A Styled Whimsical Woodland Wedding

We are so excited to share this styled shoot with you. It all started with a gold and pink upholstered chair our featured stylest Rebekah Claborn found at Goodwill! Once she added a pink and gold antique mirror to the mix, she had her theme: vintage, soft, and romantic. Enjoy this Styled Whimsical Woodland Wedding!

Styled Whimsical Woodland Wedding

A Styled Whimsical Woodland Wedding

Submitted by Rebekah Claborn

The Inspiration:

It all started with an antique chair I spied while dropping off clothes at Goodwill, I told my husband if I could get it for $20, then it was coming home with us. It’s a happy ending because we indeed got the chair ($21 including tax!) and took it home—after it spent a week riding around in the back of our Jeep because we happened to be heading out of town to celebrate our anniversary when I spotted the chair.

The chair’s upholstery has a pink and gold pattern with green accents, so I immediately had my color scheme. Once I added a pink and gold antique mirror to the mix I had my theme: vintage, soft, and romantic.

We gathered together a team of vendors wanting to build their portfolios and staged a ceremony site and cake display at the property of the models.

The Cake:

A simple but elegant four-layered naked vanilla cake with almond cream, topped with gold leaf and peonies, made a perfect and delectable dessert choice for the romantic gathering.

The Attire:

The bride wore a beautiful off-white lace dress from the Jewel line at David’s Bridal, paired with nude Franco Sarto wedges, and a veil she found at a local resale shop. The groom wore a blue suit from Jos A. Bank. For more romantic look, we opted for a day cravat worn under the groom’s collar instead of a tie; we made the blush cravat ourselves because we couldn’t find any the right shade of pink.

The Flowers:

I arranged the bouquet and boutonniere with flowers bought from a local wholesale flower market and Central Market. To save money on aisle flowers, we opted to pick wildflowers near our home in lieu of purchasing multiple bunches of Baby’s Breath. Because of our DIY approach to florals, we were able to spend less than $75 on all flowers for the styled wedding.

Budget Savvy Wedding Tips

#1 Prioritize

I suggest this for all weddings, but particularly when planning an event on a small budget. Early in the planning stages decide what is most important to you, I suggest picking, at most, 3 items. It could be the venue, the dress, the photographer, etc.; whatever is the most important you book early on and give it the most weight in your budget. Then when it comes to planning everything else, you can be more flexible (or money-saving) because you already got your most important things.

#2 Borrow

The cake stand and wooden side table in this shoot? My mother’s. Have something you need for your wedding day you know you won’t use afterward? Ask around, odds are someone you know has it and will be happy to lend it to you.

#3 Décor You Can Live With

Ever hop onto a Facebook sale group and see someone trying to sell all their Wedding decorations? Don’t be that person. When planning your wedding, I recommend a color scheme and theme that is something you can be happy with in your home, not just on your wedding day. The lantern, candles, mirror, and chair are all pieces I use to decorate my house.

#4 DIY

You will be surprised what you can make, especially with YouTube and Pinterest at your disposal. A quick search for bouquet arranging and a visit to a local wholesale flower market or Trader Joe’s, and you can save money on your wedding’s floral arrangements just like I did in this shoot. Utilize decorations options you may have to lay around like we did for our ceremony aisle—remove labels from glass bottles, add an extra touch by spray painting the inside—an easy DIY you can do with little cost.

#5 Don’t be Afraid to be Unconventional

Keep an open mind when considering options, particularly if “wedding” is not in the name, this applies to venues, attire, etc. The venue for this shoot? The bride and groom’s home, which happens to include a beautiful 4 acres. The models were bride and groom in real life last year when they eloped in Colorado, but after seeing the staging for the styled shoot they said, “if we had known it could look this nice, we would have gotten married here.”