Real Wedding Saturday: Mary Beth & Otis

A photo from Mary Beth and Otis' wedding that I saw on Lucky Me! inspired me to make an inspiration board early in August - and now I'm lucky enough to share the entire wedding with you! Deciding that wedding planning is far too stressful, Mary Beth and Otis cut their engagement short, and planned the entire wedding in five months. Mary Beth used to work on the show Trading Spaces, so you know this wedding was full of do-it-yourself details, from the invitations to the burlap table runners. The wedding took place at the beautiful Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia, with plenty of space for their 180 guests, and Lara and Kate from The Studio Nouveau photographed all of the details. As Mary Beth said of the day, It was, to say the least, a very fun day. . . and very, very "us."


Inspired by these invitations from Bird and Banner, Mary Beth made her own, sewing small fabric pockets for each invite (you can read more details about the invitations on Mary Beth's blog, Junk Drawer).




Mary Beth wore a dress by Judd Waddell and yellow flats from J.Crew.




Mary Beth made the ring pillow with vintage seam binding and fabric left over from the invitations.


Here's what Mary Beth had to say about Otis' and his wedding day clothes: My hubby dances to the beat of his own drummer and there certainly wasn't anything traditional about his duds. He wore a J.Crew plaid blazer and some sweet butter yellow pants and Chuck Taylors. He also wore a funky tie that we had made by Me and Matilda (who also made a tie for the ring bearer).


Christine from A Modern Touch did all of the flowers for the wedding.


A cartoonist friend, Flip, illustrated the ceremony programs.


Mary Beth and Otis worked closely with their officiant to write the ceremony. Their sisters each read some of the couples favorite passages, "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan and "I Like You" by Sandol Stoddard Warburg.


Here is what Mary Beth had to say about their ceremony site: We got rained out of our main venue (the garden) so we got hitched in our back up location (the barn). I can't tell you how important it is to LOVE your backup location. It was no big deal to get married in the barn because we loved the building and Christine [from A Modern Touch] helped out in a huge way, decorating the space with minutes to spare. I just adored the big billowing bundles of baby breath and the gorgeous wreaths she made for us. We also threw some big old lanterns in the barn to add some ambiance.






A six-acre field on the property overlooks the Philadelphia skyline.






Instead of a traditional guest book, Mary Beth and her friend Kristin (from The Fairmount Bride) tied yellow strings to tags, which guests then tied to a container filled with bare branches.




Mary Beth made the table runners from burlap she purchased cheaply online.






The tent was rented from Ocean Tents, who worked closely with Mary Beth to maintain her vision for the reception.




Otis joined in with the band to sing "All Night Long" by Junior Kimbrough to Mary Beth.


Long-time friends of Otis also happen to be in a band - Shark Hat kept everyone dancing all night long.



Congratulations Mary Beth and Otis, and thank you for sharing your fun and personal day with us. And thank you to the ladies at The Studio Nouveau for sharing these photos with us. Beautiful!