DIY Maryland Wedding at Sotterley Plantations

Abby Capalbo
October 7, 2014
Categories: Do-It-Yourself Inspired, Real Weddings, The Blog

I don’t think I could love this darling DIY wedding more if I tried. Honestly, I’ve been smiling since the second I opened these gorgeous image from Melanie Yu, and I don’t plan on leaving this gallery anytime soon. Can you really blame me? Because every image sitting in this gallery is not only beautiful but filled with love, and that just so happens to be my favorite thing. See it all here.

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From The Bride…When brainstorming inspirations for our special day, we knew we wanted a small, intimate gathering with our closest friends and families in a laid back, casual setting. We also both love nature and being outside, so we definitely wanted an outdoor ceremony with open scenery and lots of greens.

My fiancé Tommy and I met 20 years ago in middle school in Dallas, Texas. Although we’ve each since lived in many different states and countries, we both have strong southern roots, especially in southern BBQ! So we definitely wanted to include some of our favorite dishes to eat together: pulled pork, shrimp & grits, Texas corn pudding, brussel sprouts, and cornbread. When we visited Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, Maryland, we instantaneously fell in love with the openness, the beautiful scenery, including the Patuxent River, the historic plantation buildings, as well as the magnificent barn. We both knew it was the perfect backdrop for our day.

Being that we were on a tight budget, Tommy and I decided not to hire a wedding planner but plan everything ourselves. This proved to be challenging, given that he was a full-time student and I was a surgical resident with busy schedules. But looking back, it gave us the perfect opportunity to find the right vendors who helped bring our vision to reality and to incorporate all the details that reflected us as a couple. We even found a local Mennonite family with a flower farm to do all our flowers for an unbeatable price. And the flowers turned out beautifully.

All the details at the wedding were DIY by us – everything from the cake toppers to the chalkboard signs. Not only did Tommy build the beautiful alter, he also built the flower boxes, the signs, and the ladders we used to hang the escort cards. I hand painted all of the signs for the wedding and used coral and ivory yarns to decorate the table numbers, mini jars, our initials, and the backdrop sign that we used as a backdrop for our sweetheart table. To go along with the southern theme, we rented colorful, vintage fabric napkins from Etsy and bought bamboo plates and utensils.

To represent our Korean American background, we also wore our traditional Korean costumes during the cocktail hour. For favors, in addition to the mason jars our guests used as drinking cups for the night, we handmade mini polaroid magnets with romantic and vintage pictures hand-picked by us for our guests to take home. We even made personalized sheets that our guests used to take their own polaroid pictures home on.

Our most favorite detail from the day would have be the feet washing portion of the wedding ceremony, which not only represented our faith in Christ but also our first acts of service to one another as husband and wife. All in all, it truly turned out to the best day ever filled with joy and love – a day that we will treasure for the rest of our lives.