An Outdoor Wedding with lots of DIY Paper Details: Melissa + Torrey

paper flower bouquet

Melissa + Torrey crafted such a beautiful + unique wedding for themselves. I love how it’s a mix of a gorgeous rustic setting with lots of colorful details + amazingly creative paper elements. Wait until you see all the beautiful DIY details Melissa incorporated! :) Since Melissa knew she wanted to create lots of DIY projects for her day they knew they would need a venue that was light on restrictions on things they could do in terms of decorating (Tip: some venues have lots of restrictions, so make sure to ask what those are before you sign the agreement). When they found the stunning Condors Nest Ranch and heard they were light on the restrictions, they knew it was a perfect fit. Big thanks to the lovely Annie McElwain for all the photos.

bride wearing birdcage veil

bridesmaids wearing shades of pink

sleeve wedding dress

bride and groom

purple ribbon wedding decor

paper flower ceremony decor

paper flower ceremony decor

paper flower ceremony decor

paper flower ceremony decor

bridal party


From Melissa, I love ribbons! I think they make any present more festive and pretty, so I had to use lots and lots of ribbons in decorating as well. We hung multi-colored ribbons all along the entrance trellis and decorated the two manzanita trees with ribbons and crystals, which stood on either side of our Wedding Arch. I also made a ribbon wall as the backdrop of our candy bar. 

hanging ribbon

paper flower

bride and groom

bride and groom


I visited tons of Anthropologie stores to pull inspiration from (I am in love with their window displays + decor!), and also broke out my giant wedding binder, which had been growing for years of clippings and magazine pages of everything from flowers to candy bar decor. I wanted my ideas to be original so I tried as much as possible to make the decor original and unlike anything else people have seen.

I started cutting out petal shapes in different colors and sizes for our Paper Flower Wedding Arch and Floating Flowers for the pool. With the scraps from those larger flowers I was able to cut out smaller flower shapes for the Floating Flower Wall. For the Rolled Paper Art Backdrop, I incorporated every color so that it would be the main focus and draw in everyone’s attention. For this reason we chose to make it the backdrop of the head table.

colored paper roll installation

colored paper roll installation


What an amazing idea for a backdrop! Love all the colors + textures.

colorful flower centerpieces

macaroon wedding cake

bride and groom first dance

bride and groom first dance

colored paper roll backdrop


And their lovely wedding film by Cloudless Productions!


So many beautiful + super rad creative details! Congrats to Melissa + Torrey!

photography: Annie McElwain Photography // venue name: Condors Nest Ranch // wedding dress: Vera Wang // bride's shoes: Bagley Mishka // bridesmaid dresses: Monica Christina // hair stylist: Tony Park with Lydia City Hair // makeup artist: Mai Lee // catering: Canyon Ranch Catering // coordinator: Lisa Doherty // flowers: Mille Fiori Floral // videographer: Cloudless Productions

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