Well, I don't have the professional photos back, but I have oodles of stuff from friends and family, enough to finally show all the things that went into our wedding! A lot of stuff I made, but as I came from art school and have lots of crafty friends, I also have a ton of cool stuff made by friends of ours for our special day! I also trolled etsy, craigslist, and ebay for most of my items.
The dress!
Designed by me! Not made by me...made, in the end, but a whole bunch of people! You can see my whole experience on it in
in this post, along with my concept sketch.
Two weeks before the wedding, it was far from done. Luckily, I bought the bodice online, my wonderful mum tacked the lace around the top, and a very lovely lady fixed my skirt for me! I added a hoop skirt a couple days before, and we were there! Considering how much of a headache this thing was, I was very happy with it on the day.
The grooms coat
We were aiming for a Mr. Darcy type coat. This was also sort of designed by me, mostly just using photos of Mr. Darcy and guessing at the rest. We really wanted that tall stand-up type collar. My lady, who was doing my dress (at first) was also making this jacket, and didn't seem to know how to tailor it. Basically, we spent one nine hour marathon a few weeks before the wedding where I pinned and tailored most of it. I think it came out ok in the end!
The Invitations
Made by me, inspired by another spinning wheel invite I'd seen online. I made the whole thing in photoshop, and then me and some girlfriends of mine went to a local paper place and die-cut all the circles! We then pounded them together with small rivets and a hammer, one at a time. Yikes! After all that, I added little touches of real copper leaf by hand to some of the leaves on each tree. These were also a whole lot of work, but worth it in the end! We got so many lovely complements about them.
The centerpieces
Oh my goodness, these were probably my biggest DIY project. I bought the pumpkins last fall on deep discount right before Halloween. They're those kind of fake foam carvable ones. I spent a few weeks ruining my hand carving 15 pumpkins, then sprayed them all copper. I bought the wreaths from craft stores, and then found 134 feet of purple roses online for $30!! No joke! I love ebay. I wrapped the roses around each wreath, added some real baby's breath, and hot glued it all together. I put tissue paper inside the pumpkins to hide the led candles we used to light them up.
The Bridesmaids Shawls & Pins
The bridesmaid dresses originally had these horrible fake roses on them to add this pretty sash. I didn't like them, so we ripped them off each dress, and then I made each of my girls a copper leaf pin to go in it's place. I ordered the leaves online, sprayed them copper, and hot glued the draping chains to them. I added a small purple charm to the bottom of each. We also made the girls shawls, I spent ages hunting fabric stores for copper fabric!! We cut them up and hemmed them each. I think they all looked very pretty on the day!
The Ring Box
Made cause I just didn't fancy one of those pillow things. My guy and I ran around antique stores a few times before the wedding, and we picked up this vintage box. I added some floral foam to the bottom wrapped in the same fabric we used to make the guys cravats, and cut small slits for the rings. They were nice and secure on the day!
Thank You Cards
Made by me before the wedding, using a photo from another wedding we attended! I designed the cards and then had them printed on pearly paper. I sent a few of these out early but now they're sitting there taunting me...
The Stone Ceremony Box
Also another find while out in strange little stores, a box that looked like a book! It was perfect for our stone ceremony that we had planned, but I didn't like the cover. I scanned the top, added our initials and changed the colors a bit, reprinted it, and ta da! New box cover.
The Barn
We found this amazing location down by my parents place in southern Minnesota. It was an old stone barn that they were just starting to use as an event center. That meant we had to bring in all our own tables, chairs, decorations, bathrooms, even heat! Still, it was an amazing place and it didn't take much to bring it alive. We bought fake trees off craigslist, hung jar candles from them, put more large metal lanterns (also off craigslist!) in each archway, and draped ribbons and purple lanterns above the dance floor. That was all it needed!
The head table!
This was pretty much a day-of creation with stuff I'd picked up on craigslist and didn't know what to do with! I had a lot of those purple roses and baby's breath left over from the pumpkins, and I had picked up these old log stumps and moss wrapped candles from another couple off craigslist. On the day, I kinda left them by the table as I was setting up, and I come back to find my cousin has arranged it all beautifully on the table! We had one real purple and white flower centerpiece in the middle, the only fresh flowers in the wedding besides my bouquet. Fresh ones are expensive!
The (Monster!) cake topper
Made by hand by a friend of mine, who looks like Johnny Depp and draws like Tim Burton, appropriately. They're little monsters, the story of which can be found in another craftster posting
here. I drew him a little sketch and he made these magical little beasties! The little grooms one is holding a coffee mug (my hubs is nuts about his coffee) and mine has my little monster slippers on. They were such a great gift!
Glass votive name tags
I got this idea from another craftster user (sorry! I don't remember who! Give me a shout out if you can). I printed each of the guests names on vellum, along with a little symbol that designated their meal, and wrapped them around glass votives. The vellum meant they still glowed beautifully, and we had them set up so each guest would find their candle, light it, and by candlelight find their seat!
Seriously the most EPIC guestbook evar..
Can you believe that? I have a friend who's an artist and loves making handmade books. I asked her ages ago if she would make us a simple handmade guestbook. She gave me this about a month before the wedding. I just about died. All handmade, our initials on the side, hand bound with copper riveted to the cover! I told her we were having a purple and copper Victorian wedding. I also mentioned I love steampunk. She really went to town! Plus, it held awesome photos from our photobooth!
The Photobooth
I made this little sign and put it out with our victorian props for the photobooth. Seriously, best money we ever spent. We got such great photos of everyone. Even his 97 year old grandmother went in!
The day was seriously the most magical, wonderful day of my life. A lot of work and planning went into it, but I spent the whole day in a fairytale with the man of my dreams! I couldn't thank all my friends and family more, who helped me plan and put together all the crafty endeavors that went into the day!
Full link to my flickr set of photos can be found
here! Come say hi and look at more pretty pictures!
