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 daughters 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!
I love how much they did themselves, and particularly enjoy the place cards—totally unique! I am also curious as to where the plates came from, so weigh in here Lynn if you read this. Were they rentals? Borrowed? Your own very cool plates? Thanks for sharing!
Lynn, I also am curious about the foil wrapping on the cupcakes. I love it…how did you do it?
Hi! I’m so glad that you guys are interested in our wedding. It’s fun to share.
Amy – The plates actually belong to my cousin. They are Red Wing Pottery plates in the tampico design.
Andrew – The foil wrapping on the cupcakes is actually just a foil cup. I really wanted them to be gold because of how it would look on the display, so we went to the good old internet. My mom and I found them on a baking goods website. The caramels were also in mini gold foil cups.
Very very cool! I love DYI couples, and hope to have more of them as clients! Weddings are such a special time for the bride and groom and so often that gets lost in the planning and expectations of parents etc.. I looks like you guys had a fantastic day that was truly special and was completely infused with your personalities.
Love this post! Congratulations to the newlyweds!!
Now THIS is how all weddings should be! All these touches were personal and meaningful and really reflected the people dedicating their lives together. Bravo to them! Makes me want to marry my husband all over again! Hmm maybe a great idea for an anniversary party too. :D
Congrats!!!!!!! You were a BEAUTIFUL bride. Glad to hear everything went so well. The dress is GORGEOUS! Hopefully I’ll get to see it. I’m hoping we make it up to see your folks at Christmas. — Your favorite cousin – p
I loved reading about Lynn and Scott’s DIY wedding!
My fiance, Todd, and I also opted for a DIY wedding, and I’d love to share it. (Don’t know if this is the correct mode of sharing, but what the hey!) With a modest budget and a lot of family and friends who were willing to contribute time, talent, and grunt work, our wedding day was a great success. We ordered many elements from the DIY online supercenter of etsy.com, including the invitations (inkOBSESSIONdesigns), the ring “pillow”, which was actually a vintage book (annemichelleheirloom), the headpiece and birdcage veil (brendasbridalveils)and my wedding band (LaurieSarahDesigns).
I cut down on cost by having a small wedding party – my mother stood for me, Todd’s father stood for him, and my brothers walked me down the aisle. My son Milo was thrilled to be the ring bearer. I had all the men dress in white shirts and brown slacks and provided them each with an apple green silk tie, contributing to the casual elegance of the day. The groom stood out with the addition of an understated chocolate brown cashmere zip-up sweater.
We saved a lot of money by having the ceremony at our city greenhouse, the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse, instead of the local (and pricey) botanical gardens. All the delectable hors d’oeuvres, including the wedding cheesecakes and supplementary mini gourmet cupcakes and brownies, were made by my childhood friend Julia and my mother. The cake topper was my grandparents, from over 50 years ago. Our reception was at my husband’s employer, the Cleveland Institute of Art. They have a beautiful sculpture garden, and by using that for socializing and the adjoined indoor student lounge for food presentation, which we decorated with paper lanterns, live plants, and bowls of goldfish, we saved hundreds of dollars over any other reception site we scouted.
We also had an iPod Playlist in place of a DJ. We asked friends and family to contribute a song they’d like to hear, and it went over well… although a few of the more raucous attendees hijacked the iPod and caused ‘The Humpty Dance’ to come blaring over the speakers, much to the delight of some and horror of my elderly relatives.
All in all, our day was amazing, and incredibly budget-friendly.
You can see a photo gallery of our wedding at the website I listed above.
Thanks for all the feedback. Lindsey, that’s exactly the type of sharing we are talking about. We’re hoping that to make the first and last Wednesday of each month Wedding Wednesday so please keep an eye out and maybe we can include yours! Let us know if you can get us some more shots or where we can see some more. Thanks! It sounds like a great day!
Our photographer took over 900 photos, and I would be more than happy to give you the link and password — what’s the best way to get that to you on a non-public basis?
This is so beautiful. I loved every touch. It’s personal and fashionable, but not contrived. The typewriter was such a brilliant idea. I’m a big fan of the wedding cake craze and would have done that part different, but this was really personal which makes it special. I really am in love with the whole thing. It’s awesomely tasteful and really sweet…. makes my heart melt :)
Oh! I forgot to add that I also planned my own wedding.
It was really important to me that the wedding was something everyone would enjoy. The whole event was over 3 days, with the actual ceremony on the last morning.
It was a small (30 ppl) destination wedding on an island. We paid for our families to attend (airfare, lodging), and our friends paid for themselves. I hand-made all the invitations, gift sets (which served as center pieces), and menus. I used a sentimental box that my sister had made when she was a kid with seashells and sand as the ring holder, and placed the rings on top of a pile of sand that was collected on the island. It sounds kind of cheesy now, ha, but it felt really sweet to me. My husband & I wrote the entire wedding ceremony ourselves, and our vows. I actually had people ask me to send them a written copy of everything said.
The ceremony was on a small, old wooden pier over the ocean. The reception was outdoors on the beach, at a casual island restaurant which served local faves & really unusual drinks that everyone still talks about.
It was very affordable…. and then we really splurged and spent more on our honeymoon! :D
oh wow, it is lovely lovely lovely and exactly what celebrations should be. weddings.
xoxoxoxo y mas y mas.
coco
Hey Lindsey and SB:
We would love to check out your weddings! Do you mind shooting me an email at alexa.fornoff@meredith.com with more info?
They both sound amazing!
Thanks,
Alexa
Wow! I’d love to see more stuff like this in RD. So inspiring and creative. I am not engaged (yet) but will probably get married in the next few years and could use all the help I can get in planning an inexpensive wedding. I think the hardest part will be limiting guest size, as I want all my friends and family there (and my boyfriend’s of course).
Lindsey – being born and raised in Cleveland I am looking to get married there as well. I didn’t know about the Rockefeller greenhouse but it sounds lovely. If you have a chance I’d love more info about your wedding (cassidyheller@gmail.com)
Thanks for this article!
[...] of each month, we will share a lovely handmade wedding with you. Check out our first installment here from a couple in St. Paul. If you know of a wedding that we simply need to feature, please email [...]
[...] each month, we will share a lovely handmade wedding with you. Check out our previous installments here from St. Paul and here from Omaha. If you know of a wedding that we simply need to feature, please [...]