Real Wedding: Alice & Nick

There's something really special about summer weddings - relaxed, out of doors, sunshiny. Though they live in New York, Alice and Nick were married in June, at the groom's family's farm in Virginia, and it's full of all those wonderful summer things - even a barbecue dinner! Working with a tight budget, they created a day that was laid back and beautiful by getting creative, doing a lot of things themselves, and employing the help of talented friends and family. Alice shares some of the DIY projects they took on:

My mother sewed table runners, arranged flowers, baked pies, made jam for favors and even had her college typewriter tuned up for a guest book! I did my own hair, one of my bridesmaids is a makeup artist, the whole family helped set up everything, and guests brought pies for the dessert buffet. A friend illustrated the invitations. Nick's father made the arch out of a cattle feeder and grapevines found on the farm.


The couple's friend, Nancy Cuervo, designed the invitations, including the mason jar bouquet illustration, and then Alice and Nick letterpressed them at a friend's studio.














Women from Alice's and Nick's families did all of the centerpieces with flowers from their own gardens, supplemented with blooms from a local farmer. Alice's mother scoured every antique store in New England until she found enough blue ball jars!




Guests went home with jars of homemade jam.


Says Alice, "Having the wedding in a place with so much family meaning made us feel like a part of something old and beautiful."

Photography: Sarah Cramer

Venue: Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia

Invitation design: Nancy Cuervo

Bride's dress: J.Crew

Groom's suit: Brooks Brothers

Tent rental: Skyline Tents

Cake: Albemarle Baking Co.

Bunny-head cake topper: Melabo

Alice has another budget tip for you: I'm a photographer, so we splurged on photography, which was worth every penny. We hired Sarah Cramer to shoot getting ready, ceremony and portraits and then saved by asking friends to send us their reception photos.

Thanks so much, Alice and Nick, for sharing your wedding with us!

Real Wedding: Lisa & Ben

There's just so much to love about Lisa and Ben's charming Brooklyn wedding - the vintage dress, the skateboarding bride and groom, the city hall ceremony. From the bride:

We were married on May 5, 2010 at City Hall in Manhattan. 2 guests, 2 photographers. Our friend, Chris'tine stopped by on her lunch break to join in on the wedding fun. We couldn't imagine planning a big event and we decided to make it a relaxed fun day, ambling over the Brooklyn Bridge on our way to City Hall. Just me and Ben having fun, like we always do.


Lisa found her vintage dress just two weeks before the wedding, at Bopkat Vintage. "Like a museum, the selling floor only displays part of the entire collection. Just ask and dresses will appear. The owner pulled out handfuls of gowns from the back. I scored mine, an authentic 1950s prom dress for $150 and it fit with no need for alterations. The hat was customized to match the dress by Margaret Duncan of Bridal Veil Falls. Margaret (being super talented!) was super detail oriented and would not let me take the hat home until she had had a look at the dress first. She designed the flowers on the hat and added the net to give it more pizazz. She was very accommodating and had the hat ready for me within a day. So couture! And only $90. (I secretly LOVE hats. If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to buy lots and lots of vintage HATS)."




Ben and I are skaters, so our photographers, Charles and Tatjana of Wrinkle in Time Photography, suggested incorporating our longboards into the wedding day. We were all for it!




I picked up some white peonies from the Flower District on West 28th Street for 1/3 the cost had I gone to a conventional florist. Bound them up with ribbon for the bouquet. Then a stop at Key Foods grocery store to pick up an orchid to make Ben's boutonniere.




City Hall had their chapels renovated so you can plug in your iPod or iPhone and walk down the aisle to the tune of your choice. We walked down the aisle to "Let's Get Busy" by Rocket From the Crypt.


My favorite moment was putting that ring on his finger!






We had a gold airbrushed opera cake from Almondine Bakery in Dumbo. Because we were walking across the bridge before the ceremony, we didn't want to bring our own wine, so we bought some at a corner pizza shop. Buying it at the last minute meant that it was still nice and chilled when we served it.






Everywhere we went, we were greeted by enthusiastic tourists and locals alike, giving us their well-wishes and congratulations. New Yorkers often get a bad reputation for being rude, but we only received smiles. We were even cheered on by large groups walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Our family and friends are happy for us, but how amazing to feel on that day, that the entire city was happy for us too! Receiving that wave of happiness was an awesome way to begin our lives together.

Bride's dress / hat: Bopkat Vintage / Bridal Veil Falls

Bride's heels / skateboarding flats: Annie / Rocket Dog

Groom's suit: Joseph Abboud

Cake: Almondine Bakery

Congratulations Lisa and Ben! Wishing you all the best, and thank you for sharing your sweet wedding with us. And thank you to Tatjana and Charles from Wrinkle in Time Photography for sharing these beautiful photos.

Real Wedding: Brittany & Michael

Brittany and Michael were married last August in Oregon at Brittany's parents' property. Both Brittany and Michael grew up in Oregon, so the venue was an obvious choice, and since they both loved summer camp as kids, they invited friends and family to come camp out. The bride shared some details about their DIY wedding:

We thought of it as Summer Camp Social. Everyone was invited to camp on the property, and anyone who camped or stayed in town was invited back to the barn for breakfast in the morning. My parents and some family friends made a huge breakfast for our sleepy guests.




We made a lot of things ourselves to save money, but also so we could do everything exactly as we wanted. We screenprinted paper to look like cross-sections of cut logs for name tags, and wrote on them guests' names and how we knew them. We worked within what we had and what we know how to do. Since we can print, we did that. I didn't care about shoes very much, so I wore some old ones. Flowers weren't a big deal either, so we saved a ton of money on those (though I think they looked lovely). We tried to purchase everything from friends and local vendors.




(Brittany's something blue!)




We printed programs on heavyweight paper and glued them onto sticks as fans. I went to the farmer's market the morning of the wedding with my mom and Michael's mom to pick out flowers. I bought flowers for my bouquet and five bridesmaid bouquets all for $20.


I carried a giant ghetto blaster down the aisle, playing "Somebody" by Depeche Mode. That seemed like the only logical solution because we didn't have musicians for the ceremony. Guests said it was kind of neat because they heard the music really faintly at first and it got louder as we got closer.






Elizabeth Dye is so incredible - I wanted a simple cotton dress, and I got the cutest simple cotton dress ever!




I made a giant Oregon backdrop and we left a couple of cameras on tripods outside of the barn so guests could take pictures of each other.




We gave out wooden toothpick holders for favors. They were printed with our names, the date, and a beaver (for Oregon.)


"A bunch of our friends surprised us during the reception by arranging themselves in a long line. They all lifted their shirts up to show Congratulations! written across their bellies."





Venue: private home in Dallas, Oregon

Bride's dress / hair piece: Elizabeth Dye

Groom's guayabera shirt: Adam Arnold

Custom toothpick holders: Stumpy Originals

Photography: SJ Harmon

Thank you, Brittany and Michael, for sharing your fun wedding with us - what could be better than a camp out with all your favorite people? Wishing you all the best!

Real Wedding: Jenny & Kyle

I have a few favorite photographers whose work I feature again and again, but I also absolutely love sharing new talented photographers with you (well, they're new to me, anyway). Wentzu Chang is one of those photographers, and she got in touch with me about featuring the wedding of her friends, Jenny and Kyle - and how could I say no! The couple wanted an outdoor setting where all of their guests would feel comfortable, so they chose the Temescal Canyon Gateway Park in the Santa Monica mountains for their charming DIY wedding.




Jenny wore the same ballet slippers that her mother wore on her wedding day.


The couple grew amaranth and zinnias from seed for boutonnieres and bouquets. Centerpieces were herbs from the Hollywood farmer's market, planted in containers that Kyle made out of wood recycled from and old fence at Jenny's parents' home.




Jenny and Kyle wrote their vows and ceremony, and a friend officiated.










Large Marge Sustainables created a delicious vegetarian menu. The couple provided their own alcohol.




Instead of purchasing a wedding cake, the couple challenged their guests to a bake-off. Several guests filled the dessert table with cakes, cookies, and cupcakes.



Venue: Temescal Gateway Park

Bride's dress: LoriMarsha

Groom's fair trade hemp suit: Rawganique

Flowers: DIY

Catering: Large Marge Sustainables

Congratulations Jenny and Kyle! And thank you to Wentzu Chang for sending over your beautiful photos - I hope you'll be back on Snippet & Ink soon!