Real Wedding: Janet & Ben

Stephany at EyeSpy Photography shared this DIY summer wedding with me, and the couple, Janet and Ben, shared some of the details of the day... "We began the day with a picnic barbecue, lawn games and garden strolls on the grounds. We then gathered in the gardens for a sunset ceremony, beautifully officiated by our friend, followed by a champagne toast, strawberry shortcake dessert and dancing under the stars."

We had picnic blankets and baskets of snacks for everyone to enjoy during the day as well as seating and dining in the LuLu Belle’s Roost building, a tent for extra space and a huge deck for dancing. All of our family and friends brought yard games: ladder golf, bocce ball, washers, Kubb and croquet.


In addition to wonderful wedding craft ideas, our dear friend JoEllen designed our save-the-dates, invitations and gave us elements from the graphics to create stamps and programs. The programs contained the day's events and a map of the gardens for everyone to enjoy.


I changed into a Jim Hjelm bridesmaid dress I ordered in ivory. I added vintage embroidered lace to the dress and the same lace to my J.Crew flats. The lace was from ParisPennsylvania’s Etsy shop and though I bought it long before I bought the dress, it matched perfectly.




It was difficult to have a nice I'm-getting-married-blissful smile during pictures. I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole day. I was so surprised at how I could not control my expression at all. Big grin when everyone arrived, big grin and tears going down the aisle. My cheeks hurt and I still grinned. It didn’t always make for the most, er, perfect wedding pose, but it was exactly how I felt that day. I loved every minute of it.


My mom is an AIFD certified florist and I’ve watched and helped her design many wedding flowers. It was important to both of us to enjoy doing the flowers together. I collected antique aqua jars and milk glass, along with a few family heirloom silver serving pieces to create a mix-match of containers that we filled with Casablanca lilies, hydrangea, veronica, roses, alstroemeria, rosary vines, succulents and some leggy green beans from the farmer’s market and as many herbs, dahlias, lisianthus and succulents as we could get from our own gardens. We made table numbers out of wood slice coasters with numbers cut from various patterned papers.




My niece took her role as flower girl very seriously and did a wonderful job. She wore her own dress with my mother’s turquoise necklace and tiny flowers added to the straps.









Venue: Berwood Hill Inn in Lanesboro, MN

Bride's dress / shoes: Jim Hjelm / J.Crew

Groom's suit: Banana Republic

Music: Joel Schann during the day / iPod in the evening

Catering: Canadian Honker

Rentals: Majestic Tents and Events

Congratulations Janet and Ben! Thank you so much for sharing your charming wedding with us, and thank you to Stephany at EyeSpy Photography for sending over these wonderful photos!

Real Wedding: Michelle & Joe

I'm really excited about today's wedding, not just because it's epitomizes my idea of simple beauty, but also because Cappy Hotchkiss was the photographer, and I've been dying to get her work up on Snippet & Ink forever. Here is what the beautiful bride, Michelle, said about her September wedding:

Our wedding was a challenge to balance the groom's conventional style with the bride's more un-traditional flair. We wanted to celebrate Jewish customs, while instilling a sense of us as individuals. We were married by groom's family rabbi, but marched down the aisle to Queen's "You're My Best Friend." We said the seven blessing to commemorate a Jewish marriage while guests munched on popcorn and drank lemonade. The groom wore an awesome retro fedora for our "couple's photos" but donned a yarmulke for the ceremony. The bride covered her tattoos under the chuppah with a tallis (prayer shawl) that our mothers wrapped around both of us. We had a kosher caterer that served a vegetarian meal at the reception. We thought of our wedding as the first opportunity in a marriage to compromise and make everyone happy.










During wedding ceremonies I've attended as a guest, I get hungry and can't stop wondering when things will wrap up so I can eat. With that in mind, our caterer provided fresh popcorn and lemonade for guests to enjoy during the nuptials. I made labels that read: "Popcorn, Good for Noshing and for Tossing. Eat what you want and THROW the rest at Michelle and Joseph as they make their way down the aisle after exchanging vows." The popcorn doubled as snacks and an eco-friendly alternative to rice. The popcorn labels doubled as escort cards. If you're gonna do it yourself, make things easier, not harder. Efficiency is key.

After the ceremony we went to Yichud, which is a custom where the bride and groom seclude themselves and enjoy their first moments as husband-and-wife together. We didn't exchange our own vows during the ceremony, but wrote each other love letters that we read to one another in the bridal suite. It was so intimate and lovely. We plan to read each other these love letters on every anniversary. Jewish or not, it is worthwhile to take time to reflect and absorb everything that happened. If nothing else, a wedding keeps you busy. You won't get much privacy during the reception, so why not set aside ten or fifteen minutes to be alone together?

At first I was intimidated by having a larger sized wedding, but Joe wanted to celebrate with all his friends and family. We were able to create the feeling of intimacy. Our wedding party consisted of our parents and siblings. We took our couples photos together at a gorgeous park with only the photographer present. We shared an intimate post-ceremony drink in the bridal suite and read each other love letters. And, it turns out, the more the merrier! We had so much fun with everyone there, even I admit that I wouldn't have wanted anything smaller.

Venue: Bet Am Shalom in White Plains, New York

Bride's dress: Nicole Miller

Groom's suit / tie: Hugo Boss / Theory

Flowers: House of Flowers

Wedding programs: DIY printed at Staples

Ketubah: The Aesthetic Sense

Catering: Foremost Caterers

Thank you so much to Michelle and Joe for sharing your wedding day with us - it's such a beautiful day, and the details you shared make it that much more inspiring. Wishing you all the best for a lifetime of happiness! Thank you, too, to Cappy Hotchkiss, who takes some of the prettiest wedding photos out there.

Alli and Tim's Gorgeous Sweetwater Wedding!

Alli and Tim's wedding was so pretty and so fun! We had such a blast planning their wedding, there were so many surprises, and so much love! It was a perfect day!

Many thanks to:

Verve Studios

MasterPiece Weddings (that's us... tooting our own horn)

Plant Shoppe

Gosia and Ali

Sweetwater Branch Inn

Video by Dani (can't wait to show you a sneak peek!!!)

Beautiful Melrose Wedding!

Kristy and Justin's wedding was just so beautiful! Full of amazing details, personal touches galore, and frankly was just plain pretty!



And just for you Gator fans out there... Urban Meyer completely crashed her wedding! Long funny story... but yes, that's Urban Meyer!



Take a peek at the trailer video, the wedding took place at her parent's house in Melrose, Florida.





Justin & Kristan from Platinum Digital Video on Vimeo.

Real Wedding: Sage & Chris

When Sage and Chris found out they were expecting, they sent out an email to their closest friends and family to find out what weekends were free, and decided on the first weekend in June. Their intimate, at-home wedding was not only sweet and charming, it also reflected the couple's sense of humor.


Sage and Chris knew they wanted to get married at their home from the first time they saw it, even before buying it! All of their 23 guests stayed with them at the house on the wedding weekend. Says the bride, "It was perfect - we were just surrounded by our very favorite people in our favorite place."




One of Sage's favorite parts of the day happened before the ceremony - at her 20-week checkup, she had the doctor write down the baby's sex on paper and put it in an envelope so that they could be surprised on their wedding day. "We were so sure it was a girl, but it was a boy!" she says. They announced the news to their guests just after saying their vows.




Sage found her dress just a month before the wedding, buying a sample at Kleinfeld's because there was no time to have the dress made-to-order. "I needed an empire waist since I didn't know how it would fit by the day of the wedding," she says. "And I didn't wear shoes - I went for the barefoot and pregnant look."








Catering by The Farmer's Wife.




The couple designed a "shotgun wedding" themed logo that they had printed on t-shirts and temporary tattoos for their guests. One of their guests surprised them by having the logo printed on a onesie for the baby.



Congratulations to you, Sage and Chris, on your wedding and on your new addition! And thank you to Jean Kallina for sharing these photos.