Ben and Roo wanted their big day to feel like ‘them’. So they enlisted the help of friends and family to hand craft the wedding of their dreams! “Our theme was ‘nature meets colorful meets elegant meets comfortable!” began the bride. “I was a circus performer for ten years and Ben has been a rigger for his whole professional life. Our friends are eclectic and multi-skilled and they all pitched in. It made a blank slate of a venue become a colorful tapestry of strings of circus lights, people on stilts, colorful guests, chandeliers hanging from trees and an amazing electro-swing dance party!”
“It was ALL DIY”, she continued. “We had a small team that helped make our visions a reality. We made close to 50 pennants, shopping for the fabric, cutting it and gluing each triangle to rope. We also sourced recycled wood and hand painted all the signs. My mother, Chris, planned all the flower arrangements and lead a team in cutting and arranging thousands of flowers around the expansive venue grounds. Even our Save the Date cards were designed by a friend and laser cut for free due to a friendly favor.”
“We were able to save a lot of money by doing a lot of things ourselves or having friends volunteer to manage details and source would-be-rental items for free. We also had potluck catering! We were able to invite so many more people due to the potluck. And we got SO MANY COMPLIMENTS on the concept (bringing the guests together and letting their family dishes shine!) and the quality and variety of the food. Our friends are amazing cooks!!”
“Because of all these savings, we were able to splash out on the one thing that mattered to us the most – the photography. Documenting all these successes was one of the most important things! The day was over SO FAST but these stunning photos will last forever and we relive each moment every time we look through our library of photos.”
“The only thing I wish we’d done differently was to have a coordinator involved earlier”, she concluded. “A friend took that job on the day, but it was challenging working 12+ hours a day and trying to keep everything on schedule and not forget anything. And at a certain point during the day of, we had to give up all control to people who hadn’t been a part of planning the whole thing.”
