Well, this Wonderful Wednesday Wedding Inspiration is an especially special one! This past Monday, April 30th, was me and my husband's 1st anniversary!!! The past year has been beyond amazing, and I thank God every day for bringing such a wonderful man into my life.
I thought to help celebrate our 1st anniversary, I would dedicate this week's Wedding Inspiration to my own wedding. We had tons of DIY goodies that I am so excited about sharing with you! Take a look at some of the pictures from our PERFECT day and get inspired! {All pictures were taken by our wonderful photographers,
Red Fly who I went to college with. They are GREAT. If you are getting married in South GA, I would definiately recommend giving them a call}
Let's start with my bouquet. I was stalking looking at some wedding pictures a fellow photographer friend of mine did, and I fell in love with one of her bride's bouquets. I asked her to do some investigating and she found out that it was a Lilac bouquet. I adored it and was determined that was the bouquet that I wanted. I picked up all of our flowers at the Dekalb Farmer's Market, but at the time of our wedding, they weren't carrying Lilacs. So I ordered 4 bunches from Publix and created this beautiful bouquet the night before the wedding {thanks a million to all my bridesmaids and photographers who also chipped in on the creation of all the bouquets!} . I used floral tape, wire, burlap, and short pins from Hobby Lobby to create it- So easy!
Next we have our favors. My husband and I decided to make Apple Butter for all of our guests. This ended up being quite the task, but it was cheaper than buying pre-made favors. I created the labels on my computer, we bought the little mason jars at Kroger and Walmart, and we made one crockpot a week of apple butter for several months in a row to make enough for all our guests. The recipe was simple. Blend up applesauce, put it in a crockpot with cinnamon and allspice, cook for 8 hours, and then can it. {The canning was the hardest part of the whole process...}
Instead of a cake, we decided to do cupcakes! A fellow teacher in Madison owns a baking business with her daughter, so I decided they would be the perfect ones to make our cupcakes.
Sweet Afternoons made 3 different flavor mini cupcakes for the guests, and 2 BIG cupcakes for the bride and groom. I created the labels for our cupcakes using cardstock, letter stickers, and tooth picks. I loved how it all turned out! We displayed them on assorted cake stands {Hunter and I even made some cake stands out of thrift store plates and candlesticks... see the tutorial
HERE}
At the reception, we displayed a bunch of pictures with our "Wish Jar". The "Wish Jar" was a gift. Guests would write down a wish and place it in the jar to be opened on our 1 year anniversary {in fact we read them earlier today, VERY SWEET!} We displayed our parent's wedding pictures as well as there wedding invitations. We also had pictures of our grandparents who had passed away, and some of our engagement pictures. It was a cute little "entrance" area for the reception, and so easy to do!
My wedding dress was my mother's. It's a Priscilla of Boston dress and she wore it when she married my dad in 1980. I originally was going to buy a dress, but one day I tried it on just for fun and it fit perfect! We took it to our tailor, and she took the lace sleeves off and shortened the train {even though my mother cringed as she cut the sleeves off, she ended up loving it in the end}. This is one of my favorite things about my wedding day. It was really special to be able to wear my mom's dress! {My birdcage veil was from David's Bridal, and my off-white flower clip was from J.Crew... oh, and my earrings are some old costume jewelry earrings from my grandmother- I love those things!}
The Attire: The groomsmen all wore gray pants, white shirts, gray/black ties, and suspenders {most of which they all had in their closets!}. I wasn't too picky about exact matching. I liked the mis-match look. We just added a gray vest from Macy's for the groom. My bridesmaids all got their dresses at Ann Taylor Loft. They all wore their own unique gray belt, shoes, and jewelry for some individuality.
The table decorations- I collected jars, tin cans, birdhouses, and birds from thrift stores over our 9 month engagement. We also had a bunch of jars from my grandmother and other generous friends. By the time the wedding came around, we had just enough for all the tables. I loved the vintage, hodge-podge look! We also used assorted laced table cloths from my grandmother, mom, and best friend's mom. The gold initial letters were from Hobby Lobby, they marked me and Hunter's table :)
Alright, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite portraits from the day. Looking at these pictures still make me giddy with excitement about how perfect our day was! Hope that you are inspired!
