A Heartfelt DIY Wedding With Earth Tones and A Whole Lot of Love!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

One reason we are so in love with this wedding that took place at The 1909 in sunny Topanga, California is because it shows that anyone can create a DIY wedding with zero experience, no artistic background, and without any special tools or workshops (we’ll explain!)

Kim + Eric show that you can do ABSOLUTELY whatever feels right for your wedding. For the two of them, that was things like having the groom’s “groomslady” also be their officiant, having their dog present (only for the cocktail hour so he didn’t howl through the ceremony!) and making their big day super personal. With the help of the planners at Say I Do To Details, and Gina and Ryan Photography who effortlessly captured the magic in Topanga, this couple created the ceremony of their dreams that we are thrilled to share with you all! Let’s jump in!

A Topanga Retreat

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

You are cordially invited! We are loving these earthy wedding invitations welcoming guests to the wedding of Kim and Eric!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

A matching pajama moment with your bridesmaids as you get ready for your special day is ALWAYS a great way to start!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Kim shares with us a bit about her dress shopping experience, “We were living in Amsterdam at the time, so I planned my first wedding dress shopping experience for when my mom and sister were visiting. We went to a gorgeous shop – Wild at Heart Bridal in Nijmegen, Netherlands. While I didn’t find “the one” that day, it was amazing to get to share that experience with my family even though I was living abroad. I did the rest of my dress shopping alone – which I 100% recommend! It’s so calming to be able to really focus on what you as the bride want without any outside influence. I knew I wanted a sheer, form-fitted dress, and if I went with a bunch of people maybe someone would have talked me out of it!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

When I eventually found the dress by Anna Sposa, I actually almost walked away from it because while I wanted some sort of tulle, I didn’t like the overskirt it came with. Just as I was about to leave the shop empty handed, the consultant suggested swapping out the skirt for one the shop could custom-make for me. Once I tried on a sample of that, I was in love.

Now I just had the task of getting it back to the US where our wedding was located. We ended up booking an extra seat for the dress on the plane when we flew home! So if you’re buying a dress in another country, know that you can purchase the seat next to you for a discounted rate, but to offset the cost you can get a VAT refund (a reimbursement of the taxes you paid on goods purchased in Europe as a non-resident.)”

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

By opting for these strappy sandals from Marc Fisher, the bride didn’t even have to think about her feet hurting later on in the evening!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

This groom’s look is from The Black Tux and he looks ravishing!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The groom and his groomsmen certainly knew how to relax and prepare for the big day in the hours leading up to the ceremony! Drinks and ping pong of course!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Time For the First Look

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The groom’s look says it all…and thank GOODNESS it was captured!!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The Wedding Party

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

These bridesmaids look stunning in their yellow off-the-shoulder dresses from Show Me Your Mumu!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The bride shares that they DIY-ed the macrame bridesmaid hoops, floral arrangements, copper pipe triangle backdrop, the “This Must Be The Place” welcome sign, seating chart, and table numbers! WOW!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

As if this group’s contagious laughter wasn’t enough to show you… this group is in for a magical day!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

How sweet is this guest book sign-in!

Kim and Eric lived in the Netherlands for several years and traveled a ton, so their guest book was a photo album where they invited guests to write their favorite travel destination, with the promise that they will eventually visit each place and add a photo from that trip.

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Staying unplugged throughout the ceremony truly makes everyone so present – and we love that!

A Beautiful Ceremony

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Our Musical Choices

Processional: First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes

Recessional: Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind

First Dance: King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men (performed live by Bride’s dad and sister)

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Finally, the couple shows some heartfelt ideas that made their wedding personal to the two of them. For K + E, that was their unity ceremony: Kim and her husband often write notes to each other, so for the unity ceremony they each chose their favorite one to put in a frame to remind them to never forget the small gestures.

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Our Favorite Memory From The Wedding

Our vows. [From Kim:] Writing our own vows was something we agreed early on was super important to both of us. We wanted to put on paper all those ways you grow to admire your partner in 8 years of being together. And it was important to us to not only express how we felt to one another, but also have our friends and family get to share in the understanding of those feelings. I had no idea what Eric was going to say until I was standing up there with him on the day-of, and it absolutely brought me to tears how profound and lovely his words were (and he's normally the more silly one in the relationship.) I’ll never forget the warmth of his adoration.

[From Eric:] Some of Kim’s best qualities are her deep, genuine emotion and capacity for love. Leading up to the wedding, I was so excited to hear what she had been preparing (for years!), but was also terrified that my own vows wouldn’t stack up. But we surprised each other – hers were breathtaking yet had humor infused that had me bent over in laughter and (according to her) I didn’t disappoint either.

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

A Toast to Jack

The couple planned a toast to the groom’s late father using his favorite snacks: Dr. Pepper and peanut M&Ms!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The couple kept their guests entertained during cocktail hour with giant games such as Jenga!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Pretty sure this is a dream because HOW in the world is a reception this perfect even real?!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

Hadley and Ren created this bohemian pampas bridal bouquet and the boutonnières worn by the groom and his groomsmen! The rest of the floral arrangements throughout the venue & table settings were DIY-ed by the bride herself!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

This fit from The Black Tux had this groom looking and feeling his best!!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

One Big Happy Family

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

We love when the couple has their dog present at their wedding!! And look at this adorable floral collar she is proudly wearing!!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

We absolutely love that this bride went for black nails for her wedding day!

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

For the couple’s first dance: the bride’s father plays guitar and her sister is a great singer, so they asked them to perform an acoustic version of Of Monsters and Men’s “King and Lionheart.”

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon
Our Advice To Those Planning Now

Hire a videographer! For most of our planning process I was adamant that I didn’t want a videographer because I wanted to remember the day from my own perspective and I was nervous I would feel “watched” and not be able to relax. But at the last minute my wedding coordinator changed my mind and I’m so glad she did. The videographer we found had this fantastic photojournalistic approach, catching mostly candids and we hardly noticed her all day. And memory fades! We’re going to be so glad we have both insanely beautiful photographs AND a full-on movie of our day to look back on.

Also - don’t be afraid of having a Friday wedding. We moved our wedding date and location due to Covid, so all the venues we liked were booked up for Saturdays. We were bummed to have to do a weekday, but then we realized our guests (who were mostly flying in) wouldn’t be flying out until Sunday, so we threw a beach party on the Saturday after the wedding. We had a blast hanging out in Malibu and getting to spend even more time with our loved ones. Yes, some people might not be able to take off work and make it, but if it’s what your budget, venue, or timeline requires, it can actually be a huge benefit.

Heartfelt DIY Earth Tones Wedding Topanga Canyon

The couple’s wedding was moved twice due to Covid, and resulted in their guest list being cut by half. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise – because they had more time to DIY, plan a wedding that was emotional, and got to spend real quality time with their closest friends and family on the day-of. It goes to show there is always a silver lining that can be quite beautiful! Congrats to the newlyweds!!

Want to see more from the couple’s big day? Check out this amazing video by Ivy & Wild Films!

photography: Gina and Ryan Photography // venue name: The 1909, Topanga, CA, USA // planning: Say I Do To Details // florals: Hadley and Ren // wedding dress: Anna Sposa // wedding dress boutique: Weddings Bruidsmode // bride's shoes: Marc Fisher // bride's ring: Pave Jewelers // bridesmaid dresses: Show Me Your Mumu // hair stylist: Nicole Douthitt // makeup artist: Becca Janian // groom attire: The Black Tux // groom's shoes: Allen Edmonds // groom's ring: Sofia Kaman // videography: Ivy and Wild Films // catering: Cafe on 27 // music: Entourage (deBois Entertainment) // cocktails: Twist & Bitters

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