DIY Wedding at the Smog Shoppe

Oh, do I have a pretty DIY wedding to show you. Aimee and Jerry blended their family history delightfully by incorporating vintage elements and heirlooms that decorated their reception at the Smog Shoppe. The gorgeous details don’t stop there. No. The flower arrangements, which were made by Aimee’s mom and aunts were little masterpieces of love. I can’t decide if am more obsessed about the flower ties on the back of the chairs, or about how gorgeous her vintage wedding dress was (it was her grandmother’s, no less!), but you might want to devour these stunning images for yourself. Many thanks to Jonas Peterson for sharing this beautiful wedding with us today!

From the bride, Aimee: Our wedding was held in Los Angeles, which was a “destination wedding” for many of our family and friends, and it was held on a Thursday, so we knew we wanted to keep it fun and simple to maximize the time we had with our loved ones, and minimize stress levels. We just wanted everyone to have a great time celebrating life and love. One of my bridesmaids told me that you only get this many people together during weddings and funerals, so we really wanted to make it an enjoyable time for all.

From the bride, Aimee: Most of our wedding was DIY. I really wanted to include modern and vintage pieces, and many of the decorations were family heirlooms. My great grandfather was a dairy farmer, so I used his old milk bottles and mason jars for the centerpieces. We used an old suitcase that came from my mom’s side of the family, and old lace that was hand crocheted by my great great grandmother. My color scheme was citrus inspired, with mint as an accent color. We used mostly pinks, corals, peaches, yellows and mint.

I had a very difficult time finding a dress that I liked, so I ended up using my grandmother’s wedding dress. She had her 50th wedding anniversary within a few days of my wedding, and the dress was in perfect condition. I did not have it altered or cleaned, I only had a seamstress reinforce some of the buttons.

Surprisingly I feel that our wedding turned out to be perfect, not that everything happened the way we had planned or intended, but we were able to let the little things go, and enjoy our day. I attribute this to my husband, who came to me a few weeks before the wedding, after a couple seemingly major “wedding debacles”, and suggested that we aim to have everything 70% perfect on our wedding day, and the rest, we would let go. This turned out to be the best advice I received.

Wedding Vendors (Los Angeles, CA):

Ceremony and reception location(s): LDS Temple, Smog Shoppe / Photographer: Jonas Peterson / Wedding Dress: Vintage (her grandmother’s) / Groom’s suit: Zenga. / Ties: Hermes / DJ/Band: SOS Entertainment / Florist: DIY, purchased at the LA Flower Market