Hannah & Karl
What was special about where you got married? Six weeks prior to our wedding both the ceremony and reception were planned and scheduled to be at the same venue. After a catastrophic and basically horrific series of events, we had to find a new venue for the ceremony. We decided on the church I was raised in. The church and it’s congregation has supported my family and I through good times and bad, and had prayed over Karl before he left for basic training.
What was behind the design of the cake? I knew I had to prioritize my budget. I just have never had a desire for a big tiered cake so that was automatically a great way to save money and get creative. We outsourced the cake baking to a family friend at our church. That meant my cake design had to be executed at a home kitchen - not an industrial kitchen. I wanted to use multiple bundt cakes of all different flavors. The “groom’s cake” were actually cookies that Karl’s mom made because that is his favorite dessert. It saved us so much money and the cookies were actually the biggest hit on the whole dessert table! Meaningful and delicious!
What do-it-yourself projects did you do? The real question should be, what DIY projects did we not do? My grandmother did all the floral arrangements, even centerpieces. We bought the flowers wholesale. My sister hand sewed my garter using flowers and pieces from my mom’s wedding dress. My dad used old fence panels to make the backdrop of the ceremony; these were also used as the foundation for the old family pictures and where we strung the table assignments at the reception. My sweet mom hand cut all 300 placemats out of yellow burlap, we hand-picked each guest’s cloth napkin and tied it to a card that had information printed on it which corresponded to the table that the guest was sitting at. My sister hand stamped the “h & k” on each guest’s favor bag then filled it with salt water taffy which was then tied with a tag that we aged with oil pastels and customized with scrapbook paper and wrote, “so sweet of you to come”. My mom & I spent hours writing meaningful words on tags and tying them to mason jars to personalize them a bit. I made the table numbers with scrapbook paper, an inkjet printer, grommets, and a necklace. My dad & husband cut some of the trees in my parent’s backyard and then cut disks of that wood to give texture and height to centerpieces and votives. I hand painted signs out of old cabinet fronts to hang on the backs of Karl and my chairs, above old family pictures, dessert table, and other various places in the reception venue. We strung jute along an old door so that guests could clip notes to Karl & I along it. Their notes were written on various shades of yellow paint chips we collected from home improvement stores, Aspen wood logs were hollowed out to be used as vases and we added legs to old windowpanes to be used as tables.
What advice do you have for other brides? Let me tell you, our photography was hands down the best money we spent. I urge brides around the world to hire out photography. It is not an area to try to do-it-yourself.
DIY WEDDINGS |
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