There are some brides that love details, and then there are some brides that LOVE details – well let’s just say the bride of this DIY affair by Scobey Photography for Carla Ten Eyck is for SURE the latter. So much so, her wedding inspired her to launch her own event planning company! Her attention to little touches most certainly paid off, and the lovely Jennie of Jennie Fresa Beauty Library made sure the most important detail – the bride – looked completely ravishing. This personalized, DIY, beachy-chic affair left not one detailed stone unturned, and you can see it all in the gallery.
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As a Connecticut Yankee living in San Francisco, planning a wedding from across the country certainly posed its challenges – but it also made the process that much more interesting. Having grown up by the shoreline in Connecticut and living in the northeast for most of my life, I wanted to incorporate a “New England Shoreline Wedding” theme in to our wedding day by incorporating a DIY, beachy chic feel in to all of the pieces I put together. Our ceremony took place on my hometown green in the quintessential shoreline town of Guilford, CT, and it was so amazing to have all of our friends and family with us in a place so dear to my heart. The aisle in the church was lined with blue mason jars, some of which were passed down from my grandmother and others which I searched high and low to find. The blue mason jars were really the focus of my inspiration, as I grew up canning pickles and jams with my grandmother and family. So for me, the jars didn’t just look pretty, but they also held a sentimental memory for me. Following the church ceremony, the bridal party and immediate family walked across the green to my family’s hardware store which has been in business since 1939. We took advantage of the vintage setting with creaky hardwood floors and packed shelves with gadgets and grills lining the sidewalk outside to take some fun (and unique!) photos. One of the funniest memories I have is my father, all dressed up in his tux, helping a customer who needed to find a battery while the rest of us posed for photos!
One of the details (of many!) I was most excited about in the planning process was the choosing the flowers. I spent a lot of time creating inspiration boards until I found the perfect mix of rustic and elegant blooms to help give our day some added sparkle. From eucalyptus and ranunculus (which my florist searched high and low to find in our season) to football mums and dahlias, to the yellow rose in my father’s boutonniere to honor of his two brothers who passed away from cancer; the flowers were a huge part in our day and I couldn’t have been happier with the final product. I also wore a gardenia in my hair to honor my grandmother who recently passed away and keep her with me on my special day. Our reception took place at Pine Orchard Yacht Club on the water overlooking the Thimble Islands in Branford, CT. Mother nature was good to us and it was an unseasonably warm late September day, so we were able to follow through with our plan for an outdoor cocktail hour with a guitar duo playing music such as Ray Lamontagne and Dave Matthews in the background while friends and family enjoyed appetizers, beer, and wine, along with our signature cocktail. I hand-made all of the paper goods for the wedding from the menus with custom embossed silverware to the photobooth reminders to the signature cocktail cards and table numbers.
As we live in San Francisco we also wanted to incorporate our love for wine country, so we used a Nickel & Nickel wine box for all gift cards and used a burlap runner underneath our DIY beach stone placecards, which my mother, a music teacher, labored over to find and write names on during her summer off from school. I also made our table number holders using wine corks, baker’s twine and hand-made cards featuring a favorite place under each number. Our guest book was a vintage notebook that I found at Anthropologie, keeping in the beachy theme with cut out shells and starfish on the front. We had photos of both sets of parents and grandparents on their wedding day spread across the table in vintage, mismatched frames. We decorated the ballroom with different sized tissue paper puff balls in 3 different shades of pink, strung with light blue and white baker’s twine. The fireplace had twinkling candles in all different sizes with eucalyptus draped along the mantle and more blue mason jars scattered about with candles inside.The overall ambiance was romantic, but captured the fun as well!
All in all, we laughed, we cried (tears of joy), we ate!, we danced, we laughed and then we danced some more. We took hilarious photos in the photobooth (with custom-made props including pink glitter moustaches and bright yellow disco sunglasses) and caught up with friends and family whom we hadn’t seen in years. We started with “Born to Run” – Bruce Springsteen and closed out with “Don’t Stop Believin” – Journey with “New York, New York” playing as guests filed out towards the shuttle buses at the end of he night. It was the perfect day and all of my teeny tiny little details came together just as I’d hoped. Everyone had an amazing time in our fairytale day, and to us, that was the most important part.
Reception Venue: Pine Orchard Yacht Club / Makeup: Jennie Fresa / Photographers: Graham & Ashley Scobey of Scobey Photography for Carla Ten Eyck, assistant Kristin Schueler / Wedding Gown: Ally Bridal, custom design / Veil: Bride’s mother’s / Bridesmaid Dresses: Lula Kate / Hair: Jane at Vivid Salon, Madison CT / Videographer: Michael Maler / Florist: Jennifer Hodgins at Branford Flower Shop / Cocktail Hour Guitar Duo: JA2M / Planning and Event Design: Jacin Fitzgerald (bride), lovely little details {weddings & events}