River's D.I.Y. Frank Lloyd Wright Wedding 09-04-10

[riverwatson]

Hello, everybody!

First, I'd like to say I am so impressed with ALL of the completed D.I.Y. weddings posted here. 'Tis a brave task to undertake, to do one's own wedding one's self!!!

Here's what I have so far:

The venue, for ceremony AND reception:





I consider it D.I.Y. because future husband booked the venue (a 1908 Frank Lloyd Wright prairie-style house) FOR FREE! Ever since we first toured the house, we KNEW it was where we wanted to get married. It is so beautiful and small- the perfect excuse to have a small, intimate, low-budget (yet CLASSY) wedding!

I love the fall, so originally we were going to have the wedding in October, but every October wedding I've been to (and my October engagement party!) was cold and/or rainy, and we wanted to take advantage of the FLW home's GORGEOUS GARDEN and have the reception outdoors- so we booked it for early September! I am so excited, but I have a lot of crafting to do!

Here are some things I/we plan to D.I.Y for the wedding:


~Grow my own centerpieces: Rouge vif D'Etampes pumpkins!
~Grow my own bouquet (flowers to be determined) 
~Make my flowergirls' pomanders
~Dress up my flowergirls' $20 white, easter dresses with exposed orange petticoat fringe and big orange sashes
~Make my flowergirls' hairpieces/headbands
~Finish my invitations (halfway done!)
~Make my own TAZO tea favors (I forget who I stole this idea from!)
~Thank You cards

I'm sure the list will get so much longer, but for now, this is all I have planned as far as craftiness. Just planning has been quite the adventure. My colors are Brown, orange and green because it is sort-of Autumn and because I LOVE PUMPKINS. I grow pumpkins in my backyard garden and they are my pride and joy! So I had to include them in my wedding. (Here's hoping for a booming, healthy crop for 2010, because my back-up centerpieces are orchids and let's face it, they're a b!t@h to transport!  )

Thanks for stopping by to read about my crafty wedding! I will update frequently and with more photos, because it really helps keep me organized!

[riverwatson]

Oh, and for those of you who might remember me from such infamous threads as "Marshmallow Fondant: A Fully Pictorial Tutorial"- NO, I am NOT making my own wedding cake. But IKEA might! I'll explain later... 

[ragadyanne400]

That house is gorgeous. Do you mind me asking how you managed to book it for free?

[riverwatson]

Well, ragadyanne, my dear husband-to-be has a really great job.  The foundation that restored the house has a very close professional relationship with the company for which he works. As a really awesome courtesy, the museum offers to let his company hold on free event at the house each year. And as an awesome wedding gift, dear husband-to-be's company gave the free event pass to him. This house is THE house we would choose to live in if we could own any house- except for Fallingwater of course! And only because we love to kayak and canoe! And we're thinking about staying at the Louis Penfield House for a very brief honeymoon, because we're not going to have a chance to get away for more than a weekend until next spring. (Then we're looking at the Banff Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta. Again with the kayaking!)

[heykiwi]

I have to admit I am very jealous of your venue... Your wedding is going to be amazing!

[riverwatson]

  Thanks so much, heykiwi. Love your wedding colors, your courthouse gardens, and your gorgeous paper roses. Yeah, I'm stalking you. 

[riverwatson]

So, a few things have changed. I have added mocha and copper and silver to my list of approved wedding colors, and changed my "green" to chartreuse. Just because I can. Also, only one Spooky pumpkin has popped up in my garden so far (despite a million accidental jack-o-lanterns: the fruits of last year's compost) so we picked up some garden lanterns and rock crystals to use as centerpieces, instead of pumpkins. And Jason won an Emmy!

I potted a fake orchid, all by myself, I made two bouquets, 65 favors, and I'm growing my very own fingernails to paint for my wedding day! How's that for D.I.Y.?!

Wow. I have gotten SO MUCH done since I last posted. Unfortunately, most of that SO MUCH has been accomplished in the past few weeks!

I have had all summer to do this stuff, but I had been working full time and taking classes full time until June (despite that awful Alternative Research Methods class, I still got a 4.0!!!) , and working full time until July after that (exhausting!) so I didn't get a good start on all of this until a few weeks ago. Anyway, here's some of the SO MUCH, so far:

I made two ostrich feather pomanders for my two flower girls:



and I made little TAZO herbal tea favors for everybody. Each little bag contains 2 packets of TAZO and 1 packet of Sugar In The Raw, tied up with an orange or green ribbon.





I used Calm, Zen, Passion, and Organic Chai flavors in different combination. They really easy to put together and they were actually surprisingly cheap!

I also decorated my own bubbles. I had leftover envelope seals that I ended up not using for my invitations, so I printed them with our names and date and I tied a little chartreuse ribbon around each one. They're so cute!

I made my own toss bouquet. (I bought my REAL bouquet from Ardesign on Etsy. It's beautiful, but it's made of very high quality silks and latex orchids, so it weighs a TON. You could kill a bridesmaid with that thing!) So I made this one to toss:




And I made this one for my MOH:



And we are ordering these cymbidium bouquets from a florist to set on the hearth (which we will be married in front of):
*Photoshop courtesy of Jason Wilson, Emmy-award-winning film and video editor and The Best Fiance Ever



This faux cymbidium was $26.99 retail, but I got it for $3 at a wholesale craft store here in Ohio. The pot was a pot leftover from an edible arrangement and the moss was $2 at Joann's. I stuck the orchid into a Styrofoam ball and wrapped it in some leftover tulle to keep it steady. I think it turned out AMAZING, especially for $5!



My fiance's mock-up of our cake, just to make sure we had the proportion's correct:



I know you want to see the real thing really badly but the picture that inspired it looks nothing like the cake we really wanted, so you'll have to wait for the big day to see it in all of it's raspberry Italian butter cream glory.

Oh, and Jason is BUILDING a prairie-style cake stand. He's amazingly crafty like that. So stay tuned for it's awesomeness.

August's pitiful pumpkin crop:



There are still about fifteen more out on the vines, but that won't help us, now.

My D.I.Y. veil:



The clip was like $3 at Target (by Goody, I think). I was looking EVERYWHERE for something to pin up my veil with. It matches all the diamonds and filigree that Jason has lavished on me, so I was SO lucky to find this thing. It's still going to take some fancy styling to get it to hold all night, but I have faith in my stylist that she will make it stick.
And the veil was $16 at the aforementioned wholesale craft store. All the veils I tried on at the local bridal shops were $80 and up, and I didn't like a SINGLE one. I wanted a simply stitched edge, not ribbon, and not fraying and unfinished. I found it! And now I'm really excited about it.



Here's my blurry wedding hair, half-up with loose curls. I love it! (pardon the PJs)

Here we are at the 2010 NATAS Ohio Valley Emmy awards:



Here are our centerpieces:


crystals


and lanterns

The flower candles are LED and we are still thinking of a place to put them. Maybe on the steps (with the pumpkins) up to the front door.

I shall post pictures of the star of the show (THE DRESS) shortly. No pun intended. (I'm 5-foot-nothing.) It counts as crafty, because it was HANDMADE by a dressmaker in Australia. It is -devastatingly- gorgeous.

Thanks for popping in to check up on my D.I.Y. FLW wedding.