abbie's beautiful diy details

 Abbie is one of those gals who DIYed a ton of the beautiful elements of her wedding.  Just incredible stuff.  See her previous post here (where she talks about her flowers and stationary!).  Great ideas to pass along to other crafty DIYers out there!


It's Abbie again... with the wrap-up of our wedding story.

While our florals were probably the most overwhelming undertaking for the wedding, we definitely spent the months leading up to the wedding keeping our hands busy. When my mom was in town for my shower, I made good use of her time by employing her help in making a felt ring pillow that was inspired by Llubav. Once that project was finished, I spent many more hours in front of the sewing machine stitching together our home-printed programs.  My dad cut signage out of old fence wood, while my step-mom went to work on the writing.   I burned through several ink cartridges printing table numbers, escort envelopes, water bottle labels, rehearsal dinner 'coupons', after-party invites, I-Spy games and personalized wedding coloring books for the kids, schedules for the wedding party and maps, attractions and thank yous for the welcome bags.   The printer was practically on fire by the time I was done.  Let's just say... it really pays to do a little here and there months in advance!

My walk to/down the aisle was far from traditional.  I lived with my mother and step-father growing up, so I had a hard decision to make about who would walk me down the aisle.  Both fathers are such important people in my life, so I bucked tradition yet again.  My step-father walked me to the aisle, and my father walked me down the aisle.  To avoid any disputes (because there were definitely some opinions thrown around), I waited to tell either one of them my plan until the rehearsal.  I didn't ask their permission... I just told them what we were doing.  No feelings were hurt, and it worked out that both fathers got great pictures walking with me.  I wanted my step-mom to be included when the parents were escorted to their seats and not walk by herself, so one of my brothers walked with my step-mom and the other walked with my mom.  I wasn't sure if that would be awkward considering it was my mom's son, but she was just excited to be included.

One of our close friends officiated the wedding and did an amazing job.  He didn't ask for a fee, but we made sure he got a nice little gift card to his favorite kayak shop.  Our ceremony was deeply personal to us, and we will be forever grateful that he was willing to be such an important part of our union.  (A portion of our ceremony is listed here.) 

I had a vision in my head of how everything would be set-up, but I knew that I couldn't do it all by myself.  We wanted our friends and family to enjoy their trip (and also have the venue decor be a surprise), so I hired two people at an hourly rate to help with setting up the day of.  The night before the wedding, the groomsmen helped me set up the tables and unload my car rather quickly, so that was one less thing that had to be done the next morning.  I also placed the linens that night, so any wrinkles could fall out overnight.  By doing these simple things, we were able to save quite a bit of money on set-up without enlisting much help from family and friends that weekend. 

Unfortunately, our photographer didn't get pictures of all of the details, but everything really did come together quite nicely in the end.  The food was amazing.  Everyone loved the desserts, including the key lime tarts and mini-cheesecakes that were made by one of my bridesmaids.  The flower girls changed into their reception outfits of tutus with white tops and shorts.  All of the kids kept busy in their own little play area, while the adults danced the night away.  By the end of the night, we were all beat!

In the end, we didn't care about all of the little things that went wrong... or even the big things.  We had been together 7 years, and we were married... finally.

{My dad sighed in relief as he made this sign.}

Thanks again to Jes for giving me the honor of guest posting while she is away.  You better believe I'll be anxiously awaiting the recaps, especially those fabulous DIY florals!  I wish you two a lifetime of happiness!