Today is officially six whole months since Nate and I got married, so I figure it's probably time to get my act together and share some photos from the wedding! Leading up to the big day, a lot of people asked what I was going to be DIY-ing for the wedding. No, I did not sew my dress...but I did make quite a few of the details that made our day special.
Warning - this might be the most photo heavy blog post I've had to date.
I think that the project that had the biggest impact on making our wedding day unique was the napkins for the dinner table. We were going to be sitting at a long, farmhouse-style table under an orchard of trees (does it get any more dreamy?!) and I couldn't get the idea out of my head to have a mix-match ombre of napkins down the length of the table.
Plus, I wanted to make something that would become an heirloom that we could keep for years to come and remind us of our wedding day. A lot of people make wedding quilts and this idea definitely stuck with me. I plan on using the napkins as the fabric for a quilt...call me crazy, I know. I'm thinking about using the Sidewalk Chalk Quilt pattern by Then Came June. I'm hoping to have it done for our first anniversary this summer, but considering that it took me six months to get the blog post written and I still haven't actually printed any photos, maybe I should try for our second anniversary...
My mom and I went fabric shopping and found the perfect shades to make the look. I think the end result is pretty dramatic, but it was actually a simple project...just lots of time and ironing! I think we ended up getting 4 yards of five different types of fabric, 20 yards total to make somewhere around 75 napkins. I cut it all down to 18" squares and serged them with a rolled hem. Then another press and they were good to go! They turned out exactly how I imagined and the table really was the focal point of the venue.
Also for the table, my whole family banded together to make the place cards. My dad cut and stained wood into roughly the size of business cards and my mom and I used my Cricut machine to cut the names out of vinyl. Then we transferred the vinyl to the wood cards. I am SO happy with how professional they look. It took a lot of patience to get the delicate script to come out right, but the it was so worth it!
I also made some special pajamas for my bridesmaids and myself to wear while we got ready. I used a viscose floral from Blackbird Fabrics that's sadly no longer available...it's so beautiful and was just perfect! I made an Ogden Cami (which might be my favorite pattern ever) for the top and used the bottoms from the Carolyn Pajamas to make a summer PJ set.
These were maybe the most time intensive project I took on for the wedding. The cami's are partially lined and the shorts have pockets and I burned my arm while doing a finishing press...that was attractive on wedding day...but all my bridesmaids still wear them and I know they're getting good use. Plus, how cute did they look that day?!
The project that was closest to my heart was the tie that I sewed for my dad. I wanted to give him a little something special to wear while he walked me down the aisle and this was just what I was looking for. It's made from Frou Frou fabric, a cotton from France that I picked up in my local fabric store. It has the look of Liberty London, but feels more like a quilting cotton (and is roughly half the cost!). I'll also use the leftover scraps from this project in our wedding quilt.
Last but not least, we made our wedding favors - strawberry lavender jam inspired by some of our favorite memories. Nate and I have a tradition of going berry picking every summer and the first year we went, we picked over 20 pounds of strawberries! We ended up making strawberry jam, strawberry syrup, strawberry caramel, strawberry lemonade...strawberry everything. Every year since, we've been careful to keep an eye on how much we're picking before it gets out of control.
One of our favorite dates was a day spent out on Vashon Island when we went lavender picking. The farm was closing the next day, as the family was going on vacation to France, so they let us pick as much as we could carry for a fraction of the normal price. We left with a full armload and our house smelled like lavender for months.
We wanted to share the memory of some of our favorite moments in our relationship with our guests and made mini jars of jam for everyone to take home. There ended up being tons of extras, so we're still eating jam for breakfast!
All in all, it was a perfect day. We planned it so that we could spend as much time with our family and friends as possible and everything went off flawlessly. I'm sure there were things that went wrong, but looking back, it was simply the best day we could have asked for.
Photography: Shane Macomber Photography
Venue: The Wayfarer
Florals: Flying Bear Farm
