rustic chic wedding resource

Back when we planning our mountain wedding, I scoured the blogosphere for inspiration.  I had a tough time...the look that I sought wasn't exactly mainstream back then.  Now, boy o boy, there is rustic mountain/nature/forest inspiration EVERYWHERE!! 

I am looooving Rustic Wedding Chic blog...full of inspiration and information about planning a mountain or forest or barn or rustic event.  They feature loads of real weddings that are submitted by brides...lots of eye candy...lots of ideas.  I'd start here, at How To Start To Plan Your Rustic Wedding...a step by step approach to planning your own rustic wedding!

real life: diy extravaganza

Meet Chelsea...a fellow former Flagstaff girl (go Lumberjacks!)...who recently married her best friend, in the most lovely way.  She has some fantastic tips for brides-to-be... and she included some of the beautiful pictures from their magical day.  (She affectionately referred to their wedding as a " major DIY/budget extravaganza" -  love that!  )

Thank you so much for sharing your special day (and your solid insight!) Chelsea.  Congratulations on your new marriage!

Our wedding was an absolute blast and an absolute blur. What I would tell brides-to-be is:

1. Make your DIY projects very personal to you and a family effort. We made our own centerpieces (succulent planter boxes made by my husband and planted by my sister and mother in law), table cloths and ring pillow (by grandma), invitations and signage (made by mom, a graphic designer), photo booth (assembled by my sister, back drop by my husband), I-pod playlist (by hubby), ceremony (by my dad), and ice cream sandwiches (made by a whole team). It meant that our wedding day truly reflected us as a couple. 

2. Pick any theme that speaks to you, even if it is unconventional. Our theme was "fun" and we built the whole event with that in mind from the build-your-own gourmet burger bar and ice cream sandwiches, to the lawn games, and literally smokin' dance party (yes, we had a fog machine).

3. If you don't want to do something, don't do it.

4. Instruct those around you to keep anything that goes wrong to themselves, at least until the next day. I had no idea that our directional signs blew away and that our video camera (that we bought for the wedding) broke. The day after, you won't even care anyway because you'll be married to the one you love.

5. Get a great photographer because the entire day will feel like 5 minutes and you will feel like you need proof that you were even there at all!

6. Think less-is-more when you plan your honeymoon. We slept for 12 hours the first night after we arrived in St. John on the red-eye flight. We didn't pre-pay or commit to any kind of excursion and the freedom to sleep in and do nothing if we chose was pure luxury!

I could go on and on. Nothing is better than a big party to celebrate love!

 PS: 

We chose not to have a bridal party because it was just to hard to decide (especially for Peter who has two brothers). In the end, it really simplified things and saved us big bucks. And those who would have been in the wedding party were still a huge part of the day for us!

Also, I bought my dress from a dress maker in China via ebay. I know it sounds sketchy but it only cost me $200 (including shipping)!!!! It arrived two-weeks later and was perfect! I got the dress altered because I fudged up on the measurements just in case and made a sash from white rosettes I bought from etsy.com. The entire thing cost $300 and it was gorgeous!!!! I would recommend it to anyone who has enough time to have a plan B if something doesn't work out. Just make sure to read the comment on ebay about the seller.

All photography by Charleton Churchill of Charleton Churchill Photography

real life: hand crafted in north carolina

Get ready for a treat,  my friends...this is the real life wedding of Alison and Luke.  Alison is a friend of mine in real life and I am so glad that she was excited to share their wedding story and pictures!  This is a rad couple...and a super rad bride...after reading her words I'm sure you will agree (and you'll want to be friends with her too!).  

Their wedding was absolutely glorious and was jam packed with heartfelt handcrafted details.  I love the bit where she talks about their wedding registry...and I want to SEE their handmade dishware!  Also, I adore allllll of the sentimental additions to their big day...from her turquoise earrings to their mums...just treasures all around.  Enjoy!

From the beginning I could easily picture myself being married to my man. He is just so stinkin sweet, totally smart and creative, and can literally fix anything. We call each other “Monkey,” tell each other far too much, and laugh together all the time. Ummm… you should see him chop wood. It’s sexy. I’m just saying. What I could NOT picture… however… was a wedding. I just didn’t want one. I wanted Vegas. 

What’s funny about marriage though, is that it’s no longer just about what I want. Booo. It’s this whole idea of compromise blah blah blah. Long story short the hubs wanted a wedding. I was a full time nursing student. With endless studying and crack-of-dawn clinicals (I recently graduated and I am working on a step-down unit. YAY!). I just wanted him. As my husband. Around the time these negotiations were taking place I happened upon A Mountain Bride. I fell in love. Jes and other blogs I found through her site provided a community of women who shared a lot of the values that were important to hubs and I. I floated around silently from blog to blog gathering a TON of ideas for our wedding, a lot of which I actually used…. so they might look familiar? 

…..Like the wine box idea that I thieved from a featured wedding on August and After. It stole my breath. I felt compelled to use it. So hubs built the box (nothing special… but then… it kinda is), sanded it, stained it, and burned our initials and wedding date into the top. We wrote each other love letters on the morning of and during the ceremony put a bottle of wine, the letters, and a newspaper from that day in our box and hammered the lid on. It just felt so… solid. We have it on display. It’s beautiful. And should we ever need those letters… and the wine… they are there for safe keeping.

Hubs and I live in NC on a farm that has been in his family for 60 years. We try to live our day-to-day life being conscious of how the choices we make impact the land and life around us. We wanted our wedding and reception to reflect that… good food, good fun, low waste, low stress (is that even possible??) and within my sweet, generous parents’ budget. 

My hubs runs a greenhouse… he grew mums for centerpieces. We had an old cedar fence post lying around. He cut slices of it and we burned on table numbers, drilled a hole in the bottom, attached a dowel, and stuck it down into the potted mums. It turned out super cute. After the wedding he took the mums back to the greenhouse and sold them. We had white tablecloths provided by our caterer (owner of the restaurant/B&B where we got married… she uses all fresh ingredients from local family farms) and burlap table runners that have since been handed down, and I hear handed down yet again. Our friend grew watermelons and gave them to us as a wedding gift. They were served family style on platters at each table. Such a simple addition, but it really added so much color and character to the tables. 

We opted out of programs and instead wrote one big “program” on a chalkboard we made from an old piece of metal found in one of the barns. My grandpa-in-law has this really amazing bike from the 60’s. We put our favors in the basket…. tulip bulbs. They were a last minute replacement, but ended up being kind of perfect because people have been sending us pictures of the tulips blooming. Love. 

 

The hardest thing for us was dealing with other people’s expectations of what every wedding… our wedding… should look like. Some people were endlessly supportive while others should-ed all over us (to steal a line from Ms. Carrie Bradshaw). It should have colors. It should be in a church. It should be officiated by a pastor. You should have a fancy dress. And on and on. I did a lot of smiling and nodding and ignoring. The most constant should was our registry. We registered with a local potter to have him hand make all of our dinnerware piece by piece as people ordered it. We were so excited about it we giggled and danced around and drooled over pictures. Then we started telling our loved ones, who then crapped on our perfectly glazed pottery. “He doesn’t have a website? People will actually have to call and do a transaction over the phone? There is nothing to wrap? GASP!” We fought it valiantly until the end…. when we gave in and registered at a “traditional” store as well. It actually worked out well. We ended up with lovely new towels, sheets, etc… AND our heartbreakingly beautiful dishes. Another weird should was a head table. We refused. It caused quite a stir. We held our ground. It’s just so hard to know what to fight for and what to give in on. 

I was born and raised in Arizona. A close family friend, like a second dad to me, made me a pair of earrings from turquoise mined in my hometown. Just the tiniest little perfect studs… I NEVER wear danglies. They reminded me of home. So sweet. My perfect something blue. My mom (that sneaky little creature) bought me a fancy shmancy bolero that I kept eyeing but had barred myself from purchasing and she also hand made all of our invitations. Hubs has an aunt that bakes the most delicious cakes ever. She made us a pineapple cake with whipped cream icing from scratch. She even tiered it! My friend… I call her Ray… painstakingly hand wrote every single place card (I write like a 5 year old). Another friend played his guitar for the ceremony and his bluegrass band played for our reception. They practiced for months. Loved ones traveled from all over the country for our little shindig. Everyone just worked so. freakin. hard. to make sure that our wedding was special to us. And it totally was. Shoulds and all ;)

real wedding: beautiful boulder

I've never been to Boulder, CO...but after seeing this wedding, it's on my list of places to explore.  This couple looks so fun, and looks like they HAD so much fun at their lovely mountaintop wedding.  It was a small wedding, with big smiles, big skies, big mountains...just perfectly beautiful.  

*note:  I'm in love with that brilliant wall featured in that top photo...good Lord... I need to find that wall.. and just stare at it awhile... and soak up all it's glory.  That's a great picture!

This event was shot by Heidi and Kevin of Sweat Pea Photography... check out their blog for other lovely inspirational finds!

real life: a homegrown wedding

Meet Lindsey and Matt of A Homegrown Wedding.  I was a diligent follower of their wedding planning creations - their details were so thoughtful and turned out beautifully.  They were even generous enough to share their image of two pine trees for OUR wedding  programs!  I've been itching to share their wedding for so long...enjoy!

My husband and I struggled with so many wedding "should-do's"...that we didn't feel like we wanted to do. We wanted our wedding to reflect us, to be our day the way we wanted it. So we did just that. We had our dream wedding June 12th 2010 and it was fantastic. We wanted our wedding to be budget-friendly, home-made, and convey a very simple rustic idaho wedding....after all we were so happy just to be able to be getting married while both going back to school we didn't need anything too elaborate. We set a budget of under $5,000...which we came in pretty close to, we didn't have the means to pay big bucks the month before the wedding, we had the ability to spend about $200-$300 per month doing projects along the way. So one month I would buy the fabric and make the napkins, the next month we would purchase the materials for the invites- vintage stamps, fabric, kraft paper envelopes- and then make them... it worked out great for our busy lives and limited incomes.

 

Matt, my husband, was awesome in helping give his input and spending hours by my side coming up with fun ideas and executing them... like to do our ceremony quaker style, with his uncle making up his own original ceremony that didn't include god, honoring, or obeying...just pure love- never ending love and the support of all of our friends and family when things do get tough... or having our dads do all of the BBQing for the wedding- ribs, salmon, and portobellas- just like they would have done at any other family function... or choosing to not go with rental table cloths- just buying lots of natural canvas painter's cloths for the floor length table coverings and making my own amy butler napkins.... or doing our own floral arrangements with my mom's help....or making our own lime-coconut cupcakes... or collecting hundreds of mason jars for not only sangria and beer but for our bouquets... or not having matching bridesmaids dresses- they could just choose any shade of green/turquoise cotton dress they wanted...which mimicked my hand-made cotton wedding dress, and the guys wearing khakis and white shirts....simple. It was a blast to come up with ideas and make them come to life....together as a team.

It took a TON of work (fun, stress-free work, none the less)... and about a year of planning, doing craft projects every weekend between school and work....and recruiting a bunch of help from our loved ones the week before the wedding for the set-up. We loved the process and the product. We wanted absolutely no stress with the wedding planning, that's kind of how we live life, so why not have that be reflected in our wedding day?!...and we also wanted to just be able to enjoy our friends and family on such an important day in our lives and not be basket-cases. I think this is do-able... there is a ton of prep involved in hosting such a huge party, but working as a team and letting the little things go turned out to be so enjoyable for us. We had heard of other engaged couples so stressed out that they couldn't wait for "it" just to be over... Over?! Seriously? We didn't want it to end....and surprisingly either did our friends and family. So now we just have incredibly fun pictures to scroll through...and we are enjoying life...married and now planning the next steps in life, like sweet little baby steps. But gosh, that wedding planning sure was fun....so enjoy it and good luck!!