Hunting Down a Hand-made Wedding

Before
photo taken by Sarah S.

This weekend, one of my best friends got married to one lucky man. As for me, I was lucky enough to stand up with them on their special day. The day was perfect as the clouds parted after two weeks of straight rain (if you're from the Fraser Valley, you know I am not exaggerating). Besides the maid-of-honor speech momentarily being lost, the bride and groom loosing their speech, and the father of the brides tie being the right size for a small child, everything went off without a hitch.. or I guess in this case with a hitch (pun intended).

The bouquets
Photo taken by Sarah S.

The day was completely Raquel and Joel's style (the bride and groom). It had a rustic hunting style with a lot of homemade touches that made it even more special. The decorations were unlike anything I had seen before in a wedding; it was absolutely stunning. Raquel and I usually end up decorating or crafting of some kind whenever we are together, so I wouldn't have expected anything less from her wedding.

The handmade touches are what took the wedding decorations up to an extraordinary level. Anything from the tablecloths to the chandeliers, and even the bouquets, were all crafted by Raquel's family and friends. These hand crafted touches not only cut down on price, but also brought us together to have a good time creating them.

The bouquets were the highlight of the homemade touches. Raquel's mom had spent four months working on all of them, and it shows! They were fabric flowers made with different laces, fabrics, and burlap, so each bouquet had a unique look.

After
Photo taken by Sarah S.

Extra credit also needs to be given to the handy
men in Raquel's family. They made a wall out of old wood planks to be the backdrop of the head table, a similar archway for the ceremony, and I'm sure many other things that I did not even know they made. The antler chandelier that hung over the center of the reception was stunning. It was unbelievable that her dad made it himself.

Programs
Photo taken by Sarah S.

The handmade touches continued all the way down to the invitations, programs, and the bags for the take-home goodies. We used a Cricut machine to cut a lot of the paper for them. It a     handy machine that makes cutting out many      shapes at a time super easy, because it does it for you!

Although the decorations were great, without them the day would have still been wonderful. It was a day full of good food, good drinks, good friends, and questionable dancing. What better of a combination can you get for a wedding?