Today’s wedding is full of so many great details. Catie planned the whole wedding in 3 months with thanks to her wonderful family + friends for helping with the day. They managed to put together a pretty amazing day on a tight budget. Special thanks to photographer Dana Grant for letting me share this wedding with you guys. Catie was also sweet enough to share some details from the day.
From Catie, I started out with like a 1940′s theme because I love that music and era and then it sort of ended up just being everything that I love shoved into one backyard. I wanted it to have a backyard kind of cute bed and breakfast feel. It did have a lot of 1940′s themed things but it was subtle and I don’t think people knew the era. So, I guess I could call it a real vintage backyard wedding (most of the stuff really was old).
Catie and her mom designed her wedding dress, then Catie’s mom made it – wow! Her veil and flower in her hair were made by her cousin Hailey (who also made the cake). The bouquets + boutonnieres were by Emily Burton.
Most memorable moment of your wedding day: Ben was soooo cute! When I came around the corner down the aisle I could see Ben standing on his tippy toes peeking over heads trying to see me. When I got to the front his eyes were all teary! Sooo cute! He later whispered in my ear that he about lost it when he saw me come around the corner. My favorite thing of the reception was playing the song “sisters” by Rosemary Clooney and having all my sisters and sister in laws dance. So much fun!
Love the hanging old windows! And also, such a great idea with the head table. If you love the idea of having lots of different vintage chairs for everyone, but can’t find enough chairs for all your guests, you can do what they did. Keep that for the head table, and the rest of the tables were simple white chairs – great idea to save on your budget!
All the amazing styling + decor was by Lettie Peterson, a friend of Catie’s, who also does that professionally. Catie’s brothers did a lot too. They painted and built the dance floor and they hung all the lights up.
Catie made the photo booth and was a total hit with the guests. She also plans to rent it out if you are interested. From Catie, I liked how cute it was and that it is real vintage with real vintage dress up clothes unlike some really cheesy ones I’ve seen.
The food was provided by Catie’s sister and a friend. Another friend made all the tarts + brownies and her younger sister did the creme brulee + cupcakes for the dessert bar.
Any advice for those planning now?
I don’t know that I’m the person to give advice on this! My whole engagement was 3 months, with a very small budget in comparison with what the typical wedding costs. I spent the most money on the thing that was very most important to me which was photography. That was more than half my budget. The rest was all my friends and family.
Your friends and family did such an amazing job helping with everything – it really turned out beautifully. Thanks Catie for sharing your day and thanks so much to Dana Grant for letting me share this wedding with you guys. There were so many great details from this wedding and she will be posting on her blog.
to your wedding faves
love their backyard set up! they did an incredible job of using that space.
I love love LOVE this wedding. The creativity is off the charts! So charming and chic – and fantastic photos to boot. Lovely!
WOW! What amazing details – the windows are inspired!
oh my goodness– how ever did she develop so many detail sin only 3 months time! This wedding is filled to the brim with amazing inspiration! i love it all.
So cute! I would love to know where they got those light blue patterned tablecloths!
I actually made the tablecloths from some fabric I found at a discount fabric store. I’m actually wondering what I should do with all these tablecloths!
whoa…love this wedding…the details and style is amazing
Would it be possible to PLEEEEASE know where they purchased all the ruffled cake stands? (black + teal colored ones)?
so many great details! Love the color palette & the vintage/antique vibe.
OMG I LOVE IT!
Would it be possible to PLEEEEASE know where they purchased all the ruffled cake stands? (black + teal colored ones)?
LOVE this wedding! It’s very similar to what I’m doing with mine that I enjoyed seeing it! I recognize some of the little bird ceramics that I snagged myself :D Too bad they’re in AZ and I’m in WA or I would rent that booth from her! Anyway we can find out where she found that adorable tiered tray with the bird on top?
I love, love her dress – anyone know who designed it?
This is like every single thing I want in my own wedding (this September!)… mason jars, hydrangeas, typewriter, and now, old windows.
XX Lauren
http://lauren-stacks.blogspot.com [book ends]
This wedding is simply beautiful. Amazing. I love everything, but especially her dress and the lampshades.
What clever ideas! The windows, the photobooth, the head table chairs. A very charming wedding!! Congrats to the happy couple!
The best part was the head table chairs. What an amazing wedding. Congratulations and thank you for sharing!
my mom and I designed my dress. The lampshades are actually hat boxes decorated, the black cake stand tier is from an antique store and the other colored cake stands are from costco. Don’t get excited though. They sold out in one day. If you can find anymore let me know! They have similar ones at Dillards.
How wonderful and romantic! Yaaay!
Cheers!
Petra
This wedding displays vintage items in the most perfect way! I Love the oil lamps and yellow and white loveseat. Big kudos to the event designer and stylist.
Thank you Nico Designs.This weddding was a LOT of fun to see come together and a LOT of work…I could not have done it without my sister Janeice Switzer’s help.We set the complete event up in 36 hours over 2 days.I’m loving seeing all the pictures and enjoying it from a viewers perspective .
This wedding has so many great details! I love their color scheme and how everything coordinates but doesn’t necessarily match. The whole thing pulls together for a great effect. And the story of how they did it is so inspiring!
I love this vintage backyard wedding! Simply adore all the cute details!
Totally adorable. This makes me consider changing my venue to my back yard. How big of a backyard was this wedding? How many guests?
I love this! Most “backyard weddings” featured on wedding blogs are of sprawling, immaculately manicured lawns owned by huge estates. This is a true backyard wedding. I am also having a backyard wedding (my parent’s backyard looks very much like this!). I love all the details and the bride and groom look like they are having so much fun! I love all the doors and windows, mismatched chairs and table cloth, and the sweets table. Refreshing post.
I am so inspired by this! Not to mention thankful you posted this! I was able to show my family and now they finally understand my vision!!!
Perfect we all love it!
The bride’s wedding dress is so beautifully made especially since her mom made it…WOW!!!She is one lucky bride!I also love the flower bouquets, the antique tables and chairs plus the bicycle with the “Just Married” sign blew me away!Congratulations!
Oh my goodness I am in love. So many exquisite details. Thank you for sharing this inspiring wedding!
I love this backyard wedding. The decorations was awesome and I love everything that I’ve seen with this wedding.
Thanks for sharing. It really inspire me.
Some of the most beautiful details here- I am absolutely in love with this DIY vintage style which appears to be increasing in popularity. Stunning!
I love all the details! I’m glad she hired a great photographer who could capture the day and share it with the rest of us!
This is gorgeous. I’m curious what the “tight budget” was. I’m working with a really tight budget and I would love to know that I could do something this gorgeous with what I’ve got.
Love the mismatched chairs on the head table, LOVE the fact that her mom made her wedding dress, and love those ruffly cake stands as well! I really wish Costco was still selling them!!! Oh, and I’m super impressed that she pulled the whole thing off in 3 months. I’ve been planning for a year now and I’m stressed having 3 months LEFT!
This is truly one of my favorite weddings that has been featured on this site! (All of the weddings are wonderful, but this one is particularly “my style”.) The details are so amazing and it’s hard to believe what the budget might have been! The idea of only using mis-matched chairs at the bridal table is ingenious! I love that!
beautiful :) if it isn’t crazy- would you tell me how much it cost?
OMG there is so much I love about this post I’m overwhelmed with where to even start. Jen so greatful you posted this, it’s absolutely extraordinary, the bride’s gown is probably my favorite! I adore how much time and detail and so much love was put into this! Favorites other than her gorgeous dress were her hair piece, the flower girl, the windows, the head table, all the vintage glass and props. It’s sheer heaven looking at this! Congrats Catie and fam, you did an incredible job! xoxo
This wedding is EXACTLY the look that I am going for with mine. I’m also having my wedding in a backyard, and was planning on using a old doors as a backdrop. Whenever I’m decorating for the wedding, I’m going to bring pictures of yours with me!
Where did you find all of your props? (ie vases, chairs, couch, doors, windows, clocks, oil lamps, chandeliers, etc). I’m assuming you spent many hours searching through antique stores.
Everyone wants to know how much!! Well, I will try to break it down. Almost every thing is from a thrift store. I think my friends and I just had a vision for crap. Also, lot’s of it is borrowed.
Dress-$200 (my mom made it)
Table and chair rentals-$500
Flowers-$1000
Food-4 course meal and hundreds of sweets for 200 guests $1000. (my friends and family cooked it all)
Dishes from thrift stores-$100
Photography-Dana Grant photography. (you can get anyone but I wanted the best)
Vintage Doors-$30 each from a yard sale
Chandeliers-borrowed. I bought one for $80
Mason jars-$30
Hat box/lampshade- $5 each plus fabric and paper
Lights-$200 (from Target and the paper lanterns from ebay)
Yellow bike-$60 from a thrift store
Vintage windows-$10 each from a yard sale
Vintage yellow couch $70 from craigslist.
All the little things here and there were a few dollars at thrift stores, like clocks, brooches and such.
Vintage typewritter- $30 yard sale
One of the biggest costs was an amazing dance floor that isn’t even pictured. My brother built it for $400.
Putting it all together-IMPOSSIBLE without my friends and family and especially Lettie and her sister Janeice.
Hope this helps!
oh, and all the mismatched vintage chairs were about $5 each at thrift stores. My brother is a painter so he was able to help me make some of them really cute.
Do you still happen to have the template for framed write-up of how you guys met and stuff? I think it’s so cute!
Catie! Oh my goodness, I smiled at every single photo! But first of all, congratulations on your wedding! Our daughter is getting married in September and we’ll have the reception here on our property. We both looked through all your lovely photos and are inpired! Our question is (and thank you for all your previous answers regarding costs, etc-very helpful!), what did your photography cost? Your photos are wonderful, we’re hoping to find someone with that sort of “eye” for photography! Thank you for sharing your wedding and God Bless you two!
~Heidi
What a beautiful wedding dress! I can’t believe the mother of the bride made it! It’s really making me wish my mom was a sewer!
This is almost hard to believe. WOW!!! Amazing. And you were so kind to include the breakdown of what the items cost you. I can’t believe where you purchased these props. You did an amazing job putting your wedding together.
Her dress is absolutely incredible!!
Love this!!
How did you make the photo booth? I’ve been wanting to have one at my wedding but renting them is pretty expensive and I am on a super tight budget.
This si so inspiring! My fiance and I are planning on a buying a house and having the wedding in the backyard and its so hard to find outhers who’ve had simple but classic backyard weddings. So gorgeous!
I also wonder though, when you get married in the backyard and the reception is in the backyard, how/when do you do wedding photos?
Someone asked how much the photographer was. You can look her up at danagrantphotography.com. She can send you a price sheet. I don’t have a template for the “how we met” sheet. I copied it from a save the date card I saw on Photoshop. I didn’t exactly make the photobooth. I bought a very old one off of craigslist and took the film camera and replaced it with a digital one. You can buy photobooth software that will take the picture from the camera and print it like a photobooth. It is not cheap…so I cheated and did the 15 day trial right before the wedding. Shhhh! It gives you the full version too. I got married at 3:00. The reception started at 6:00. For people who stayed, I had appetizers, the photobooth, dance instruction 40′s style (well, that was the plan anyway) and croquet in the front yard. In the meantime, friends and family moved all the tables that were set up on the dance floor to the main area. It actually didn’t take very long. People weren’t as bored as I thought they would be since they had the photobooth. During that time is when we did all of our pictures.
I absolutely LOVE your dress! I’m getting married this July and am having a hard time finding a lace dress with nice sleeves and a small price tag. I was wondering if you would be interested in renting out your dress? I would pay for shipping and dry cleaning. Please let me know if you are interested by e-mailing me at e.beech@live.com and we can work out the details. Thanks! :)
So many great details shots! What a lovely wedding! :)
How did she make the photobooth??? That is awesome! Were the photos in a strip? I am so curious…..