Well ladies and gents, this wedding by Jessica Charles Photography is a DIY dream come true. It’s DIY done right and with a whole-lotta heart, and that’s the best possible way in my little ol’ opinion. The pennant flags are stealing my heart, the lovebirds are just precious and boutonnieres are beautiful (or handsome I should say). It’s all so downright cute, and there is even more in the full gallery!
Click here to see the entire gallery of images!
From the Bride…On May 21, 2011, I married my high school sweetheart. I met Eddie as a 16-year-old working at Chick-fil-A. We spent the early period of our love working together over fried chicken and sweet tea… our flirtation mostly manifesting itself by trading mixed tapes – handcrafted ‘Inspiration-O-Plenty’s’ that have become staple of our life now. As our summer drew to a close, our love didn’t. Even with me moving away to a college over 300 miles away, we were able to keep our love strong. Now, almost six years later – that same young love was made evident through our DIY southern style wedding, held at Twenty-Eight Twelve, an estate venue in Brandon, FL.
When Eddie and I got engaged, we knew our wedding wouldn’t be the typical extravagant affair. As much as I wanted to have a blow out wedding, there was no way we could afford it. Even with this budget in mind, I was extremely optimistic. I scoured wedding blogs and DIY sites to find the perfect pieces to use in our wedding. I had so many ideas and crafts that I knew I wanted to do – the only problem was the fact I had two jobs and was wrapping my senior year as an accounting and finance major at Florida State. Finding time to balance work, school and planning a wedding from counties away was exhausting. Eventually I learned to prioritize and this helped me narrow down exactly what I wanted to do. I had to figure out what was important to me, what represented Eddie and I as a couple and whether or not I had the resources to do the project justice.
After many months of looking through blogs and magazines, I finally had a vision for the wedding. It was perfect, because I knew it would look fantastic, be fairly inexpensive to implement and be very personal to Eddie and I. We picked a gorgeous venue, a private estate tucked away in our hometown for a backyard wedding and estate-style reception. The overall theme for the wedding was a sunset colored, southern style wedding, with an emphasis on lovebirds and pennant flags.
Wedding Photography: Jessica Charles Photography / Caterer: Chick-fil-A Valrico Florida / Venue: Twenty-Eight Twelve Event / Guest Book: Inspired by design from Bleu de Toi / Music: Alafia Strings Quartet / Wedding Cake: SunBaked LLC