Colorful Handmade Wedding: Sally + Chris

bride and groom

Sally + Chris moved to Asheville, North Carolina from the UK for Chris’s job in October 2011 – then got engaged last New Year’s Eve after being together 4 years. They ended up planning the wedding in 2 and a half months – oh, and Sally found out she was pregnant too! So, it was a crazy 2 1/2 months of planning (along with tiredness and nausea), but as you’ll soon see, it turned out so super gorgeous! So, yes, it is possible to have a beautiful wedding with only a few months of planning! :) A bit more about their day from Sally:

The wedding was supposed to be an all outside affair – ceremony under the Walnut tree, dinner and dancing on a patio, reception round the fire pit kind of thing. But we got the only day in September where it poured down with rain most of the day, so we were really lucky that our venue had just opened a new yoga retreat lodge up the road complete with a chapel so we could move everything up there with 2 days notice!

We are both designers, I’m textile and Chris is furniture, so we are both very creative. Chris left all the decoration up to me as that’s more my forte. I decided I wanted it to be fun and very colourful, using a contrasting palate of bright green, pink, yellow, turquoise and orange. I used to run a business designing and making interior products like lampshades and pillows and mugs, so I had a lot of my fabric left over that I had designed. It seemed to make sense to include that in different decoration aspects for the wedding – like the bunting, the ring pillow, the sashes on the bridesmaids dresses, and wrapped around the bouquets. I also made napkins for dinner and had my candles on the tables.

Big thanks to W Scott Chester for the gorgeous photos and congrats to Sally + Chris!

green shoes

bride

bride in short wedding dress

bridal hair piece

house

colorful bunting


I used my colour theme for pom poms hanging from bows to decorate all the chairs. I had an amazing couple of friends who used to come over for craft nights and we’d sit, nibble, and make hundreds of pom poms! They also really helped with the fabric strip bunting that we hung in the chapel and the napkins. I couldn’t have done it without them! I had a lot of inspiration from pinterest – it was my invaluable source for ideas and a great place to keep an online scrap book of how I wanted the wedding.

chair decor

bride walking down aisle

colorful ceremony

pinwheel decor

Our Favorite Memory From The Wedding

The most memorable moment was when Chris's niece sang a song at the ceremony in Welsh, their native language, and our little 3 year old held her hand and did a swaying dance all the way through, it was just so sweet.

pinwheel decor

string lights

ceremony

ceremony exit

Our Musical Choices

Processional: NYE – Badly Drawn Boy

Recessional: Woo Hoo from Kill Bill – the 5,6,7,8's

First Dance: Mirrorball – Elbow

bride and groom

bride and groom

bride and groom

bride and groom

fun

bride

bride and groom

bride and groom

wscottchester-wedding-24-update

vintage bottle vases

wscottchester-wedding-26-update

colorful bouquet

cake topper


The cake was a tower of cheese for Chris (he is obsessed with cheese) and I had a meringue tower covered in British sweets (I have a very sweet tooth). 

first dance


Love all the colors – and of course Sally’s perfect green wedding shoes! :)

photography: W Scott Chester // venue: Mountain Magnolia Inn  (where we originally had planned for the whole day but ended up with just dinner there) and the Laughing Heart Lodge – owned by the same people and just up the road. Both in Hot Springs, North Carolina. They saved our wedding from the rain, really can’t speak highly enough of them. They were so helpful and turned everything around within a couple of days into our miracle! // wedding dress: Wedding Inspirations // hairpiece: David’s Bridal // green shoes: Modcloth – Poetic Licence // bridesmaids dresses: David’s Bridal with a sash made by me from fabric I designed // cake: cheese supplied by Asheville Farmers market, meringue and sweet cake made by my mum! // cake toppers: Knotting Wood // garters: WCO by Nancy // invites, place cards, table decor, and all decorations: DIY by the bride and her friends

 

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