Today has just been FULL of lovely. F.U.L.L. And to think – we aren’t’ even done yet! Up next is a blush-filled backyard beauty by Annie McElwain Photography that will surely sweep you off your feet this evening. I’ve fallen in love with each dream-like image, and all the darling details are just be-yond divine. I would say that makes for a wedding we’ll all spend the night swooning over, don’t you agree? Click here for even more!
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From the Bride…Since we were getting married in my parents backyard, I really wanted the day to be romantic and relaxed. I knew we were going to have a lot of green from the garden, which inspired me to add pastel colors to accent. I searched for a themes on wedding blogs and kept coming back to rifle paper co. – I loved the whimsical drawings and use of flowers. My husband is an artist at heart and I thought it would be so lovely if he could draw our invitations. I showed him the rifle designs I liked and he used that as inspiration for drawing my parents house on our invitation and our flower logo for the whole wedding. Some other DIY paper creations were the fans (a stylemepretty wedding inspiration) and what we deemed ‘favor notes’ which were letters of thanks to each guests that were their place cards and also shared our favor of a donation. I loved that we got to use our own wording and personalize our wedding as we saw fit. We really wanted our touch on everything and as much as I thought our guests wouldn’t notice – I got so many comments on everything – even the bathroom design we created. Creating our own invitation and all paper designs was a lot of fun – however if i don’t see a paper cutter, punch rounder or a tape runner in a while, that will be just fine.
Decorations around the backyard was something I felt we needed little of – since my mom was doing everything to prune, pick and plant to make our backyard look even more beautiful. However I knew we wanted lighting. The husband and I did not think this was going to be a big deal – and it wasn’t the worst, but it took an entire day of going back and forth to Lowes and a lot of muscle (thank you prewedding work outs) to get those lights up. My husband also cut and painted the signs that we used as arrows to direct the flow of guests and I discovered I am a whiz at using moss and a hot glue gun to make the L&C sign we put on our fence. MOG created something that I will cherish forever. She cut cloth squares and left for all of the guests to add their own note of well wishes for us. She is going to sew quilt that we can use forever. Lastly, one of my favorite additions to our backyard was the bridge over the pool. This came about one evening when my younger sister’s boyfriend joked that he could easily make a bridge over our pool – he may have been joking, but I held him to it. He built that bridge in ONE day, then my husband and I painted. We even had some help painting from my 3 year old nephew.
As much as DIY projects have you working up until the very last minute, I cherish that we did them all. It really made the day the intimate wedding we wanted. Having a relatively small wedding (75 guests) was everything I hoped for in my wedding day. We were able to talk with all our guests and even sing a traditional Norwegian drinking song during dinner. I would not have done a thing differently.
Location: Private Residence / Day of Coordinator: Very Merry Events / Wedding Dress: Priscilla of Boston / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale / Bridesmaid Earrings: Etsy / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Hairpiece + Jewelery: Nordstrom / Make-up: Christine Gayvert / Hair: Monica Datillo + Vanessa Perry of Victoria’s Salon / Flowers: Gilliflower Design / Wedding Videography: Friend / Wedding Photography: Annie McElwain Photography / Catering: Springloaf Catering