This is going to be one of my favorite recaps of the wedding...and the reason I really started this blog in the first place - to collect ideas and inspirations and recreate them for our wedding.
It's also a collection of all the amazing projects our friends and family worked tirelessly on to make our wedding day so special.
I had quite an extensive image gallery of things I found on my favorite wedding blogs that I loved and wanted to try to incorporate into our wedding but we eventually had to narrow the focus and stuck with a somewhat rustic theme.
Since we were having a destination wedding we had to keep our DIY projects somewhat manageable since we'd have to ship or pack anything and haul it cross country - otherwise we probably would have gone crazy making all sorts of things.
We had somewhat of a tree theme going for the wedding inspired by one of my favorite childhood books "The Giving Tree"...I actually was able to introduce Keith to that book since he'd never read it!
Our very good family friends - Jan and Jim - are some of the most talented and creative folks I know and in typical fashion they crafted up some fabulous projects for the wedding. Jim did an awesome chalkboard welcome sign for us and Jan made our seating chart. She decoupaged a corkboard with various papers, pieces of map of places we'd lived or were important to us and different love quotes and sayings. We tacked on small vintage tags with purple and green ribbons for the seating cards.
My cousin Kirie did SO many projects for the wedding - we were so thankful to have her put her creative "thumbprint" on everything! She actually had a friend make our tree thumbprint guest book which turned out beautifully. I love this idea b/c you can actually put it on your wall to remember your day instead of burying some book with signatures in your basement.
If only I could be as crafty as Kirie! She made tons of these gorgeous paper flowers using scrapbook papers, maps, old books - I can't even imagine how time consuming each of these beautiful paper creations took to make. They lined the center aisle for the ceremony and were sprinkled throughout the entire reception area.
The other DIY project she constructed was quite possibly my favorite - the ribbon curtain. It definitely made for a fun photo backdrop!
I was slightly obsessed with our entire paper suite by The Lettered Olive - it was actually a gift from a very dear friend who also helped coordinate our entire wedding. We couldn't have managed to get through the wedding day without all her help (more to come about that!).
We got this adorable ring pillow from Etsy shop - cozyblue. It tied in perfectly with all our other tree/wood decor.
I also made ribbon wands for the little girls to wave down the aisle before and after the ceremony - those were a last minute DIY project!
I probably could have dedicated an entire post to our wedding flowers - they were absolutely gorgeous. Giant white peonies, aromatic lilacs, purple allium bulbs, lilac roses, snowballs, violet cabbage flowers and my very favorite lavender. I'm not sure the pictures can even do them justice!
I love lavender and Hood River is home to some amazing lavender farms. I found some great unique vases at flea markets and antique shops including a bunch of these old marmalade jars.
Another one of my favorite DIY touches were the wood rounds we used down the center of our tables. We had mentioned to Keith's Grandpa that we would love to have something like this for the wedding and one day they just showed up on our door step!
These Mr./Mrs. signs that Keith made were so cool! He actually used a wood burner to carve the lettering and the little stick figures and painted in the rest of the detail.
Another surprise were the amazing custom wood cuts outs that Keith's Mom made for us with our initials and our wedding date. They were used at our place settings and will make a great keepsake!
I scored these lovely lace doily lumanaries from Etsy shop - Myhaleygirl. They looked great glowing atop the fireplace mantle. And if you check back later this week I might be giving a set of these beauties away (hint, hint!)
I was understandably pretty emotional on our wedding day but I think what made me cry a few times throughout the night was thinking about how grateful we were to have such amazing friends and family in our life and how they all contributed to make our day so special.
We had even more handmade details at our wedding picnic the next day - pennant flags that my sister and my Mom cut out and made and even more decorative wood signs.
It was truly a homemade wedding and a labour of love!
