Rustic Diablo Ranch Wedding

Melissa Baran
September 16, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, Rustic

Ah, Pinterest. The modern Bride’s go-to for wedding inspiration heaven, and most often the birth place of so many fabulous DIY projects and sweet touches that pretty up the weddings we share on the daily. Case in point? This rustic, coral-splashed ranch fete from Jasmine Lee Photography. And thanks to this gorg Bride, you can peruse their lovely list of projects below in addition to this beautiful gallery!

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Rustic

From the beautiful Bride…When we chose Diablo Ranch as our venue, we wanted to make sure that while a working cattle ranch, that is was not a country wedding. We were all for ‘rustic’ and Pinterest delivered a multitude of ideas. So many ideas that for a while I had several weddings planned in my head. I finally honed in on a picture of an outdoor wedding that used copper colored linens and loved it. I added coral for an accent color and that was it. It allowed for simple lanterns for center pieces and small bottles for flowers. The beauty of this venue was that we didn’t need a lot of color or decor, it really spoke for itself with the scenery and ambiance of being on a mountain.

I do like to be crafty and wanted to do as much as we could on our own, not only to help save money, but to make it more personal, for us and our guests.
My sister-in-law helped me design the invitations, centered around a little oak tree, as we had the ceremony under a large oak tree. We kept them simple, with embossed printing and used kraft envelopes for a some contrast. We also designed post card save the dates. Going back to the spot where he proposed, which happened to have the venue in the very distant background of the mountain.
We found pictures of ourselves with every guest to make the escort cards.
We numbered the tables to reflect important dates in our lives.
We also asked all of our guests to send their wedding picture to us prior to our big day. We then designed the guest book for each couple to add the picture they sent, along with well wishes so we could share in their day when we looked back on ours.
Chalk dipped wine glasses were both the guests’ favors and their place setting at the table.
My mom made my garder by taking the lace from her wedding dress and fabric from her mothers wedding dress. She had the wedding dates embroidered on the garder and attached a piece of jewelry that my other grandmother had wanted me to have when she passed away earlier this year.
Small things like my parents cake topper from their wedding, 43 years ago, sat at the guest book table, along with a wedding blanket that my late grandmother crocheted for us.
We also displayed generations of family wedding pictures from both sides and pictures of friends and family that were no longer with us.
We love kids, but wanted our friends to have a night off, so we just had our 7 nieces and nephews at the wedding. We made sure they were well entertained with a chalk board table, bubbles, beach balls, velcro paddles, glow sticks, and personalized mason jars for their drink of choice.
The doors were a labor of love and pure pinterest inspiration that my mom tagged. We loved the idea of having something in the middle of the field. We were so fortunate to find these beautiful doors on craiglist and the owner was so excited when he found out what we were using them for.
When I found my dress I knew it was perfect for the venue and would add to the outdoor elegance I was looking for. It was linen with lace appliqué and was a beautiful fit. I wanted Rob’s suit to go in a casual direction as well and the beige color was a great match to the linen of my dress.

The DIY was a bit time consuming, but when the day finally arrived we got immense joy from people experiencing all the personal touches we added. I think we were both on a natural high the entire day, but really did soak it all in. Doing ‘first look’ photos took the nervousness away and allowed us to have our moment and then truly relax and enjoy the day. Our friends offered to make corn hole boards as their wedding gift, which sparked the idea to have a few games for our guests. We even played as we were getting ready to walk to the ceremony site. We came up with vows that were about us and asked a good friend to officiate. It made for an intimate ceremony that was truly about us. I can honestly say I don’t remember anyone else being there but the two of us and our friend. Ceremony done, we got to enjoy cocktail hour with our friends and family. The baskets of flip flops were gone before we knew it. We used my grandmother’s china and silver for our place settings. Another way for us to have someone there that was no longer with us. We danced and enjoyed our guests throughout the night. We did ask guests to include a song to dance to on their RSVP. It got people up and moving, as we intended. We ended with a late night fire pit and smores (hand packaged, of course).