Homespun Oregon Wedding

Katie and Landon’s wedding is DIY heaven. She designed everything herself, and came up with an all around sweet and effortless look throughout the entire wedding day. I love the mix of fabric patterns – specially the groomsmen’s orange striped shirts. This cheery color palette will leave you longing for hot summer days! Thanks to Yasmin Khajavi for sending over this gem of a wedding.

Katie said: I wanted our wedding to be foremost about family, but to also be a really fun and comfortable atmosphere. I also wanted to do most of the decorating on my own, rather than hiring out, to give the day a more “homey” or handmade feel. I wanted soft colors, lots of fabrics, paper, and a good deal of storytelling (Landon and I were both journalism majors in college). I tried to combine the colors, fabrics and words to create fun decorations that our guests would remember.

We were married in the front yard of my parents home in Happy Valley, Oregon. I’ve always wanted to have an outdoor wedding, so when my parents moved 4 years ago into a home with 1.5 acres of land surrounding, I knew that was the spot. Having our wedding at home was not only meaningful, but very, very convenient. We didn’t have to transport any food or decorations, which made for a fairly simple setup and teardown process.

 
 

In terms of DIY projects, there were a lot! One side of our programs had the ceremony order and wedding party, and the other told the story of how Landon and I met and fell in love. I also did a bigger version of our “story” and had it set up during the reception. It was fun little detail that I think our guests enjoyed.

I wanted to stay away from the typical “2 wedding colors”-look, so I used different shades of gray, yellow, tangerine and a peachy pink as the focus for most of the decorations and flowers. The table flowers were all different colors, and I loved how organic and natural they looked.

One of my favorite details was incorporating our parents and grandparents’ wedding photos. I suspended them above the guest book table with painted dowels and ribbon.

My mom made dozens of batches of jam for our favors, and I painted the shelf they sat on. We went to Vermont for our honeymoon, which is why “Vermont Cotton Co.” was perfect on the shelf, which my sister found.

The guest book table had two typewriters that guests could use to type little notes to Landon and I! One of the typewriters belonged to my great aunt, who used it to type birthday letters to my siblings and I when we were younger. The other was given to me as a graduation present from my grandparents. It belonged to my great grandfather, and was made in 1925! I took them to a local typewriter shop before the wedding to have them checked out and to get the ink replaced. I printed a little “L&K” monogram on standard printer paper to use in the typewriters.

We served strawberry shortcakes instead of traditional wedding cake, which tasted delicious and looked beautiful! My mom, again, made the shortcakes and had a very able kitchen staff to execute the plating of them during the reception!

See Also

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The story of the table flowers is one of my favorites from the entire planning process. My mother-in-law works at the local Curves and posted a flyer on the bulletin board asking women to drop off any cut flowers from their yards they were willing to donate on her porch. When she came home that night, her porch was overflowing with all different types of GORGEOUS flowers! Landon’s aunts and uncles arranged the flowers in glass jars, which were each painted with a table number and used as the centerpiece on each table.

My mom made the table runners and napkins (275 napkins!) as well as all the pennant flags, which my sister and I assembled.

Katie’s advice: Don’t be afraid to let go of traditions if you have ideas for making your day more meaningful. I’ve never liked the flower/garter toss at weddings, so I scrapped it altogether. Instead, I presented my bouquet to my grandma during the reception, which turned out to be a much more meaningful than the traditional flower toss.  I also don’t like most wedding cakes and I really wanted to get fun with dessert. Strawberry shortcakes allowed us to bake and prepare them on our own (saving money) while also giving guests something different than any traditional wedding cake!

You can also see her equally adorable DIY wedding invitations here.

Wedding Vendors (Happy Valley, OR):

Photographer: Yasmin Khajavi / Dress: Bride’s mother, fabric from Mill End Store / Bride’s shoes: Gap /Bridesmaid dresses: Loft / Bridesmaid shoes: DSW / Bride and Bridesmaids’ earrings: Noon Designs / Bridesmaid necklaces: made by bride using ECAB tutorial / Groom’s suit: Overstock / Groomsmen’s attire: Old Navy / Groomsmen’s ties: Solid Color Neckties / Groomsmen’s shoes: Converse