DIY Wedding - Part I

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

We have been married for almost 3 months and today I've decided to share with you some of the DIY details of our wedding.

I'm from Colombia, but we got married in the US. So some of the projects were done by some of my family members as a way to be part of our day.

Here was the final result:

The Colors: chocolate brown, burnt orange, and off white.

The Theme: Rustic Elegance.

Most of the table decor was done by someone in my family. For a year, I stalked Garden Ridge, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, Gordmans, Hobby Lobby, Michales, etc.... you name it and I was there.... looking for discounts and inspiration.

I wish I had better pictures of the process... if I only knew I would be blogging about it then.  I have all my inspiration pictures, but I didn't keep where they came from so I'm not sure If I should post them without being able to give someone credit.

Now the close ups:

The Invitation:

I just discovered that I don't have a picture of the whole thing! I'll try to find one to take a picture of it and share it with you. But I do have some close ups that I took to put on our wedding website as sneak peeks:

The invitation helped determine the rest of the decoration. Everything was linked back to this. You'll see the flower, burlap ribbon, and our embossed initials all over. 

The Cake:

This cake has been part of major events in my family for years! Every wedding, birthday, baptism, graduation... or major life event, this cake was there. This is my grandma's recipe, but my mom has learned how to make it and she did it for the wedding. It was kinda nerve wrecking since we had to do it with different ingredients and utensils that she was used to....We did a test for my bridal shower and ....success!... the wedding cake was on. Below are the cakes fresh out of the oven:

And here is the cake at the reception (can you see the ribbon?) :

We also decorated it ourselves! We decided to go without icing because the cake already had the perfect look for the theme without it ... what do you think? We got some mixed reviews on the idea, but we loved it. 

The flowers came from Colombia. My mom literally carried them on her arms all the way here (The same flowers were also used on the toss bouquet - next to the cake above). The cake topper is from Willow Tree.

The Table Decor:

I know weddings equal flowers and more flowers, but when a center piece is between $100-$200 per arrangement -we had 18 tables-, I had to come up with a different idea (The only flowers we used were my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets)

I don't think that here you can appreciate all the details but I'll attempt to describe them. The brown table top was sewn by my grandmother. The light circle in the middle is made out of a material similar to burlap but it's a little thicker. My uncle cut each circle and glued a burlap string braid of the 3 wedding colors on the border so it wouldn't come apart. The napkin holders were put together by my mom and my aunt from the same burlap ribbon used on the invitation and two hearts that were punched and embossed with our initials. The center piece itself was put together by myself and my mom. We now keep one of those on our mantle.

The welcome place cards were made by another aunt with the same card-stock from the invitations and the same material from the center piece circles (don't you love all my technical terminology?)

We had a sweetheart table. We didn't have a center piece, because on the empty vase I put my bouquet (great way to display it). Each table also had a basket with coffee candy brought from home. The baskets were again decorated with the burlap ribbon and the punched hearts with our initials.

Behind each of our chairs, I made a Bride and Groom sign decorated with the flowers used on the invitation and center pieces. The wood pieces are from Michaels and I free styled the letters. My brother braided some burlap string to hang the signs.

The Favors:

Continuing with the theme, we did a set of coasters as our favors:

The bag is made out of burlap with the same ribbon (do we see a trend? haha) and the hearts embossed with our initials. Inside there are a couple of coasters made of the same material as the circle on the tables.

Wow I just realized how long this post is getting... So I'll let you all take a break here and I'll post a part two!

Coming up: Program, Guest Book, Thank You Cards.

Thank you for reading. Until next time.