My DIY Wedding

As of yesterday I have been married for 4 months and Im finally getting to the point where I am ready to revisit my wedding day memories. Dont get me wrong, my wedding day was amazing, I couldnt have asked for a better day! BUT, after so much time spent agonizing over every minute detail, I needed a break post honeymoon. For my entire year long engagement I spent my time crafting and creating things to make my wedding spectacular, a wedding that would be unique and different than any other to date. I feel that I was very successful in doing just that.

Initially I had planned on only hand making my save the dates, but when looking for wedding invites, I wanted something simple and classic. The prices of the invitations were ridiculously high in my opinion, and I thought my usual thought..."I could make these." My invitations were all entirely hand made.... all 215 of them. It was a long painstaking road, but in the end, they turned out perfect! I had a LOT of help from my mom, the scrapbooking queen with these. I couldnt have done it without her!

The save the dates were made in a simple postcard style. We used warm metallic white paper with gold hints through out, mounted on a black sheet of cardstock. We hand embossed maple leaves on them in bronze and silver and then ran them through the printer. Stuck a magnet on the back and VOILA!

Our invitations were printed on the same metallic white paper and mounted on black cardstock. They were very simple and elegant.I ordered plain black envelopes online and embossed the leaf design on the front of each one. They were all hand addressed in silver ink. I have always had a love for making jewelry and I decided to do just that for my bridesmaids. Their dresses were black knee length strapless silk dresses from the Ann Taylor Celebrations line. On clearance for $53! SCORE! I had silver dupioni silk sashes made for them and I wanted the jewelry to coordinate. I decided that I definitely wanted them to wear pearls, because lets face it... you cant get any classier than pearls! I made them hand knotted silver freshwater pearl necklaces and coordinating earrings from swarovski crystals and pearls. I really wish I would have made myself a set, because I LOVED them and so did my bridesmaids!I searched high and low to find the perfect comb for my hair... once again, I was disappointed because I could not find what I had invisioned. So what did I do, well I made my own! I bought a vintage crystal brooch on ebay and got to work. It is made from the crystal brooch, swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls.

I am obsessed with all things "C." My first initial is a "C" and my married last name is a "C." Both of my husbands initials are "C" as well. So I kind of have a love for the letter! I wanted to have a monogram cake topper, and those things are just too expensive to buy! I had the letter cut out of metal from Wedding Cuts. Then I painted it and glued on what seemed like thousands of tiny tiny pearls. I was happy with the result and it looked beautiful on my cake! Oh the centerpieces... I wanted a mixture of tall and low centerpieces with a lot of fall folliage. I bought 24 eiffel tower vases on ebay, and then spent a lot of time finding branches to fill them with. The leaves were all dyed and preserved sets that I bought at hobby lobby for 90% off after the previous fall. My mom and I hot glued ever leaf. Honestly, it sucked, and it took forever, but they turned out gorgeous so it was worth it!As long as I can remember, I loved the movie Father of the Bride, and I thought that Annie in the movie had the perfect wedding! I had the image of the tent from the reception in my head for my tent. Lots of twinkling lights, candle lit dinner. No one thought I would accomplish this, but I knew that I would! =) I had a lot of help with the huge tree branches strung in lights. My husband and a friend can take credit for the awesome hard work! I didnt really DIY this, but it was my idea so I think I can take credit for it! The lace around the flowers, is actually the sleeve of my grandmother's wedding dress. It was definitely something old! The dragonfly pin was my something borrowed in loving memory of my uncle.

One of my most very favorite details was my red shoes. Ever since I was a little girl I have been obsessed with red shoes! It was only natural that I would wear them under my wedding dress!
If you have any questions at all, please comment and I will answer the best I can!