Last weekend I was delighted to be included as a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding.  After a year of planning and stress, family and friend’s watched as she wed her best friend of a decade.  It was absolutely beautiful.  And not only in the romantic, sweet, and tearful way in which the couple delivered their vows, but beautiful also because bride, groom, and families’ hands marked the walls, tables, food, maids/men with unique and personable D.I.Y accessories.  There was no Wedding Planner, no Florist, and no Designer to decorate.  And besides those sometimes necessary helpers such as the caterer, DJ, and bartender everything was reminiscent of the Bride and Groom.  Even their photographer was a close friend and as a wedding present offered her and her husbands services for the wedding.  In this way, as you will see through the photos below, a great deal of love and care was taken in assuring that her wedding was captured to be forever remembered.  Another treasure about this wedding is that the Bride, like myself, is a vintage enthusiast!  She not only picked a vintage inspired dress, but accessorized with some amazing vintage jewels. Check out some of the fun ideas and hard work that went into creating her D.I.Y (and vintage inspired!) wedding!

~The Happy Couple~

~The Dress~

I am in love with my friend’s pick for a wedding dress!  It reminds of wedding dresses from the 40s and I adore the intricate beading on the back and front of the dress.  It’s not super sparkly and over decadent, but it’s just enough to make your eyes pop and go “Wow.”  The day she tried this dress on I told her she looked like the Chrysler building from the back!  A beautiful shape that fit her like a glove, my favorite part was defiantly the ruffled train and the detail on the backside of the dress.  And I love that the front is so unassuming and simple…you wouldn’t even suspect that when she turned around you would get an eye full!

~The Accessories~

My favorite accessory? The vintage starburst earrings! Gorgeous!  They were PERFECT with the dress; defiantly added to the “Chrysler” feel to the dress!  And never mind the missing jewel, she just put a little grey paint in it and you couldn’t even tell.  That’s a vintage lover for you!  Curious where she bought these? If I remember correctly she got these in a vintage store downtown called Flashbax Vintage, a must stop shop that is also available on Etsy.  I am also a fan of the vintage inspired hair comb.  It reminds me of Lily Millicent vintage jewelry and matched perfect with the entire ensemble.

How beautiful are these bouquets? The white is obviously the brides and ours is the yellow (her colors were yellow and grey).  And would you believe that these lovely rose bouquets were not done professionally, but by the Bride, her mom and her friends.  Talk about D.I.Y!  They came out beautiful and I loved my bouquet so much that I took it home and put it in a vase.  They smelled so good! Also, I don’t know if I should give away her little secret, but here’s a little inside about the flowers:  You think that all of those roses would be expensive to purchase seeing that most people would get them from a florist…DON’T!! If there is a Sam’s Club around you, order from there! They carry beautiful flowers and if you are planning on doing the bouquets yourself, you’ll save a lot of cash!

~The Reception~

Those colorful lanterns you see were not put up by some hired decorator, nope they were bought and strung up by the Father of the Bride with son for help.  And it looked simple enough when you saw it, but let me tell you what took hours to put up, took only minutes to take down. What was neat about the hand cabled globes was that her dad had bought these battery operated lights to attach on the inside so when it became dark they glowed.  It was so pretty!  The table?  Of course you had the D.I.Y flowers, but what made it were the vases that the Bride purchased at a thrift store and then spray painted white.  How handy is that? You also had the candles which were bought and filled with white tea lights and the table cloths that had to be steamed, ironed, and laundered before use! Talk about work! 

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART ABOUT THE WEDDING!  This reads the Bride 100%! What better way to solve the problem of seating assignments than to buy frames at a thrift store, spray paint the glass with chalkboard paint, paint the frame white and then write the table seating on them?! I love it! And I love that they were hanging on the brick wall.  I had a couple of apartments in NY that had an exposed brick wall and I loved it: very old and visceral.  So, now every time I see exposed brick I think of vintage NY and all my fond memories.  ANYWAY!  How cute are those table stands? Once again found by Bride and then handwritten out for each table! Love it!

Who says you have to have some fancy cake topper? I much prefer something like this! A hand painted topper by future husband!  How cute are these wooden impersonators? Totally representative of the two and their unique personalities!  These are something I would keep and treasure forever.  So much care and love went into these and I would so much rather have something that was made by my husband, knowing he took his time painting and making it as perfect as he could, then purchase a topper from a store. Imagine showing your kids these one day!  And that delicious cake that they’re eating? A Red Velvet cake made by a friend!

~The Invitation~

What makes this invitation so special?  That they were handmade by the Father of the Bride!  That’s right! The Bride told her dad what she would like her invitations to look like and her talented Printer of a Dad went to work creating his daughter’s invites and for a SUBSTANTIAL amount less than it would have cost her to order them from a company.  Those cute little bows?  Painstakingly tied and sized by a stressed out Bride!  But they came out great!

*Photos taken by Mr. and Mrs. Dahlquist (except for that last one!)