Some brides would be totally intimidated by a DIY wedding with a guest count of 170, but not this drop dead gorgeous lady! She, along with her closets friends and family spent her entire 6 month engagement getting their crafty-craft on and the result is beyond amazing! Just look at those gorgeous water color invites!!! Elaine Palladino Photography captured all the DIY goodness as well as all those meaningful moments and there’s an entire gallery just bursting with pretty. See it all right here.
Don’t miss this gorgeous film by Senderey Video:
From the Bride… I wanted a New Zealand-style wedding in Miami. In New Zealand, weddings are a lot more relaxed in their style, whereas Miami has a certain glitzy style, which was the opposite of what I wanted. The florist had to bring in all of our flowers from California because I wanted garden roses, lavender, peonies and other varieties that aren’t popular in Miami. Our flower choices fit well with our floral-themed decorations and colors: there were a lot of pinks, corals, gold, lemon and cream (and even a little bit of mustard). We are Jewish, so we had a lot of different aspects to incorporate. Our wedding was an entire weekend experience. My husband’s family hosted both of our out-of-town family and friends for the Friday and Saturday Sabbath meals. On the Saturday, my friend made me the most wonderful Shabbat Kallah (the Jewish version of a bridal shower) with beautiful hand crafts and hilarious games. For the actual wedding, we had custom prayer books made that matched our invitations, and the florist made us simple and elegant chuppah poles, which worked wonderfully with our delicate glass and paper aisle decorations.
We had a relatively short engagement (six months), and I — with a lot of help from friends and my new mother-in-law (my mother was overseas) — spent the entire time making, sticking, designing, stringing, chopping and decorating everything: flags, paper flowers, cupcake toppers, wooden spoons, stickers, invitations, place cards, confetti, signs, paper straws, menu cards and aisle decorations. My favorite detail was the seating chart; I worked on it for hours. I cut and hand painted paper flowers that I wrote everyone’s name on in ink and placed them into a frame. We had 170 guests, so I needed a solution that would work with that many people. Everything cute that I saw on websites was for no more than 50 people, so I had to think of a solution myself. In the end, we liked it so much we’ve kept it, repaired it (unfortunately, some names fell after the glass pane broke) and hung it on our wall.
My favorite parts of the day were having my closest family and friends from around the world at the wedding (I had about 30 people travel in from New Zealand, London, Israel, Holland, Los Angeles and New York) and my husband singing me down the aisle. I was so worried we’d both be a nervous wreck, but at that moment we were both brimming with happiness. My advice for other brides would be to make sure you find a wonderful photographer and cinematographer (like we did!). We were so caught up in our responsibilities as Bride/Groom/Hosts that we didn’t get to see what was happening around us. Our guests keep telling us little snippets of the day which they experienced and enjoyed — some things that were planned and others that were not, but most of them were missed by us.
Wedding Photography: Elaine Palladino Photography / Ceremony: DoubleTree by Hilton Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida / Reception + Catering: Briza on the Bay in Miami, Florida / Wedding Planning: The Bride & Groom / Floral Design + Wedding Day Set-Up: Epicure / Wedding Cinematography: Senderey Video / Wedding Invitations: DIY by the Bride / Band: The Music Machine / Wedding Dress: Pronovias / Bride’s Shoes: Vivienne Westwood by Melissa “Lady Dragon” / Bride’s Veil: Borrowed from the Bride’ Sister / Groom’s Tuxedo: Made to Measure by AM Bespoke / Groom’s Shoes: ALDO