Wedding Blog

For me, DIYing the wedding details was a labor of love. I had three rules regarding the details: 1. Keep it simple 2. DIY as much as possible to save money, but call in the professionals or enlist help when necessary 3. Keep within the theme: Rustic Elegance.

These rule saved my sanity on several occasions, especially the part about enlisting help. But I am not going to lie, DIYing most of the details was stressful. There were times that I ripped my hair out, shouted a few obscenities at my Gocco, and bandaged a few paper cut wounds. Putting together the details took months and months of blood, sweat, and tears, mixed in with a lot of laughter and fun. But when it came time to put the details in the trusting hands of my DOC to set up, I let them go. After I gave her the reins, I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

Mrs. Onion gave me the best piece of advice before we got married about savoring the details.

She said, “Take a moment to see your reception space before all your guests do… just the two of you. You put so much work into it — be sure to take it all in, because once the reception begins you won’t be able to!”

We took Mrs. Onion’s advice and this is what we saw:

My wedding shoes were a pair of silver peep toe slingbacks by Cynthia Rowley that I found on sale for $69 at Off Saks Fifth Avenue. I love bargain shopping!

Before making our dinner entrance and while my bridesmaids bustled my dress, I changed into my second veil.

I love buying local. When I found out Sara Gabriel’s flagship store was a few blocks away from my office, I couldn’t resist. I wanted a traditional veil for the ceremony, but I loved the look of French netting. The compromise was two veils, and I loved both of them equally.

I entrusted the flowers to the skilled hands and eyes of Cindy from Bloom in Breckenridge. She took the inspiration board that I sent her and hit a home run out of the park! I loved our flowers! Here is Mr. Cookie’s boutonniere of a rose, spray roses, and burgundy hypercium berries:

I heart my bouquet! It was exactly what I wanted. The flowers were red roses, red spring roses, burgundy dahlias, burgundy hypercium berries, and burgundy cymbidium orchids wrapped with a blue ribbon.

My bridesmaids’ flowers were similar to mine except with orange roses and spring roses, sans orchids.

Also, this is a great photo of the shawls that two of my bridesmaids made for all the bridesmaids and me. The outsides of the shawls were taffeta and the insides were wool. I was very lucky to have crafty bridesmaids!

Besides my bouquet, my favorite flowers were the centerpieces. I was toying with the idea of non-floral centerpieces, but I am really glad I went with flowers. The centerpieces were orange roses, orange spray roses, burgundy dahlias, burgundy hypercium berries, amaranthus, and leucadenron inside a wooden planter.

The table numbers were a DIY project that I unfortunately did not have time to blog about before the wedding. I used my Gocco to print the flourishes. Then I cut out each of the numbers and glued the two pieces of paper together. I went back and forth about how to stick them in the centerpiece, but couldn’t find anything that I really liked. Since the flowers were thick, I had my DOC just stick them in the flowers and hoped they stayed up, which they did!

Another project that I didn’t blog about before the wedding was our favors. Originally, the idea was either truffles or hot chocolate packets, but as my budget crept closer to zero both of those ideas got cut. I even thought about not having favors at all. Then, Mama Cookie stepped in to help.

Being that Mr. Cookie and I have an affinity for cookies (I know very cannibalistic!) and since most guests knew I wrote for Weddingbee, Mama Cookie volunteered to bake cookie favors. The crazy part about it was that she baked and packaged them the morning of the wedding! She said it really calmed her nerves.

With most of the ingredients already found in Mama Cookie’s and my kitchens, the ribbon from her crafting supplies, $2 for 100 plastic bags, and $2 for the craft paper, the cost of the favors was about $20 for over 50 favors. Seriously!

Also, here is a great shot of our napkins. These babies were not only wonderful for our wedding day, but they are great for use during the holidays!

Here is what our tablescape looked like:

To save money, I had my bridesmaids display their bouquets on the head table. I think it was a great way to save money!

Also, you can see a picture of our coffee filled, bell jar candleholders. In order to avoid the disaster of flaming coffee beans, I used our recycled candles that were already in little holders. It worked perfectly! There was a slight smell of coffee in the air and after the sunset, Ten Mile Station was filled with romantic candlelight.

Here is how our guest book turned out. Although it’s only partially signed in the photo, it is filled with wonderful notes from our guests wishing us a happy life together. Now, we’ve got to figure out where in the house we want to hang it.

I think the most fun I had with all the projects was designing and printing the paper goods. My Gocco and I became best friends and for a few months we were pretty tight. Now that the wedding is over, I need another excuse to break her out!

Here are our menus:

To print the program, I used the same Gocco screen that I used for our invitations. All you Gocco gals out there, if you want to save your screens I highly recommend putting them in the fridge. After the ink has warmed up, you are ready to reprint (although, you might need to add just a little bit more ink). Works like a charm!

I put the red ribbon on the program to reflect our knot tying ceremony, and also to hold our program details. Functional and subtle at the same time — that is how I roll!

The place cards were Gocco’d with the same bird screen that I used in our invitation suite.

Another last minute project was our birdcage card holder. Not that I purposefully left constructing some of the details until the last minute, it just kind of happened that way. With the birdcage in Mama Cookie’s crafting closet, I printed the “Merci Beaucoup” card using the Gocco (same screen I used for the cookie favors), slit some holes, cut some brown ribbon, threaded it through the holes, and the card holder was done. In total, the project took me 15 minutes.

And finally, our aisle runner. Mama Cookie sewed the runner and I painted it. This was our only ceremony detail as I didn’t use any flowers for an altar or on the chairs. With the rose petals, it turned out exactly how I had envisioned it.

So, those were our details. My ideas kept evolving and changing, but somehow they all came together in the end. DIYing the details was a lot of work, but for me it was well worth it!

Next up: The Cookies smash cake in each other’s faces.

Photography by IN Photography