Succulent Wedding at Lord Hill Farms
I love how this bride decided to not only share some great suggestions on music and DIY decor ideas, but also opened up to us about the emotions she felt the day of her wedding. It is very sweet to read and also a good reminder for brides-to-be to invest in some hefty water proof mascara!
This succulent wedding at Lord Hill Farms in Washington was captured by (a women with a great first name — I may be a bit biased) Meredith McKee Photography.
Bride’s Comments: “My main advice for any brides out there, is that if you decide to do a lot of DIY projects, give yourself enough time to actually do them. And double the time your think it will probably take because crafts often take longer than expected. I definitely wish I could have given myself more time to complete a lot of the projects. I was too rushed at the end, which added unnecessary stress days before the wedding.”
“One of my favorite moments was when my mother, aunt and cousin came down to the hotel room to watch me get ready prior to the wedding ceremony. My mom took my hand and placed my grandmother’s wedding ring and band in it. This was so meaningful to me, since my grandma passed away several years ago. To be able to wear her rings was so touching. I will cherish that moment forever.”
“Another amazing moment for me was our first look at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Ben and I have a huge love for art and the city, so we thought Sculpture Park located in the heart of downtown Seattle, would be a perfect place for us to first see each other. I loved walking through the park and taking photos, but ultimately my favorite part was the moment I saw Ben waiting for me with his back turned. I loved the anticipation up until he turned around.”
Music Choices
Processional: Canon in D
Recessional: Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder
Ben’s cousin and uncle are very talented musicians, so we asked if they could play the guitar for us as we walked down the aisle and for the Recessional. Amid all of the rushing around and stress to prepare for this wedding, the moment I heard them playing their guitars and saw my bridesmaids beginning their walk down the aisle, is when it hit me that this was really happening. I was about to walk down the aisle and get married. That is when the tears began.
Ceremony Song: ‘Stay with You’ by John Legend
My best friend’s sister, Amie, has an amazing voice, and we really wanted her to share it with us during the ceremony. We picked this John Legend song because it truly describes our relationship. The lyrics meant a lot to us and we love the way Amie sang it! It sounded so beautiful!
Father/Daughter and Mother/Son: Nora Jones’ version of “Forever Young”
Since we were combining the dance with both my father and Ben’s mother, we wanted a song that could speak to both of them.
First Dance: ‘Everything’ by Michael Buble.
“For the table runner, I wanted to make my own instead of buying individually cut and sewn runners. So in keeping with our main color, I found a company that sold a large roll of light grey burlap and cut the roll into strips for the tables. I felt this was more cost effective. The entire roll was only $150 and I was able to use it on all of the guest and head tables as well as other tables throughout the reception hall.”
“We gave our guests mini succulent plants as favors, which were bought from the nursery at Home Depot for under $2.00 each. I bought a role of brown butcher paper at the craft store, cut it into square pieces and wrapped the paper around the succulents. They also doubled as a place card for each guest at the reception tables.
“My maid of honor made little white flags with everyone’s names on it to put in each succulent. I loved this idea because everyone could take them home with them to keep as a memory of our wedding! It added some greenery and color to the tables as well. I love the look of succulents, and since Ben and I live in LA, we wanted to bring some elements of southern California up to the Pacific Northwest.”
“For the center pieces at the reception, we used old wine bottles that friends and family collected over the year and spray painted them white. Each bottle needed a couple of coats, but they turned out great. I created a cluster of three wine bottles in the center of each table and asked my florist to fill them with our flowers. I gave my florist, Chelsea from Stadium Flowers, our color scheme and a short list of flowers that I like. She then created some beautiful and unique arrangements that were very modern and bold, which is just our style!”
DIY & Details
“Chalkboards make such great signs and you can be as creative with the handwriting as as you want. My maid of honor was in charge of these since she has amazing handwriting. I found a handful of the chalkboard signs from a flea market in LA called the Melrose Trading Post. We painted the frames to match our wedding colors with acrylic paint. I found the old white mailbox at the Melrose Trading Post as well. I was on the search for a mailbox that could sit on the gift table for those who brought us wedding cards. I bought the small mailbox numbers from the hardware store and covered up the existing numbers with the numbers of our wedding date.
“Rather than framing all of our engagement photos, I decided to compile all of them to create a hard cover coffee table book. I love this idea because I didn’t have to choose just a select few to frames. This way our guests could see the photos and as they skimmed through the book they could sign within the pages, yearbook style. The book is now sitting on our coffee table for us to look at and reminisce.”
Vendors
Photography: Meredith McKee Photography
Venue: Lord Hill Farms
Florist: Flora D’ Amore
Meredith
Despite her dreamy wedding blogger lifestyle, Meredith's day job is running ClassicVeils.com and a full-time mom to an active toddler. If she could, Meredith would spend her days taking cruises, helping animals in need, and watching Big Brother!
What a gorgeous wedding and such well done DIY by Emi the bride! Really cute, I love it!
Yes, they are some really great ideas.
HI,
What a gorgeous wedding and such well done DIY by Emi the bride! Really cute, I love it!
And yes, she is absolutely right about doubling the time you ‘think’ it will take! I made my own wedding invitations, orders of service and menus when I got married 10 years ago and it took me over 25 hours for just 70 of each!
Lucy Bennett
Oh my goodness… Good to know! Yes, sometimes I think paying that extra bit of money might be worth saving that extra time it will take to do it yourself for sure. But then again that’s why you have bridesmaids.. right?!?! hehe