Capitol Inspiration: Tatiana & Ben’s Offbeat, Retro Wedding in the Catskills

Early this year my sister and her husband Tom attended one of their good friends’ weddings up in the Catskills. I was waiting on bated breath to hear how everything went, seeing as this was the couple whose ah-mazing retro Save the Date I had featured previously:

The invites were just as cool [if not cooler] and naturally their wedding was just the most amazing thing ever and I am SO excited that Tatiana & Ben are letting me feature it here!

They had an awesomely offbeat wedding at the Peekamoose Restaurant and used DIY and a 1950s flare to hand-craft their special day. Everything about their wedding was 100% custom and 100% them. I asked Tatiana to share the details with me and her first response was this:

I’m not even going to try to cram 14 months of planning into a few paragraphs, so I just wanted to touch upon some things that really stuck out with us and had the biggest impact of our wedding planning process.

So not only will you get inspiring wedding pictures – you will all get a BOAT LOAD of awesome advice on how to stay true to yourselves, how to stay sane, AND how to keep things on a budget!

Tatiana & Ben’s Retro DIY Budget-Friendly Wedding in the Catskills

Vendors:

Venue: Peekamoose Restaurant
Photographer: Megan Schley
Dress: Dolly Couture
Florist (just for bouquets): Elderberry Design
Bridal party dresses: Modcloth & Trashy Diva 

 So, see what I mean?! Tatiana’s amazing 1950s wedding dress and retro up do outdone only by their expressions of absolute joy and happiness at being married.

Let’s begin:

 Tatiana’s yellow tulip bouquet with a red polka dot wrap

Tatiana’s first piece of advice – how to pay for your own wedding … and stick to a budget:

BUDGET.  Oh lord.  This was a doozy.  We paid for everything ourselves, and didn’t want to take out of our savings or put anything on a credit card in order to have a kick-ass wedding.  And we killed it!  We set an estimated number we thought we needed and gave ourselves a reasonable time frame to save up that amount.  And while our original budget practically doubled (because our little naive minds basically just pulled that ridiculously low number our of our ass), we still saved up everything we needed and even had some leftover.  You can do it!  Opening a joint savings account helped.  Because while I might spend some of my own money in stupid ways, I did not touch it once it was in our wedding account.

 how adorable is this wedding venue lodge?!

  if you think these mismatched bridesmaids shoes are too cute … just wait until you see their fabutastic patterned dresses!

Tatiana’s advice on how to stay sane on your wedding day:

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME.  The weekend of our wedding, we rented a house to stay with our 6 friends (those that were involved in the wedding).  Other than saying “yes” when Ben proposed, that was the best decision I made.  Our friends helped with the last minute details, but best of all they helped by keeping us calm, keeping us honest, and keeping us laughing.

Click inside for the rest of Tatiana & Ben’s offbeat, DIY 1950s wedding in the Catskills!

The next sequence of shots are all from their ceremony. There is so much love, laughter, and overall emotion captured in these images, that I just couldn’t pare them back, and not include pretty much all of the ones that Tatiana sent me. Just wait and see:

On their wedding ceremony, Tatiana shares some of my favorite advice – that the wedding ceremony is what matters more than the reception/party. Without the ceremony, there is no need for a reception. Take it away Tatiana:

THE CEREMONY IS THE IMPORTANT PART, PEOPLE.

We wrote the entire ceremony & our vows, which my good friend-turned-officiant rocked.  It’s not about the dessert table or the dance party or the vintage typewriter/globe/book tablescape.  It’s about you and your partner standing up in front of 1, 100, or 1000 people and stating your love and devotion for each other.   Spend the time to personalize this and your vows just as you would with all the other details.

Well, we all know I agree – I LOVE writing your own wedding vows!

 SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! Just look at this next shot!!!

 And now, quite possibly the best “you may kiss the bride” kiss I have ever seen.

 Our wedding was so much fun!  In the spirit of our relationship, we kept things light and loving. We cracked each other up with our vows, and then made each other cry.  We blasted James Brown right after our kiss and danced down the aisle as husband and wife.  What better way to tie the knot?

 What’d I say?! These 1950s, patterned mismatched bridesmaids dresses are TO DIE FOR, no? I think I am obsessed.

 Mismatched groomsmen are always a favorite here on Capitol Romance too!

 A shot of the couple’s spectacularly unique wedding rings & shot on a NYC booklet [where they live!]

Congratulations Tatiana & Ben! Thank your for sharing your amazing retro Catskills wedding with us … OH BUT WAIT …. THERE’S MORE! Turns out I have a whole other set of images from this awesomely offbeat wedding – all the amazing reception & DIY wedding decor shots. You all will just have to wait until next Friday’s Capitol Inspiration post to get them. Have a great weekend all! :)