Hagan Home Design: A Home Made Wedding

Wedding season is behind us. However, I wanted to share my twin sisters wedding that I planned and took place July 2013. Between all the chaos it takes to plan a wedding and planning to build a house, I was able to pull it off and it looked beautiful.

Her fiancé is from Norway, therefore he wanted a summer wedding. I about died when she told me this. If you are from the Midwest, you know that summer time is HOT, especially summer in July! Well, not this year. The summer Gods were with us and brought very cool, fair weather for the month of July. Or maybe it was our family coming all the way from Norway that brought the nice weather. Whatever it was, we couldn't have asked for better temperatures!

Sarah (my sister) really wanted an outdoor wedding. Fortunately I was able to talk her out of an outdoor wedding in July. I have to say my case was made stronger when I found an amazing location, not too far from home, it had just the right amount of vintage and charm.

It was time to get planning. First on my mind was the accessories or decorations. Now this is right up my alley. I love to design and the space just needed some decorations to accent what was already there. Therefore, some flowers to accent the height of the room and some accessories to dress up the tables was all that was needed. We used candles and lanterns to define the ceremony space. In addition we brought in potted plants from home to add some softness and greenery. This is a great tip to save money on flowers.

Another way to stay within budget is consider arranging centerpieces on your own. This might be difficult if you don't have a green thumb, but I'm sure you can recruit a friend or family member that can help. I do have a green thumb, but I also recruited my mother in law to help. Without her it would have been an all-nighter for me. We ordered flowers from Sam's club. They have AMAZING fresh bulk flowers. Their quality is outstanding and even delivery is a piece of cake. I highly recommend them if you choose to be your own florist.

Since the room has amazingly tall ceilings we could make our centerpieces taller. We also didn't have to worry about cluttering the tables, since they were large too. The centerpiece in the front was a DIY project with little watering cans. We found these cans at the Dollar Tree and painted them all black. Then we planted a variety of succulents, which are very fitting for the Summer season and I knew would last until the wedding. The actual centerpiece was another DIY, and was arranged in a tall mason jar. Flowers are from Sam's.

We had a lot of extra flowers. So we created arrangements for other tables, like the guest book and gift tables.

Brides Bouquet: Picasso Mini Cala Lilies.

Bridesmaid Boquets: White and Green Hydrangea, Bells of Ireland, Succulents (Hens and Chicks), Berries, and Curly Willow Twigs.

Outside Terrace: Citronella Lanterns. A mid-summer wedding meant fighting the bugs at night. Don't make it uncomfortable for you guests and provide some bug repellant.

Outdoor Terrace Flowers. We found these tin planters at the Dollar Tree and bought clearance flowers from the local nursery. Be sure to plant your flowers about a month ahead of time so they can grow and fill in.

As I'm sure you have concluded by now, the room lent itself very well to a vintage, rustic wedding decor. Burlap is very "in" right now and of course what is a vintage, rustic wedding without some burlap? Another DIY project, the runners were created for under $10 each. We cut burlap to a length that would overhang the table by at least a foot on each end. Then we sewed lace to both edges of the burlap runner. For the bride, it wasn't important for all the lace to match, which was great because it was hard to find enough lace that matched, but mismatched lace related to the vintage, rustic vibe that we wanted. After all vintage isn't always "matchy matchy", its what you can find and repurpose.

DIY Chalkboards. I found all the supplies at Hobby Lobby and make my own chalk paint. Also featured, the burlap table runners.

After the flowers and tables were handled there wasn't much left to do, but to add some accents to the fireplace and ceremony aisle.

The aisle was kept simple. Ferns flanked each side of the beginning of the aisle and running down the aisle was a mash up of different lanterns. We opted for different sizes and styles in lanterns to keep the vintage style cohesive. Due to no open flame rules at the site, we had to use LED candles, but they worked out great because they were operated by remote.

Last, but not least, I'll leave you with some pictures of the wedding party. Hope you enjoyed the simplicity.