My Sister's Wedding :: Small Budget, Big DIYs (Part 1)

I’m so excited about this post. I started it SO long ago, I have tweaked this many times and have finally hit the publish button. Of course you know there are so many photos taken at a wedding and I wanted to share them all. It was really hard to narrow them down, so many of the reception I want to share, so I’m splitting up the posts between the ceremony and the reception with this one about the ceremony and prep. I’m hoping to “pay it forward” by sharing some of what we did after getting inspiration and help from others around the web! Here we go!

The Time Frame.
It was June and we got the news, my little sister was to be engaged. Unfortunately Josh lived in Pennsylvania and Gina lived in Florida. We also heard that Josh, being in the National Guard, was scheduled to go on tour to the middle east that September. So, my sister, mom and I got together and we talked budget, style, colors, options, guest list, favors, etc. I had a pinterest board started and we all oo’d and ah’d at the many possibilities.

By the middle of June I’d helped confirm the availability of a venue for both ceremony and reception, found a photographer and my mom found a caterer. Deposits were made the middle of July.

It wasn’t decided until the latter part of June that the wedding would happen on August 11th. Say What?! Not even 2 months! Panic set in. This is completely NOT recommended, especially in a ‘do it yourself’, small budget scenario. We quickly narrowed down theme and style preferences and I went into action and designed the invitations, hand wrote the addresses and mailed them by the middle of July while she and my parents were visiting with family in PA. I must say – I love how they turned out. A kind of Victorian-vintage.

The Design.
Not including the invitation, we officially started the DIY projects on July 27th. As I mentioned, I’d started a pinterest board for another friend of mine who was getting married in January but quickly started adding inspirational pins in the vintage, DIY style I thought my sister would like. Considering the budget we decided to make rosettes for both the decor and the bouquets and that became a mainstay in the overall look of everything. This was an unimaginably difficult task as it was the greatest time consumer of all. In less than two weeks my sister and I (and the several other friends recruited including my mother-in-law) made more than 1200 material rosettes covering 28 8″ Chinese lanterns (cheaper than styrofoam), each taking more than an hour to simply glue on the rosettes, not to mention my mom had sewn enough roses for 7 bouquets. The bouquets turned out so lovely and her bouquet will be such a memorable keepsake.
(If you’d like to buy some of the decorative ones – I’m sure that can be arranged!)

Oh! And it was an honor to be her Matron of Honor!

Then there was the backdrop for the ceremony to plan for… The chapel and reception decor… The agenda and design pieces… The menu… The photographer’s list… The video… The music… The hair… The bridesmaid dresses! All to be done in less than 4 weeks. My sister is the first to admit that she loves the look of (but has little patience for) event crafts and planning, especially on this scale, so she relied heavily on my mom and me. We were happy to do it but it was overwhelming for all of us, to say the least.

The backdrop was a bit time consuming but I LOVE the way it turned out. Kind of like a pretty rain, wouldn’t you say?

Though there wasn’t enough time for a wedding shower I insisted on at least throwing my sister an intimates shower and the only time that all of her bridesmaids would be in the same place was after the rehearsal dinner Friday night so that’s what I did. My sister-in-law Gabby was extremely helpful (and I used several games from the shower I threw for her many years ago, hehe.) Gina LOVES candy (see the birthday party I planned for her here) so I had a candy and lingerie party for her. It was so fun embarrassing her. LOL (printable set available.)

So for now, I leave you with a few more photos of the ceremony and decor for it. A fun little deviation from tradition – instead of 2 little people, my 3 neices and nephew, along with my son were also a part of the ceremony! So cute!!!