Alina from My Yellow Umbrella has shared with us her beautiful barn wedding, with all of her DIY skills.    She made the wedding invitations, programs, sparkler tags, cupcake log stand, banners, photo props, ring bearer pillow, flower girl dress, craspedia bouquets/boutonnieres, comment cards, the I Do sign, twine globes, and a lot of thrifting for table decorations and the vintage suitcase.  She sure kept her goal of keeping it unique, affordable and mostly handmade!  Make sure to check out her blog for lots of DIY tutorials and her Etsy Shop where she sells a lot of her sewing products.  I especially love this sailor’s knot rope door stopper.  I’d love a nautical theme wedding bride to use this as one of the decorations.

Anyways back to Alina’s DIY wedding photos!

^ I love bridesmaids in flats!
^ I love paper straws
^ I can’t believe she made all these!^ Great vintage suitcase find!

Location| Fulton Valley Farms
Video | Craig and Mary Beebe of The Brickhouse Studios
Photography | Jackie and Casey Cooper of Jackie Cooper Photo
Hair | Kayla Bodley at House of Hair Salon
Wedding dress | The Savvy Bride
Bridesmaids dress | David’s Bridal (link to the dresses here)
Groom’s/groomsmen custom suits | MakeYourOwnJeans.com (custom suits for $100 each!)
Grant’s (ringbearer) suspenders and bowtie | The Baxter Boy (Etsy Shop)
Striped candy bags | Two Crazy Ladies (Etsy Shop)
Gray striped straws | Shop Sweet LuluCandy (75 pounds of it, folks) | Candy.com and CandyFavorites.com
Flowers | Dillon’s Floral Department
Ruffle fabric for flower girl dresses | RuffleFabric.com
Groomsmen, groom and usher’s ties | Cheap-Neckties.com
Sparklers | SuperiorFireworks.com
Bride’s Shoes | Off Broadway Shoes
Bridesmaid Shoes | Ebay.com
Cupcakes, drinks and cups/utensils | Sam’s Club
Yellow plates and napkins | The Dollar Tree
Mason jar drink dispensers, yellow parasol and yellow paper lanterns (hanging above the candy table) | World Market
Glassware on candy table | mostly thrifted,  HomeGoods and Target!
Pepsi crate on candy table | Bondie’s Old Town Antique Mall, a local antique shop

Alina’s Top Ten DIY Tips

1. Think about getting married in the off-season; by having a December wedding, we got our location for half-price, simply because it was their off-season.
2. To second my note above, stay away from anything labeled “wedding” just for the sake of being labeled. I saw so many prices doubled just because they had “wedding” in the name!
3. Think ordinary; our cupcakes were bought in bulk from Sam’s. We heard (I didn’t have time to stop and eat one!) that they were awesome. They also looked pretty because my mom insisted that we cut out cupcake wrappers and top them with a monogram.
4. Do it yourself; you can see for yourself the list of items we made ourselves above. By simply spending the time creating the things we wanted, we cut out all of the expenses we would have incurred in paying someone. For the items we didn’t have time to make, we tried to use local businesses and Etsy shops. What you’ll end up with is something totally unique and completely personalized.
5. Cut down on fresh flowers; the only fresh flowers we bought were babies breath, ranunculus and a couple of bouquets of simple white flowers they already had in the store. If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t even special-order the ranunculus. They were beautiful, but accounted for over half of our total flower cost ($120 total, if you’re wondering), and they had so many beautiful white flowers I could have also used (which I did end up doing since the ranunculus were so small). I’ll do a post on flowers later, but these are my initial thoughts!
6. Do your research; we were able to buy $100 custom suits and all of the ties were under $15 (some were even $5!). That’s less than renting a tux for each guy AND they all came out of the deal with a custom suits, folks! By doing your research to find the best price, you can feel confident in what you are buying.
7. Shop on clearance and thrift your heart out; my shoes were bought on clearance, my dress came from a consignment shop, our mason jars came from thrift shops/Craiglist/friends, everthing (except the mason jar drinks dispensers) from World Market was on clearance, most of the glassware was thrifted…rarely did we buy something for full price, but if we did, we did our research first (see #6).
8. Decide what’s important and spend your money there; I’ve always said that pictures would be the most important for me. My feelings are that your big day are gone in such a flash that all you’re left with is photos, memories and maybe even a video. So, photography took the biggest chunk of our budget, which was 1000% OK since we planned for it. From there, we were able to allocate the remaining money to everything else. It helped us to pare down and sort through the list of possible items to include. For example, we didn’t have a DJ, so we set up a Spotify playlist on my Mac and had a friend in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly. F-R-E-E! (Thanks, Ben!)
9. Let people help you; this one was hardest for me. Not because I wanted to control it, but because there were so many little things I was picturing, I had a hard time communicating and delegating it all. Probably the biggest help to me was when my mom came down for the weekend and sat me down to research and order things we needed (like the candy). I needed someone to make me focus on getting it done, rather than spending my time stressing about it. (Thanks, Mom!) We also made our twine lanterns (interrupted in the middle by an earthquake!) and I finished the flower girl dresses that weekend. Oh, and my Nana came up a day earlier and we took care of buying all of the paper goods. Not only was it a huge help to me having them there, but we also created some fun memories. So, have a girl’s night with your friends or get together with your family and knock those projects out!
10. Finally, know that your big day is going to go fast. By preparing myself for that, I remembered to stop at different times during the day and try to freeze that moment in my memory. I missed things, yes…I didn’t get anything to eat or drink and I didn’t see the kids eating candy or people enjoying the fires outside, but I do remember what my thoughts were when I woke up, I remember seeing my friend Krissy on the couch as I was leaving for my hair appointment, I remember the quiet time spent with my mom, Jackie and Kayla as I was getting my hair done, I remember the looks on the groomsmen faces during the ceremony, I remember the things my daddy whispered to me when we were dancing (he made me cry big time), I remember the hugs we got right after the ceremony, I remember seeing precious friends that live far away, I remember the moment we decided it was time to leave and I remember being on cloud 9 as we drove away. That day was truly the best day of my life and I’m still so elated as I sit here remembering.

The moment you all have been waiting for! The Little Canopy’s handmade flower petal curtain backdrop!! I have uploaded the 10 feet long curtain here and the 7 feet long curtain here.  Due to it’s long strands, it is packaged per strands, and it does not come with a bar to attach it to.  I’ll be glad to add that bar for you, but it’ll just be extra shipping fee on your part for no good reason.  These are all hand sewn with invisible thread, with silk flower petals in pink gradient.  I’ll be glad to have it all in one color as well! I made 7 feet and 10 feet, one for budget bride, and the other for a venue with high ceilings.  Long enough for it to gather on the floor.  It’s actually best for outdoor weddings, letting each strand move around with the wind.

Ask me any questions, and check them out in the Etsy Shop!

Scott & Cristen from W. Scott Chester Photography has shared with us a valley ranch vineyard wedding from Napa Valley, CA for Chandler + John’s rustic wedding. W. Scott Chester Photography is a husband & wife wedding photographer team, and you can get the gist of their personality through their About page of their main site. In this wedding I love all the minimalist decorations they used, just focusing on the pure beauty of their venue. The ruffled curtain backdrop, black and white striped bride entrance curtain, the simple hanging light bulb decoration, the building wall as the projection screen, pool lounge cocktail hour, love it all!

I was debating what kind of wedding themes and tips I’d like to share with you for the first blog post of 2013, but instead I decided to share a little new year resolution of mine.  I came across And Then We Saved blog by Anna Newell Jones awhile back, and I was so intrigued by her devotion to get out of debt in a couple of years that I kept reading her blog from beginning to the end.  Although I’m not in a huge student loan debt, nor do I have shopping sprees, I do want to start saving money for the rainy days, future business investments, more craft projects, baby/college funds and also donation for my choice of charity.  Also since we just bought a house, there’s unlimited things I want to do for it.  I sat down with my husband yesterday to do our budgets for the future, and told him about my new plan.  I’m thinking of putting him in the Spending Diet first, while I go on the Spending Fast.

I think the most challenge for us is eating at home every day, every week, every month.  We usually go eat out 3 dinners out of the week, giving me a break from cooking every other day.  That also means I’ll have to start going to grocery stores more frequently, which is probably the biggest problem of me not cooking everyday.  So for this month January, that will be my goal.

Also, we’re going to start paying by cash.  Every pay check we get, we’ll deposit, take out our budget in cash for food + gas, and only spend that much.  Whatever we get left over will go into paying the card.  And the money we get from any side jobs, we’ll keep 10% for our allowance (that way we have some incentive to try harder), the rest will again go into paying the card.

Who’s with me?
🙂

I’m so honored to be featuring Chris & Marcy’s barn wedding, photographed by Brita Photography.  All of Brittany’s photography has so much light and color in them, I feel warm and happy just looking at them.  She has captured all the stunning characteristics of Chris & Marcy’s DIY barn wedding at the Reid Barn Georgia.  Marcy has coordinated all the hues of the purple very well, which is pretty hard to do.  I think the pops of orange in their bouquet has helped it empower the colors.  Loving the program on a popsicle stick, birch wood vase, twine wrapped bottles and the vintage fabric ribbon hanging buntings. Just simple gorgeous!

Photography | Brita Photography
Ceremony + Reception Venue  |  The Reid Barn
Wedding Coordinator | Signature Wedding & Events, Corrie Kirk & Swoon Designs
Floral Design | Bedazzled Florist, Valerie
Wedding Cake & Whoopie Pies  |  Bonne Bedingfield
DJ |  Randy Herrin
Ceremony Duet | Leslie Rummel & Phillip Dingler
Bridal Gown | Elite Bridal, Essense
Bridesmaid Dresses | Enzoani, Love 2012
Hair + Makeup |  Rhonda McLain
Shoes | Brianna Leigh
Invitations | Moore Custom Creations

Beautiful minimalist country wedding photography by Landon Jacob.  I love all the dark red with contrast to all the green from the garden, highlighted with ivory and the wooden grains.  These photos tells you that less is sometimes more powerful!  The combination of figs and pomegranate gives a lot of rich colors to the neutral ivory.

Photographer: Landon Jacob
Event Design and Production: Spencer Special Events
Venue and Catering: Belfair Plantation
Floral Design: Branches
Cake: Sheri’s Edible Designs
Mini Desserts: M Sweet Desserts
Shortbread Favors: Heritage Shortbread
Figs: Californiafigs.com.
Stationery: Emma J Designs
Calligraphy: Bride Kielty Whelan of Savannah Calligraphy
Linen: Party Tables. Rentals: Ranco Tent Rental & Savannah Special Events
Glassware: Pier 1 Imports.
Measuring Spoons: World Market
Soap: Baltimore Soaps
Streamers: Extravagant Exits
Mr. and Mrs. Forks: Lazy Lightning Art
Bride’s Dresses and Veil: Aster and Ivy
Earrings: Vintage.
Bridesmaid Attire: Forever 21
Hair and Makeup: Christine Stephens

Here’s a cool infographics I found from Divine Caroline that I wanted to share.  It shows what other brides and grooms are going through, roughly, average.  This I believe is from 2011, but I doubt the numbers has changed much since.  Average wedding cost is $27,000, average bridal party is 4 each.  Enjoy!

Hello!  Continued from the tutorials How to make Paper Flowers, I thought I’d make another post concentrating on roses.  If you’re not sure on some steps of any tutorials, feel free to ask me for advice!

^ DIY Paper Rose Templates

^ Paper Rose Tutorial

^ How to Make Enchanted Paper Roses

^ Watercolor paper rose

^ Paper Flowers DIY

^ Photo by Momichka, Tutorial by Paula’s Paper Playground

^ DIY Paper Rose Wedding Bouquet

^ DIY Story Book Paper Roses

^ Big bow Headband via BeSomethingNew

^ Bow Wedding Dress

^ Big Bow Wedding Cake

^ Big Bow Wedding Shoe

^ Bow Ring

^ Outdoor Whimsical Winter Wedding Inspiration  

^ Pink Bow Syndrome

^ Bow clutch

^ Vera Wang Dress

^ Yellow Bow Dress

^ Bow Napkins

Things you must have in Bride’s or Bridesmaids’ Emergency Kit

1. Advil
2. Band-aid (Louis Vuitton Bandage)3. Safety Pin
4. Nail Polish (that the bride is wearing)
5. Double side tape
6. Super Glue
7. Breath Mint
8. Tide To Go
9. Visine (or extra set of contact lens + solution)
10. Eyelash Kit (tweezers, eyelash glue, extra lashes)
11. Sewing Kit
12. Oil Absorbing Sheets
13. Bobby Pins
14. Hair Spray
15. Emergen-C

These are the basic kit.  I ended up using Advil, band-aid for the back of my heel, safety pin for the veil, double sided tape for the top of my dress, Visine, the eyelash glue for one of the girls and of course, breath mint! Try to not take gum, because you might forget to spit it out and be stuck with it during the ceremony, and have an awkward smile.  Lol! A lot of these you can find it for 50 cents-$1 at CVS or Rite Aid in the traveler’s section.

Other things that you might also want to add:

-Matching makeup
-Chocolate or Candy
-Water
-Deodorant
-Tissue
-Wet Wipes
-Lotion
-Tampons
-Umbrella
-Lint Roller