Lynn and Scott’s DIY Wedding Extravaganza…
Andrew Wagner
This past weekend my wife and I rolled out to our old Bay Area stomping grounds to attend the wedding of two good friends. We stayed at the Hotel Majestic which is where we stayed on our wedding night almost four years ago.
My wife and I were fairly crafty when we got hitched, spending weeks trolling flea markets all over the Bay Area, scavenging for funky old San Francisco post cards that we then tweaked with a Print Gocco for our save-the-dates.
I also wanted to cook pasta for the rather large wedding reception but perhaps knowing my culinary skills, all involved soon quashed that idea. The Bay Area always reminds me of nuptials for obvious reasons but one not so obvious reason is that I vividly remember reading about ReadyMade's founder, Shoshana Berger's wedding in the New York Times the year after my wife and I tied the knot.
With all this wedding activity swirling around it seemed perfectly natural to find an email that weekend from my good friend Emily Anderson telling me about a ceremony she had just attended in St. Paul that had her buzzing. She gave me the rundown and sent some snaps. I was impressed with all their ideas so did a little digging myself and Emily helped me convince the gracious newlyweds, Lynn Sabin and Scott Lunny, to share a bit of their story here as well as their photos taken by the talented Erin Smith:
"Both Scott and I are makers. We like to have our hands in everything, so it only made sense that our wedding would also reflect this. We tried to be very thoughtful about all the details but not overwhelm ourselves either. We both really enjoyed working on the wedding and planning the night. Here's a brief description of the day and the many things that were handmade to make it beautiful.
It, of course started with the invites, which I designed and then also embroidered. We included an RSVP that also asked the guest to make a song request for the evening. We compiled the playlist of requests and Scott made funny little interludes. This playlist was our music for dinner.
I made my reception dress. I actually got married in my grandmothers wedding dress which was made for her by my great-grandmother. It is very fragile, so I decided that I would make myself a reception dress. I took my Aunt's wedding dress and detached the skirt and used the fabric to make my own 'party' dress. It was embellished with organza petals that I sewed.
I also made my necklace and the feather and organza hairpiece I wore. My maid of honor's dress and also my daughter's dress were sewn by my mom.
For flowers, I went to the farmer's market and bought up a bunch of seasonal flowers, including dahlias and the decorative cabbages. All the bouquets and centerpieces and boutonnieres were arranged by myself, my bridesmaids, and my family.
The wedding was held in my cousin's backyard (she also officiated the ceremony). We started the evening with Kava and wine out front with a photo display that my mom and I put together. We also hunted down a 1930s typewriter to be our guest book.
The ceremony took place in the yard. My brother built a low wall and laid a stone patio for us to stand on. Behind us was a wooden arch that Scott built. I wrapped it in lights that were covered in origami flowers I cut from vellum.
The dinner was on a low deck. We also did all the table settings. The centerpieces were a 1 inch thick cut of a log with recycled jars that I marbled with gold spray paint on top. Next to that were blue mason jars filled with flowers. Each plate had a menu that I designed with a sprig of herbs tucked in. The herbs were chosen based on old Victorian beliefs about the meaning of flowers and herbs. It also created a lovely smell.
The name cards were made by Scott. He made cuts from fallen tree branches, then hand wrote each guests name on to it.
The desserts were cupcakes made by my mom and caramels that my sister-in-law made. Scott built a display out of log cuts for this also.
The night ended with a party in the garage and back patio. We served everyone 4 different kinds of home brew made by a friend. We wanted to make all the beer ourselves, but decided to have a friend do it instead. There was lots of dancing, beer pong and an impromptu limbo contest. It was a wonderful day." Anyone else out there care to share their wedding with us? We're always more than happy to help celebrate!
