I Survived Being a DIY Bride By Doing it My Way

The reception...ahh the hard part is over, now its time to party. After months of preparing for this wedding I was certainly ready to relax and celebrate. During my planning, I realized that a lot of people were telling me that things had to be a certain way, because it was traditional. Well I don't buy that at all. People left our wedding saying it was one of the most fun and personal weddings they had ever been to, and it really reflected who we were (and we are not really traditional people). So as we go on, I'm going to take this time to also de-bunk some of the wedding myths that we were told we HAD to listen to.

1) You can't see each other before the ceremony because its bad luck. Well, my husband picked out my wedding dress then went with me to pick it up from the bridal shop. I wanted his opinion, so I had him come along (not to the strange looks of family and shop-owners alike). Patrick is a bit of an emotional softee sometimes, and he knew he would be emotional saying our vows. We decided that if we saw each other before the ceremony it may relieve some of that emotion and it would be more private. Plus we could get some amazing pictures out of the whole thing (which we totally did, Kristen Wynn Photography you are amazing!)

2) You wont get to eat at all at the reception- I think you won't get to eat if you let someone stop you from eating. I am not a girl who is friendly when I am starved, so I ate. My first stop was at our custom candy bar. We had pink, silver and white vintage and new candies both in old antique jars. The man at the reception hall kept insisting that we would have TONS of candy left over. Let me tell you, we had almost none. Our guests ate it up, using the to-go bags to fill up to the brim before the bridal party even arrived at the reception. The staff filled the jars up twice, but even that wasn't enough for some of the junk food junkies.

3) You have to have a white, vanilla cake. I knew from the start that I didn't want an all white cake. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful- just not for me. I wanted pink. My husband and I agreed on a few things, such as the color and that we didn't want fondant or fresh flowers on the cake. The only thing he really insisted on was the flavor. He wanted a fun-fetti wedding cake. We met with a few bakers, but we ultimately chose Cakes by Tammy who loved the idea of the fun fetti (it also didn't hurt that her cake was the best we had tasted by far, even fighting over the two 6 inch sample cakes she sent us home with for free from the consultation!). After exchanging tons of emails, she drew up a cake inspired by my dress and plunked my look alike cake topper right next to it. If you are wondering, yes, we did have our two dogs on our wedding cake topper.

4) You have to have a seasonal wedding. Pish. I had a blush pink and pewter vintage wedding the day before Halloween. I knew I wanted that when I was looking in the pantry at my mom's house and I cam across my grandmother's antique blue mason jars. I loved them, and I wanted to incorporate them somehow. So, I made them vases at the reception- and it worked out perfectly we had just enough. I was raised in part by my grandparents, and my Gram passed away when I was a Sophomore in high school. I liked the idea of incorporating her into the different aspects of my wedding, almost as if she was surrounding me. I also used her inspiration for my centerpiece flowers. She loved dogwoods, so I mixed those in among the pink dyed hydrangeas for a vintage feel. I didn't want to use the table numbers at the venue, so I had my dear husband-to-be make these out of simple 1X6 inch and 1x2 inch boards for the base and the upright. We then painted them a shade of pewter, slapped on a layer of crackle paint, then painted over it in a pink. After they dried I hand painted the numbers and was done in a few hours. The candles were my last addition. I bought a lot of jars off of ebay for a super cheap price (144 votives and candles for $23 dollars...score!), and hot glued ivory rose petals around the outside. I tied them with a simple pewter ribbon, and voila! A table centerpiece for a reasonable price.

5) I'm just going to come out and say it, my husband to be wore Nike Shox as his wedding shoes (I customized them on Nikeid.com) and all of the guys were allowed to wear any shoe they wanted as long as it was black. They were thrilled, and I didn't have to hear them complain that their feet hurt. Win! I also let my bridesmaids wear whatever they wanted, as the dress was long and no one could see. I also wore flats, because I didn't want to be the only one with sore feet!

6) You can only have one maid of honor, best man, flower girl and ring bearer. We had two of each. When you have two best friends, how do you choose? Two adorable boys that love you equally, which one gets to be your ring bearer? What if one won't walk down the aisle? So you have two. Or three. Make everyone best men and maids of honor- have a Best Woman and Man of Honor.

They were sick of smiling, so they growled at the camera instead.

The basic gist is, its YOUR wedding- do what YOU want that makes YOU happy. No matter what happens, your wedding will be beautiful if its all about you.