Cake topper

After slaving away for nights, the cake topper is finally complete. You’ll notice Kiki, my maid of honor, putting it all together, being a good friend and all.  There are vintage flowers from Tinsel Trading, the fabric for my dress is ACTUAL fabric from my dress, Chad’s tux is velvet ribbon, and the green fabric is leftover from my vase cozies. You’ll maybe notice the dove on Chad’s shoulder and the rat peeking out from under my dress….its an inside joke that dates back to the day we got engaged…maybe one day I’ll tell it to you.

This site helped a lot with the construction, so check it out if you feel like making your own.

[images by Brooklyn Bride]

Real wedding: Amanda + Matt

A few months ago I showed you Amanda and Matt’s bridal portraits taken in Brooklyn, and now that they are finally hitched, Amanda sent me some of the amazing photos Jessica Johnson took.

All of our decisions were based on our venue – our colors, orange and gold, matched the elaborate ceiling tiles and the theme, “bohemian Art Deco”, came naturally. I DIYed everything except for the flowers!

Bridal attire – I went for a very glamorous look, with a vintage up do and a birdcage veil. My makeup was little heavier on the eyes to resemble a classic 1930′s look. The earrings had an Art Deco pattern that subtly tied with our theme. My bouquet consisted of orange and peach roses, orange ranunculus and peach sweet peas, that were tied to an antique gold satin ribbon with a burnt orange bow. The shoes – were dyed in peach/orange. I bought a pair of vintage clip on earrings to add a bling and also doubled as my something old!

Both ceremony and reception were held at the Guardian Building, in Detroit.

Ceremony – Tissue paper pomanders were hanged from chairs to decorate the aisle. I made the pomanders using tissue paper flowers a la Martha Stewart, and glued them onto a styrofoam ball – about 50-60 flowers were used to each pomander that my husband and I made while watching tv in the evening over the course of a month. Our programs were telegrams, with an Detroit “stamp” on each envelope (the image is blurry but even the date of the stamp matched our wedding date, all done on Photoshop).

Reception – We hanged our escort tags on manzanita branches, with white pebbles in a clear vases to contrast with the black marble of where they were placed. We had candles on the tables, lots of them! The entire room was glowing when the lights went down for dinner. The table linens matched the ceiling and the color flowed with the venue despite the heavy and bold look to it. Our place cards carried the Art Deco elements from our invitations.
The cake design was clean, white on white, with a simple Art Deco pattern. The vintage cake topper is from the 1930′s. Our vintage cake knife (not shown in the pics) was a Depression glass cake knife (all found on Ebay).

The photobooth was a fun project. My husband is a photographer, so he had most of the equipment necessary (check out his page, www.matthewnistor.com – he’s now starting in the wedding business too). We sent 4×6 prints to each guest along with our thank you notes, with directions to where the photos are being hosted.
Pics from the photobooth : www.matthewnistor.com/photobooth

[images by Jessica Johnson]

Real wedding: Myra + Matt part 2

As requested, some more images from Myra + Matt’s wedding.

[images by Paul Rich Studio]

Real wedding: Myra + Matt

My hubby, Matt Callan, and I tied the knot in Gervais, OR at Willamette Mission State Park on September 8, 2007. We held our ceremony under an enormous Black Walnut tree in the middle of the afternoon on a perfectly sunny and warm day with around 180+ guests. The wooden arbor was created by Matt! He even hung the ribbons!

All the bouquets and flower arrangements were created by the bridal party the day before the event. We were trying to save on costs and bought the more expensive flowers at a florist and more basic flowers through Safeway in bulk. My mom use to do wedding and church flower arrangements, so I most definitely utilized her expertise.

Almost everything was handmade by me, but some items were created with the help of family. For name card holders/decorations/favors, I planted around 200 corkscrew willow clippings in mini terra cota pots and finished them with live moss. Matt and I wanted something that would look cute and that guests could take home, plant, and cherish for years (and corkscrew willow trees are so whimsical to look at and so easy to grow!). I created all the name cards by hand which were these little flags that guests would “plant” into the name card pots. They were displayed in a large wooden box that my dad built and planted with moss. All the centerpieces, I planted myself using purchased pots and plants from Home Depot and Lowes. It actually cut down on costs for traditional all flower centerpieces and we let guests take them home to enjoy for months, maybe years to come. The tables also had several glass vases on each which I purchased at IKEA. The table names I made by hand using bird prints and used Crate and Barrel name card holders to display them. Many of them blew away during the evening with the breeze! The mini box favors were assembled with family help and were composed of jordan almonds in our wedding colors, tissue paper, and a little tag with our anniversary date and “thank you” note. The napkin and utensil sets were straight out of Martha Stewart Weddings. I loved the look and ordered a ton of tissue paper wholesale online, found the perfect napkins at IKEA, got utensils from our caterer and with a ton of help from family, made all of the literally up until the day before.

The giant green lanterns I purchased in bulk through a couple online sources, one of which was Ebay and were strung by family. The lights also had dangling ribbons, which I literally purchased by the roll through Ebay sellers (so much cheaper!). The cake topper birds were created by Ann Wood Handmade and the wedding cake was created by Myriad Cakes.

All the programs and invitations were also made by the bride using purchased fonts, clipart, paper from PaperZone, and a really great HP deskjet printer. After not being able to find the perfect head piece to wear and while wanting to DIY on everything, I created my own hair accessory (sans the veil) and all the bridesmaid hair pieces. My wedding gown was custom designed by myself and Elizabeth Dye (elizabethdye.com) – she of course did all the sewing and most of the work!

Real wedding: Otto

As promised, here are wonderful photos of the Otto wedding by Mel Barlow….I just love the colors, that huge flower in her hair, and the fabric flowers used to decorate the reception! It’s very Anthropologie/Free People-esque…..

[images by Mel Barlow]