How would you describe the theme of your wedding?

Vintage & handmade

What inspired your theme?

We knew pretty quickly that our desire to have a small, simple wedding in his parents backyard wasn’t going to work out – we have too many wonderful family and friends. So my goal was to create a small, simple, homemade wedding for 250 people instead of 25… which sounds a bit crazy but worked out beautifully.

What vendors did you use?

Johnny Valencia was our photographer. (www.mazagranphoto.com)

Our friend Alexander Porter, who is a photographer in New York City, took a bunch of lovely photos the weekend of our wedding also.

Pretty much everything else was made by someone in our family or a close friend. Just for fun, I’ll give a little rundown of all the things people helped us with, mostly because I think it’s awesome.

Wedding cake – My aunt Brenda made the cake, people at our wedding said it was the best cake they had ever eaten. I agree. To top it off, she also made sea salt and caramel chocolates, my favorite!

(photo credit: Alexander Porter)

Flower girl dresses – Veronica found the pattern for the dresses and the fabric in New York City and my Grandma Veatch made all 5 dresses.

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

Wedding dress – Veronica made my dress. I told her what I wanted it to look like and she made a pattern based on what I described. It was perfect for me. My sister lives in New York City, so getting the dress made and fitted in just 12 weeks was a pretty amazing feat. She made the pattern, and then a muslin version of the dress and FedEx-ed it to me. We then video chatted so she could see how everything fit, and I took detailed pictures of myself in the dress and shipped it right on back. We had an idea that we’d like a champagne colored silk dupion so she went around hunting for the right fabric. Even though she has access to the most awesome selection of fabric living in New York City and all, she just could not find something she was satisfied with. Her company had made a dress out of the exact right fabric a few months before so as a last straw she went down to the cutting room floor to ask where she might find such fabric. What do you know, they were able to get her 4 yards of the fabric, no problem and no cost. Pretty awesome. 4 days before the wedding the dress was still in pieces and needing a final fitting, but miraculously it was done with time to spare.

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

Flowers – My Grammie grew all the flowers in her garden. They were gorgeous. We arranged the flowers in mason jars – I made little tags for the jars that said ‘take me home’ so they could also be our favor.

(photo credit: Kathleen Walker)

Food – Basically, I chose all my favorite foods, and then asked our family to help us make it all. Beer can chickens were the main course. Joel and I, along with my sisters, marinated 30 whole chickens the day before the wedding. My uncle Chris bbq’d the chickens the day of the wedding. My aunt Cheryl made enough corn casserole for 250 people. Joel’s mom made the rolls. Joel’s sister Julianne made my favorite golden beet salad, and a few other people made various other salads as well. We chose to have our favorite white wine from Trader Joe’s and Rolling Rock for the beverages – which had the added benefit of coming in green bottles, which looked great. We also served ginger ale/lemonade punch.

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

(photo credit: Johnny Valenica)

Little boy’s ties – My friend Kathleen knitted all the ties with yarn we found at Value Village

(photo credit: Alexander Porter)

Table runners/Ring bearer pillow – My Grandma Antoinette found the fabric for the table runners and made them all. She used some of the left over fabric to make the ring bearer pillow, but the most awesome detail is that the lace trim on the little pillow was from her Great-grandmother’s wedding dress, and the button in the middle of the pillow came from her own wedding dress.

Invitations – The Iron Curtain Press, aka I letterpressed my own invitations. fun!

If you had to choose, what was your favorite “touch.“

There were a few details that I really loved. Sorry I can’t choose just one : )

My other sister, Valerie, watercolored coasters for the tables.

The guest book was another of my favorite touches.

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

The programs were also pretty neat. I found a way to fold a little book out of a single piece of paper, making just one slit in the paper. I used the little book to introduce the wedding party (including all the little flower people who were mostly my cousins with a niece and nephew of Joel’s thrown in), and to say thank you to everyone who played a part in making things for our wedding. I made one master copy that was partially letterpressed/handdrawn/typewritten, and then photocopied 250 more. Valerie, my Gramere and I spent an afternoon as a little production line cutting and folding them all.

(photo credit: Alexander Porter)

Your wedding seemed very homespun, was it as “do it yourself” as it looked?

Yep. I had so much fun thinking of all the details and putting them together. We were engaged the last day of May and married in the beginning of September, so we had a quick three months to plan everything. I just started making lists and figuring out how to get everything prepped before hand. I am so thankful that I have such an amazingly generous family. I seriously could not have done it without them, but I also feel that each detail of the wedding was extra special because someone had made that part for us.

I’m also really proud of our budget. We spent $4000, fed 250 people a full dinner and had a beautiful evening. Obviously we could not have done this without such a generous family, but we also made specific decisions about how and where to spend our money. With a limitless pocketbook, I would have gone to town on the table decorations or other details about the wedding, but in the end simple and within budget is better than planning a party you can’t afford. The church itself was a tremendous boon! Everything was included in the modest rental fee – tables, chairs, use of the kitchen, dishes, utensils, the huge 50 gallon drum bbq. We were able to have our ceremony and reception there. It was perfect. I know it’s not always polite to talk finances, but we worked really hard to stay within our means, and we did so while pulling of a beautiful wedding.

What are you doing now?

I own a letterpress business. I make custom invitations and announcements and personalized stationery. I also have my own line of cards that I sell on Etsy – I’m just starting to sell them in shops as well. www.ironcurtainpress.com

(photo credit: Alexander Porter)

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)

(photo credit: Johnny Valencia)