I was one of those Do It Yourself (DIY) Brides. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Everything turned out GREAT..that I had control of (as with any wedding, right?)
We did not want to spend an arm and a leg on our wedding festivities. You can get suckered into thinking a lot of things are important from vendors and you have to keep in mind: what do you remember about weddings that you have been to and what did you like/dislike?
Location: I was looking specifically for a barn, a spot to have the wedding and reception at. I was already having my wedding dislocated from where anyone else lived, so I wanted to make the day-of easy. Having to drive around from the wedding spot to the reception has never been my cup of tea.
The Blue Dress Barn was the first place we looked at and I knew it was perfect. Amy (the owner) was lovely to work with and definitely helped make sure we had everything we needed for the rehersal and the day of. She is also easy to get hold of and responds quickly to e-mails once you have set up your wedding with The Blue Dress Barn. (Make sure to call her if you haven't signed on with her yet though). They also have a new spot! The Blue Dress Barn is very shabby-chique,
Mill Creek Barn is more country-looking but also very cute!
Food: I remember food at two weddings ever. 1)
Shaina and Matt had an intimate beautiful wedding at a country club and the steak that I was served was amazing. It's very seldom that I order a rare steak and get it done properly (still red). That was a great steak. 2) Jen and Dan had a great Tappas Menu in Grand Rapids. Yum!
I have been to a lot of weddings, and I only remembered food at two recent ones really. So how much do you want to spend on food and does it taste good... for me this was not as important that it be pretty and have a formal place setting I wanted to feed my guests something edible that they could pick out. Our caterer at
Country Kitchen served this purpose, they also do formal and have great ideas for the Blue Dress Barn too (like using mason jars for drinking out of). Plus, the chicken was tender and delicious.
DJ: We got lucky. Mary and Bob had this great DJ in Holland the August before our wedding. He had everyone dancing all night and you didn't have to worry about what he was going to play. Since I had a reference and we could pay cash up front he was exteremly affordable. My father made a comment that he had not been to a wedding where the dance floor was pretty much constantly going. Ok, most of our friends also do a ton of dancing. But our DJ had everything, current music the kids were requesting, all of the songs I had sent him on the questionaire. It was awesome. I wish everyone the best of luck on finding as good a DJ as
this guy. He even was set up enough to let
Trevor play "Hey Ya!" for us! What a great impromptu performance :)
Photographer: I really didn't think that my photographer was that important when we were looking. I thought I would like pictures, but how often was I going to be looking at them? This thought process was so wrong. I have been using my wedding photos on tons of things, I even put together some great albums on
Snapfish for the parents and grandparents. I also wasn't that excited by the photographers that I had researched. Then I took a look at Melissa's
website. Telltale Photography is just plain beautiful. She was so professional, and was probably the biggest help as far as wedding planning ever. She definitely makes you more excited for the big day. All of the photos that I am posting on this blog are by Melissa of
Telltale Photography. Make sure to check out all of the beautiful pictures of other weddings on her
blog! If there's one thing not to skimp on for your wedding, it is definitly the photographer!!!!!!!! (sidenote: I have heard a lot of horror stories of photographers holding your photos for months, Melissa got them to us FAST, I've noticed that she makes getting the photos to the couples a priority.)
The Details:
Flowers: I had this idea to make paper flowers. I think I decided on it somewhere between looking at
http://www.offbeatbride.com/ and going to the paper warehouse in Ann Arbor to pick out invite paper. You can order her paper online at
http://handmade-paper.us/ but if you go there during hours you can ring the doorbell and wander through a warehouse of paper-wonders.
I didn't want to be folding a bunch of origami flowers though, so I did some research and found this fantastic
paper flower pattern that you can really apply to any detailing and make your own on
http://www.craftstylish.com/. The wedding party even got their own personalized boquets, boutineers, and corsages with the paper flowers. **Warning** Altough this is a great cost-saving technique and it looks really cool too, it is
very time consuming.
Bridesmaids/Groomsmen: I think black, brown and navy are wonderful base colors and your wedding party can wear it again. We just had the guys wear black suits and the girls wear a black dress. We were already asking them to come out to a distance (either out of town or out of state) and I hated to ask them to spend more money on what they were going to wear. A tux is usually a $200 + rental and bridemaids dresses are not only expensive, but rarely finished in the back or done properly to your size. If you do want all exactly matching colors, please, go to
J. Crew. You can get a beautiful dress, finished in the back, fitting correctly when it's sent to you (no cost in alterations!), with quality fabric. We gave the guys their matching ties and I hand wove the wraps for all of my ladies. I don't think anyone noticed or cared that it wasn't all matching exactly.
The Cake:
Paula Zaragoza makes the most amazing cheescake ever. Also I tend to think cheesecake is the best kind of cake ever. I'm excited to bust into that top portion that we froze for the 1 year anniversary! If she ever gets a website up, I'll post it for you.
My hat was handmade by the awesome guys of
Ignatuis Hats!
Thank you to everyone who helped and who made our day so special, we're having a great time being married (and we are just as busy as when we were wedding planning!)
-Jenny
