Crafty Cabin Wedding

Happy New Year! Today’s wedding really hits home for us at Ruffled, especially since the bride got a lot of her inspiration from our very own little site (awwwwwww!) All the good ideas really came together for Devin and Jenny, who married by the bride’s parent’s house in North Carolina this November. It’s handmade but elegant, whimsical but understated and, above all else, completely representative of the lovely couple. It’s all captured by Punam Bean Photography for us to enjoy.

From the crafty bride. Devin and I live in Brooklyn, but we love visiting North Carolina and liked the idea of a pastoral, southern setting close to family. We knew we wanted to have a small, cozy wedding in North Carolina with lots of vintage elements. Devin described it as “a weekend in a country house, but where you have a cocktail party too.” We really wanted the details to reflect little things important to us as a couple.

Devin and I are both avid readers, so we decorated tables with old books and wrapped votives with pages of old books (an idea we got from Ruffled.) Devin and I always tell each other: “I love you more than salt,” a line from an older, Indian version of the King Lear story. The story was one of the readings during the ceremony, and on each dinner table we placed a piece of Himalayan rock salt.

My mother searched antique and vintage stores for vintage glass, which we used alongside other family pieces on the dessert table. We used my aunt’s vintage embroidered dinner napkins along with other embroidered dinner napkins my mother found in antique stores. Devin and I love the food writing of MFK Fisher, so we both combed through her books looking for favorite quotes about food. Devin then wrote the quotes on vintage-inspired tags that we used as napkin rings.

I made our “guestbook”—a picture “puzzle” whose individual pieces the guests signed. Devin wrote out all of the paper signs for each table, which we then propped up with vintage forks (another idea we got from Ruffled!) Devin and I made fabric pennants to drape around the porch and to hang above the guestbook and dessert tables.

See Also

15 Spectacular Wedding Dresses for Under $500

Any advice for brides planning their weddings now? Don’t stress, it’s not worth it. When I was planning my wedding, I had two lovely ladies in my office who were planning their own weddings. Try and have someone to whom you can vent and un-self-consciously discuss your wedding with ad nauseam. Having people you can vent to will benefit your relationships with those that may be too close to your wedding and its planning.

Wedding Vendors (Chapel Hill, NC):

Ceremony and reception location(s): The Barn at Valhalla / Florist: The Purple Puddle / Photographer: Punam Bean Photography / Wedding Dress: Marisa, from Adrienne’s Bridal in N.Y. / Veil: custom from Adrienne’s Bridal / Feather Hairpiece: Lo Boheme / Shoes: Lady Dragon by Vivienne Westwood Anglophilia + Melissa / Vintage Fur Stole: Gabriella New York / Vintage Watch: Pippin Vintage / Hair: Syd’s Hair Shop / Ceremony and Cocktail Musicians: Mandolin Orange / Caterer: Sage and Swift / Wedding Cakes: Sage and Swift / Wedding invitations: Designed by bride, groom and bride’s brother; Printed at Moontree Letterpress / Transportation: Classy Transportation