It doesn’t get more adorable than this backyard beauty by Sugar Snap Photography. It just doesn’t! The Bride’s dress is enough to send you into a tizzy of excitement, but then we you add the sweet DIY details and the couple’s adorable pups we go into an adorable territory that hasn’t been touched. If you need even more adorable to get you through they day – well, visiting the full gallery needs to move to the top of your Monday to-do list!
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From the Bride… When Austen and I (then full-time college students at the time with very little money and absolutely no construction experience) bought a 60-year-old, dilapidated house to completely renovate and live in two years ago, everyone told us we were crazy. So it didn’t come to a shock to many of our friends or family when we announced we were getting married in our un-landscaped backyard —and doing everything ourselves — on a very low budget in less than 60 days. Sure, getting married at your house with little money and even less time isn’t the simplest thing in the world, but I guess we are just DIY people, and when it came to our wedding, I could not have been more pleased with the choices we made.
Every last detail of our wedding was DIY, handmade or budget-friendly. We set our budget at $5,000 and even though every one told us we were crazy, we tried with all our might to stick to it. Sure, it made things a little more difficult, but in the end it caused us to be much more creative and involved. Best of all, because we enlisted so much help from our friends and family, each detail of our wedding is even more meaningful to us. Most of the flowers we used were grown by a gardener friend of ours and the bouquets were arranged by me, my best friend and my wonderfully helpful aunts. Our rings were handmade for us by a jewelry artist on Etsy. The catering was done for us by an incredibly generous family friend and the cake was baked and decorated for us by my mom, using her famous carrot zucchini cake recipe. The favors were made from honey from my uncle’s honey farm and were an enormous hit. The live centerpieces were potted by my mom and me (a week before the big day and in the rain, no less), and the decor, which included dozens of chalkboards, cake stands, lanterns, and countless pillar candle holders, was all tediously painted and put together by my handy groom. The music for the ceremony was played for us by my Dad and a few other musically inclined family members, and the ceremony was written and led by my witty uncle and grandfather. Each aspect was thought out, deliberate and helped us tell our story to our guests.
Sure, there were many melt downs, catastrophes and mishaps along the way (yes, a pizza delivery guy DID barge in right in the middle of our ceremony, and yes, the power did temporarily go out the during the reception, taking both our music and light source with it) but we gained so many wonderful memories that made all the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile. We really hit the wedding jackpot in my eyes, because not only did our wedding end up symbolizing our love for each other, but also the immense amount of love and support that we have from our friends and family. Looking back, we are so happy with the choices we made and just feel so very grateful for each and every person that helped make our wedding day so magical. And lastly, my advice to all the DIY or budget brides out there? Go for it! Have fun with it! And, while you’re at it, enlist lots of help! You really can have the wedding of your dreams without spending your whole life’s savings. It won’t always be easy, but the result will be a wedding that is as meaningful as it is beautiful.
Wedding Photography: Sugar Snap Photography / Floral + Event Design: The Bride / Decor: The Groom / Catering: A Family Friend / Wedding Cake: The Mother of the Bride / Officiants: The Uncle + Grandfather of the Bride / Favors: Michael’s Mountain Honey (Owned by the Uncle of the Bride) / Wedding Dress: BCBG / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: J.Crew / Menswear: J.Crew / Rings: SingleBbeautiful / Rentals: Unlimited Party Rental