Maggie + Zac’s Handmade Fall Wedding, II
Continuing with Maggie and Zac’s handmade wedding captured by the fabulous Erica Turner. Thanks to Maggie for sharing her wedding day with us and Erica for sending over the images!
A little bit from the bride, Maggie:
We just over a 3 year engagement, which meant plently of time to consider different ideas and change our minds several times without feeling pressured or hurried. It also meant we were able to make nearly everything involved in our wedding. Making everything made our wedding feel so personal. We even set the reception up ourselves (with plently of help of course) which was a big deal for me. It made me feel like I recognized everything that was a part of our celebration, that it was ours and that we were creating our own celebration. The effort really resonated with our guests as well. We heard over and over again that the whole celebration was personal and unique.
One key to our decorations was that we made a big effort to tie everything together. We picked two elements to do this – burlap and twine. From the invitations (which were tied up with twine) to the programs, centerpieces and cupcake table, everything featured a hint of twine, burlap or both! It went a long way in keeping us on track.
I ordered our flowers online (fiftyflowers.com and flowerbud.com). They arrived Wednesday and Thursday in perfect condition! From those I made all of our bouquets and centerpieces.
The wooden boxes used as centerpieces were handcrafted by my dad. As were the ‘clotheslines’ we used for our escort cards and the “Just Married” sign.
The maid-of-honor’s father made all of the wooden table numbers by hand.
My Aunt made the gorgeous wreath that was hung on the lecturn. She also made my garter, using parts of my mother’s wedding dress and a necklace of my grandmother’s.
Another Aunt made the ring bearer pillows which were created using crocheted quilt squares that my Grandmother hand made years ago.
The pew decorations and boutineers were hand made by my mom and I.
The programs took a full weekend to create. We printed all of the pages and covers. Hand punched and tied them and used spray glue to adhere the square of burlap and then stamp them with the leaf!
We carved all of the pumpkins and pumpkin lanters using hand tools and power drills just days before the wedding.
All of the mason jars were filled part way with sand and had candles added months ahead of time! Then they were used twice, to adorn the altar and then later to decorate the head table!
I made all of the signage and menus myself, adorning each with a monogram I created and of course, tieing them all with twine.
For our guest book I bought small notecards in several designs from a local scrapbook store and asked guests to leave notes on them. It worked great, we’ve loved reading them!
We also used a lot of thing we had around the house to decorate, which was a good sign that the wedding was in “our style.” All of the antique wooden crates that the cupcakes were displayed on were simply taken out of home! As were the lanters on the head table.
All of the haybales, pumpkins and mums went on to be reused as yard decor as well. The mums have all been planted to enjoy for years to come!
If I could offer any advice it would be this – take help when it is offered to you by family and friends, but make it meaningful. I never asked anyone to help stuff invitation envelopes, I can do that myself. When someone offered to help, I considered their talents (sewing? wood working? floral design?) and then offered them ideas of what we were after.
Also we made a big effort to keep everything local – since we made everything by hand we needed lots and lots of supplies. And with the exception of the flowers, not a single item was ordered online! Everything was bought from a store in our local communities and preferable from family owned businesses. So we like to think our wedding boosted the local economies : )
I don’t know if having a handmade wedding saved us any money. I know it did not save us any time! But the feeling of knowing our hard work and the talents of our friends and family went into making our celebration so perfect is priceless!
View part I of this DIY, super crafty wedding here.
LOVE IT! They really tied the season into their wedding in a way that is not over-the-top “fall” and truly lovely.
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so simple and so gorgeous in the same time
I LOVE your programs and am incorporating burlap and twine into my wedding as well. Is there a way you should share a picture or template of what the inside of the program looks like? Thank you!
these cupcake are so sweet..and the cake is gorgeous
Beautiful wedding ideas and pictures. Thank-you for sharing.