Real Wedding: Katy + Tom’s VW Bug Wedding

Katy + Tom love VW bugs. And Tattoos. They themed their wedding around it and I just love it! They even had temporary tattoos made with their names on them for all their guests. Thanks to Sara at onelove photography for sharing this wedding with me and a bit about the couple: Tom is a huge VW lover and owned a GORGEOUS vintage refurbished (done himself) cream bug that he loved, but sold it to buy Katy’s wedding ring. In exchange, he bought this little crappy white bug (that you see in the photos below) that he is in the process of restoring. The sweet things we do for love!

vw bug wedding invitation

wedding shoes and typewriter

short vintage wedding dress

volkswagon wedding bridal party with bug

black and white tie bride with tattoos

Katy’s son was 5 when Tom first met him. Now Jake is 10 and Tom is the adoptive father. So cute that he escorted her down the aisle!

here comes the bride sign

vw bug wedding red shoes

wedding with a vw bug in the woods

Theme/Inspiration: Much of our inspiration was found reading other wedding stories. It was so inspiring hearing other stories of people that made their wedding so unique and personal to who they were. We pieced together lots of ideas and just made them our own. We love vintage things and I fashioned my dress & my girls pencil dresses from the 50’s era. We wanted our wedding to really show us as a couple, nothing fake or cheesy, just genuine “Tom & Katy” and our love celebrating with our friends and family. We put a lot of attention in DIY decorations and little touches…making flags to wave at the ceremony, custom tattoos with our names, our centerpieces were framed pictures honoring our family…a candy table…lots of fun stuff we’d all enjoy that made the day so special!

fake tattoos for wedding

wedding cupcakes and flags

vintage coke bottle

Fun story: We were just planning on driving away from our wedding in our 2004 Honda Civic as Tom’s ’67 bug was missing its front windshield & we didn’t have the time to focus on getting it fixed. 48 hours though before the big day I decided to push Tom again & see if there was anything we could do to get the windshield in & the bug in presentable condition. So just a day before the wedding, Tom made a crazy windy trek across town driving without a front windshield and had the windshield put it and repaired! Although Tom suffered from chapped lips & things were a little hurried that last day, it was well worth it to have the bug share in our special day!

vw bug as getaway car wedding

Favorite Memory of the Day? I don’t know if we have any one specific favorite moment, we loved every single thing thru out the day starting with our ceremony & our amazing Pastor & his hand tattoos who used the words RAD & STOKED alot in our vows, almost dropping the “F” bomb once too! Our “Mr & Mrs” intro to AC/DC Thunderstruck was pretty phenomenal! The first dance with our wedding party & friends to Black Eyed Peas rocked the house & was like an explosion of emotion & joy on the dance floor! The heartfelt tear-jerking toasts from Best Man and Sisterwait, our Pastor dancing & ripping his pants (literally from crotch to butt) & our best man that had to climb a crazy high ladder to take a chandilier down that was in the way of our slideshow were all superb events that we’ll never forget! I think we were just in love with the day, the people, the party and most of all each other. Happily ever after…

Any advice for those planning now? Our focus for our wedding was to have fun and keep it about us so anything that veered from that we just ditched. If it starts to become too much or too stressful, it’s not worth it. We also enlisted a ton of friends to help – everything from flowers to cake to making rehearsal dinner menus – our friends did!  So don’t be afraid to reach out, I quickly learned that people were dying to be a part & help. My best “day of” advice would be to start your day doing whatever brings you serenity. I feel so clear and peaceful after I work out, so the morning of our wedding I went for a 2.5 mile jog and came home feeling on top of the world and ready to get MARRIED!! So take time to take care of yourselves, it really does pay off!

Photography: onelove photography
Venue: Mills College
Dress: Priscilla of Boston
Shoes: Paris Hilton Senorita
Cupcakes: Emily Gillette (friend of the bride)
Invites: DIYpaperie on etsy
Bridesmaid dresses: mybabyjo.com
Caterer: Cabana Dave
Custom Tattoos: Body Graphics

onelove photography is based in Los Angeles, but available for travel worldwide.

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