Real Wedding: Kelli + Sam’s Vintage Garden Wedding

I love when readers send over their weddings and today I’m excited to share reader Kelli’s vintage garden wedding. Kelli is also a super talented illustrator (you can check out her work here). Kelli + Sam had a backyard wedding in El Cajon, CA (San Diego area). Kelli was sweet enough to include some details about her day also. The theme of the wedding was Vintage Garden Romance – I wanted it all to be very soft and fairy-tale like….almost like it was from another time. All photography by Erica Schneider (unless noted).

{invitations photographed by Sarah Shreves}

Ok, how adorable are her save the dates (top photo)! I love love the illustration of her and Sam – so cute! For the invites (bottom photo): I always go into projects thinking I can do them “real quick”. I kid myself every time. This was one of those projects! “Oh yeah, our wedding invite. No problem…just give me a few hours and i’ll whip it up.” Not exactly. But it was well worth the time invested to get it just right.

I wanted to create an invite that matched the style of our wedding….a little vintage / soft / romantic / garden…ish! Something classic and pretty that I wouldn’t look back on in a few years and wonder what on earth I was thinking? I love to layer textures and fabrics into many of my designs and I decided to do that here with our invitation as well. I hand drew the branch/feather frame and chose a font i thought suited it. I scanned in some lace and layered it on top of old vintage paper. After playing around with colors for a bit, I decided on this pale peach…which I want to be a dominant color of the florals! And then I went with a slate shimmer envelope. I can’t get enough of custom die cut invitations, so I had to tack on that little added touch as well! yummm…peach and grey make me smile!!

Kelli’s dress is by Pronovias – San Patrick, and her shoes were Jeffrey Campbell ‘pearl’ flats. Her sister did her hair and good friend Janelle, who works for Laura Mercier, did her makeup. Sam’s suit is from H&M.; Florals were by Brenda Davis Landini.

How cute are those bridesmaids dresses! I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but it was from Charlotte Russe! Although I altered it myself, removing the ric rac that was on it and adding my own trim below the bust. I used the same tattered tool on the top of my own dress to tie it all in.

I am lucky to have a cousin who is the “queen of crafts”. Ask her how to do anything creative, and she will most likely know. Well I went to her with the idea of creating custom accessories for my bridesmaids. I didn’t want them all to wear the exact same thing, but I did want it all to coordinate in one way or another. And because their dresses are very simple….I wanted to make more of a statement in jewelry. I was inspired by the work of Marquis & Camus, a collection of jewelry that offers a truly unique look into the future of remixed couture. I am SO IN LOVE with all of it! In a dream world, i would have bought each of my bridesmaids a Marquis & Camus original…..but I decided to get crafty instead.

My cousin and I went out and bought a handful of odds and ends: charms, pearls, chains, elastic, feathers and flowers…….as well as a few “base necklaces” from forever 21. She hand made silk roses and coffee stained tattered tool to add as needed. After much thought on what to create with all this “goodness”, we decided on 3 necklaces, 2 bracelets, and two flower hairpieces. A little something different for each girl.

For our wedding programs, I created it to be some what of a “mini book”. Thanking our parents and guests….and writing a little something special about each person in our wedding party. I am made a little bookmark (a picture of a painting I did) to put inside the program for everyone to take home. (which by the way, she is selling prints of that illustration in her etsy store – I think that would make such a cute bridal shower gift!)

Catering by RANCH Events. 

Favorite Memory of the Day: Our first dance! I felt like I was in a dream.

Any advice for those planning now?
You don’t need to have a ton of money to create a beautiful and unique wedding. Think creatively and start early! Some of my favorite pieces of my wedding were those that didn’t hardly cost a thing. And if you are a creative soul (or have crafty friends!) add in as many little home-made details that you can to make it truly reflect YOU.

One of the coolest things for me now is to have so much great documentation of my wedding day. To have so many great pictures and video footage that I will keep with me forever…and pass on to my kids. That is one thing i’d tell all “bride to be’s”….to not skip out on filming parts of the day or hiring a good photographer! The day goes by too quickly and I am able to re-live those memories through photos!

Below is the video that Tom at Aqua Vivus and Matthew Forrey put together for Sam and I on our wedding day. He pieced together and edited the footage all in under two hours (during cocktail hour of the wedding) and we were able to share it with guests at the end of the night on a huge projector screen! It had the whole crowd in tears! Every time I watch it, it brings me back to that very moment, and I re-live the joy of that day all over again.

Thanks so much Kelli for sharing your beautiful and creative wedding, and congrats to you and Sam!

This wedding had some of my favorite details of 2010, check out my other favorites here

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