You know how I love a barn/farm wedding and when I saw this wedding on photographer’s Aruna’s Blog – I just had to share! The wedding was at the Cobblestone Farm in Ann Arbor Michigan with catering by Food Art. Coordination and floral design was by Jen House with A Moment In Time Wedding & Event Production. It was a laid back day with close friends and family, great food and even some lawn games!
I asked Sarah what her favorite memory of the day was and she replied with this short story, honestly, it’s really hard to pick a favorite, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most clearly right now was actually one of the most dramatic/potentially awful as well. As my mom went to unzip the dress to take it off of the hanger and put it on me, the zipper came completely out of its track. It was 100% broken, and the only way to fix it was to put it in a zipper re-threading machine (we didn’t have time to go back to the bridal salon, though). I panicked a bit but was able to hold it together as I thought of a plan (i.e. wear a bridesmaid dress down the aisle?) My mom eventually said ‘we’re sewing you in!’ My mom is a great seamstress, as is my bridesmaid Angie (she used to do costuming when we were in high school theater together). My sister and Aruna-our photographer-took photos as mom and Angie patiently worked on sewing me in. It was such an amazing moment, where my family and friends banded together to help me out, and it turned out beautifully. I’m so grateful to have such fantastic people around me, especially on that day at that moment.
And now for the beautiful photos! Thanks again Aruna!
Sarah’s Dress is by Pronovias and the bridesmaids dresses are by J Crew.
I love her seating cards! Sarah got the idea from an issue of Martha Stewart.
Super cute cake topper from Goose Grease on etsy. They also had a fun photo booth with great background.
Can you offer any advice to those planning right now? Prioritize! We didn’t have much of a budget, as we spent half of what would have been our wedding budget on our house the year before, so we were forced to decide what was important to us. Because I started planning and DIY-ing early I was able to make many of the decor elements myself (although be forewarned: this isn’t always the cheaper option!), and we went with a less expensive venue, no DJ or band (we rented sound equipment and used our computer), and less fancy flowers (that my wedding planner made look fantastic). We really love food and ended up spending the majority of our budget on the menu, and since I love everything paper & art I spent a bit more on my invitations.
Anything else you would like to share? I really loved the fabulous team of people that helped us with our day. My day-of planner (a must-have since there was no on-site coordinator…another cost-saving tip), catering team, and photographer really had a huge hand in making the day as wonderful as it was. Good people don’t have to be expensive, so make sure that you find what you need within your budget, but remember that if you don’t mesh with a vendor you should keep looking.
Thanks for those great tips and advice Sarah! Your day looked perfect. Thanks also Aruna for letting me share your amazing photographs. You can view more of Aruna’s work on her blog.
Where did she find that fabulous orange fabric for the photo backdrop?
Beautiful Wedding! Such terrific inspiration!
I’m desperate to know more about how Sarah and Joey successfully rented sound equipment and just used their own computer playlist. This is something I really want to do but I worry something will go wrong. Did you have someone specific in charge of the computer? Did you just run a play-list? Did you put someone else in charge of making simple announcements? Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks again for these lovely photos!
Jocie
so wonderful! i love their initials with those wreaths — gorgeous!
So beautiful! I have loved that martha stewart fabric escort card idea since I first saw it. She recreated it beautifully.
What a beautiful wedding. I love the tip about planning: prioritize. That is so true! I am afraid that I didn’t do that as much as I should of at the beginning of the planning stage of my own upcoming wedding. Now, I have everything on track (I think), but it can really get away from you if you let it.
-Brittni
2 words.. LOVE IT!! What beautiful memories..
p.s. bocce ball touney? amazing.
AmberGale: I found all of the fabric I used (I sewed the table runners, too) from two sites–tonicliving.com and reprodepot.com (I also love purlbee.com/fabric) :)
jocie: My brother-in-law had a friend who had a HUGE list of music (the type of list a DJ would have) and we put it all on an external hard drive to choose from. I recommend starting your playlist early, as this was one of the last-minute things I freaked out about. I had two playlists–one for dinner that my husband and coordinator made sure to have on when folks entered the barn (had quieter oldies and big band music), and the other for the dancing (much longer, more fun music). I also recommend having someone in charge of the computer, we didn't and it was a little stressful. One of our friends agreed to introduce us as we walked in and also introduced the toasts. And a separate friend-who manned the computer for the change in playlists-announced when we were going to do the first dance. We rented a sound system that included the two large speakers and a mic, and the person who delivered set it up. Hope that helps!
Gorgeous photos! So different and very creative!!! Such inspiration
I love the photo booth idea! I will have to tell my clients to do that. Also the seating arrangement idea is fantastic, it's always such a bother trying to find your seat. Very creative! Love it!
I love this wedding! For the photo booth – how did this work? Did you use a polaroid camera, disposables, etc.? I want a photo booth so badly but they're sooo expensive to rent and now that polaroid is extinct, their film is expensive and hard to find. I'm wondering how other brides find a way around this.
Barnyard Chic Bride: I bought a large swath of fabric to hang as the background (based on your location the logistics of hanging the fabric will differ), and bought a few cute props at a local costume shop. I spoke to my photographer ahead of time, and since she had a second shooter we arranged for one of them to be in the photo booth for an hour during the reception. She did more than I expected–set up lights, a tripod, etc., and shot the photos for us. We had the photo booth time printed in the programs, and also announced it over the mic. I’m sure folks shot their own pics with their cameras throughout the night, but I’ll be receiving all of those shot professionally with the rest of my wedding photos (I’ll prob. mail them out after getting prints)
i LOVE this vibe! So cute!
Sarah – thank you for the fabric links!! Those are amazing and perfect. I’ve been searching for a great source for a photo backdrop and these fit the bill exactly.
we absolutely love the seating chart idea & the colors used in this wedding.
thanks so much for the music advice, sarah! your wedding was truly lovely. thanks for sharing and passing along your wisdom!
jocie
Thank you so much, Sarah! You came up with a creative solution for the photo booth. And I also appreciate the fabric site links. You rock.
For those of you interested in having a wedding on a farm you may want to check out this website – http://www.ruralbounty.com
They list farms from across North America that offer wedding facilities.
Wow, so charming. Love the fabric escort cards idea. There is so much amazing fabric out these days.
I absolutely ADORE this wedding, too bad it's at Michigan! I'd love to know where I can find a location like this in Southern california?
i love the moss initials! any idea where the bride purchased or were they DIY?
Awesome wedding! Question: from the pics it looks like you did an outdoor cocktail/lawn games hour between the ceremony and reception, is that correct? We're having our wedding at Cobblestone next summer, and I'd like to do something similar but wondering how the logistics of it will work. Did that part of the day work out well, any advice?
i want to tell you how beautiful and inspiring this wedding was to me! i featured it on my website -http://www.timelesscountrydecor.com/top-10-rustic-weddings.html
feel free to share the link with any of your other readers who would be interested!
Sarah…As soon as I saw your wedding photos…I was in love with Cobblestone and booked our wedding there over a year ago. (for 9-10-11) I am having SUCH trouble finding someone to hang those paper lanterns! We live about an hour away and bringing our own ladder is sort of not an option. Did you hire someone to do this??? And I’m also wondering if you had any other special lighting or just the barn’s? Please help! :)