Jennifer & Thomas
How did you two meet? We met on a blind date that was set up by Tom’s brother and my mom (who work together). My mom organized a game night at her house and invited a bunch of people over to play cards. She and Tom’s brother work at my old elementary school, so of course some of the people she invited were my past teachers. Nothing like meeting your future husband while playing Crazy Eights with your 3rd grade and PE teachers!
How long was your engagement? We were engaged for a year and nine months.
What inspired your wedding theme? We knew that we wanted to get married at our family’s farm, so a rustic theme just made sense. This theme also fit our personalities, since we both really love the country and wanted things to be simple.
What inspired your wedding color palette? I just fell in love with the deep purple color because it’s vibrant, yet elegant. Black and white went nicely with purple and it was easier to find things in those colors, so they were added mostly out of convenience.
What was special about where you got married? The property where we got married is a 90+ acre farm that has been in my family for at least seven generations. It is where my grandfather grew up, so it meant a lot to us that we could use it for this special event. In addition to its historical importance, the farm is very peaceful and beautiful year-round, and we both enjoy spending time there. For this reason, it’s also where Tom decided to propose. We both love that we will always be able to return to the exact spots where we first got engaged and where we were married.
What do-it-yourself projects did you do? In addition to being on a tight budget, we wanted to make our wedding unique. Therefore, we decided to do just about everything ourselves. The only vendor we hired was an excellent photographer and we used a rental company for the tent and table set ups. Otherwise, we had a lot of help from family and friends. Without them, we never would have been able to make our vision for our dream wedding a reality.
Our projects started with preparing the property for the wedding. Unfortunately, no one has lived at the farm for quite some time. With the help of our families, we spent many months cleaning up everything.
Lighting: I think lighting really sets the mood for a wedding, so this was another decorative touch we focused on. We decided to go with paper lanterns in the tent (where the reception was held). I ordered 100+ lanterns from an online company. However, we quickly realized it was going to be pretty expensive to light all of the lanterns with traditional lighting sources, not to mention it would mean a lot of electrical cords that would have to be strung overhead. Online, I found a way of rigging together little LED lights to a battery to make individual lights for each paper lantern. This turned out to be a pretty time -intensive project, but was totally worth it. We placed a light in each of the lanterns and strung the lanterns in several rows across the inside of the tent. In the barn (where the ceremony was held) we took an easier and more economical route and decorated using Christmas lights.
Guest Name Cards: Were shaped like gift tags. I cut out a tag for each guest using a die-cut machine and the same linen paper I used to make our invitations. On the back of each I stamped a design to give the tag a little more color. The guests’ names were handwritten and table numbers were stamped. To create a rustic-looking hanger for the tags, I nailed rows of rough nails into some weathered boards that we saved when we took down an old shed on the property.
Centerpieces: Continuing the rustic theme, my mother’s friend (who also did the flowers for the wedding party) arranged floral centerpieces in Mason jars that we wrapped with a bit of twine.
Favors: At every seat, we left guests a jar of homemade strawberry jam that our helpers and we made prior to the wedding. To add a more personalized touch to our favors, we covered each of the jars with muslin and stamped a “J & T” monogram on the top.
Food: We spent the day before the wedding cooking all of the food. Tom’s stepmother, who makes cakes for a living, made us a beautiful 3-tier cake. Although it was a lot of work, it was really neat to see all of our projects finally come together on our wedding day.
What advice do you have for other brides? If you have any desire to do some of your wedding projects yourself, go for it! You won’t regret it when you look back and realize that your special day was truly your own.
DIY WEDDINGS |
diyweddingsmag.com
97
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