Lauren and Red’s Pennsylvania wedding was a real team effort. It planned by the bride, her mother and their neighbour Patience. The wedding was held on the couple’s own farm. “Patience taught us how to make homemade limoncello and smoked salmon and helped so much during the wedding making sure things ran smoothly”, Lauren explained. “My mother is a crazy collector of beautiful dishes, as well as ideas. She is also a food connoisseur so she helped add tons of vision and plan the menu. Patience’s daughter got married the weekend before so we were able to share a lot of supplies and ideas which worked out very well as well as work trade. My mother in-law Eva planned the rehearsal dinner which also happened to be my birthday. She created a picnic outdoor super with barbecue chicken for 45 two days before the wedding. She also helped decorate!”
This wedding was full on DIY with the bride and her helpers making everything from the decor items to the clothes. Lauren made her own wedding dress from vintage and upcycled materials and the bridesmaid’s dresses were made using hand dyed vintage handkerchiefs which matched the invitations.
“I used extra handkerchief invitations which were seconds to create banners to hand on the bar and around the milk shed which was a focal point”, she continued. “I took lace doilies and used them as banners as well. I planted a lot of flowers and used props in the gardens for added interest. I used chalk board paint to create blackboards with the itinerary and menus. I used a lot of fabric to decorate behind the bar. I found a lot of old rusty tools, license plates, signs, hooks and lights to create a cool vibe in the bar. I used an old parasol filled with lights as a makeshift chandelier in the bar. I spray painted about 75 plan white parasols with different layers of color and pattern using lace material as a stencil as favors. I also had about 350 jars of homemade jam in sample size jars. I bought the sample sized jam jars from jars.com for $.25 each, and my friend and co-worker Tamara, who is quite a talented food lady made the different types of jam over the course of several weeks. We had violet, rose petal, blueberry spice, and redcurrant.”
“The whole day there was this magical feeling of really strong love there that day that several people commented on”, she concluded. “Everyone seemed to walk around in the state of a trance as if they were having a really.good.time. Even my most conservative guests seemed to enjoy it, even the non-traditional ceremony entering in our parade-like fashion with our self-uniting vows. Our friends and guests certainly made our day unique with their special skills and talents, and because the band was so interactive and never in one place the party kept moving and was very alive. I wish I could do it again.”
