Is there anything this couple can’t do? They held their wedding in their own backyard, designed the invitations, made cupcake stands and the sweetheart table, created their own guest favors, and the list goes on! A groomsman even brewed a custom wedding ale for their special day. Every little detail is so unique, and what a fitting theme for their wedding: “Yay Love”. Yay love is right, and three cheers for this amazing DIY couple! See all of the amazingness right here in the full gallery of photos, thanks to Park Bench Photography.
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From the Bride… Dawson and I got married on May 26, 2012, in Austin, Texas. We met in 2006 as we were both in a wedding together. He was my assigned groomsmen, and as we left the church in the recessional we danced the tango all the way out. Several years went by and we lost touch, then in 2010, we reconnected and started dating. We got married on our two-year anniversary — the day after my birthday.
Our inspiration for the decorations, event and really our engagement was “Yay Love.” The night of our engagement, we had a small chalkboard framed where people could write us notes to use in our photo booth. Some of our friends wrote “yay love,” and it just stuck with us as we started to plan our wedding. The color scheme was a little harder to come up with but we chose muted shades of red, yellow and blue. Dawson designed the invitations and programs. We knew we wanted to have the reception in our backyard because shortly after our engagement we were given the house as a gift from his grandparents. We wanted to share our excitement with our loved ones and immediately start entertaining people. The summer before our wedding Dawson built the detached garage/barn/workshop, and it was the perfect setting for our dance floor and desserts. We had a 30’x40’ tent set up in the backyard, which housed most of the seating for dinner. Some additional seating was behind the tent in the crushed granite part of the backyard. Each table was dressed with a white tablecloth, colored fabric runner and burlap. Small wood chunks were cut by Dawson to hold our “yay” flags, flowers in mason jars, small succulents in tiny mason jars for favors and regular mason jars for drinks (Our friend and groomsman Danny made us a special brew called Williams Wedding Ale). The flags were very multipurpose and we used them in our programs, table centerpieces and as our send-off decorations. For the dessert table, Dawson made the cupcake stands from pieces of wood he had in the garage. We made the banners out of our engagement pictures and wedding photos from family members on both sides. The guest book was another Pinterest idea we came across. We both have a love for airstream trailers and hope to have one in the backyard one day as a guest house. Dawson, being very talented and handy, also made the table we used for our sweetheart table, which was dressed with my grandmother’s handmade tablecloth. He also made the terrace-type fence behind our table for me the first Valentine’s Day we were together in 2010.
Our officiant is a good friend of ours and the youth pastor at our church. Our ceremony included a reading of Philippians 1:9-11, communion, a time of prayer, vows and a short message of the gospel. Our chapel had a small balcony seating section and as we turned to face the audience as a married couple it was really fun to look up and see all of our friends cheering for us. After the ceremony, we had a short receiving line before taking pictures and heading to the backyard. We didn’t want pictures to last too long, but we also wanted to allow our guests plenty of time to get settled into the backyard. We didn’t do a lot of formalities at our reception — we stuck to the basics of being introduced as married and first dance. We really wanted a relaxed environment for everyone to cut loose and enjoy themselves. Several guests changed into street clothes before the dancing began. Our DJ was an iPod, which gave us the freedom to be surprised by what song came on next and enjoy the spontaneous dance-offs that occurred.
Wedding Photography: Park Bench Photography / Ceremony: Shelton Chapel at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas / Reception: The Home of the Bride and Groom in Austin, Texas / Event Planning: Blue Box Events / Floral Design: Jack + Sandy Brown / Appetizer: DIY by the Bride & Groom / Meal Catering: P. Terry’s / Desserts: Rachel Spies / Wedding Invitations: Dawson Williams (The Groom) / Tent & Rentals: Miscellaneous Rentals + Star of Texas Tents and Events / Yay Flags + Fabric Runners: DIY / Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal / Bride’s Shoes: Seychelles via DSW / Hair + Makeup: Laura Koch Wyrtzen