Ok, this wedding had me the minute I read that the bride’s mother made her wedding dress. Yes…Made. Her. Wedding. Dress. And it’s not hard to see why I was immediately in awe. But the DIY doesn’t stop there, no sir. The bride created the bouquet, boutonniere, bridesmaids bouquets, handmade paper flowers and paper birds for the table arrangements, and floral around the cake. She is my hero today, as is Duston of Duston Todd Photography for capturing their day in such a gorgeous way. For more awe-inspiring images, be sure to check out the gallery.
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Rings – I knew I was going to have a hard time finding a ring that I would want to wear the rest of my life! We started going to the local antique stores and tried on some AMAZING rings, one was a 5 kt Russian royalty ring from the 1890’s- a little out of our price range though haha. I was on my computer one day and looking online at some antique stores on the east coast- and found my ring! It was dated around 1920 and I instantly fell in love with the geometric design and the qualities that only hand-made jewelry has. We called the store and had it sent out. I had three days to decide whether I wanted to keep it or not….after staring at it for a few hours I knew it was the ring I had been searching for! Antique shopping for rings is just amazing- every one is so different and completely unique.
Groom’s suit – This was something I left almost completely up to my fiance Rock. We had decided on a color (tan suits were a lot harder to hunt down then I thought they would be!) and Rock finally found one that matched his new Urban Outfitter shoes…he was stoked on his new shoes.
Bridesmaid dresses – I am not a fan of the weddings that have one or two colors and everything has to stick to those colors, I wanted to bring a little more into the mix. So finding the bridesmaids dresses ended up being one of the easiest parts of the preparations! I was just strolling through Nordstroms and came across this lovely color purple. I thought it would match the victorian/natural look I was hoping to achieve- and they were an easy fit for all my bridesmaids.
Jewelry – “Something Old” Days leading up to my bridals with Duston Todd, the dress was still not finished and the last thing I was thinking about was what jewelry I was going to wear. I had initially wanted a cameo somewhere on the dress, but hadn’t got around to finding one. My cute Grandma had heard in passing that I still needed jewelry, and came over with a few tattered jewelry boxes for me to look through. Many of the pieces had been passed down from her mother and were from the early 1900’s. There was a beautiful coral Cameo in the box and I knew it was the perfect size and color- it was a perfect finishing touch to my dress. Rock also had a little piece of the past with him that day- he was wearing his Grandpas tie pin! It all tied in with the classic, antique feeling of the whole day.
Dress – “Something New” If only I could show everyone the drawing that was my “design” for my wedding dress…its pretty special. My husband may be a sketch artist but I am certainly not. My mom had agreed to sew the dress for me, but we had very different ideas of how to go about things. She is used to patterns, measuring, planning, etc…and all she had to go off of was a terrible drawing that I had made of my vision. She was a great sport though- even through the late nights of yelling and scribbling pens across the sketch of my dress, we somehow made it through. “Something Borrowed” Some of the lace on the dress (the neck, sleeves, and mid section) was found from an old victorian dress. I was lucky enough to come across it and bought it before I even knew my mom was going to make the dress or not! I just couldn’t pass it up- it’s one of my favorite parts of the whole dress! My mom would kill me if she knew I was telling people this, but on the day of shooting my bridals we were still not completely done with the dress! We woke up early that morning and finished the sleeves (I even styled my hair on the side of the dress that was less likely to be done in time haha). We got it mostly all put together, but the hem was still in pins and there were more then a few pins on the bodice. O well! You couldn’t tell in the photos at all : ) “Something Blue” Sticking with the fact that nothing really matched, I decided on a pair of lovely blue shoes. I fell in love with the steel blue color and the fact that they weren’t 4″ stilettos!
Venue specifics – Millcreek Canyon is a place that I have grown up around, only being about 5 minutes away from my house. During the summers I bike and climb up that canyon- and I just love mountains. It was the perfect venue for an outdoor reception. We didn’t have to decorate too much which was nice. I had experimented with paper birds and flowers before and wanted to try and make something for the wedding with them. It ended up being our main decoration! About a week before the wedding we had a good ol’ fashion arts and crafts night with some of my family members, I showed them how to make the different things and they all caught on pretty quick. I put all the centerpieces together a few days before the wedding and didn’t have to worry about it again! I had experience with doing wedding flowers from all my sisters weddings, so the thought of doing my own didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I had my amazing sisters to help me pick up the flowers and we had a fun time just sitting around and putting everything together. I chose flowers that looked like I could have picked them on a nature walk or something- it just felt more me then roses and other more manicured flowers.
The day was absolutely perfect- crazy, but perfect. I unfortunately wasn’t one of those nervous brides that wakes up an hour before their alarm goes off…I actually slept through my alarm! So I didn’t have as much time to get ready as I would have hoped, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter. We had the most amazing time listening to all the toasts being presented, and I had been waiting to hear this song that I knew Rock had written for me- it was awesome. We danced the night away and had so much fun, we couldn’t have asked for nicer weather up the canyon. We changed into our send off clothes and hurried down a line of friends and family throwing lavender (which took me a long time to get it all out of my hair!). Rock was nervous that we were going to crash the bike going down the canyon- but I think I was on such an adrenaline rush I barely remember thinking twice about something like that! I was just happy that everything went so well and that we were finally married. I am so glad that I had Duston there to document it all, thanks again Duston!
Photography: Duston Todd Photography / Venue: Millcreek Inn / Floral: all flowers, bouquet(s), boutonniere, table arrangements (paper flowers and paper birds), were made by the bride/ Dress: made by the mother of the bride / Bridesmaid Dresses: Nordstrom
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