post highlights of our wedding! I truly hope that it is useful for brides who are still planning their weddings - especially by providing cost cutting tips and ideas. I also want to thank all the fabulous vendors who helped make our wedding day absolutely unique and memorable.
Some notes:
I have received inquiries about the floral detailing on the back of my dress. Answer: Those were actually handmade by the dress designer, Elizabeth Dye, and was the top portion of a detachable frilly chiffon train. I wish I could take credit, but Elizabeth was the talent behind those!
The musical group pictured was Mood Area 52 (http://www.rocketboyarts.com/). They are phenomenal and completely affordable! Their style is golden age tango/eastern european/gypsy/cabaret - basically all things unique and wonderful. They are also so sweet and completely professional.
My hairstylist was the renowned Mark Putnam of Evolution Hair Design in Portland, OR. You can see his work in the incredible bridal magazine, Portland Bride & Groom (http://www.portlandbrideandgroom.com).
Lanterns, lanterns!
I’ve received so many inquiries about those lanterns. Here are the details. I purchased all the lanterns through paperlanternstore.com, asianlanterns.com, and ebay.com. This method allowed me to get several sizes in various shades of green at the cheapest cost. The lighting cords were purchased from the first site and were strung using ordinary twine and a bit of legwork. The guys basically got the tallest ladders they had and strung them by tying the cords with twine to the frame of the tent. It happened to be a bit breezy that day so some of the lanterns popped off the sockets, but that really wasn’t a big deal - as my hubby and I were a bit delirious all day long. Total cost: about $110-$120
The name card flags:
I designed them in Word and PowerPoint (mcgiver’d it since we didn’t have other art software). I printed them on heavy cardstock (leftovers from invitations). The sticks were actually .99 cent 100 pack shish kabob skewers. The balls were wooden craft balls hand glittered with Martha Stewart glitter glue and glitter. The ribbons were bought bulk from eBay. Essentially from there, everything was hand assembled. It took forever, but resulted in a very nice overall look.
If there are any other questions about the wedding details, do ask away or get in touch with me… I’d love to share.
Sorry for the ultra long comment!
Thank you again for all the kind words and support. THANK YOU ABBY!!
myra :: twigs & honey
Comment by Sam Prakash on 25 April 2008:
Very Stylish and Pretty!
Comment by Whitney on 26 April 2008:
What a beautiful wedding! I love your dress, may I ask where you got it and if there are an additional pics of it?
All the best! Whitney
Comment by Whitney on 26 April 2008:
What a beautiful wedding! I love your dress, may I ask where you got it and if there are an additional pics of it?
All the best! Whitney
Comment by myra callan :: twigs & honey on 27 April 2008:
Hi Whitney!
Thank you for the sweet comment. The gorgeous dress was actually an Elizabeth Dye creation (elizabethdye.com). Isn’t she wonderful? You can view more pictures by visiting our wedding photographers, Paul Rich Studio (paulrichstudio.com) and going to “proofs” and then to “Myra & Matt”. I hope this helps!
Comment by Jessica@sublime-photography.com on 4 August 2008:
I am loving this color palette. Makes me want to be a bride all over again!