ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Welcome to the fourth installment of Wedding Wednesdays. On the first and third Wednesday of each month, we will share a lovely handmade wedding with you. Check out our previous installments here, and if you know of a wedding that we simply need to feature, please email us!

With Christannia at the helm, she planned her and Stephen’s Love Ceremony in only six weeks. The Brooklyn-based couple knew they wanted a space they didn’t have to gussy up, but also didn’t want the hefty price tag of settings like Central Park or the Botanical Gardens.

“I was not someone who always thought about their wedding as a girl. So in attempting to picture what I would like for a ceremony, all I could think of was that I wanted nature, outside, beautiful. I didn’t want pesticide-laced flowers, and to keep costs down, it’s great to work with already beautiful natural surroundings,” Christannia says.

Her grandmother, Dorthey Betonte, and her friends began to look at venues in West Virginia. When they stumbled upon Adaland Historic Mansion and Musuem, a venue complete with spaces for the ceremony and reception, a brick dance floor, a post-civil war museum, use of their tables, tents, place settings, and tablecloths all for a grand total of $1,500, Christannia was sold on the location in Phillipi.

Christannia’s sister, Lisa Smith, holds her daughter Aloe-Maria, a flower girl sporting a dress from Sears complete with a matching doll. Her three bridesmaids, Alyssa Pinsker, Alexa Pinsker, and Darcy Whitmoore, wore H&M dresses embellished with pearl beads, handmade silk poof flowers, and peach sashes sewn by Christannia’s grandmother. Sylvanna Swallow (a flower girl) and Julia Buraka Swallow (the ever-important train attendant) round out the beautiful bridal party.

“The little girls recently moved from Nairobi, Kenya, to Canada. They were adopted by my other sister Kimberly and were so excited because they had never been to a wedding before!”
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Welcome to the third installment of Wedding Wednesdays. On the first and third Wednesday of 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 email us!

(Images courtesy of Lindsey and Todd’s wonderful friend and photographer, Doug Jones. The photos also served as their wedding present from him!)

For Lindsey and Todd, their wedding day was not about the perfect hairdo or flashy tuxedos, but about family and using little touches to make it their own. With a modest budget and Lindsey at the reins, the two transformed a public space in Cleveland into an intimate get together for the people they love.

I knew right off the bat there would be no tuxedos involved. I really wanted the feeling to be sophisticated, yet casual. Both Todd and I are pretty laid back, and I think we wanted the wedding to reflect that. Todd was more than happy to let me take the reins. There were times before everything came together that he would look at the random assortment of junk inside a shopping bag and raise his eyebrows, like ‘Where is she going with this?’, though he did insist on being in charge of the adult beverages. But other than that, I just kind of ran with it. I had a picture in my head, and it was really fun to try to get to that place in real life with a very modest budget. Most of the whimsy-meets-nature decor was purchased from The Flower Factory, a wholesale supply store. We decided against traditional attendants—we knew our friends would have more fun without the stress, cost, and responsibilities of the typical bridesmaids and groomsmen, and it made planning easier as well. My mother stood for me, Todd’s father for him, my brothers walked me down the aisle, and my son Milo was the ringbearer. I bought apple green silk ties for the men and asked them to wear white button-down shirts and chocolate brown trousers. My motto through the whole planning process was to keep it simple, yet sophisticated.

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