The surrealistic cloud of being engaged left Diana with the very real task of planning a wedding, the first step was to prioritize. They knew they wanted an event that was comfortable and open in nature, a true celebration of their commitment.

She also was certain that they wanted to make this event “theirs” and decided the best way to do so would be through creating the entire thing from scratch. Crafting many of the projects on her own and leaving the tasks she knew were impossible to the professionals, making the perfect crafty DIY Texas wedding. To see more of this wedding captured by Elissa R Photography be sure to click here.

From Diana:

There were a few things I knew I wanted from the beginning. I wanted my wedding at Mercury Hall, a beautiful venue in central Austin, and I wanted Sam Doores and the Tumbleweeds to play – everything else I built around these two things. I tried to save money in all the areas that were feasible, but also knew where to spend it. For things I could not tackle myself, I found wonderful vendors, my caterer was amazing, my florist created the most beautiful arrangements of succulents and yellow billy balls that tied the wedding together, and of course my photographer was out of this world. 

We are lucky enough to be blessed with a large group of very talented friends, and it was through their help that we were not only able to have the wedding we envisioned, but to stay in budget too. We have a friend who is a great cook make our cake and all the pies, and a mixologist designed our signature cocktails. Not to mention the fact that my husband, being an owner of Austin Beerworks (a local brewery), took care of the beer. In addition, we had an entire team of worker bees get to the venue two hours ahead of time to set up. The day of the event I had decided that I would be happy with however they decorated, since I would have no control over it, but I didn’t need that encouragement; it was absolutely perfect. 

The wedding party wore clothing perfect for spring, sun dresses from Urban Outfitters for the girls and linen suits for the boys. I decided that since I was getting married I might as well have two dresses, so half way through I swapped out my beautiful lace wedding dress for a fun and swirly short dancing dress. Between the outdoor dance party on the lawn and the photobooth inside, our guests had a wonderful time through the night.

I also took on an insane amount of DIY craft projects to make the event personal. I made a pinwheel backdrop for the photobooth by creating pinwheels out of scrapbook paper and adhering them to twine dangling from dowel rods. The table centerpieces were decorated with wine bottles that had been collected over our entire engagement, felt flower garlands on twine, and paper pinwheels. I had my florist make beautiful succulent and billy ball boutonnieres for the wedding party, and I created fabric ones for family. All our signs and table numbers were picture frames and plates painted with chalkboard paint. For our favors, I wanted something that our guests could actually use, so, in their interest, I created an aphrodisiac love tea. An herbalist friend advised me on which herbs would best and I ordered them in bulk online. I then combined them into reusable tea bags and had a rubber stamp made to label each tag. 

Photographer: Elissa R Photography
Venue: Mercury Hall
Makeup: Rhea McCarter
Caterer: Pink Avocado
Coordinator: Kristi Treadwell with Joyful Details
Dress Designer: Unbridaled
Flowers: Pollen Floral Art
Groom’s Attire: Men’s Wearhouse
Jewelry: Etsy
Shoe Designer: Seychelles
Veil or Hair Accessories: Unbridaled
Reception dress by Aidan Mattox | Hair: Jenna Harrington | Cake: Alberto Nuche (friend of the bride) | Officiant: Tim Hamilton

As an art student, Jacky was eager to have a DIY wedding and craft her heart away. She was positive she wanted a homespun wedding with a vintage feel. While doing many of the projects on her own like the super cute boutonnieres for the groomsman, she also got a little help from a friend we like to call Etsy.

From the hand-embroidered felt wedding bouquets to the coordinating lemon yellow and gray suspenders, Jackie spent quite a bit of time on Etsy and whole heartedly recommends it. You can see more homespun yellow wedding ideas in the full gallery captured by White Rabbit Studios.

One of our main wedding tips is to make your groom comfortable, and let him choose to show if his personal style too. That’s exactly what Mike did. he went with a gray suit and a Yellow and Gray Retro Dot Bow Tie, finishing off the look with a pair of yellow converse. Keeping consistent with the color scheme, but adding a little personal flavor to the look.

From Jacky:
As an art student I always knew I wanted a DIY wedding. With the new trend with mason jars, I was excited to create my own centerpieces with river rocks and artificial flowers! I wanted my theme to be pretty, but very close to home with a vintage homemade feel about it. Making the boutonnieres out of felt was probably my favorite! And the guys loved that they could keep them. And it was so surprisingly easy to make. I also enjoyed making my own Shutterfly guest book. It made the idea so much more personal being able to include my own pictures and text. I immediately fell in Love with the yellow and gray color scheme!

When things are hard, Mike always tells me that I’m his sunshine when skies are gray. :) Thus the appearance of yellow emerging from the gray – and black here and there for a more intense contrast. I followed Wedding Chick’s Pinterest and although we were working in a tight budget, I found ways around my favorite ideas to make them affordable to me. So I purchased a lot of my accessories from stores at Etsy.com. If I had more money or time, these things would have been handmade by me as well, but I’m so happy with the vendors I bought from that I whole heartily suggest everyone else to shop with them too! Everything from my jewelry, Mike’s bow-tie & suspenders, to my guest book tree poster! It all made my wedding more personal and I loved it. White Rabbit Studios’ photography only further enhanced the atmosphere. It was everything I wanted. Through their camera lenses, I feel like things became more magical. I felt like I was living in a dream that day.

Venue: Annabella at Cedar Glenn
DJ: Kandy at Your Perfect Party
Flowers: DaisyBrains
Shoe Designer: TOMS
Etsy Artists: felt bouquets | Wedding Tree Guest Book | Personalized Wedding Hanger | Bridal Necklace | Yellow and Gray Retro Dot Bow Tie | Yellow and Grey Suspenders | Old, New, Borrowed, Blue Wedding Garter | White Flower Headband with Feathers and Rhinestones | 12 Mini Pinwheels

When it comes to completely sweet and whimsical weddings, Tasha and Mike’s budget friendly Malibu wedding takes the cake. They had all the right ingredients for the perfect diy wedding. Loads of help, lots of creativity and the perfect location.

With only six months to plan and craft, they designed and created all the decorations and diy touches. Yep … every pinwheel you see was painstakingly crafted by hand. All beautifully photographed by Marianne + Joe of Marianne Wilson Photography. You can see more of this wedding i in the full gallery by clicking here.

From The Bride:

Avesta, our ceremony officiant, put it best during our vows, when she read from The Velveteen Rabbit:
”Real isn’t how you are made […] It’s a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” The day after the wedding, still glowing with the outpouring of love from my husband, family and friends, I felt “realer” than I ever have. I only hope that your wedding will be as happy a day for you!

Getting married was alternately the most stressful and the happiest time of my life. I wanted to throw the biggest, most festive party I’ve ever thrown to celebrate the beginning of a new time of our lives. So of course, a ton of preparation had to be done… and we only had six months to do it!

The whole experience of finding a venue and vendors within our budget was very stressful for the first month or two. Fortunately we met Jill and Sparky at Rancho de Cielo. Their combination of a wonderful location, small, intimate vibe, and a budget friendly package was exactly what we were looking for. Then we found Marianne Wilson Photography , a fellow CalArts alum, for our photography. My husband was a little concerned about the cost at first but after seeing her photos, he agreed that a good photographer is priceless. The folks at Rancho de Cielo and Marianne with her team all helped tremendously to make the pieces fall into place. The only thing we had to worry about was the decorations.

I always knew I wanted to be a DIY bride. Making my wedding personal was important for me- I wanted every touch to be a symbol of love for my new husband. The best tip I can give is to have a good team on your side, and to NEVER be afraid to ask for help. Personally, I could not have done any of it without my sister, Melissa. She planned everything down to the last detail- desserts, favors, centerpieces… Any idea I came up with, no matter how crazy, she was right there trying to figure out how to make it work, and as a new mother, no less! I’ll always remember, and be eternally grateful for, the time she made for me; she and I painstakingly crafted pinwheels, favors and bunting in all the colors I wanted for my wedding. Everyone in the wedding loved the DIY touches, and took pinwheels and desserts home with them, which was a huge source of pride for my sister and I.

On the day of the wedding we went to the venue with a carload of decorations and arrived with about an hour to put them all up. It was a little stressful, because people showed up early as we were decorating! But my awesome sister, cousins and friends jumped in and got the tables set and the decorations arranged with a few minutes to spare. The amazing dessert table was a complete surprise- again, all my sister’s doing. In a matter of a few days, she whipped up the most decadent treats- cake pops, raspberry tartlets, sugar cookies and more. The evening was capped off with Jill’s delicious food, drinks supplied by the best man, and of course, dancing ‘til dark.

Everything came together perfectly, even though some moments were stressful- just as I’m sure every wedding comes together, despite the difficulties. Mainly the thing to remember is that your wedding should be a day to celebrate the loves in you life- your new husband, your friends and family, and for me, my lifelong friendship with my sister. I’m so incredibly lucky to have her in my life- I literally don’t know what I would have done without her!

Photographer: Marianne + Joe of Marianne Wilson Photography
Venue, Catering & Cake: Rancho de Cielo
Hair: Lindsey Pennigton
Coordinator: Avesta Carrara
Dress Designer: Priscilla of Boston
Flowers: Marion Curson
Groom’s Attire: Suit by 3 Day Suit Broker
Shoe Designer: Poetic License
Veil or Hair Accessories: Priscilla of Boston
Cinematography: Arturo Bengoa

An ivory Demetrios wedding gown paired with a Twigs & Honey veil, bridesmaids in berry Anthropologie dresses and peach wedding accents. Yep … all the ingredients for the perfect ivory and peach handmade wedding.

Held at one of the prettiest locations in Idaho, Hills Resort at Priest Lake, and captured perfectly by Easy Dreamer Photography. You can see all of the lovely pictures from this lakeside wedding by clicking here. Please read on, the bride goes into detail on how this perfect day came together.

From The Bride:

Having never been one to daydream about my wedding day, I can’t say I was one of those girls who had already picked out a color scheme before I even met my fiance. After getting engaged, Trevor and I took plenty of time to plan our wedding – 18 months, give or take, which provided countless hours to peruse stacks of magazines, absorb the wonders of the wedding-blog world, visit every dress shop in town, and to envision what would make for a celebration which was perfectly “us”.  I began to suffer from inspiration overload (so many pretty things!) so we brought it back to the basics of what really was most important to us: a meaningful location, a relaxed and beautiful atmosphere, and a genuine celebration of our love and the wonderful people in our lives.

We chose Hills Resort at Priest Lake as our venue because it has been a favorite vacation spot for my family for generations (and just so happens to be one of the prettiest places in the whole world). Hills is remote, rustic, and oozes with a certain North Idaho charm….and huckleberries! We were planning from over 400 miles away, and all of our friends and family would be travelling at least a few hours to attend our wedding, but we knew that once everyone arrived it would be well worth the trip (and the logistical challenges).  Once the venue was settled and the date chosen, the other elements naturally fell into place.

The colors and general style of the wedding were derived from things I naturally gravitate towards – peaches and corals, ivories and neutrals, natural fibers and a vintage aesthetic.  We are not “formal” people and wanted our wedding to have a classy but relaxed vibe, and I endeavored to do as many DIY projects as I could manage (and for those that I couldn’t, I relied heavily on Etsy – yay for handmade!)  By incorporating twigs, berries and moss in the florals, along with burlap and jute in the table arrangements, we were able to nail the look I was craving: woodsy and eclectic, with some elegance thrown in for good measure.  With hardly more than a few color suggestions and creative license, Mike at Beau K Florist produced the most gorgeous and unique arrangements I have ever seen! We purchased 100+ glass bottles and hand painted each in various shades of aqua, so rather than formal centerpieces, single stems were placed in the bottles and spread out over simple burlap table runners.

In many ways, the little details were the most fun for us, such as the ways we incorporated squirrels in memory of my mom who passed away three years ago.  Squirrels frolicked on our stationary, perched in our hand-drawn fingerprint tree, and nuzzled at the top of our cake. Chandeliers hanging from the trees lent a touch of whimsy and sparkle. Cocktails named after our pets honored our furry “kids”, as did the poem “Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog” which was read during our ceremony.  Huckleberry jam favors allowed our guests to take a little bit of North Idaho goodness home with them. Trevor reached out to our favorite band, who were happy to provide an instrumental version of one of their prettiest songs for me to walk down the aisle to – so amazing!

Photography: Easy Dreamer Photography
Hair : Shannon @ Midtown Salon, Coeur d’Alene
Makeup: iffany @ Midtown Salon, Coeur d’Alene
Invitation Suite artwork from Printable Press + bride’s own, DIY printing and design
Wedding Dress:  Demetrios
Veil: Twigs & Honey
Shoes:  Seven for All Mankind
Earrings and bracelet:  Nadri
Garter: rosebudlips on Etsy
Flowers: Mike @ BeauK Florist
Bridesmaid Dresses: Anthropologie
Groomsmen Suits: Tasso Elba / Hand sewn + shoes by Vans
Event Coordination, DJ and Bartender: Ruby Frog Entertainment | Top Hat Event Planning
Cake Toppers: custom design by FeltShmelt on Etsy
Fingerprint Guestbook Tree – custom design by Bleu de Toi on Etsy
Shoe Clips: Brydferth on Etsy
‘Yay’ Flag: joyfuljoyful on Etsy

Leslie and Nick’s intimate Kansas City wedding was filled with personal do-it-yourself details. Lucky for us Leslie, dishes on all her budget friendly details. We highly recommend reading if you are also planning a budget friendly vintage whimsy wedding. We also have to mention that we love Leslie’s Pronovais dress. We are always suckers for endless amount of ruffles. Way cute!

Captured by the incredibly talented Alea Lovely Photo + Video. To see more of Leslie and Nick’s check out the wedding gallery.

Boutonnieres:
I took supplies I already had from architecture school: basswood, pins and glue, and made a Pratt truss since my husband is a structural engineer who loves structures.

Chalkboards:
Since I hate wasting paper, I decided to make a program and menu chalkboard to display important aspects of our wedding. And the chalkboards added to the vintage whimsy aesthetic. My husband and I went out to a home improvement store to buy chalkboard paint and MDF and plywood boards to later spray and write our program, menu, and signs for the event.

Centerpieces:
My florist, Erin Volante and I agreed on lush flowers with creams, ivories and whites. I told her my idea of mixed vintage bottles and jars to complete my vintage look that I wanted and we got super excited about it. I went to secondhand and antique stores as well as using food jars from the grocery store like jam and spaghetti jars. My mother-in-law had quite the collection of mason jars as well. We also decorated the centerpieces with a wood slab at each table that my father-in-law did for us by hacking down a couple trees. We also included paper airplanes, painted wood numbers, and a building at each table representing Nick and I as a couple who loves architecture and engineering.

Sweet table:
It started out with my love for cupcakes. Since I am a baker as well as my mother-in-law, we decided to bake a bunch of treats like cake balls, cupcakes, truffles, mini cupcakes and almond coconut macaroons. My mother-in-law did most of the baking. I didn’t  want my guests to leave without rolling out with a full belly.

Photo-booth:
I took two long sheets of blackout linen to make a backdrop for the booth. And a bunch of hand cut moustaches, lips and glasses on wood sticks for fun props. The drawing on the backdrop is of a yacht + us on this small boat thing + a shark, a reproduction of a drawing my husband drew and gave to me for Christmas right before he proposed to me. Through the week before Christmas he said he got me a real yacht for Christmas.

Photographer: Alea Lovely Photo + Video
Venue: Longview Mansion
Makeup: Catered Beauty
Hair: Catered Beauty
Cake: Rebekah Cake Artist
Caterer: Longview Mansion
Cinematography: Alea Lovely Photo + Video
Coordinator: Jenny Brown
DJ: Two Guys, a Girl and Some Speakers
Dress Designer: Pronovais
Flowers: Erin Volate Floral Designs
Groom’s Attire: Men’s Warehouse
Jewelry: Bailey, Banks and Biddle
Officiant: Melissa Brooks, Simple2 To Elegant Weddings
Shoe Designer: Paris Hilton
Veil or Hair Accessories: Mother of the Groom

We guarantee you are going to love Steve and Erica’s Crafty Camping Wedding. No detail was spared, from the vintage hankie wedding invites to the table napkins, bunting flags and flowers this bride and groom along with help from their families crafted this fun, quirky wedding weekend.

Photographed by Zwickerhill Photography. Read on to hear more inspiring diy details from the bride and of course hop, skip and jump to the full gallery to see all of this craftiness.

This is a must read from Erica on their camping wedding.

Steve and I knew we wanted a place where our family and friends could come to Maine and experience the entire weekend with us, we both adore all aspects of camping and knew we wanted it to be a part of our wedding. We wanted people to pack their fishing gear, sneakers and swimsuits and come relax for the weekend, what better way than on a private lake in Raymond Maine? So we rented a summer camp for kids (complete with cabins, bunk beds and sleeping bags) and invited everyone to Maine for the long memorial weekend.

Guests arrived Friday evening and partook in Karaoke with us until the wee hours of the morning where everyone either retreated to their cabins or hung out by the fire, roasting smoores or laughing and sharing their favorite Steve and Erica moments.
Guest awoke to a huge camp like breakfast spread of casourols, eggs and bacon all prepared by my amazing parents and was welcome to swim, hike, play golf or tennis and just relax until the ceremony in the evening. That evening Steve and I were married at sunset under a huge tree by the lake. The same tree I daydreamed young camp lovers would meet during the day to share a hug or trade friendship bracelets. Guests dined on good old fashion BBQ and Whoopie pies, as they spend the night taking photos in the photobooth and dancing the night away.

Rather than table numbers guests were instructed to match their fabric yoyo pin to their napkin at their dinner table in order to find their seats. Each table was designated by a different napkin color and or pattern. Before the ceremony Steve and I wrote letters secretly to each other describing our reasons for marriage and invited our parents during the ceremony to seal the unread letters in an old vintage tool box with a bottle of wine that we will share with each other in 5 years.

To read the full story from Erica click here.

Photographer: Zwickerhill Photography
Venue: Panther Pond
Makeup: Tasha Zwickerhill
Hair: Tasha Zwickerhill
Dress Designer: KT Jean
Flowers: Faye Marie
Shoe Designer: Seychelles
Dresses: SohoMode
Rings: Cookoorikoo

Our next wedding is literally homemade. The entire wedding including the ceremony and reception was held at the bride and groom’s house. The Ceremony was held on their front porch and the reception held in the backyard, which they renovated specifically for the wedding, including a huge deck and fire pit. A wedding sounds like the perfect reason to do some home renovations to us. To see more of this Texas DIY Wedding captured by Stacy Reeves Photography click here.

Everything you see from the bouquets of paper flowers, bunting banners, and paper doves, all made out of scrapbooking paper.  All entirely handmade by the bride, Darien, who basically  spent the entire engagement carrying around a bag of scrapbooking paper and scissors, and whenever she had a free moment (such as sitting in traffic or waiting in line at a store) she would pull out her supplies and work on he wedding decor. Being a diy bride takes some serious dedication.

They served custom “his and hers” gourmet burgers and gave out mason jars filled with freshly baked cookies as favors. In addition to the wedding cake (which actually had a mixture of cake, cupcakes, and cheesecakes), they also had a potluck dessert bar that included several different sweet dishes named after and prepared by their friends and relatives. Besides all of that sweet goodness, there was a s’mores bar by the firepit.

We can confidently say that mason jars filled with homemade cookies are one of our favorite wedding favors. Not only are they personal and tasty, but they also will not break the bank. You can even make a party out of it. Gather up your bridal party and anyone else that is handy in the kitchen and get baking. If you are feeling really crafty you can include the recipe in a little card attached to the jar.

Photographer: Stacy Reeves Photography
Caterer: Brian Schick Catering
Dress Designer: Paloma Blanca

We have super fun, modern playful wedding for you. Even better they used a few of our free printables to make their special day even more fantastic. The theme was,”Up In The Clouds.” Of course you need to have your wedding as high up as possible if that is your theme. So, The Pasadena Museum of California Art seems like such a natural choice.

As you can see, everything is simple and modern keeping with the up in the clouds theme. Bridesmaid in bright sky blue dresses, floral arrangements popping with color and a very clever way to portray the sun and clouds and the reception. This Modern Rooftop Wedding was captured by Adrienne Gunde. You can see all the photos in the full wedding gallery by clicking here.

From The Bride:

While planning the wedding, I adored all the wedding creativity I saw on wedding blogs, in particular, Wedding Chicks. We pored over the DIY & Downloads section and were tickled when we came upon the perfect Save the Dates for our wedding: the Airplane Save the Dates. We loved the retro vibe of the customized the Airplane Save the Dates to our wedding colors. To save money, we e-mailed the Save the Dates to our guests.

We wanted our wedding to pop with happy, bold colors. We love color, and our color palette began with a subdued blue and green (more specifically, Mint and Deep Ocean, according to Wedding Chicks color palette for our electronic Save the Dates) and ballooned to include sunshine yellow, hot pink, and bright orange. We also could not resist using varying shades of blue and green throughout the wedding.

The escort cards (printed on cloud address labels) and cheery yellow billy balls sprouted from beds of cotton “clouds” which filled a wooden box that adorned our escort card table.

We found a woodblock print of a cloud, which inspired our invitations. The fun customized invitations featured woodblock print clouds designed by our stationer Papercake Designs and our interpretation of the PMCA rooftop. The RSVP cards gave guests two options: “OH YES. can’t wait.” or “OH DEAR! can’t make it.” The invitation sets were mailed in sunshine yellow envelopes, and we used a typewriter font to print out each guest’s name/address to give our invitations more of a fun, retro feel.
Our amazing wedding coordinator Uyen Nguyen of Sassy Girl Weddings & Events worked with us and with our other vendors to design and incorporate cloud details into the wedding. We had loads of fun with our theme.

Eric crafted the hanging clouds floating over the guests at the rooftop reception. There were individual clouds as well as clusters. To create the hanging clouds, Eric magnified varying cloud designs from our invites, pasted the images on foam board, cut the edges to resemble clouds, and attached each ensemble to fish wire. We interspersed the hanging clouds with yellow lanterns that were an interpretation of the sun.

The PhotoBooth Sign! We printed out the freebie from the Wedding Chicks website, pasted the sign on foam board, and propped it up on a striped green tray.

Photographer: Adrienne Gunde

Event Designer: Sassy Girl Weddings
Venue: Pasadena Museum of California Art
Makeup: Theresa Huang
Hair: Theresa Huang
Caterer: Lawrys Catering
Cinematography: Studio West Video
Coordinator: Sassy Girl Weddings
DJ: Premiere Events Group
Flowers: Commerce Flowers
Lighting: Ambiance Party Lighting
Shoe Designer: Ivanka Trump
Stationery: Papercake Designs
Photobooth: Rockstar Photobooth

Love Bird Style sent over this super cute DIY Kentucky Shaker Wedding with some lovely handmade details. Basically everything from the programs to the hankies – all the way down to the pies – all diy projects.  Read on to hear more from the bride and enjoy these super cute photos take by Love is a big deal. By the way, how cute are the first look photos below…pretty darn cute. See more lovely photos in the full wedding gallery.

From Morgan, the bride:
The wedding programs were made by hand by my matron-of-honor.  They matched the airplanes that we tossed at the end of the ceremony, during our procession.  We wanted to incorporate Andrew’s career without overdoing the “pilot” theme.  After we picked the style of plane we wanted to create, it only took a few days of folding and gluing to have them complete!

Of course the biggest task was cutting all the fabric for the streamers.  I was lucky enough to find most of the fabric in clearance bins at local fabric shops.  I turned my parents dinning room into the fabric room.  The great thing about making the streamers was that they didn’t have to be perfect.  We didn’t worry about fraying edges since that just added to the homespun aesthetic. My goal was to create something one-of-a-kind and custom to our special day. The picture frames were spray painted and hung with airplane garland around the pie table. All the signs were handmade.  We also made the striped napkins out of fabric. 

Location: Shaker Tavern Bed and Breakfast
Photographer: Love is A Big Deal  
Design Services: Lovebird Style
Florist: Artisan Flowers
Videographer: West KY Video
Dress: Fraise by Pronovias
Groomsmen Ties: Kouture Crochet via etsy.com
Invitations: Blue Envelope via etsy.com
Flower Girl Dresses: Sparrow Hills on Etsy.com
Catering: Sister To Sister Catering and Split Tree BBQ
Lighting and Dj: One Shot Entertainment
Band: Roundabouts from Louisville, KY
Soloist: Shera Summerford
Hair and Make-up: Salon Panache and Spa
Wedding Coordinator: Jackie Riley