Volume 23: Wedding Crafts and Wedding Photos!

It’s finally time to share wedding photos with you! Of the dress, of the crafts, and of the day in general, but mostly the dress and the crafts ;) All these photos were taken by a Louisville photography named Evan Satoshi and he was fantastic.

The Dress

I posted a video a couple weeks ago all about making the dress, but I didn’t have the professional photos back yet, so I didn’t have a lot of great photos of the entire thing in action. Here are some shots that showcase the dress.

The Crafts

But enough about the dress! We did several other DIY’s for the wedding that made it so special. Natalie crafted a lot of little things herself, like a little banner for the card box. And Layla painted this beautiful watercolor of one of their engagement photos for the gift table (it was a surprise).

Layla also hand painted the sign for the entrance to the wedding. Natalie designed it and Layla executed it. I don’t how she got the hand lettering so perfect!

The day before the wedding, we went to Trader Joe’s to buy flowers for all 20 centerpieces. Then we had all the women — bridesmaids and family from both sides — come over to help make bouquets, iron table cloths and make salads for the wedding feast. It was SUCH a good time and since the groom’s family lives in other states, it was the perfect chance for us all to fellowship and know one another.

We collected vintage doilies and all kinds of lace, crochet and similar table cloths from thrift stores and antique stores and family members.

Natalie had designed table numbers to go in each bouquet and each sign had pictures of her and TJ when they were that age. It was so fun choosing all the pictures from age 1 to 21.

The cake topper was one of my favorite things! She knew she wanted to make it, so we tossed around a bunch of ideas before landing on Lego horses. Legos were a huge part of both childhoods, so it was perfect. Natalie made a veil and bow tie and the cute banner.

They wanted a guestbook that they would actually look at again and again, so instead of the traditional kind, Natalie bought a plain scrapbook from Hobby Lobby (the same one I used to recently redo my wedding album) and used photo squares to put their engagement photos in it. Each guest signed the pages around all the photos and there are plenty of pages left for them to add their wedding photos.

Being a beautiful outdoor garden venue, we didn’t need to decorate the ceremony area very much, but we did make giant drapy bows for the ends of the aisles.

Natalie used her Cricut to print place cards for the head table and the immediate families. I kept mine, so sweet.

For wedding favors, Natalie designed and ordered drink koozies! We had water bottles and canned drinks and it was a hot day, so they were the perfect thing and so, so cute.

We had a table set up with all the wedding photos from both sides, as far back as great grandparents! A long legacy of lasting marriages.

And lastly, the ribbon wands. We spent a weekend, with the help of two grandmas, making the ribbon wands for people to wave as the bride and groom exited. They were so fun and looked pretty in the pictures!

Looking through all the photos, it was just such a joyful day. There was so much happiness there and I have nothing but lovely memories about it.