Wedding Album

You’re cordially invited to our very own backyard wedding (that’s right, it was held at This Young House), so you might as well make yourself comfortable. And if you’re looking for some personal and memorable wedding planning ideas of your very own, click here.

First the basics. We got married on 7/7/07, our exact two year anniversary of dating (which just happened to fall on a Saturday). Unfortunately 36,000 other couples picked the same exact date to get hitched, so we decided to make everything else about that day feel fresh, original and so very John & Sherry. And what could be more personal than hosting the 75 person affair in our own backyard?

Just like everything else we do, our wedding was one giant DIY project. From the invitations and decor to the food and entertainment, we pulled out all the stops (without breaking the bank) by doing everything with our own four hands. And because the event was at our home sweet home, we were able to put money that otherwise would have been spent decorating a venue into our own home improvements (gifts that keep on giving even a year later). For example, we knew our old jagged patio was a tripping trauma waiting to happen…

… so we invested some of our wedding money towards replacing the old slate patio with a new cobblestone paver version, which created the perfect place for a big wooden buffet table full of delicious gourmet eats and a grilling station for the chefs (John’s uncle and nephew)- who donned customized aprons that read: “You may now kiss the cook.”

And not only did we need a flat surface for serving, we also wanted one for eating and entertaining, which is why we went on to pave our treacherous gravel driveway (where heels + gravel = yikes!).

The newly paved surface created the perfect place for grubbing as well as mugging for the photobooth that we rented for the occasion. We’ve never been so thankful to have such a huge driveway (with a spacious turnaround area in the back of the house which kept all of our partying private). And the added bonus that we haven’t had to weed our monstrous driveway since getting it paved (which used to take days) is one of the best wedding presents we could have given ourselves.

While these two home improvement projects were so major that we brought in the professionals, nearly everything else was completely DIY from there on out (thanks to some help from our fabulous friends and family). Between John’s cousin officiating the ceremony, a friend playing “here comes the bride” on the guitar, and relatives cooking up some gourmet fare on the grill, we definitely kept things personal and meaningful.

Here’s a look back at all the paper goods we designed for the event - from our summery invitation all the way to the customized thank you postcard. But let’s kick things off with the piece of paper that kicked things off in early 2007: the save-the-date.

We wanted something simple yet meaningful so we took inspiration from one of our favorite traditions as a couple: taking pictures in a photobooth. I’ll admit that we didn’t want to waste lots of quarters trying to get the perfect photostrip, so we faked our own using a digital camera, photoshop, and some glossy photo paper. The result was a memorable way to communicate some basic details (what, where and when) which was mailed off in a simple, white envelope. And who knew that it would later trigger the idea to rent a photobooth for the actual event (more on that later).

With our quirky save-the-date having broken the news, we turned to our invitation to set the mood. After all, an invite is one of the first tastes of an event that you give your guests so it’s the perfect time to establish the tone, the color scheme, etc. We wanted something elegant that still said “fun, garden wedding- leave your tie at home, mister.” So we designed and printed our own invites using a citrus-y yellow and green palette and brought it to life with a few graphic elements like lemon topiaries and buzzing bees. A not-so-typical wedding invitation for a not-so-typical wedding, no? Not to mention we packaged them (complete with an RSVP card, hotel info and directions) in bright lime green envelopes which we had the pleasure of hand addressing. Our hands hurt just thinking about it, but it was another personal touch that we just couldn’t pass up.

We knew we had successfully set a light-hearted mood with our invite once the RSVP postcards starting rolling in with all sorts of notes written outside of the lines. We loved them so much, we’ve still got them all stacked on the console in our living room. And we love perusing them every once in awhile to reminisce (and appreciate our charming friends and family). Gotta love wedding keepsakes beyond the tried and true photo album.

Our wedding paper trail followed our guests all the way to Richmond. For those staying in the local hotel that we recommended, we crafted a welcome packet to ensure that they made the most of their stay. And we didn’t have to cough up a lot of dough thanks to some creativity. We snatched a bunch of free maps from the local visitors’ center (they were yellow, conveniently), highlighted some of Richmond’s must-see spots and paired it with a “When in Rome- er, Richmond” guide (a sheet of attractions that we printed at home which correlate with the map). We also threw in a Virginia is for Lovers sticker to help our friends and family mark their stay in the big V-A.

The stack of RSVP cards in our living room is currently complimented by another pile of wedding memorabilia: our homemade wedding sentiment cards. Rather than a traditional guest book, we asked our friends and family to leave us a note on quirky speech-bubble cards that we designed and printed ourselves. During the reception people filled ‘em out and simply dropped them in a nearby glass vase for us to pour over later.

When all the “I Do”s were said and done, we still had one more bit of paperwork to take care of- the many thank you cards for our generous guests. And we couldn’t let the creativity slip now. So rather than a traditional folded note card, we ordered custom postcards that featured this artsy pic from the wedding itself (for less than the cost of regular stationery). It was just another unique and personal way to help our lovely guests remember the event… and play “Where’s Waldo” by trying to locate their blurry head in the background.

And now for the juicy wedding week DIY decor that you’ve all been waiting for.

From the moment people arrived, we wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and warmly welcomed. So we created a handy dandy little wooden welcome sign with a hand painted message for our guests. And thanks to the sandwich-board construction (two pieces of wood secured with simple hinges at the top), we were also able to paint a cute departure message which said “Thanks for sharing our special day, please grab a glowstick to light your way to the car” along with a galvanized bucket of white glow sticks to help people navigate our semi-dark street safely. And we made the sign and purchased the glow sticks in bulk for under $30 total. Cha-ching. Here’s John’s dad playing greeter next to our “masterpiece”.

We wanted a celebration that felt festive and fun without sacrificing an ounce of style, so we were sure to set the tables with care. And while we probably saved well over a few thousand dollars with our DIY approach, we literally did every last thing ourselves (and spent months and months getting stuff together). In fact, other than renting the tables and chairs from a local vendor, there was nothing conventional about our reception’s set up. The tablecloths and runners were actually just white muslin and textured yellow fabric that we purchased from a local fabric store and the glassware was largely purchased at Ikea. We quickly realized that strategically buying these items was actually cheaper than renting them and we were able to create a more custom look without worrying about fees for staining, ripping, or breaking anything. Even the silverware was purchased from Sam’s Club. Afterwards we donated a lot of the servingware to charity, which felt really good (and was a write off to boot).

By choosing fruit over flowers (straight from the grocery store that morning) and going with centerpieces we could easily assemble ourselves (we’re talking ten minutes of arranging, tops), we saved hundreds while keeping things fresh and chic. The glass cylinders for the fruit centerpieces were from Michaels for $3.99 a pop and we also snagged about 200 glass votives thanks to Craigslist- where a former bride sold them all for $30 after barely using ‘em herself. We even found festive lemon & lime paper napkins at Target and the punchy citrus print perfectly echoed our lemon and lime centerpieces (note: we may have over-purchased these, as we’re still using them to this day).

Our garden themed favors were simple brown mini paper bags (thanks, Target) which held a single gladiolis bulb for our guests’ garden with easy planting instructions written on the back of each bag. Clipped to the front of the bag was another photostrip (tying in our save-the-date and the actual photobooth that we rented for the event) with John’s face covered in lipstick kisses while we held signs that read: Plant one… on us! *smooooch*

We also created place cards for each guest by hand stamping their first initial on a small square of cardstock, hand lettering their full name underneath and securing each card with a river rock (thanks again, Target). Many guests kept their cards (and even their rocks) which helped to remind us that sometimes simple can be just as elegant and beautiful as fancy calligraphy and ribbons.

Another special table detail was our bevy of charming beverage containers. Instead of big plastic pitchers, we wanted the chic look of glass so we asked a local wine retailer to save old bottles for us (leftover from their weekly wine tastings and totally f-r-e-e). Once at home we made sure they were squeaky clean and hand labeled ‘em with a sharpie (which never rubbed off or faded in case you’re wondering). We used all the green bottles to hold water, brown bottles for sweet tea and clear ones for homemade mint lemonade (fresh mint + lemonade= yum). Of course we also had many bottles of red and white wine on hand along with some of those cute vintage glass bottles of coca-cola. We really think making the effort to avoid cans and plastic kept things über classy and picture perfect.

And as for how the idea to rent a photobooth came about, here’s the scoop. We were trying to think about something fun that we could introduce for some serious entertainment value (cotton candy machine? fireworks? drum line? sno-cone maker?) when we came up with the photobooth idea (spurred by our tradition of documenting many relationship milestones with a photobooth strip). For months we tried to hunt down something local (and then something not-so-local) to no avail, but about three months before the big day a lovely local lady named Lisa-Ann launched a photobooth rental business, and we were one of her first customers. At $1200 for the day (which included unlimited photostrips and an on site attendant to keep the booth running) it was certainly a splurge, but it really was the perfect touch. And the hysterical strips of our friends and family having fun in the booth are one of our favorite keepsakes (which we’ve collected in a leather-bound album while framing a few of our favorites around the house).

To encourage people to leave a few of their photostrips for us (and display them for other guests to peruse throughout the night) we transformed our big red metal garage door into the ultimate oversized magnetboard. All it took was a buncha inexpensive magnets and a sweet little reminder to save some photostrips for us. And lo and behold it worked… we ended up with even more photostrips than guests.

But one of our very favorite photostrips was the last one taken late in the evening after all of our guests had left. We ducked into the booth right before they hauled it away (John wasn’t even wearing his wedding pants anymore and had changed into shorts to start cleaning up). We just love how this strip perfectly captures the joy of the day and the undeniably euphoric feeling of triumph after pulling off such a fun and festive event.

We also tried to score a few points with our lovely guests by thinking of the little things to suggest that we thought of everything. This included offering up complimentary flip-flops for guests whose shoes were a bit too ambitious for a garden wedding. And of course we wanted the dollar store flip flops to look as sweet as the sentiment, so we tied pairs of them together with rustic twine and stuck ‘em in a burlap basket for easy access.

We also came up with a practical and budget-friendly twist on the traditional wedding slideshow (since a big projector wasn’t in the cards for us). We created a clothesline version by stringing twine between two 5ft garden hooks and using charming wooden clothespins to clip the photographic story of us growing up, meeting and falling in love. This project was less than $20, but it really made a lasting impression and kept people entertained while they waited for their turn in the photobooth. And people still mention it to this day. To see the cute & cringeworthy photos for yourself, click here.

We even carried a few personal twists on tradition into the ceremony. After struggling to find a wedding reading that we liked, we gave up and decided to write our own. And in a moment of genius (or utter weirdness, you decide) we pulled out our high school yearbooks and began collecting a combination of sweet and silly notes written by our old friends. The sentiments ranged from complimenting my artistic ability to poking fun at John’s band geekiness, but actually showed some surprising similarities and perfectly captured our personalities far better than a generic reading or age-old sonnet. Thanks to our younger siblings who expertly shared our collection of yearbook anecdotes, it turned out to be one of the ceremony’s most memorable moments. That and the part where we said “I do,” of course.

One detail we couldn’t overlook was the lighting. We knew having the right amount of light in the right places would take our event from backyard barbeque to elegant outdoor gathering, so we went all out. There were votives on the tables for soft lighting. There were a few tiki torches for fun around the perimeter. There were even candles placed in old jars that served as mini hurricaines filled slightly with sand lining the entire driveway (we saved jam, pickle and pasta sauce jars for close to a year).

We also added some accent lighting in the form of paper lanterns hung from a pair of trees in the yard near the ceremony site. They provided a touch of interest while we said our vows, but more importantly created the perfect backdrop for all of our family photos. The lanterns (also from Target) were battery operated so we didn’t even need to worry about wiring. Instead, we could focus on keeping smiles on our faces for all that picture taking.

And speaking of picture taking, we owe a HUGE thanks to our photographer Todd who is responsible for almost all of our beautiful wedding photos. Todd just happens to be a famous professional photographer around these parts and while I’m sure he’s delighted to have our wedding on his resume, he usually prefers to talk about all the national print ads and magazine covers he shoots on a daily basis. We were able to snag his services for free because he also just happens to be our brother-in-law (you’ve toured his new house here). Thanks for the great photos, Todd!

You may also be wondering about attire. Clearly we went more casual than the typical wedding dress code in part to fit the relaxed atmosphere and also because Virginia is so hot in July. John chose simple khakis, a white button down and flip-flops. It’s mere coincidence that his best friend Kevin (left, our musician) and his cousin Travis (right, our officiant) wore practically the same thing. They dubbed themselves the “Khaki Brigade” and things stayed informal until Sherry surprised us with these babies…

Yes, those are tuxedo t-shirts they’re wearing. Good thing we don’t take ourselves too seriously, eh?

But you’re probably wondering about my outfit too. It’s an $190 dress I bought at Arden B (of all places) a mere 48 HOURS BEFORE THE WEDDING. No lie. I purchased another dress months beforehand - actually the first one I tried on - and counted my lucky stars that I fell in love with a dress so easily. Until July 5th when I was out having girl-time with my BFF and spotted this dress and fell even more in love. At about a tenth of the cost of the average wedding dress, we didn’t mind the unexpected expense (my first dress was also purchased on the cheap so the change of plans hardly broke the bank). And two days later I wore my new find down the aisle and couldn’t be happier about the last-minute switcheroo.

The bouquet was another DIY project in itself. The morning of the wedding we picked up three large hydrangea blossoms from the grocery store’s floral department (for something like $12). We then tied them together using green floral tape, wrapped thick satin ribbon around the floral tape and then trimmed the stems at the bottom for an even appearance. Some straight pins with pearl heads secured the ribbon and finished it off- guaranteeing it’d make it to the altar in one piece. We also wrapped a tiny necklace from a dear family friend around the handle of the bouquet (carefully securing it with more pearl-topped pins) for a meaningful and sentimental detail that only we were privy to.

But I digress - weren’t we supposed to be talking about lighting? Possibly our most impactful wedding decor detail was the dramatic garden lighting that we swagged over the entire reception area. To create this effect, we purchased six sets of string lights from Target - the ones with the big, round, clear bulbs - and created three long strands using clear fishing wire for reinforcement (we didn’t want the tension to snap the thin cords). Then we tied carabiners to both sides of the three long strands and hooked one end of each to our sunroom while the other ends converged at the peak of our garage (where they wrapped around our weathervane and plugged into a hidden extension cord). The effect was incredible… and nothing fell on any of our guests (a reoccurring nightmare of ours). Victory.

All this wedding chitchat must be making you hungry, so we’ll move on to the wedding menu. Perhaps our most daring DIY feat was completely nixing the idea of a caterer in favor of taking on the entire wedding menu ourselves. I know we sound cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs, but there were a few major reasons behind our seemingly insane decision. A lot of catering companies require a separate prep area and our modest rancher just didn’t have the space. And we also thought strangers dressed in black peddling hors d’oeuvres in our backyard might be a little odd for our intimate affair. But most of all, we’re just hopeless DIYers with an unhealthy attraction to seemingly impossible challenges- so even though feeding 75 people sounds like quite a job, it really wasn’t so bad thanks to thoughtful planning, a few make-ahead components and some pretty crafty delegation (in the form of pre-prepared offerings with a gourmet spin).

We made our lives much easier by carefully designing a menu that didn’t require any heat (other than our entrees which were cooked up on the grill) and called for nothing more than a single fork (when it came to side dishes and hors d’oeuvres, upscale finger food was the name of the game). Keeping our offerings simple (fresh fruit, cocktail shrimp, rotini salad, lemon pepper potato chips, etc) and adding an upscale twist when we could (like an unexpected ingredient or delightful dipping sauce) really seemed to work with our informal backyard wedding theme.

Another example of our “simple with a twist” approach to the menu was demonstrated in our main course choices, which we wrote out on a chalkboard hung above the grill for all to see.

Our guests approached the grill and ordered up their choice of a blue cheese angus burger with parmesan caesar dressing, sweet apple chicken sausage with honey dijon, or a tomato and cheddar veggie burger with basil ketchup. We actually made all the blue cheese burgers ahead of time (by adding chunky blue cheese dressing to ground beef and freezing the meat into patties to be defrosted that morning) but purchased the sweet apple chicken sausage along with the tomato and cheddar veggie burgers in bulk from the grocery store a few days in advance. Of course we splurged on some gourmet buns and added a little flair to the toppings (like a dash of fresh basil worked into the ketchup and the caesar dressing that topped the blue cheese burgers). A few fun twists on some old favorites really seemed to satisfy, and we purchased more than enough to go around (so people could try more than one entree if they so desired).

And even though we didn’t have a moment to taste a thing, the overwhelming consensus was “mmmm” as demonstrated by lots of seconds and hardly any leftovers.

Another adorable detail thrown together in the final hour (by John while I was inside getting gussied up) were the extra lemons that we used to accent a big tin of ice cubes. Somehow the 10 cent lemons added so much more to the $8 galvanized tin of $2 ice… a true testament to something becoming far greater than the sum of its parts.

By far the most popular menu choice was the decision to keep it simple and serve Richmond’s famed Ukrop’s cupcakes. For those not in the know, Ukrop’s is a local grocery chain, which just happens to have reached celebrity status for its heavenly vanilla cupcakes. We considered swankifying the cupcakes with green and yellow spinkles or lemon candies, but realized that to mess with perfection would be a mistake. And when served en mass the seemingly simple cupcakes transformed into a sea of creamy confections that people literally couldn’t get enough of (several people confessed to downing four or five of ‘em). And we can both agree that feeding each other cupcakes was a fun take on the ceremonial cake feeding tradition as well.

Another fun touch was the s’more roast we had at the very end of the night. After some of our friends and family had moseyed on home, the remaining guests had fun bringing the night to a close by gathering around our firepit and cooking up a melty treat for the road. Marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers are hardly budget busting extravagances, but the s’more roast was just another one of those memorable details that really stuck with people far after the embers went cold.

And just as all good things must come to an end, our wedding tour must now come to a close. Thanks for your virtual attendance, and please feel free to hit us up for some wedding planning advice for your very own big day!