Real Wedding: Wendy & Sean

Thirteen people were present at Wendy and Sean's June wedding, and that's including the bride and groom! Their intimate and charming ceremony is a great example of how to include children from previous marriages in a second wedding. Says Wendy:

We have three boys between us, from our first marriages, and we both felt very strongly that this wedding wasn't just about Sean and myself, but about our new family. It was a chance for our children to heal from the divorces and to feel safe and secure in our new family. Everything we did was geared towards making it a happy, special day for them.








The day before the ceremony, Wendy and her sons decorated the church inside and out with magnolia leaves taken from trees she had planted when they were born.









A few details from Wendy: For our first "family date," we visited a little church in Amelia where a small battle had been fought during the Civil War. We took Frisbees and had a really fun picnic, plus we got to share a little of Virginia's Civil War history with my sons. It was a magical day and the real start of our family. When we were trying to figure out where we wanted to get married, that little church, Namozine (maintained by the Amelia Historical Society), seemed like the perfect place.

For the wedding, we did a sand ceremony with our boys. Each of us had our own jars of sand, which we poured into a larger jar to symbolize that we are individuals, but joining together into one family. The children took the sand ceremony very seriously and I think that it meant a lot to them. I hope that every time they look at that jar of sand, they will know how much we love them and want to make a happy, secure family for them.

Wishing all the best to this new family! And thank you to Susan Bolling for sharing these charming photos with us.

Real Wedding: Kelly & David

Today's pretty backyard barbecue wedding comes to us from photographer Kate Osborne. The bride, Kelly, stopped by to tell us a bit about the day:

Most of the decisions we made for our wedding were based on what was least expensive and what I thought would be the easiest and most fun. We wanted people to be able to have a good time. As far as location goes, I love, love, love, my mom and step-dad's backyard in West Bountiful, Utah and I wanted people to come out and see how pretty it was. I had a suspicion that my step-dad (who loves parties) wanted to utilize their nice space by one day having a wedding there and also I thought it would be cheaper and easier than renting a venue. Our reception was on Thursday, July 9th and I'm not positive, but I think we had 200-250 guests show up.

Pretty much everything about our wedding was do-it-yourself. I designed and printed our announcements; my mom and I designed and made my dress; my sister got a crew of us to make the pinwheel decorations, which cost a total of about $48, including ribbons, and which we hung them ourselves; my cousin made the beautiful flower arrangements; we made a couple of play lists and our friend managed the sound system.














Guests enjoyed lawn games such as badminton, horseshoes, and bocce ball.







Happy wishes to you, Kelly and David! See more of their lovely wedding celebration over on Kate Osborne's blog.

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: Ayesha & Zachary

Dear readers - you have the most beautiful, charming weddings! And I love it when you share them with me! Ayesha and Zachary sent over pics of their lovely DIY wedding (taken by Julia Davis), and wrote about all the details, too. So, without further ado, Ayesha and Zach and their beautiful day...

We knew we wanted a small outdoor wedding with some coverage in a superbly unique setting. I was inspired by a mix of natural elements with things that define us as a couple and individuals. I wanted people to look around and go “Yup, that’s Ayesha & Zach.”




My dress was by Maggie Sottero, which I accented with flowers by Emersonmade. I found my shoes at rue21 of all places for like 8 bucks. They were flats which I knew I wanted and had a small ruffle detail. My honey's suit was a white linen suit he got at Dillard's. We just asked his guys to wear black pants, a white shirts, and we provided the ties for them.














Ayesha and Zachary commissioned watercolor portraits from Etsy artist, Jenny Meilihov, which were used for the invitations, and then displayed at the ceremony.




Zachary is my first, last, and only love. It was a truly magical day that brought together our families in a profound way. One of my favorite moments was when my Uncle (who married us) asked "Who supports this couple in their decision?" and everyone took out noise makers and rattled the Treehouse. We knew we had our friends and family rooting for us!














The menu for the Treehouse was very simple: old fashioned sodas and pretzels. Only the day of the wedding we realized that pretzels we ordered had mold on them! So we went with kettle corn instead.




My mother-in-law and 3 of my bridesmaids were my floral designers. I had scoured the internet for ideas, so we knew exactly what we wanted and the challenge was to recreate it, including growing wheat grass myself. The flowers turned out lovely and we saved a ton of money by doing it ourselves.


DIY projects included miniature paper pennants for the cupcakes, tissue paper pom poms, posters and signs, "instant conversation" menu cards, and CD favors.

Photography: Julia Davis

Venue: Treehouse at the Chattanooga Nature Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Wooden guest book: Lacuna (Etsy / flickr)

Bride's dress / fabric flower pins: Maggie Sottero / Emersonmade

Shoes: rue21

Groom's suit: Dillard's

Congratulations Zachary and Ayesha! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!