DIY Dreams

This is a lovely diy wedding, found on stylemepretty. I love the setting. If only I could find a grove of aspens. I love the informal feel of people just wandering along the path, gathering around in a meadow. Very pretty and touching. I also love that it is so family and child oriented. Games! How clever and important for a party with many children. Great idea.

And to go along with the family focus, the clothes line with all the photos. Old and new family photos. I really like that for myself, particularly since this wedding that is yet to be planned or have a date set is, in part, for our children and our families. I guess all weddings are, but our wedding would have actual little people running about, not the abstract concept of future children. And no one will then feel compelled to ask us, "so, when you having kids?" heheh.

I plan on doing a LOT of my wedding DIY. This is one of the reasons I started this to plan and research ideas and maybe even use to keep track of projects. Because I don't want to have crazy stressed out time before this wedding, whenever it happens. And that's pretty hard to do if you're DIY everything.

Witness my current plans of DIY, and my rationalization on why I can do it (or can find a family member and/or friend to do it for me.)

Invites. I am an artist and writer and setting up a whole system for printing currently.

Vows. Both S and I are poets (shhh, don't tell anyone.)

Table settings. I have read Martha Stewart for 20 years, and besides, I will simplify the whole thing because I like simple. and small. and heartfelt.

Favors. I am an artist and would probably do something to reflect that.

Flowers. I've done wedding bouquets before, and because I would go for something kind of wildflowery/handtied looking. And because my mom is a horticulturist and I could pass this off to her to do.

Music. I do not have the skills for this, but S's best friend is a musician and DJ, and my sister and her fiancee are musicians, and I would probably like an Ipod playlist, although we don't have an Ipod yet. This will take some work. I might put S in charge. He might be able to find friends to play for free, actually. Hmm.

Photography. My dad and my uncle are both professional photographers and I am an avid amateur. Would it be weird if the bride ran around snapping digital shots during the wedding?

Decor. Artist, amateur decorator, wannabe stylist and martha afficionado, that's me.

Guest book. So many options for creativity here, I can think this up. I can do most anything on paper, owing to my lifetime of arts and crafts and writing.

Hair and makeup. I would do my own hair and makeup because I like a natural look, but my sister is also a professional hair stylist and makeup artist. I'm not talking to her right now, but I have plenty of time to work on that. ;)

Officiant. My bestfriend and I both registered to be officiants at the same time. I haven't finished the process, but I think she has. And if she hasn't there's plenty of time for that.

Bar. I, S and my sister are or have been professional bartenders over the course of the past 20 or so years. I think we got this... although we wouldn't work during it, obviously. Thinking more we stock our own bar, create a specialty punch/drink, and then hire a friend to tend bar.

And my possible DIY plans

Dinner. I have dreams of having a Spanish style fiesta with Paella and tapas and simple good food that I could plan all myself with my mom... but I am not that crazy and will probably have to hire someone to do this (or whatever we plan).

Cake/cupcakes. I still think about doing this. Plain cupcakes aren't as difficult as a big white tiered wedding cake which I think is unnecessary, or I have a flourless chocolate cake recipe that can be made ahead and frozen, and served with whipped cream and icecream and berries. Yumm. I want that now.

Apps. See "Dinner." How hard would it be to set out olives and manchego and nice crusty bread? Or make some tortas and slice up some chorizo. Doesn't that sound like a good pre party snack?

Glasses This is probably dreaming, but I'd like to scour yardsales and fleamarkets or even Ikea and pick up plain glass tumblers and vintage juice glasses and use those for everything from water to wine to whiskey.

Plates and Utensils. Also probably dreaming. Same yardsale/thrifting and using mismatched vintage place settings. The biggest problem with this would be cleanup and storage.


The things I wouldn't do myself?

Dress. Seamstress, I am not, but I will get a simple, inexpensive dress and possibly add some embellishments like a ribbon or a shrug. I'm not a princess and don't want to pretend that I am.

Tables and chairs are looking pretty much NOT diy Unless we do a picnic on the beach or in a field, in which case I would like to thrift up some blankets for "seating"

Venue. I just don't know where it will be and we first have to move, which will probably define the location. And the date, actually. I could find a park somewhere, but it would take much research, especially since we still have a move to make, and that will define location. Without knowing the location, it's kind of hard to define most of the plans. Hence perhaps my longing for a grove of aspens.

Bartending This could just be self serve, but a nice touch would be someone behind a bar.

Food serving Well, there probably won't be formal servers, but someone to set things out and care for the dishes. Probably the same person as set up and clean up, actually.

Set up and Clean up the day of. I don't want to do this. But if pressed, I'll probably make my mom do this. Sorry mom. :)

Possibly day of coordinator. This is a new thought. If I do everything myself, why not hire someone to organize and set up everything for the big day so I can actually have a party rather than HOST. Seriously, I don't want to do anything the day of.

Am I crazy? Just a little? Remember also that we're talking TINY wedding here. Not big. Luckily, we have small families, spread far and many of them won't or can't travel much. It does depend on where it is, though. If we do it in NY that's a different guest list than if we do it in Florida which is a different guest list than if we do it goodness knows where we end up moving.