I own a shop geared toward brides. It would hardly be fair for me to have anything less than 50% of my wedding be DIY projects. Even those that were not DIY were almost entirely purchased from Etsy shops! I would like to share with you all of the creative beauty--the Treasured Details, if you will--that made up my wedding. Every little bit of my wedding was a bit of love from me to my guests. Thanks to all the great Etsy shops that contributed to the success of the lovely event!
All of the shops mentioned in this post are highly recommended! Also, if you happen to see anything of my design that inspires or interests you, please let me know, or visit my Etsy shop,
TreasuredDetails. I love working on custom projects, and after completing my own wedding, I know the importance of patience and customization for brides. I look forward to working with you!
June 2, 2012
The Ladies
Picture the flurry of bridesmaids getting ready for their big day, arriving at the hair salon at 8am for their fancy hair styles! Each of my bridesmaids wore custom-crafted hair accessories designed specifically for them by me. I designed hair accessories for each of them based on their hair types and on the hair styles they wanted to use for the wedding. This is one of my beautiful bridesmaids, Kelly, sporting a crochet lace and ribbon headband in her long hair.
When we arrived at the venue, which was an apple orchard, the girls and I went up to our bridal room where they picked up their bouquets, which I also made individually for each of them. Their bouquets were each accented with a charm that I chose and that had significant meaning for each of them. I also designed my own bridal bouquet and added a touch of "something blue" in the bright monarch butterfly.
In the bridal room, we spent some time getting ready. The girls put on jewelry that was designed by a fantastic team on Etsy, Tracy and Charyl of
Rustic Gem Jewelry. I was more than pleased with the beautiful designs made just in the accent colors I wanted for my girls. The necklaces were seed pearls with asymmetrically placed resin flowers, and the earrings matched. My bridesmaids wore white pearls and my maid of honor wore light blue pearls, but each necklace was completely unique so that none of the girls were wearing the same piece as another!
My maid-of-honor, my sister Michelle, purchased these adorable clutch purses for each of us. These were custom designs from another Etsy seller, and I will update with their name and information as soon as I receive it! The girls each had different yellow designs and my clutch was a mostly white with yellow flowers. I accented it with a blue vintage pin given to my by my mother-in-law on the first Christmas after my husband and I started dating!
I wore a tiny charm bracelet with my husband's initial on it. It was purchased from a lovely Etsy shop called
Mon Cadeau. I wanted to wear something that signified my love for him, and our connection. I've been wearing it since the wedding almost 3 months ago. When it broke, the gracious shop owner agreed to fix it for me for a small and reasonable fee. I enjoyed doing business with her very much!
My bridesmaids made requests about their additional accessories, and one of mine asked for puffy shoe clips made of tulle. I was really excited to make these for her, though stressed out because I made them the day before the rehearsal!
For my wedding day, I personally wore a beautiful rhinestone comb purchased from a wonderful Etsy shop called
The Pemberley Collection. My subtle literary theme made it impossible for me to avoid buying something so beautiful from a shop with such a significant name!
I also created a veil and the other hair accessories that my bridesmaids wore from supplies purchased at my very favorite Etsy shop,
Mary Not Martha. They are my favorite suppliers to work with! They are so helpful and their products are the absolute highest quality goods.
The Gentlemen
I custom designed each boutonniere, corsage, and bouquet that was carried at the wedding, creating flowers for all immediate family members, grandmothers, wedding party members, and special guests. Each one was unique for the guests' particular role. The flower creation and design was an extremely detailed process for me, but it was a labor of love (one that took many, many hours of working late into the night) that I thoroughly enjoyed doing for my loved ones and friends. Pictured is one of the custom boutonniere designs for an usher.
My husband chose custom-designed cufflinks for each of his groomsmen, and purchased them separately from various Etsy shops. Each cufflink spoke of something significant about his relationship with each of them. I did the same for him, choosing cufflinks that were significant to our relationship. And I should add that I purchased 3 different ones before hitting on the perfect one. I choose these little backpack cufflinks for him because backpacking has been a hobby that we've shared since we started dating. These were purchased from an Etsy shop called
Mancornas.
The Ceremony and Reception
My mom was the most creative designer of our reception! She created so many wonderful things to make our celebration a success! She has always been my inspiration behind creating Treasured Details, and she was an essential part of making the littlest details so significant that day. One of my mom's earlier projects was a little added detail to the jar candle holders that we placed on all the tables. We also added vintage crystal to the table for additional candle holders.
Together my bridesmaid Kelly and I created the place cards which were truly based on a library card design. (See? That subtle literary theme I was talking about!) The library card boxes were purchased off the clearance rack at Joann Fabric and my mom did a painting technique on them to make them look like dark wood. I created the labels for the card catalogs.
A few days before the wedding, my mom put together some creative signage that was strategically placed all around the reception hall. We were married in a large open garden under an ancient oak tree, and our reception was held in a large barn (we use the term loosely, because it was actually incredibly elegant!) Our guests rode trolleys to and from the ceremony site. The signs were meant to deter them from getting lost!
For our wedding favors, my mom made homemade fudge which we placed in tiny boxes. I purchased these adorable custom labels from a lovely seller called
MAUpromos. They were great to work with and they created a wonderful product that looks exactly like I wanted!
In keeping with the two birds theme from the custom favor box labels, my mom created a giant, hand-painted banner kind of on the fly the last week before the wedding. She wanted to cover the big plain wall at the back of the downstairs portion of our reception hall. She also created the custom finials made of natural brush and added the beautiful Chinese lanterns that I was determined to have all along!
Activities
When Nick and I first started talking about our wedding, one of our number one requirements was that our guests not be bored! We were thrilled when our reception hall suggested that we have games and even gave us outdoor patio space for bean bags. My dad is a fine carpenter who makes beautiful bean bag games, so we were able to use one of his sets, and my mom sewed together these adorable bean bags in our wedding colors. I was so happy to see our bean bag game provide hours of entertainment to our guests!
Just in case bean bags and dancing weren't your cup of tea, we provided a few other activities! One was a scrapbooking table for our interactive guest book. This was a great place for people to stop and spend a little creative time between dinner and visiting the bar, donut and cider table, or cupcake table!
Our night also included some musical entertainment from our friends--they performed some of the slow songs while the DJ provided some massive entertainment for the interactive dancing music. We created table programs so that all the guests would know who was expected to perform (though not which songs they were doing, because I didn't even know that!) The back side of the table programs had a fun photo scavenger hunt game that some of our guests participated in all night long. We enjoyed checking out the photos they uploaded to Facebook for us!
Additional Details
I purchased a Scrabble letter "LOVE" banner from a cute Etsy shop called
Purple Peony Couture, and used this for some fun photos after the reception. One of these fun photos is now rocking out on some of our wedding thank-yous! I have also made plans to hang this banner on the wall of our apartment, but I just haven't bought that stud finder yet...
Our wedding invitations were a huge hit from the beginning, and they were the first installment in the literary theme. Also the large tree was a perfect addition, as my guests discovered when they came to the ceremony, because we were married under a large oak tree! These invitations were custom made by
VO handmade, and I absolutely loved working with the designer, Vanessa. She was so patient with me in my pre-wedding freak-out (don't all brides have that?) and she created a product that I was proud to send out to each of my guests.
Our wedding programs were made and designed entirely by me to save money and time, and then my bridesmaid Kelly had them printed for me! We printed them in a creamy yellow and a nice light blue, placing them alternately in a basket. They were a nice touch, and a beautiful detail for the wedding. Pictured is my beautiful best friend Robin (my was-going-to-be-a-bridesmaid-but-got-pregnant-and-was-due-the-week-of-my-wedding best friend...turns out baby Dash was a little early and she came in that hot little cocktail dress after all! Too bad we couldn't see the future on that.) She is wearing a wrist corsage I made for her.
Last but definitely not least is the most complicated project of all...one that started the first week of wedding planning and was completed the last day of wedding planning 11 months later. The table centerpieces! These were created with assorted vases and jugs, some hand-painted by my mom and myself to make them match the theme. The flowers are silks that were purchased over the course of those 11 months and arranged by both of us. The lovely table numbers were brainstormed by me and created by my talented mom.
My wedding was a dream come true! I married the most wonderful man I know, the wedding was beautiful, and my guests all had a wonderful time!
Greetings, fall and winter brides! I don't know about you, but when it was the season of my wedding, I postponed choosing my accessories until the very last minute. Choosing your veil or hair accessory can be pretty stressful because whatever you choose ends up being the hair accessory of your whole life. However, I also discovered from being a bride that having a statement piece is the key to being a memorable bride!
Seasonal: What month is your wedding? Have you already chosen your bridal colors? Unlike past generations, color choices are not completely locked in by seasons. You don't have to use dark colors in the winter or pastel colors in the spring and summer. Brides should choose the colors that they like the most and use the details (the specialty of TreasuredDetails!) to correlate the wedding to the seasons. For example, I saw a beautiful pale blue wedding once in the dead of winter, and the details were white branches, and snowy white glitter. How lovely! 
Floral Colors: Talk with your florist when you're trying to decide on an appropriate hair accessory for yourself. What colors are being added to your bouquets? For example, are your bridesmaids in black and you in white, but your bouquets are combinations of brilliant colors like purple and pink? These little accent colors could be the ones that make you stand out as the queen of the day! 
