Justin and Chelsea wanted their Iowa wedding to be personal, special, rustic, simple, memorable, whimsical, DIY, vintage, chic, casual, relaxing and most of all budget friendly. Even with a huge list of wants they ended up with their dream wedding. Chelsea shared all of her tips and tricks with us along with her complete wedding budget break down at the bottom of the page. As always you see more this handmade vintage wedding photographed by Jana Marie Photography in the full gallery here.
My two older flower girls wore tutus & a leotard tank top. The tutus were made by a mom of one of the flower girls. My youngest flower girl got her ruffled romper off of Etsy. Justin & I wanted the groomsmen to be comfortable (because we knew we’d be outside), so we wanted something light & spiffy! :) I hate suits & tuxes anyway! We bought the dress shirts at JCP, but because we had a specific color of blue we wanted – we had to dye the shirts! It was a crazy task & I wouldn’t advise doing it without quite a bit of practice (different fabric dyes different). My grandma, mom & mother-in-law dyed the shirts. I made the guys’ bow ties & boutonnieres & they got their jeans from Kohls & their suspenders from Hot Topic.
As special as first looks are between the bride and groom, we simply adore that Chelsea choose to do a first look with her father. Her Dad is often known for being a chatter box, and this was the only time Chelsea has ever seen him speechless. Making it one of her favorite moments of the day.
As we walked back up the aisle after we were pronounced husband & wife, we had people throw colored marshmallows at us! But some people forgot, so it wasn’t as amazing as it could have been!
We had a worship service during the ceremony & that was probably the best part of the whole day for me. Justin & I wanted our wedding to be focused mainly on the Lord & His love for us. We wanted our day to be filled with His presence & wanted people to know that while, yes they were there to celebrate us – we were there to praise Him for all that He’s done for us.
All of our décor was handmade and/or collected from various thrift/antique stores throughout the years. We bought ZERO decorations. We had a candy table as a way of having a “favor”. We had hay bales at the reception and my father-in-law put them in the shape of a “C” all throughout the site for people to sit on. Similar to couches.
Our cake topper is a funny story! Justin made a stick figure of me out of cardboard a long time ago & I glued a veil to it & told him that maybe one day we would get married. Well, he held onto that stick figure & told his mom he wanted to use it as a cake topper. So she made a groom out of cardboard to match the bride.
Photographer: Jana Marie Photography
Dress Designer: Vintageous
Groom’s Attire: JC Penny & Bride made
Jewelry: EidelPrecious
Shoe Designer: Modcloth
Veil or Hair Accessories: Lynay Jewelry
Stationery & Florals: made by bride | Prop or Furniture Rentals: parents | Venue: Family farm in Floyd, Iowa | Cake: Family made | Caterer: Family made | Officiant: Friend
Handmade Vintage Wedding Budget
Overall – we spent about $2,000 – $2,500 – aside from our photographer. That is unheard of! (And our parents split it! That made my dad really happy. BONUS!) So we are living proof that it is possible to have your dream wedding (I had mine!) & not spend a fortune. You just have to get creative, call on the people you love most & who love you, & work hard! A wedding is meant to celebrate the marriage that is happening – not the fancy cake topper, not the pretty aisle decorations, not the gown (for goodness sake, you wear it once!). One thing I had to keep telling myself over & over again was that this celebration was for Justin and I, our families & friends who were present.
It wasn’t about anything else aside from the uniting of two people becoming one. Once the decorations get taken down, where do they go? Most of them go in the trash, to be honest…. (Fortunately the decorations we used I got to keep! And am using them in my house. Again, just think before you spend big bucks where it’s truly not needed! You can do a LOT with a little if you just get creative.
So before you go out & spend thousands of dollars on that dream dress (Kleinfelds is gonna hate me) & before you drop $2,000 on the location of your ceremony (ours was free) – think about all the options you have! Look on Pinterest & consult all your crafty friends – you have to have at least ONE! Good luck & happy wedding planning! Oh and one last tip: Invest in a good photographer. No matter the cost, they ARE worth it! And most photographers are willing to work out some deals with you – mine did. :) She’s the best! Look her up - Jana Marie Photography
A) This wedding is incredible! I am in love with the ceremony area! B) The bride’s wedding ring set is amazing!
You might just go head over heels for this Handmade Vintage Wedding and the very modest budget by @JanaMariePhotos http://t.co/qYu0Jybp
AHHHHHHHHHH! :::tear::::
You have no idea how excited we are to share this wedding.. The bride and groom SO deserve every bit of being seen. They worked so hard on their wedding and they are the cutest things ever!!
What a neat family, a neat experience and a VERY darling wedding. I can’t even find a word better than HUMBLE to have been their photographer.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the blog post!!! Wedding Chicks I love you! :)
RT @weddingchicks: You might just go head over heels for this Handmade Vintage Wedding and the very modest budget by @JanaMariePhotos http://t.co/qYu0Jybp
RT @weddingchicks: You might just go head over heels for this Handmade Vintage Wedding and the very modest budget by @JanaMariePhotos http://t.co/qYu0Jybp
Handmade Vintage #Wedding with an adorable “dad’s first look” idea – http://t.co/MRRn5w7p via @WeddingChicks
OH MY GRACIOUS….. We are seriously so BLESSED & grateful to have you feature us on your website! We are all so excited & giddy over it – I can hardly contain my excitement! :) And I am really, truly thankful for this opportunity. Jana Marler did a fabulous job on our pictures & we couldn’t have chosen a more perfect photographer! Without her, we wouldn’t have these RIDICULOUSLY awesome images to showcase our day!
Thank you, Wedding Chicks, for featuring us and for showing off our wedding day! You have no idea how much it means to all of us!!!! We are soooooooo thankful! :)
XOXOXOXOXO
What an amazing wedding. I really love the brides dress.
That was the neatest thing ever!! I never get tired of looking at those pictures :)
Beautiful!!
This was my grandaughters wedding. So proud of all the hardwork and love that went into this glorious day. Thank you Wedding Chicks for choosing them.
Wow, so many cute vintage details. Loved the bridesmaid dresses!
This is darling and I love her dress! So cute!
I couldn’t make it to the FABULOUS wedding, but am SO grateful to be able to enjoy the beauty of it all through these photos by Jana. Chelsea and Justin, you guys did a FAB job on all the details!!
Gotta love wall town
@weddingchicks seriously? LOVE http://t.co/nHbsYB2a
so cute right? (: RT @chrisgraham27: @weddingchicks seriously? LOVE http://t.co/qYu0Jybp
These are TOTALLY awesome and SO creative. You can just feel the love looking at them and I don’t even know the couple. Beautiful work, beautiful couple, these are fantastic – - – and how easy, it just takes everyone working together to create a lovely wedding where everyone was a participant. You should be proud – - and what an honor to be recognized, both the bride and groom for their ideas and creativity and the photographer for her work. BEAUTIFUL!!! FUN!! I just can’t say enough.
A beautiful wedding at a very low cost. The pictures in this wedding are beautiful and the Bride and Groom will cherish 50 years from now. Keep up the good work Jana Marie
Love, love, love the look and feel of this Iowa wedding! Intimate and personal, I love the complete lack of pretention! I wish the bride & groom much happiness. Also, so many “real” moments captured beautifully by the photographer! Jana Marie, great job!!
I absolutely love this wedding and the fact that it is all home grown makes it inspirational! Too cute!
Your wedding is very inspirational! First, I must tell you that the focus of your wedding was absolutely wonderful!
My daughter is getting married next June with a vintage theme. There are so many similarities of these two weddings! It was so neat to see what she wants in picture! I was thrilled to see what you had done. Simplicity is beautiful! Thank you for sharing!
Now this is what you call a handmade wedding… DIY at its finest! http://t.co/tMXCOsFj
Absolutely beautiful and exactly how a wedding should be!!!!!
This is GORGEOUS!