Good Morning. We hope you all had an extra lovely, totally delightful holiday weekend. We are going to kick off the last week of 2010 with a real doozy. You’ve heard of a green thumb, right? Well this pretty bride has what we like to call a crafty thumb. She possesses the DIY prowess that Etsy dreams are made of and this gorgeous wedding photographed by Kim Le is the result. Totally cute, completely whimsical and lovingly hand-made, this wedding is worth a morning visit to the gallery for sure.
see the rest of this colorful celebration here!
It was our dream to have a small, quaint, and personal wedding with our closest family and friends. Since we wanted to make sure everyone could make it, we decided to choose a location in the Los Angeles Area. We chose the very first location we looked at which was at the James Irvine Japanese Garden. It had the most beautiful and serene garden with the sound of water trickling from a pond that was just so lovely. I knew I had wanted an outdoor wedding and this was the perfect setting nestled in the heart of downtown! The reception area overlooked the garden and was a blank canvas which was also a plus since I wanted to be able to design the room to my heart’s content.
I knew from the beginning I wanted a wedding that was whimsical with a vintage feel. My favorite store in the whole wide world is Anthropologie! I love the atmosphere there! It’s such a happy place and a lot of their decor is crafty and handmade! I knew right off the bat, that I wanted that type of feel for our wedding. It was my hope that our family and friends would enjoy our happy day of whimsical love and marriage! I’ve always enjoyed crafting and knew that the wedding had to be mostly handmade. I woudn’t have it any other way! It was my way of showing how much I loved everyone. Wasn’t quite sure how to craft everything in the beginning. I had gone to a random garage sale and to my surprise, found a huge bag of vintage lace and feathers! Crafty ideas started forming in my mind and used them to make the table numbers and boutonnieres. I had also found a huge stock of vintage flower stamens at a flea market and I was in heaven! I felt so blessed to be able to find such wonderful crafting supplies to craft the vintage whimsical theme. At first, I was going to have real flowers, but after finding these vintage stamens, I knew I wanted to make all of the flowers out of paper including my bouquet! I had also found a vase at an antique store that was decoupaged with fabric. This gave me the idea to decoupage plastic drinking bottles with fabric to use as vases for the paper flowers. Crafting the wedding was so much fun and everything came together so smoothly. It was amazing! I believe my grandmother who keeps an eye on me from heaven, helped me in the entire process! Thank you grandma! The ceremony was just as whimsical. Our wonderful guitarist, Amy Hite, played “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles right after we kissed! It was so romantic! Our guests had waved flags that I had made which really showed their love to us!
Photography: Kim Le / Ceremony and Reception Venue: Japanese American Cultural & Community Center / DJ + MC: John Gilpin / Cupcakes: Baby Cakes Shop / Cake: Susie Cakes / Lighting: De-lighted / Guitarist: Amy Hite / Silhouette Artist: Cut Arts / Hair & Makeup: Elena Vera / Table Decor, Props, Bouquet + Boutonnieres: The bride’s Etsy Store – Whimsyful Pretties