How did you meet?
Steve and I (against our better judgment and recommendations from friends) met online through the dating app Bumble. This wasn’t exactly your straightforward “swipe right” match, seeing as both of us were weary about online dating. We definitely matched a few different times before actually entertaining meeting one another!
Tell us a little a bit about your wedding.
Steve is an amazing woodworker, and he loves taking rough cuts and turning them into something really creative, rustic, and beautiful. This inspired our theme as a rustic, romantic fall wedding and we incorporated personalization when we could.
Tell us about your attire choices.
For the men, it was a white button-down shirt with a brown herringbone vest and navy blue pants. Steve wore a chianti-colored tie, while the guys wore steel blue ties and brown shoes. Grayson wore the same outfit as the guys but had a chianti-colored bow tie. The guys all had matching socks with navy mustaches on them.
The fathers matched the guys, but my dad had a Coast Guard tie, and Don (father of the groom) had a blue plaid tie on. The majority of the guys’ attire was purchased from Amazon and Etsy. Steve really wanted the guys to be comfortable during the entire wedding day and to be able to reuse and wear the components of their attire again rather than having to rent an uncomfortable suit that would have to be returned.
What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?
Steve built our sweetheart table as my wedding gift. I gave him a watch from Original Grain to match his wedding band. The set is really unique.
We had one of our very best friends marry us! The story of us that she told through the ceremony and our vows was so personalized that this is something that we will always cherish, and our guests will never forget
Most of all, having our 10-month-old baby boy Grayson waiting with Steve at the end of the aisle for me is absolutely one of our favorite details.
We incorporated our “fur babies” – Griffin, Galena, and Meeka. Our wedding favors were dog biscuits made by a good friend Jen, that owns Y-Not Dog Cookies.
What were your favorite parts of the day?
My mom is battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer that has spread to different parts of her body, and there were times when I thought she wouldn’t be physically present for our wedding: so the mere fact that she was there and danced with my dad and enjoyed herself was amazing!
My wedding dress had an overskirt, which allowed for two different looks (Steve was surprised that I was in a “different dress” from what he saw when we did our first look). We planned a son and mother dance specifically for Grayson and me. We danced to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”
Our venue itself is one of our favorite memories. We picked this venue because it allowed us to have our closest friends and family stay with us. We rented the farmhouse for the entire weekend. Our wedding party, close friends, and parents got to know one another and were able to share in many of the experiences that happen days before a wedding. We shared and prepped meals together, made s’mores, laughed, had drinks around the fire, and all pulled together to make sure everything was where it needed to be for our big day.
The weather was chilly (42 degrees) on our wedding day, but as I started to walk down the stairs and along the pond with my dad toward Steve, Grayson, and all of our guests, the wind died down and the sun came out. This made for the most amazing pictures and a true walk to remember with my dad.
Tell us about your wedding cake.
I sculpted a little figurine of our dog to go on our cake as if he’d been sneaking some bites. He was there for our engagement and is a rock in our lives.
Please describe any DIY, handmade, or personal details.
95% of all our décor was DIY. The garland on the tables was handmade with eucalyptus and lambs ear, leaves were glittered with iridescent glitter, wooden sola flowers were added, and then the garland was wired with fairy lights by Steve and I. Steve made the table number stands and we picked pictures that represented our relationship journey to go on each table. All of the signs were handmade and painted, or vinyl was put on by either Steve, myself, or my sister Laurie.
The flowers in the mason jars on shepherd’s hooks that lined the aisle and the garland on the arbor were all dyed and arranged by the wedding party. The girls’ bouquets, my bouquet, the guys’ boutonnieres, and the mothers corsages were all handmade and dyed with Sola Wood Flowers. The seating plan was a wooden pallet decorated with some of the eucalyptus and leaves and painted “find your seat at the top” with the guests names on iridescent paper hung on the pallet. Steve made our sweetheart table out of black walnut and spalted maple. He hand-chiseled the Mr. & Mrs. letters that are connected to the front of the table by dowels.
Our card box was a tree stump that was hollowed out with a “cards” banner across it. We didn’t want just a box – we wanted something rustic but unique.
Did you include any family heirlooms or special traditions?
My parents’ church’s pianist was our ceremony musician, and she was amazing enough to learn lyrical versions of “The Imperial March” from Star Wars, the theme from “The Office,” and “Everything is Awesome” from The LEGO Movie.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?
Remember that this is about celebrating the two of you and the love you have for one another, not about making others happy. Base your decisions on what is best for both of you as a couple and what your vision is.
